Summary

Elon Musk published a controversial opinion piece in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, prompting the newspaper’s opinion editor to resign.

Musk denied the AfD’s extremism, citing its leader’s same-sex relationship, and reiterated his claim that “only the AfD can save Germany.”

The AfD, classified as a suspected extremism case by Germany’s intelligence agency, has surged in polls ahead of February elections.

Musk’s support drew backlash, with critics highlighting the AfD’s anti-immigration stance and calls to leave the EU.

      • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        3 days ago

        Money can buy influence. Although the multi party system in Germany inherently makes it more protected against meddling, since you’d somehow have to buy out all or at least most major parties. And with where the AfD stands it is hard to find any allies here. The FDP unsurprisingly supported Musk before this article but backpedaled hard right after.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 days ago

        I don’t know about the court of public opinion but there is a Tesla “gigafactory” there and some sort of research lab. SpaceX has launched some military satellites for Germany and Starlink is valuable militarily with no viable competition yet (though plenty is apparently on the way). X is still valuable for propaganda and my guess is people aren’t as sick of his shit outside the U.S. yet.

        I don’t know if Neuralink did any monkey torture there. But that probably isn’t valuable to Germany anyway. They can probably source monkeys without anyone’s help.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 days ago

        Unfortunately being the richest person on the planet gets you certain access and platform,… Anywhere

  • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    I don’t understand. The editor quit after this elon op ed piece? Couldn’t the editor just choose to not run it? Or am I misunderstanding what editors are capable of?

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      23 hours ago

      Reading between the lines a bit, I get the sense that maybe because Musk is a big name the corporation that owns the paper may not have given them the option to not post it? The article also describes her as the editor of the opinion section, so maybe not the overall editor of the paper.

  • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    3 days ago

    AfD is not just anti-immigration, it is anti-immigrants. Anti- immigration is a fake facade to hide their racism behind.

    Unfortunately, pretty much all German parties now have a similar anti-immigration stance but ask yourself this, is it “anti-immigration” to deport people living in a country for almost a decade or is it “anti-immigrants”? Cuz when assad regime fell, the first thing that comes to their mind is deporting syrian refugees.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      3 days ago

      Technically the AfD is actually pro immigration.

      But the tone quickly becomes sharper. We have to make sure, says Lüth, that the Federal Republic is even worse off, because that would play into the AfD’s hands politically: “If everything went well now (…), the AfD would be at three percent. We don’t want that. That’s why we have to think about a tactic between: How bad can things get for Germany? And: How much can we provoke? It’s like this. (…) It’s difficult, very difficult.” All of this was “discussed at length” with Alexander Gauland.

      In the end, Lüth even indulges in violent fantasies. Lisa Licentia asks him: “Above all, it sounds as if it would be in your interest for more migrants to come?” Lüth replies: “Yes, because then the AfD will be better off. We can always shoot them all later. That’s not an issue at all. Or gas them, or whatever you like. I don’t care!”

      https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2020-09/christian-lueth-afd-alexander-gauland-menschenfeindlichkeit-migration

  • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    Maybe someone needs to put German on the H1B visa news. The AfD is dangerous and, a distraction from the class war.

      • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        3 days ago

        Oh, I not saying they aren’t part of it. I’m saying they distract Germans with fear and bigotry of immigrants. That’s the distraction I’m talking about mainly.

  • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    3 days ago

    Elon is an egomaniacal Nazi idiot. But seriously, “pens”? He probably hasn’t touched a pen since gradeschool, and certainly didn’t use one for this. “Writes” is being generous,“rants” is probably more accurate. But imagine what the paper would have looked like if he had penned it. Illegible scrawl wandering over the page, full of scratch-outs and errors…all his insanity fully on display. Without the dignifying effect of corrected spelling and grammar and typeface, people would see the pure Unabomber-level madness it all is.

    Same thing with Trump, his tweets are idiotic enough as it is, imagine if he had to actually write them out with a pen. Or those fat washable Crayola markers is more his style, so he could use colors for emphasis.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      Elon probably has access to some LLM without any anti-Nazi safeguards and probably used it to help him out.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    3 days ago

    Well he’s a fucking idiot. Hilarious him calling other racists no less. What a sad confused little man.

      • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        And to dye his hair blonde, like frumpf does, rather than black. In the last pic I saw of Musk on stage, hopping around with Cheeto, he already had the big whale gut showing, so he’s almost there.