Summary

Elon Musk sparked outrage in Germany by endorsing the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on his platform, X, claiming “only the AfD can save Germany.”

The AfD, which polls second ahead of Germany’s February snap election, has been labeled extremist by German intelligence.

Political leaders accused Musk of election interference, while others criticized his remarks as harmful. Musk later doubled down, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resignation.

Musk’s comments align with his past support for far-right and anti-immigration figures across Europe and beyond.

  • PedroMaldonado@lemmy.world
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    2 minutes ago

    You know what bothers me? Musk knows hes bullshitting everyone and it seems like its fucking laugh to him. Remember when the hyper rich built libraries and funded colleges and, i dunno, just gave back? To think, just a few short years ago, he was presenting as some kind of visionary. Turns out, hes just a capitalist asshole.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      21 minutes ago

      Matches up with history. Hitler had a giant portrait of Henry Ford in his office. American racism, genocide, and capitalism was a major inspiration for the Nazis

  • themaninblack@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    There is nothing surprising about a white South African promoting a racist political party. White South Africans are the most openly and unabashedly racist people on the planet.

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    vietnamese people think elon musk and donald trump are right about everything because they are smart because they are rich and because america is a democracy

    they are deified, basically. just like ho chi minh

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    20 hours ago

    We’re running into the paradox of tolerance real quick here folks. Democracies need to legislate limits to the political influence of rich idiots and soon, otherwise we’ll all end up like the US.

    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      Well, funny thing is we do have rules about what you can and cannot say, in Europe. I’m looking forward to him discovering those little subtleties, since he clearly cannot shut his trap.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      lol as if they don’t like them. they themselves are rich idiots, the only difference is that ironically they don’t have as much political influence as unelected rich idiots.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      These are rules that are supposed to already exist though. Foreign political influence is always considered a bad thing by the country receiving it. The UK and Germany should have strong protections against it but apparently they don’t.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Musk reminds me of that Blofeld character that was in one of those lethal weapon flicks

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      12 minutes ago

      He knows what benifits him. That’s the entirety of his motivations. Evil greedy assholes are quite dull, he just knows what makes him more money and more power.

    • b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      21 hours ago

      It doesn’t matter to him. All he knows that he’s a Dark Enlightenment fascist white supremacist. The poors and non-whites must die. Fascist governments must be in power everywhere so he can have his world where he is king, he has robots to do his bidding and can try to live forever.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      22 hours ago

      His knowledge is mostly restricted to the years 1933-1945.

      He didn’t read the ending. No one tell him the spoiler.

      • Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        How about a Life reenactment?

        I, as Citizen of Germany by birth and Law, invite Elon Musk to Nürnberg. We bring some Judges and a Rope.

      • J4g2F@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        To be honest the ending for rich capitalist(the same that helped Hitler in power) in west Germany was pretty good. They profit heavily during the war and afterwards the mostly just kept there companies continuing to profit.

  • WeUnite@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    No country is safe from Elon Musk’s election interference. It’s urgent that we boycott Twitter and Tesla. If you have a Twitter account do the following now:

    1. Send a DM to your favorite accounts and urge them to stop using Twitter.
    2. (If you haven’t already) register for Bluesky.
    3. Make a Tweet saying you are no longer using Twitter.
    4. Tell your friends to follow the same instructions.

    These could take as little as five minutes of your time but it will make a huge difference because of the ripple effect. When one person leaves it will automatically incentivize your friends to follow you. You have the power to make a difference.

      • bss03@infosec.pub
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        1 day ago

        Either is better than X/Twitter for now. Bluesky is “easier” for many people. I prefer Mastodon myself, but there’s a bridge so I can follow Bluesky profiles (and vice-versa) which is nice.

        • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Bluesky is not better, it’s at best a sidegrade and possibly worse.

          • Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            15 hours ago

            It’s at least half a decade earlier on the enshittification timeline.

            It is better than xitter right now (almost anything is) but the earlier you quit the black-box-algorithm-skinnerbox needle, the better.

          • splinter@lemm.ee
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            22 hours ago

            This is false. It still has areas in which it could improve, but it is a thousand times better than twitter.

            • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              It’s ownership is a shadowy cabal of Billionaires (as opposed to a mutually federated network of independent sites (Mastodon) or a single, crazed, billionaire) and it’s already proven it will censor and shape discussions how those billionaires see fit.

              • splinter@lemm.ee
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                4 hours ago

                If true, that would still make it not quite as bad as Twitter.

                Do you have citations to support any of your claims?

  • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Musk later doubled down, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resignation.

    This stupid POS doesn’t even know that this already happened a few days ago.

    • viking@infosec.pub
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      15 hours ago

      Scholz didn’t resign, he called for and lost a vote of no confidence, so the parliament will be dissolved by the German prime minister and new elections are due in late February, where Scholz can (and likely will) throw his hat in the ring again.

      A resignation is something different.

      • excral@feddit.org
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        15 hours ago

        No, that’s exactly how resignation works for a chancellor in Germany. The only alternative would be for a new chancellor to be elected by the Bundestag (parlament), but since no candidate would have a majority he resigned by triggering a vote of confidence.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It’s important to note that right after saying this…

    A German AFD supporter who retweets Musk drove into a Christmas market in a terrorist attack

    Germany has stricter laws about inciting violence, it’s a long shot but maybe he’ll get charges