Summary

Elon Musk expressed support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on X, stating “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

Party leader Alice Weidel welcomed his endorsement, urging followers to review her criticisms of German politics.

The AfD, polling at 19% ahead of February’s federal election, is officially under scrutiny as an extremist group by German authorities.

Musk has previously questioned the party’s “far-right” label. Controversy surrounds the AfD, including links to a meeting discussing deportation of migrants.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    So Musk really is just going full Bond-esk super villain with world domination right? That’s what this is? He doesn’t have to win any election so long as he can just buy every government, which he can then ensure he owns all the money, to buy more…

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      See, this is why I don’t mind George Soros, a billionaire, is funding left wing causes. Too much of the rich class is disproportionately funding the right. Fight fire with fire.

  • xenomor@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Are we allowed to discuss the many many benefits that society might receive if Elon Musk were in fact assassinated?

    • don@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      I’d be, with extremely little resistance, willing to listen to your argument. Tread heavily if you dare.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    on the same day that an anti islam afd supporter committed a terrorist attack on a christmas market even

    elon sure can pick them

      • Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip
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        19 hours ago

        The site doesnt load for me but afaik it was a 50 year old doctor from saudi arabia that committed the attack. Allegedly, he was unhappy with the treatment oft refugees.

        Also, it would make little sense for someone whos pro-afd to attack a Christmas market

      • ours@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I know far-right extremists aren’t the sharpest bunch or the most well-adjusted but I’m trying and failing to understand the reasoning behind ramming a christmass market as an anti-Islam action.

        • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          Maybe to increase religious tensions? He was very anti-muslim, and hated germany for enabling “islamization of europe”.

          So probably in his mind, if he, being saudi, were to attack a christian related event just before the election, it would snowball into some anti-muslim winning election thus him getting what he wanted.

        • killingspark@feddit.org
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          2 days ago

          It seems like he had a lot of trouble with state agencies and the justice system lately. He probably snapped and just wanted to hurt people. I don’t think this was an action that was supposed to send a message beyond “the system broke me so everyone must suffer”

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Depends how western. For americans Russia is on the west.

  • hubobes@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    One of their supports just murdered 2 and insured 60 when he drove his car into a Christmas market…

  • Jack@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    Did people also saw Hitler like that before he got in power?

    “Oh look that bozo doing shit again” and then bam, the bozo is the head of state?

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      24 hours ago

      Unfortunately I’m fairly sure that particular monster actually had some sense of charisma and strength-projection. I’m sure people still saw through it, but couldn’t say much because he was considered a “world leader” with the rest of em.

      This, of course, was before the grand spectacle that was reality television, so now our megalomaniacal monsters simply have to generate interesting headlines and do bozo nonsense to attempt world takeover.

      I’m legit surprised MrBeast or a Kardashian hasn’t attempted to buy rulership over a smaller country at this point. You know, just for the views.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I mean, have you ever really looked at him without the hindsight knowledge of what nazi germany would be like? he’s so fucking lame.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      People didn’t think of him in that light till WW2 started.

      Before that he was actually beloved by most, so much so that when he annexed Poland, the rest of Europe and America basically went “Aww shucks”

    • killingspark@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Maybe? He did try to take power once, failed, went to prison for like a year and then got right back to it.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Damn, so he’s just going to buy every government? I guess the first one was so cheap, he figures he can afford at least four or five more.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      People have a real problem grasping the wealth of 500 Billion dollars. At the Median US household income it would take 12 years to make a million dollars; 1,200 years to make a hundred million dollars; 12,000 years to make a billion dollars; and 1.2 million years to make a 100 billion dollars.

      His wealth is essentially limitless. It is that of a moderate sized country like Norway or Israel. When he can have an effect with 100 million dollars he could influence 5,000 elections with 500 billion dollars. And that’s not even talking about his investments in social media, PR cult of personality, and straight up vote buying in broad daylight.

      I sincerely hope he and X end up banned from Europe, with a warrant out for his arrest in relation for doing this. Because America has proven unable to stop him. Another country might though if they come down hard on anyone accepting his money and as hard as they can on him without using their military.

    • frunch@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Didn’t his estimated wealth nearly double in the past couple years? He’s got enough money to buy all the governments at this point

    • benni@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Fortunately, AfD is not in the government and possibly never will be

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        They have been getting traction consistently and German politics moved significantly to the right over the past years. Now supposedly progressive parties like the social democrats and greens spout stuff that five years ago was exclusive to the AfD and maybe the fringes of the Bavarian CSU.

        Even if they don’t govern they get their way more and more, which helps normalising their positions more and more, which gives them more and more votes.

      • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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        3 days ago

        They had 93 seats in the German parliament as of 2017 and are now the second most popular party as of a 2023 poll.

        I just got those numbers from a DDG search two minutes ago. Where did you get your information?

        • benni@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          They would require a coalition with another big party, but all other established parties are strongly opposed to working with them, while being at least somewhat open to working with each other. From that perspective, the current voting predictions can be seen as 19% AfD vs 60% established parties (no longer counting FDP, lol). Still bad, but I think it’s reasonably likely that the other parties would keep coalising with each other and excluding the AfD.

            • benni@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              It’s the same take. They’re not in the government, and possibly never will be.

                • benni@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Ah, I see the issue now. Parties get voted into the parliament. The government consists of a coalition of parties that together form a majority. The other parties form the opposition. Therefore, a single party can have many seats in the parliament, but still not be part of the government, if enough other parties coalise without them.

    • Breve@pawb.social
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      2 days ago

      Cheap? More like insanely profitable. It’s like any good business venture: you use your successes to expand.

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Elon: “Why are they considered far-right? They don’t look far-right to me!”

    Also Elon: ⬅️-----------------------------🙋➡️

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      As a believer in Horseshoe Theory (Just hang around a tankie long enough, you will too)

      I’m really hoping these people somehow wrap around to being left… I mean that won’t happen because the Horseshoe only bends one way, but damn.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s pretty much comes down to

      Do they support trans people and trans rights?

      Yes: Woke mind virus.

      No: TAKE MY MONEY!

      That’s why he’s in right wing politics now, he’s said as much. His trans daughter, who he dead names, was “stolen” from him.

      • Cliff@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I highly doubt that he ever had a real connection to his children in the first place.

        • AreaSIX @lemm.ee
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          18 hours ago

          Well, he did use one of his kids as a human shield repeatedly when appearing in public after Luigi crossed one of their guys off the board. That’s kind of a connection?

  • palordrolap@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    So, has Musk straight up admitted to being a white supremacist or has he only dropped anvil-sized hints so far?

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      I don’t understand this, while it’s obviously bad to have this situation, isn’t this the logical conclusion of the American political system?

      Lobbying has been a thing for decades, isn’t the logical conclusion that we get tyrants infiltrating the government?

      Clearly America has been working towards this for a long time.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          3 days ago

          Hopefully musk gets too close to Putin and finds himself “accidentally” falling out of a window

          • mPony@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Joke all you want; the moment anyone involved in US politics get defenestrated there is going to be a whole lotta crazy. The thing to remember is that regular people don’t get to go near those windows.

    • perestroika@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      I concur - someone should shoo him away (or at least downregulate him).

      Until that happens, companies that he owns can be boycotted in the faint hope that he understands something, but that kind of people, nah… they typically won’t.

      Once this episode is over - in whatever way - I even think we might see reforms in the US electoral system. To prevent an oligarch from buying everyone a crooked president.

      As for Germans, they will probably not appreciate his advise.

  • Breve@pawb.social
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    2 days ago

    Don’t the conservative bobbleheads talk about evil globalist conspiracies? Like, I found it right here for you guys! It was right in front of you the whole time!

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      In case you are unaware, when a racist says “globalist” they are not talking about worldwide events, the word “globalist” is a direct replacement for the word “Jew [derogatory]”.

      • Breve@pawb.social
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        2 days ago

        Huh, guess I missed that dog whistle. I thought it was just the opposite of a “nationalist”, people who want to create a new world order and all that.

        I guess I’m not surprised they think it’s the Jewish people doing that, but didn’t think it was exclusive to them.

        • eronth@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          It’s a bit of both. They (often) think globalism is being pushed by the jews for the sake of… jews gaining power? The reason tends to change from person to person, but the point is they often think globalism is a Jewish plot.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      For the month maybe, but its possible imports are gonna be higher in December for various shipping reasons. Monthly numbers aren’t always good indicators and have always been used to attack Tesla even when they were growing, not to say it might not be a preview of whats to come either. It’s around 15% YTD.

          • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Oh you meant it was down YTD. I was confusing you with one of the Tesla defenders who are claiming record growth.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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              I mean maybe they have record growth for a month or two in a very specific region, like this one really bad month in the EU but ya not happening this year. It’s gonna take a huge Q4 push to not be down globally YTD but maybe they’ll squeak a tiny tiny growth out.

  • azimir@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    The rest of the world might need to bring the US to heel. We’re exporting hate and racism as a means to build fascist states around the world. Our rich are so rich and protected by the US military that they are becoming untethered from all remaining constraints about law and sovereignty for other countries.

    Here be dragons.

    • gcheliotis@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yeah it’s weird because you can both see Russia as an exporter of hate, but the US is on it too. I guess before late everyone will be on it.