German health minister calls US billionaire’s intervention weeks before election ‘undignified and problematic’

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.

  • realitista@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    22 days ago

    It should be unsurprising that he’s trying to destroy other major economies around the world, seeing as that’s the policy of those who he’s aligned himself with politically.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2324·
    22 days 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

  • WeUnite@lemm.eeEnglish
    773·
    22 days 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.pubEnglish
        361·
        22 days 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.

          • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
            2·
            20 days ago

            No. They use something called the “AT Protocol” and that’s about all I know about it.

            I imagine some sort of compatibility layer could be designed, but I don’t know how much fidelity you could preserve.

          • Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            9·
            21 days 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.eeEnglish
            201·
            21 days 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.worldEnglish
              43·
              21 days 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.

              • Jyek@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                4·
                20 days ago

                Shadowy cabal? They literally list their board of directors on their FAQ…

                Jay Graber; Jeremie Miller, the inventor of Jabber/XMPP; Mike Masnick; and Kinjal Shah.

                What about a group of public figures is a shadowy cabal?

              • splinter@lemm.eeEnglish
                3·
                21 days ago

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

                Do you have citations to support any of your claims?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    22 days ago

    What clearer and more obvious sign does one need to call him a Nazi? Disabling his right-wing ex-twitter propaganda network in Europe (and other civilized places) should be a top priority.

  • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    291·
    22 days ago

    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.”

    I do not understand the outrage on this (regard Musk being Far-Right supporter), everyone knows Musk has become an immensely Extreme Far-Right supporter and leans heavily into Fascism. He support all the Right/ Far-Right political parties and people.

    “only the AfD can save Germany.”

    As usual, his claims are immensely wrong, stupid and idiotic. I mean, the afD literally tried to do a coúp in Germany;

    1. Gevaar voor Duitsland niet geweken met oppakken coupplanners, angst voor rechts-radicale AfD groeit.
    2. Germany’s far-right AfD party to eject members for suspected links to militant group.

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

    Unfortunately shows that lots of people in Germany are supporting Far-Right/ Nazism ideas, tactics and ideology. Especially since it has been proven that many of the afD are Nazi-supports (especially the leaders);

    1. Co-leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party fined for using Nazi slogan

    From article 3;

    The case involved Björn Höcke’s use of “Everything for Germany!” in a 2021 speech. While prosecutors said he knew it was originally a Nazi slogan, Höcke claimed it was an “everyday saying”.

    This text is to separate the quote of the article and the quote from OP’s post.

    Political leaders accused Musk of election interference, while others criticized his remarks as harmful.

    Accussed? If I remember, he did interfere with the election in America by trying to ‘purchase’ votes (Insanity that this is allowed);

    1. Elon Musk can keep giving $1m to voters, judge rules.
    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      22 days ago

      Accussed? If I remember, he did interfere with the election in America by trying to ‘purchase’ votes (Insanity that this is allowed);

      Citizens United ruling says money is speech. So in the US, this is unfortunately 100% legal.

      Not in the EU though…

    • Zink@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      22 days ago

      I do not understand the outrage on this (regard Musk being Far-Right supporter), everyone knows Musk has become an immensely Extreme Far-Right supporter and leans heavily into Fascism.

      It doesn’t have to be surprising to outrage people though.

  • Supervisor194@lemmy.worldEnglish
    381·
    22 days ago

    Why do Putin and the billionaires he shepherds think that all this far-right democracy killing shit is so super duper? I marvel that they never seem to stop and think “this could eventually go badly for me.”

    • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      22 days ago

      Because Putin wants Russia to be the geopolitical superpower it was in 1960. It’s a hell of a lot easier to tear the rest of the world down than it is to build up Russia.

      That’s part of why he’s so eager for war. The last big shakeup of the global order was WWII. He doesn’t have the patience to accomplish geopolitical power closer to the way China is, by slowly building up their economy over decades.

      And he’s right that a bunch of people dying often helps the economy. The black plage was 1350, followed by the Renaissance around 1400-1600. We’re familiar enough with post WWII.

      But that’s the dumb and evil way to grant power to labor. You can create more demand for labor without literally killing half your laborers. And it turns out having a real, healthy middle class is great for the economy.

      Personally, I believe you could accomplish a similar effect by having a ridiculously high minimum wage and mandating a maximum of 32 hour work weeks. Seems like it might be worth experimenting with when the alternative “fix” is to kill half your people.

    • AreaSIX @lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      21 days ago

      How’s the actions of the top US billionaire who just practically bought the American government the fault of Putin? Nah man, the US has to shoulder the responsibility for unleashing this fucking plague on the rest of the world.

      Putin has done a lot of evil shit, but this one is all US all the way. In Russia, the state is the ultimate power, as evidenced by Putin’s ultimatum to the oligarchs to bend the knee when he took power. Similar to China, where Jack Ma disappeared for a while after making critical comments on Chinese state policy, and every billionaire got the message. It’s the US that has inverted this relationship so that the state bends the knee to insane billionaires like this one and let’s them run amok. So Elon can hardly be blamed on Putin.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      341·
      22 days ago

      They want every place to be like Russia. It’s always been their main contention that democracy is just a sham and basically everyone is a fascist. This is one of the main reasons for invading Ukraine because he couldn’t tolerate a democratic nation as his neighbour. It’ll give the plebes ideas, you know.