Elon Musk repeatedly has tried to weigh into German political affairs with his clear support for the AfD party, widely recognized today as Nazis.
Recently, for example, Musk used his social media platform to downplay the harm of Nazi propaganda. He passively suggested that well-known Nazi slogans shouted at a German political rally should not be illegal.
Björn Höcke, the chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in the eastern state of Thuringia, was found guilty of intentionally deploying a slogan used by the Nazi party’s paramilitary wing in a speech at a campaign rally. He has to pay a 13,000-euro fine
That AfD leader was found guilty of a crime against democracy. He chanted a phrase so well known among Nazis that it would be equivalent to someone in Texas yelling “remember the Alamo” to incite violence against Mexicans. Musk pretended he was too stupid to understand the connection, as if it’s a valid tactic to “know nothing“.
Notably a conviction came despite Musk campaigning globally against censorship of Nazi propaganda, after he was in direct and even public communication with the AfD and Höcke.
The AfD “finding itself again” platform (FIA) is really just a poor translation and imitation of the KKK’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) platform, if that’s not obvious.
Asking any German “why is [promoting Nazism] illegal” is the peak of playing dumb, especially given Musk’s grandfather was convicted of being a threat to democracy and moved his family to South Africa expecting to build a white ethnostate there. He might as well be asking “why did grandpa go to jail in Canada and I had to grow up in South Africa”?
In other words look at how and why Elon Musk fled the end of Apartheid in 1988 to become an illegal immigrant in America, yet repeatedly sides with political parties that hate immigrants. Apparently it is because… racism.
Now the German courts have ruled Musk communications with the AfD are to be treated as extremist, a formal threat to democracy on the grounds of illegal racism.
…the court suspects large parts of the AfD of wanting to create a two-tier society, where people judged to be “ethnically German” would have more rights than people whose families originally came from abroad. This, according to the German constitution, would be illegal discrimination.
The far-right AfD is suspected of extremism, and their communications will be monitored due to the perceived threat. Meanwhile Elon Musk apparently changed the Twitter logo to a swastika to orchestrate the largest hate rally in history.
For example Musk fomenting German anti-Islamic hate groups on his swastika site garnered urgent attention and very personal invitation from infamous AfD leader Alice “Nazi-Schlampe” Weidel.
Awful, on so many levels. To be clear, the “Nazi-Schlampe” reference is rooted in around a decade of her being implicated in Nazism.
In the case of Alice Weidel, [a social psychologist at Germany’s Hochschule Niederrhein University] said, her anti-Muslim rhetoric allows her to distance herself from her outsider identity…
Worse? AfD politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser was convicted of incitement to hatred. She received a fine for anti-Muslim hate speech on social media. The court specifically found her in violation of laws against incitement to hatred… and guess who tried to weigh in on her legal trouble?
Once again Musk “plays dumb” about obvious Nazi propaganda by asking if “anything inaccurate” was said in racist hate speech. A regional German court (Landgericht) convicted her on the basis of fairly clear violations of law.
Das Landgericht urteilte: Der Beitrag ist in zweifacher Hinsicht volksverhetzend. Einerseits habe Kaiser mit dem Post zu Hass aufgestachelt, erklärte eine Gerichtssprecherin. Zum anderen handelt es sich um einen „Angriff auf die Menschenwürde“ einer klar abgrenzbaren Menschengruppe – besagter 200 Ortskräfte.
I would translate that as “On the one hand, the court spokesperson explained Kaiser incited hatred with the post. On the other hand, the post constituted an ‘attack on the human dignity’ of a clearly identifiable group of people — 200 workers.”
She addressed a specific group using gross misstatements (falsely accusing them of gang rape culture) with a call to violence, in no way prioritizing accuracy.
Was anything inaccurate? Yeah.
Elon Musk raised a completely bogus question of inaccuracy, in what appears to be his attempt to defend an AfD politician caught spreading weaponized lies meant to incite targeted hate.
Höcke, Weidel, Kaiser, Chrupalla… communications these with AfD politicians trying to end democracy is clear. Apparently he cares a lot about a German platform bringing Nazism back to mainstream. This all comes after he had very loudly retweeted hate towards immigrants with a shout-out to Germany, including a not-so-subtle hope that AfD wins elections.
All that, and I haven’t yet even mentioned the AfD leaders charged with treason.
Related: AfD 2024 leadership now in “turmoil” due to open Nazi remarks by its board member.
Maximilian Krah steps down from AfD board and suspends campaigning after saying not all SS members were criminals.
And on that point, for easy historical reference:
The number of suspects that have been brought to trial is a tiny percentage of the more than 200,000 perpetrators of Nazi-era crimes, said Mary Fulbrook, a professor of Germany History at University College London. “It’s way too late,” she told CNN of the latest trials. “The vast majority of perpetrators got away with it.”
Is it too late?
The AfD leadership — along with Elon Musk’s loud English dog whistles of “why is shouting Nazi slogans illegal” and “what’s inaccurate in hate speech” — appears to be giving German lawyers a new chance at prosecuting Nazis today.
