this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
453 points (97.3% liked)

World News

39431 readers
2251 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.

The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday ahead of being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, which also owns the US politics news site Politico.

Musk uses populist and personal language to try to deny AfD’s extremist bent and the piece expands on his post on the social media platform X that he owns, on which he last week claimed that “only the AfD can save Germany”.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 47 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It seems bizarre to me that the prevailing assumption is that Musk's interests align with those of the working class.

As in, why TF would anyone who is not a billionaire want a billionaire to restructure government?

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

His blunder in Sweden should tell everyone clearly where he stands on workers rights.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

The AfD does not have interests in favour of the working class. They constantly vote against laws helping anyone but the rich. They are just a tool for the rich and russia to destabilize our democracy.

[–] nifty@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You know, if people like Musk hate immigration so much then they should encourage investment and peace in other countries so that people don’t want to leave their home countries.

No one really wants to go to Europe etc., they’re either literally dying in poverty or being killed in their own countries.

Let’s be honest, the poor state of countries where these immigrants are coming from is the fault of decades of neoconservative policies of regional destabilization. The West needs to answers for its short-sighted thinking now, and they’re having a hard time understanding how this is a self created problem.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Indeed. Imagine if Mexico was governed like Canada. The Mexicans would be building a wall to prevent the Americans from swamping their country.

[–] koper@feddit.nl 178 points 3 days ago (6 children)

No respectable newspaper would platform a foreign billionaire trying to meddle in an election. The fact that the owners pushed this through, overruling their own staff, should be a clear sign to everyone: billionaires buy up news organizations to influence the population and undermine democracy. Even if the individual journalists have the utmost integrity, they will just get strong armed by upper management. The same thing happened with Bezos and the Washington Post.

[–] excral@feddit.org 21 points 2 days ago

Welt am Sonntag ist part of the Springer Media Group. They have a long history of pushing populist, conservative and right agendas and publishing Musk's opinion piece falls perfectly in line with the election meddling they are doing.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 57 points 3 days ago

Note that political meddling and unscrupelous behaviour has always been the hallmark of the Axel-Springer Media.

They have successfully motivated the murder of the student activist Rudi Dutschke in the 60s by a Neonazi terrorist.

In 2011 they have cheered themselves for having pushed the then president of Germany Christian Wulff (it is a ceremonial role, the head of the executive is the chancellor) with a smear campaign based on lies and fabrications.

They hold the absolute majority of reprimands for violations of journalistic standards by the publishers organization ethics board Presserat.

The former editor in chief of the Bild Zeitung Julian Reichelt had to be kicked out a few years back for sexual harassment and coercion of multiple women employees. But only after the Company tried to keep it under covers and pressured another publisher to not publish their investigative research in Germany, so US media had to publish it first.

They were always like this and they will always be like this. Axel-Springer is also the main pro US and pro Israel voice in Germanys media landscape. It should be telling everyone where things are headed that they switched now from supporting the far right neoliberal FDP to the fascist AfD.

[–] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

Die Welt is not reapectable. Its Springer Verlag. Basically the Murdoch of Germany.

[–] yournamehere@lemm.ee 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

allies should have bombed the island of Föhr back then.

anyone remember how friede (head of the nazi news) transferred 1 billion € to one of her employees (döpfner) to start a TV station (BILD TV)? no taxes were paid because Friede is best friends with Angela Merkel. ofcourse BILD TV failed terribly but funds are used for propaganda.

anyway, if you ask the people that saw Friede Springer on Föhr grow up after WW2 might be able to tell you a story about how they let the refugees starve in the 50s. but officially everyone is just so scared of Friede Springer you'll never read about their murders.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

After the war pretty much all refugees in Schleswig-Holstein were starving, ration cards were not sufficient for anyone and refugees were in a worse situation to self-supply, housing was more than scarce, the refugee to native ratio was 3:4, multiple families sharing apartments, a family to a room. To this day many smaller cities are dominated by our version of commie blocks built back then things would've gotten very ugly without a massive building programme.

Dunno about the situation on Föhr in particular, and I don't doubt that Friede is an assclown, but you gotta be more specific. Did she, at the tender age of eight, e.g. prevent people from rummaging through already harvested fields to see what they can find? Demand payment for wool caught on fences?

Did we even distribute refugees to the islands back then? Doesn't really sound sensible or practical, there wasn't really anything more than subsistence farming going on anywhere on the Frisian islands and, short of the addition of tourism, still isn't. Industry on Föhr is like yes they have an electrician, a car mechanic, and a carpenter.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 223 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

To anyone confused: Musk may live in the US, but like all the uber-wealthy, he doesn't consider himself a citizen of anywhere because he can jump in his private jet and fly anywhere on a whim without needing to have his passport checked by anyone.

These people do not live in the same world as us, and the fact that Musk is knee-deep in numerous countries politics is ample fucking evidence of such. He will support any group that benefits him in the short-term, that's all.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 52 points 3 days ago (3 children)

He believes that, as one of the Owners, it’s his prerogative to appoint the viceroys who will rule on his behalf. And that he owns enough of Germany to veto any reluctance they might have of having another Nazi government.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 124 points 3 days ago (7 children)
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (2 children)

“Jean-Baptiste… Emanuel… Zorg.”

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

And his worst enemy - fruit.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] febra@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

So you want to tell me that a nazi supports nazis??

[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Damn, gotta wonder what Putin has on Elon.

[–] takeda@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

I think putin just showed him that he can do what happened in Russia in 1990 and 2000 and get richer from stealing from the country.

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 99 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Billionaire Trump adviser said his ‘significant investments’ in the country justified his wading into German politics

At least we agree: his wealth is everyone's problem. The difference is that I think it's time we do something about it.

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago

Love that logic--"i opened up shop in your country, therefore i have the right to meddle with your politics"

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 73 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] dnzm@feddit.nl 32 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Please tell me this is a joke. Are they really that blatant, and if so, why are they still not forbidden?

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 28 points 3 days ago

They managed to get away with it because it says "we'll protect your children" - like a roof. Yes it is ridiculous, we're working on it.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 50 points 3 days ago

pens German newspaper opinion piece supporting far-right

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Musk fails to understand the racist themselves are attracted to the people they want to kill. DNA samples were taken from Hitler's relatives and they found Haplogroup E1b1b1, which means the motherfucker was part African and Jewish. His excuse for supporting Weidel and the fucking AfD is pathetic.

[–] etuomaala@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Man, I don't care how female, lesbian, or interracial anybody at the AfD is. They're a bunch of Putin dick riders. Their private lives don't enter into it.

(Incidentally, people like Musk and Trump love to question the credentials of politicians sharing the exact same attributes that this time around Musk has decided to praise. So, Musk, are they incompetent diversity hires, or are they "proof" that the party isn't racist? They can't be both!)

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

+1...Indeed.

[–] ceiphas@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The most fun part is, that Alice Seidel is a lesbian, living in Switzerland that adppted a Child with -how do i put it- high melantonin

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

E1b1b1 is common in some Afroasiatic speakers. It probably traces back to the Neolithic Levantine farmers who spread around the Mediterranean but only a guess.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Isn't he angry that the gop is full of racists. And now he's supporting the racist AfD? Man if only he could have some form of consistency. I'm sick and tired of him.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 days ago

If he's angry that the GOP is full of racists then he's got a funny way of showing it.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He's angry that the GOP might cut off his supply of cheap, vulnerable, exploitable H-1B workers. Otherwise, racism is still his thing.

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago

We are witnessing two competing forms of racism. Which one will prevail? Exclusionary or exploitative?

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Come off it, that man hasn’t written anything.

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Much less in German

(Unless he speaks German?? I've never heard him speak German)

[–] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 days ago

He only speaks it at the rallys

He really wants to be Göring.

[–] uebquauntbez@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

So you wanna tell me an american billionaire bribes a german billionaire to support a far-right party that's founded to help poor people? Really? REALLY?

[–] etuomaala@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I'm having trouble finding the original op-ed. Could somebody provide a link?

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›