Hex wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 11:54 pm
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/el ... 025-01-25/
“On Saturday, he said "children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents," apparently referring to Germany's Nazi past.”
"”There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that," he said.”
“Musk spoke in favour of voting for the far right party, saying: "I'm very excited for the AfD, I think you're really the best hope for Germany ... fight for a great future for Germany," he told onlookers.“
Anyone still think he’s not a Nazi?
The problem with Musk’s statement is he’s using a truism to justify an unrelated position.
I spend a reasonable amount of time in Germany and Austria and have a decent grasp of the language. Most Germans and Austrians are not voting for far right parties, but the proportional nature of their political systems mean fringe parties are included in coalition negotiations and like in the past with the Greens, the more visibility can generate more acceptance. Like the Greens, who were far more fringe prior to the late 90s they softened their positions as they increased vote share to further increase that base.
My German friends are most definitely not Nazis and are generally horrified to the point of unbelief at the crimes committed by their grandparents generation.
I have a theory that European far right parties will drop a lot of their unacceptable social policies on woman’s and queer rights etc and focus down hard on immigration, specifically Muslim immigrants. Combining this with “sensible” conservative economic policy. It’s important to remember a vast majority of people think about politics about once a week. Most people here are pretty engaged and I’m sure our friend groups are as well. This generates a sense everyone is. They not. The level of media indoctrination is so constant that if you’re not engaged the world is a very different place for “normies”. So when someone shoves something different in their face, however well intentioned, it can look nuts. Just look at the average media coverage of the hostage releases in Israel / Palestine. The Israelis are returning heroes and victims, one of “us”and the Palestinians are shown as hooting savages.
It seems in most societies we have around 20% of people willing to support far right parties, then a fluctuating split of “normies” that vote depending on how secure they feel economically. With a sliver of support for the solid left. Even then that fractures into doctrinal bickering at the drop of a hat. I don’t really have any answers. But yelling at potential allies for disagreements in the margins isn’t one of them.