On Thursday, Elon Musk agreed with the leader of a far-right German political party that Adolf Hitler was a communist and that left-wing groups supporting the Palestinian cause have more in common with Nazi Germany than with Nazi Germany. her political party.
The extremely strange and misinformation-filled conversation between Musk and Alice Weidel, leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), took place on X-day. It followed weeks of efforts by Musk to promote the party far right, already deep linking to neo-fascism and was monitored by German intelligence agencies on suspicion of extremism.
“(Hitler) was a communist, and he considered himself a socialist,” Weidel said in response to Musk's question about media reports linking the AfD to Nazism.
“The greatest success after that terrible era in our history was to brand Adolf Hitler as right-wing and conservative, he was the exact opposite,” Weidel said. “He's not a conservative, he's not a liberal, he's a communist, he's a socialist, and we're the opposite.”
“That's right,” Musk replied.
In his autobiography my warHitler—as leader of the German Empire, responsible for the invasion of the Soviet Union and the enslavement and death of millions of its citizens—repeatedly described communism as the enemy of the German people. He believed that Marxism was a Jewish plot to control Germany and the world.
Weidel also compared the Nazi Party's position with that of modern-day left-wing political groups supporting Palestine in the face of what a United Nations committee called Crimes against humanity committed by Israel. While her AfD colleagues were seen last month attends a secret meeting organized by former members of a neo-Nazi militant group famous for burning the Israeli flag, she said, “The AfD is the sole protector of Jews in Germany.”
Weidel is the AfD's candidate for chancellor in Germany's early elections, which take place next month. As someone who previously worked in finance and lives in Switzerland with his wife from Sri Lanka and their children, she is considered a relatively moderate face of the party.
This is something Musk mentioned in a commentary he wrote for a German newspaper last month.
“Describing the AfD as a right-wing extremist is clearly false, as Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a homosexual friend from Sri Lanka,” Musk wrote. “Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”
Ahead of Thursday's conversation, the EU said it would monitor the event to see if it was being artificially promoted to voters in Germany, something that would violate the EU's far-reaching rules. Regional Digital Services Act or not. A spokesperson for the European Commission told WIRED that they would not comment on the content of the livestream.
Weidel addressed the EU's preoccupation with the conversation, claiming 150 officials at the EU commission were listening, then claimed the DSA was a tool of censorship, before adding: “Do you know Adolf Hitler did anything? He shut down free speech. He controls the media and without that he would never have succeeded.”