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”.
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?
His blunder in Sweden should tell everyone clearly where he stands on workers rights.
I don’t think people care. I don’t get why people keep going against their own interests, and it’s the only thing I can think of, or they think the rich deserve their wealth.
People in Sweden definitely care. Multiple industries striked against tesla.
they still are. it’s been 14 months now.
Good. Solidarity with them.
I should have clarified I’m speaking mostly of the U.K. and and USA.
In Australia there’s a phrase “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”.
We have a two party system, one more progressive and one more conservative.
My parents are retired. They’re not wealthy and are living a meager existence on a government pension. They will always vote conservative, despite their best bet at better public services and social security on offer from the progressive party.
The reason is, they feel like they ought to be wealthy or at least they want to act like they’re wealthy. They feel as though they are more closely aligned with the views of wealthy people than they are with the views of poor people. They feel as though they belong to a class of wealthy people, it’s just that through a cruel twist of fate they don’t have any money.
There’s also the moral / ethical perspective that is ultimately meaningless but resonates with a lot of voters. For example, banning naughty books from schools. Obviously kids will access much naughtier content in other ways, but “protecting the kids from gays” is very communicable to low information voters.
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.