Why does America’s press hide what Elon Musk said to the Germans? In any real democracy, what he said would be publicly much debated.
5 January 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
On December 28th, an op-ed by the American centi-billionaire Elon Musk campaigning for the AfD Party to win Germany’s upcoming national elections, was published in Die Welt, which is one of Germany’s two leading newspapers, the other being the Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung — like America’s Washington Post and New York Times.
No U.S. ‘news’-medium published it, at all — they instead published quips from it, out of context; so, here will be both his op-ed, in English, and the simultaneously published counter op-ed to it, by Die Welt’s soon-to-be Editor-in-Chief, Jan Philipp Burgard (replacing the current one, who was fired for accepting Musk’s op-ed). I do it so that English-speakers will have access to this important conflict of views (which, obviously, Die Welt’s owner did not want — nor do the owners of English-language ‘news’-media):
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“Why Elon Musk is betting on the AfD - and why he is wrong”
Published on December 28, 2024
This is what Elon Musk writes:
Only the Alternative for Germany can fundamentally reform the country, believes the US entrepreneur Elon Musk. Completely wrong, answers Jan Philipp Burgard. The AfD is xenophobic and anti-Semitic in parts. That is why it is a danger to Germany.
MUSK:
Germany is at a critical point - its future is teetering on the brink of economic and cultural collapse. As someone who has made significant investments in the German industrial and technological landscape, I believe that I have the right to speak openly about my political orientation. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country. Here are the reasons.
Economic revival: The German economy, once the engine of Europe, is now drowning in bureaucracy and oppressive regulations. The AfD has understood that economic freedom is not only desirable, but necessary. Their approach to reducing government over-regulation, cutting taxes and deregulating the market reflects the principles that made Tesla and SpaceX successful. If Germany wants to regain its industrial strength, it needs a party that not only talks about growth but also takes policy action to create an environment where companies can thrive without heavy government intervention.
Immigration and national identity: Germany has opened its borders to a very large number of migrants. While this was done with humanitarian intent, it has led to significant cultural and social tensions. The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that prioritizes integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization. A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage to remain strong and united.
Energy and independence: The energy policy pursued by the current coalition is not only economically costly, but also geopolitically naive. Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power and instead rely heavily on coal and imported gas, as well as volatile wind and solar power, without the battery storage on the grid needed to ensure stability, has left the country vulnerable, especially in terms of power disruptions.
The AfD takes a pragmatic approach to energy and advocates a balanced approach. I hope they consider expanding safe nuclear power combined with battery storage to cushion large swings in electricity use, because that is the obvious solution.
Political realism: The traditional parties have failed in Germany. Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest and an erosion of national identity. The AfD, despite being labelled as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment. It addresses the problems of the moment - without the political correctness that often obscures the truth. The portrayal of the AfD as far-right is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on!
Innovation and the future: I have built companies on the principle that innovation requires liberation from unnecessary constraints. The AfD's vision is consistent with this ethos. It advocates for educational reforms that encourage critical thinking instead of indoctrination and supports the technology industries that represent the future of global economic leadership.
To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: don't be fooled by the label attached to it. Look at its policies, economic plans and efforts to preserve culture. Germany needs a party that is not afraid to challenge the status quo, that is not stuck in the politics of the past.
The AfD can save Germany from becoming a shadow of its former self. It can lead the country into a future in which economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just dreams but reality. Germany has become too comfortable with mediocrity – it is time for bold change and the AfD is the only party that can open this path.
This is what Jan Philipp Burgard writes:
Elon Musk is the greatest entrepreneurial genius of our time. With his innovations, he has revolutionized the payment, car and space industries. The prerequisite for his spectacular successes was always a radical analysis of the status quo. With regard to Germany, Musk is right when he sees our country in economic and cultural crisis. The failed migration, energy and social policies of the Merkel era and the traffic light coalition have put our prosperity at risk.
Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach that only the AfD can save Germany is fatally wrong. Let's start with the revival of the German economy. Demands such as reducing bureaucracy, deregulation and tax cuts are not wrong just because they come from the AfD. But Musk seems to overlook the geopolitical framework in which the AfD wants to position Germany. According to its election manifesto, the AfD considers Germany's exit from the European Union "necessary". For Germany as an export nation, this would be a catastrophe. More than half of all German exports go to the European internal market.
With welfare gains of around 83 billion euros per year, Germany benefits from the internal market like no other country. According to a survey by the German Economic Institute (IW), 60 percent of companies see the AfD's course as a risk. The director of the IW, Michael Hüther, even describes the AfD as "poison for our economy".
The AfD is not only questioning the European Union as a guarantor of Germany's economic stability, but also the relationship with our most important transatlantic partner in trade and security policy. "The geopolitical and economic interests of the USA are increasingly different from those of Germany and other European countries," the AfD's election manifesto states.
But the numbers tell a different story. In 2023, almost ten percent of German exports went to the USA, the highest figure in more than 20 years. Is it not in Germany's interest for the USA to remain the most important buyer of German exports? Conversely, the USA is one of Germany's three most important import countries. Doesn't Elon Musk want to see lots of Teslas driving along Germany's motorways in the future?
Instead of relying on the Western ties that have been beneficial for Germany's prosperity and security since Konrad Adenauer, the AfD is seeking rapprochement with Russia. There is no condemnation of the war of aggression against Ukraine in the election manifesto; instead, the party calls for the "restoration of undisturbed trade with Russia", which includes "the immediate lifting of economic sanctions against Russia and the repair of the Nord Stream pipelines". But a return to dependence on Putin's gas will not save Germany - on the contrary, it would once again endanger Germany's energy security.
The AfD also has friendlier words for China than for the USA: "The relationship with the People's Republic of China must be based on Germany's real political interests." This means appeasement towards Beijing. Donald Trump, who has identified China as the USA's biggest systemic rival, is unlikely to have much enthusiasm for this kind of "saving Germany".
Musk sees the AfD as the solution to migration policy. In fact, Germany is struggling with out-of-control immigration. But the AfD is wandering around with unrealistic remigration plans for millions of people. In contrast, the CDU under Friedrich Merz has woken up and wants to turn away from Merkel's uncontrolled do-gooder policy. To do this, it has significantly toughened its stance, calling for rejections at the borders and faster deportations of rejected asylum seekers. Such measures show that there are alternatives to the AfD's right-wing extremist positions.
If Musk thinks that classifying the AfD as right-wing extremist is "clearly wrong", he is making a major mistake. The AfD is not just Alice Weidel, but also Björn Höcke. He can be described as right-wing extremist by court ruling. Höcke has also been convicted several times for using a banned Nazi slogan. "Everything for Germany!" - sounds like Hitler! The AfD with its Höcke wing, its pandering to Russia and China and its rejection of America and the EU is by no means "the last spark of hope for this country", as Elon Musk writes. It is a threat to our values and our economy. Even a genius can be wrong.
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MY COMMENTS:
The only English-language presentation of Musk’s article was in “The Radicalist” blog by David Josef Volodzko (“Elon Musk and the AfD”), who statistically documented the truth of Musk’s criticisms against Germany’s bureaucracy, which bureaucracy virtually strangles small businesses, but Volodzko nonetheless endorsed continuation of Germany’s status-quo because the AfD opposes America’s anti-Russia policies (the anti-Russia sanctions, etc.) and Volodzko blames Germany’s economic problems on Germany’s not having sufficiently adhered to those American policies. Volodzko blames Russia not America for Germany’s plunging economy: “Germany became increasingly dependent on Russian gas through the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which connect Russia directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream 2 project was ultimately halted after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before this, Germany sourced approximately 55% of its natural gas imports from Russia. By relying on Russian gas, Germany allowed itself to become susceptible to geopolitical blackmail.” He linked to a 26 October 2023 Brookings Institution — a major neoconservative U.S. propaganda-mill thin tank — paper which lied and said that the cut-off of pipelined Russian natural gas to Germany was due to a “Russia gas embargo” (a blatant lie — there was nothing of the kind) instead of to the U.S.-imposed sanctions against importation of Russian pipelined natural gas to Germany (and America’s blowing up those pipelines), and that Germany would “avoid a more severe crisis, despite this major energy shock” (from those sanctions plus blow-up) — which Germany in fact DID NOT avoid. So, the Brookings Institution’s liars falsified both the cause and the effects of “this major energy shock” that is spiraling Germany’s (and other EU nations’) economy downward. So, Volodsko cites that already-proven-trashy think-tank propaganda in order to blame — as the U.S. regime does — Russia instead of America for Germany’s plunging economy.
When Burgard wrote “Is it not in Germany's interest for the USA to remain the most important buyer of German exports?” my answer is: Why is the destroyer of Germany supposed to be “the most important buyer of German exports” — shipped 3,000 miles east across the Atlantic after being having been sent by train or truck across Europe? When he says “There is no condemnation of the war of aggression against Ukraine in the election manifesto,” my answer is: The aggression was America’s bloody anti-Russian coup in Ukraine on 20 February 2014, not Russia’s forced-by-NATO reply on 24 February 2022. And when Burgard condemns AfD’s China-policy by saying it is “appeasement towards Beijing,” my answer is: The aggression in regards to the China-Taiwan matter is LIKEWISE entirely by the U.S. Government against China, and even the U.S. Government signed with China in 1972 a commitment saying that “Taiwan is a part of China” — so, how is Burgard’s proposed two-China policy anything other than a support for yet more U.S. aggression and even in violation of law (a treaty) that the U.S. itself signed?
Back on 22 September 2022 I headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe” and explained all this. Germans in their media get a steady dose of American lies.
As regards Musk’s blaming Germany’s bureaucracy, Germany’s bureaucracy is nothing new, and Germany had been doing okay until America — which started the war in Ukraine in 2014 by imposing a brutal anti-Russian coup there, which Russia reluctantly responded to on 24 February 2022 — imposed greatly increased anti-Russian sanctions in 2022 and forced European countries to comply with them (thus aggressing against Russia, Ukraine, and the EU nations). Musk ignores the key reality. (So does Trump.) And throughout the U.S. empire, the ‘news’-media hide that reality, so as to protect the imperial U.S. regime.
PS: If you like this article, please email it to all your friends or otherwise let others know about it. None of the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media will likely publish it (nor link to it, since doing that might also hurt them with Google or etc.). I am not asking for money, but I am asking my readers to spread my articles far and wide, because I specialize in documenting what the Deep State is constantly hiding — what the ‘news’-media ignore if they can, and deny if they must. This is, in fact, today’s samizdat.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
Great report. Germany must kick out the American occupation forces and become free again.
I agree with Musk's evaluation of Germany and the AfD party. But not Musk's position on the H1-B visa program.