So, to add to hand gestures that looked an awful like a Nazi salute, using Nazi names as little funnies, and embracing alt-right online culture. Musk spoke to the AfD meeting and told them they shouldn’t feel guilty about Germany’s past. The AfD is a far-right nationalist party in Germany (a well-known happy convergence of words) and, in case it isn’t obvious, the past the Germans might still feel guilty about is the Holocaust.
Here’s the video. The relevant portion starts at ~2:35.
So yes, there are plenty of reasons for Germans to be proud of themselves and their culture (my wife is one-half German, FWIW). But I also think that the dominant German approach to the Holocaust and the Nazi regime is the appropriate one. Which is to be transparent in their deep national shame over the events and be dedicated to a sincere stance of “never again.” Indeed, I think that the German approach to their past is far healthier than the US’ continued struggle to fully come to terms with its own.*
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a scion of Apartheid Era South African elites wouldn’t want to think too much about the past. Still, let’s be clear: he is saying that the time has come to minimize the Holocaust.
In just a few days he is certainly raising the question of looking like, sounding like, and walking like a duck.
This matters, to me at least, because he is a very influential individual globally and has risen to substantial prominence within the US government. I don’t like the idea of far-right nationalists who minimize the holocaust influencing a US president, but perhaps I am hopelessly old-fashioned in that way.
A side note is that I find it utterly laughable when he inveighs against “global elitists” around the 3:30 mark. You know, the South African who has additional citizenship in Canada and the United States, who has several transnational businesses, and who is seeking to influence politics in multiple countries is warning us against the influence of international elites.
If he is really so concerned, I suggest he return to his fatherland and just do business there where he can focus on his South Africanness and leave the rest of us alone.
*I am not going to go down that rabbit hole at the moment, but I have written quite a bit about this, including, but not limited to, the following:
