Elon Musk seems to have a troubling penchant for using his brands to flirt with Nazi symbolism and spread toxic ideologies. His social media antics often feel like a calculated effort to disseminate hate and disinformation. Some observers even suggest he’s become a prominent figure in promoting white supremacist rhetoric, casting a damaging shadow over his public persona. Whether in Germany or elsewhere, Musk’s actions speak louder than his tweets, and they paint a disturbing picture.

One blatantly obvious tactic is Musk’s constant oscillation between claiming to be the smartest person (which he clearly isn’t) and pretending to be the dumbest (which he clearly isn’t either). When you understand this charade, the danger of his tweets becomes immediately apparent.

The AfD is the modern Nazi party in Germany, which has worked hard to normalize and reintroduce extremism by falsely claiming to be moderating it.

German far-right leader intentionally used banned Nazi slogan, court rules

When Elon Musk regularly protests against democracy by questioning the condemnation of the AfD’s Nazi rhetoric with comments like, “Why is the AfD uttering Nazi phrases bad? I’m ‘missing’ an explanation,” what should be said to him?

Why should Elon Musk be taken seriously rather than dismissed when he repeatedly questions the harm in spreading Nazi slogans by a political party rooted in racist hate?

Is Elon Musk subtly suggesting that we should find something positive in the mass suffering caused by racism, as he seems to? Is he lamenting the loss of the wealth and privilege his family accrued during apartheid before he fled its downfall in 1988 to America (becoming an illegal immigrant)?

These are the real questions provoked by his repeated disingenuous queries pretending to not understand why the far-right extremist AfD is bad.

Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed genius, is trying to pretend like he can’t seem to grasp why anyone would see Nazis as an extremist group instead of mainstream. He “gaslights” between pretending to be the smartest person alive and then displaying a baffling ignorance that’s both dangerous and absurd, using Twitter to fraudulently normalize Nazi ideologies under the guise of intellectual discourse.

Maybe someone should teach this pampered apartheid-era silver spooner how to read properly. After all, the self-styled innovator, who shamelessly takes credit for others’ work, clearly needs help understanding the basics. Honk, honk—watch the clueless clown with his big shoes and funny nose try to play the part of a thoughtless leader.

Here’s a quick song to help.

“When Elon Musk says, ‘We ist der AfD in a race’,
“We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in Elon Musk’s face!
“Not to love AfD is a great disgrace,
“So we HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in Elon Musk’s face!”

Fortunately, due to occupation by Allied forces, the German papers today are the opposite of “missing” these history lessons and don’t hesitate to educate. They have been obliged to smack down Elon Musk levels of feigned ignorance and stop his disinformation tactics.

For example, it doesn’t get much clearer than this.

Berlin. Vor laufender Kamera nennt der SPD-Chef die AfD „Nazis“.

That’s the head of a mainstream major German political party who says the AfD are Nazis. The very definition.

Thus there should be no doubt that Elon Musk’s big reaction to AfD in the news was very strategically timed. He Tweeted a question during German elections asking why Nazis are bad, which reveals a lot about him and his active foreign political campaigns.

His targeted disinformation blast from a bully pulpit is perhaps something the AfD and Elon Musk have even conspired to use. Reuters warns that such public-private methods of commercial/socialized extremism have been successful in “cracking” the “firewalls” that were meant to protect German democracy from hate groups.

Experts on far-right extremism say there also has been a very strategic pattern of lies, broken promises and false ignorance used by the AfD to obfuscate their Nazism, allowing it to creep back into vulnerable areas.

Right-wing extremism experts like sociologist Matthias Quent, who teaches at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, aren’t surprised by the AfD’s proximity to the neo-Nazis. “The AfD and NPD are closely linked ideologically.” He says the AfD has long been a kind of “NPD light.” The NPD “paved the way for the AfD, in both East and West Germany,” Quent says.

In a constituency analysis he completed together with other colleagues back in 2017, the researcher found that the AfD is performing especially well in areas where the NPD used to be strong. At the same time, it performs worse where the NPD hasn’t been as successful. There is a “specific cultural-political space,” Quent says, that favors parties like the AfD.

Elon Musk knows exactly what he’s doing when he asks what is so extreme about the AfD after the BBC reported that the party is run by and for dangerous anti-democratic racist Nazis.

…the BBC has found a clear crossover between AfD figures and far-right networks, some of which are classed as anti-democratic or racist by German authorities.

The BBC even noted the AfD says the quiet part out loud in private conversations.

In leaked remarks [an AfD leader] mentions Nazism several times, including an apparent description of himself as the “friendly face” of National Socialism and… Nazi-era judge, Roland Freisler.

Elon Musk is normalizing Nazism by falsely claiming to know nothing or be “missing” something. In fact, to him and his infamously fascist family (who supported Hitler and fled Canada to South Africa to create the white supremacist apartheid political system) the extremism of Nazism probably feels most normal.

Related:

• German Court Rules Elon Musk’s Communications With AfD as Extremist (Nazi-related)
• If AfD are Nazis, and Elon Musk Campaigns for AfD, What Does That Make Him?
• Elon Musk “most prolific liar in the history of American business”
• Twitter’s “X” Design Based on Nazi Swastika
• Tesla Announces “8/8” Launch Date for RoboNazis
• Elon Musk says some of his best friends are Jews

See also: Tesla Expands Nazi Symbolism in New Mezcal Campaign

Update:

After being called out as a “full-blown Nazi sympathizer” Elon Musk replied by falsely claiming, yet again, that his support for Nazism feels centrist and not at all extreme.

Remember, Elon Musk is from apartheid South Africa, so this is what he is calling a “centrist party of ~20 years ago“:

• Dieter Görnert, AfD: “Das Pack erschießen oder zurück nach Afrika prügeln.”
  

  Shoot the pack of vermin or beat them back to Africa.

• Marcel Grauf, Referent von Dr. Christine Baum, AfD und Heiner Merz, AfD: “Immerhin haben wir jetzt so viele Ausländer im Land, dass sich ein Holocaust mal wieder lohnen würde.”
  

  We have so many immigrants in the country that another holocaust would be worthwhile.

• Marcel Grauf, Referent von Dr. Christina Baum, AfD und Heiner Merz, AfD: “Ich wünsche mir so sehr einen Bürgerkrieg und Millionen Tote. Frauen, Kinder. Mir egal. Es wäre so schön. Ich will auf Leichen pissen und auf Gräbern tanzen. SIEG HEIL!”
  

  I wish for a civil war and millions of deaths so badly. Women, children. I don’t care. It would be magnificent. I want to piss on dead bodies and dance on graves. SIEG HEIL!

• Holger Arppe, AfD: “Wir müssen ganz friedlich und überlegt vorgehen, uns ggf. anpassen und dem Gegner Honig ums Maul schmieren aber wenn wir endlich soweit sind, dann stellen wir sie alle an die Wand. (…) Grube ausheben, alle rein und Löschkalk oben rauf.”
  

  We must proceed peacefully and calculated, adapt if necessary and butter up the enemy, but when we’re ready, we’ll put them all up against the wall to shoot them. dig a ditch, throw them in and put slaked lime on top.

• Egbert Ermer, AfD: “Drecksack-Antifakindern bekiffter Eltern gehört eine verpasst und sie in den Dreck geworfen. Ihnen gehört gedroht, dass sie nächstes Mal unter der Erde liegen!”
  

  Scumbag-antifakids of stoned parents are to be beaten and thrown into the dirt. Threaten them that next time they will be put 6 feet under.

• Andreas Geithe, AfD: “Wir sollten eine SA gründen und aufräumen!”
  

  We should create a new SA and clean up.

• Beatrix von Storch, AfD: “Wenn jemand kommt, und den ganz großen Knüppel rausholt und das damit schafft, innerhalb von zwei Tagen zu beenden, bin ich sofort dabei.”
  

  If somebody comes with the really big bat and manages to end it all in 2 days, I’m all for it.

• Petr Bystron, AfD: “Solche Menschen müssen wir selbstverständlich entsorgen.”
  

  Of course we must dispose of those kinds of people.

• Björn Höcke, AfD: “Das große Problem ist, dass man Hitler als das absolut Böse darstellt.”
  

  The big problem is, that Hitler is portrayed as the absolute evil.