{"id":2385846,"date":"2025-01-02T23:45:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T04:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-germany-musk-is-pursuing-disruption-for-its-own-sake-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-02T23:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T04:48:14","slug":"in-germany-musk-is-pursuing-disruption-for-its-own-sake-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-germany-musk-is-pursuing-disruption-for-its-own-sake-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"In Germany, Musk is pursuing disruption for its own sake &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-germany-musk-is-pursuing-disruption-for-its-own-sake-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2385846&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In a recent commentary, Elon Musk&#8217;s involvement in\u2063 international politics, particularly his comments on the\u200c German\u200d political landscape, has been highlighted. After achieving considerable wealth through ventures like PayPal, Musk redirected his focus towards influential companies such as tesla and SpaceX, and is now actively engaging in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-steven-crowder-announces-lawsuit-against-facebook\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Steven Crowder Announces Lawsuit Against Facebook\">political discourse<\/a>.\u200b He has positioned himself as a proponent \u200bof free trade \u2063and immigration, using social media too promote \u200chis views\u2064 alongside philosophical references.<\/p>\n<p>Musk&#8217;s commentary took a controversial turn when he suggested in the German newspaper *welt \u2062am Sonntag*\u200c that the right-wing Choice for Germany (AfD) party could be\u200c the solution to the\u2064 country&#8217;s \u2064issues. This\u2064 assertion \u2064ignited a political \u200buproar, leading to the resignation \u2064of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walsh-while-others-are-canceled-for-tweets-and-jokes-cardi-b-suffers-no-consequences-for-drugging-and-robbing-men\/\" title=\"WALSH: While Others Are Canceled For Tweets And Jokes, Cardi B Suffers No Consequences For Drugging And Robbing Men\">newspaper editor<\/a> and backlash from\u200c various German political figures who deemed\u200c his \u200bcomments as unwelcome foreign interference.<\/p>\n<p>While Musk is known for challenging established norms, the implications of endorsing the\u200c AfD, a party characterized\u2062 by its populist, \u200banti-immigrant stance \u200cand \u2064ties to\u2064 more extreme political ideologies, raises concerns. Initially, the\u2063 AfD was formed as \u200da\u2063 conservative alternative focused on opposition to the euro, but has sence shifted towards a more radical agenda, complicating the suitability of Musk&#8217;s support. \u2062Musk&#8217;s recent political interventions exemplify his disruption-focused approach, but also highlight the potential pitfalls of his \u200binvolvement \u200bin <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">sensitive political matters\u200c abroad<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">In Germany, Musk is pursuing disruption for its own sake<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1922352\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/elon-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Elon Musk<\/a> could have retired after making his first fortune with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/paypal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">PayPal<\/a>. He had more than enough money for a lifetime and might have devoted his remaining years to spending it. Instead, he brought his energy and enterprise to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tesla\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Tesla<\/a>, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/spacex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">SpaceX<\/a>, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/x-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">X<\/a>, and is now throwing himself with the same intensity into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>He is a welcome antidote to MAGA&rsquo;s nativism and protectionism. A supporter of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/free-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">free trade<\/a> and high-quality immigration, he uses X to post clips of Milton Friedman and quotations from Friedrich Hayek (placed archly alongside pictures of the beautiful Salma Hayek). Indeed, if I have a criticism, it is that he is spending too much time posting and too little time colonizing Mars. Then again, if anyone can multitask, it&rsquo;s Musk.<\/p>\n<p>Not satisfied with roughing up American and British politicians (he understandably loathes the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">United Kingdom<\/a>&rsquo;s illiberal prime minister, Sir <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/keir-starmer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Keir Starmer<\/a>), Musk has now lobbed a hand grenade into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/germany\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">German politics<\/a>, writing in <em>Welt am Sonntag<\/em>, &ldquo;Only the AfD [Alternative for Germany] can save Germany.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The subsequent explosion saw that newspaper&rsquo;s comment editor resign and prompted a series of ministers to condemn what they called unwarranted foreign interference. So far, you might think, so Musk. He specializes in challenging liberal pieties, horrifying the cultural elites by saying things that, to a lot of people, don&rsquo;t seem especially controversial.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is something off-key about this latest intervention. The AfD is not simply a populist party that opposes immigration, akin to, say, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nigel-farage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Nigel Farage<\/a>&rsquo;s Reform UK. It has much darker tendencies, combining left-wing economics and distrust of American <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/capitalism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">capitalism<\/a> with a creepy admiration for Russian President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/vladimir-putin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Vladimir Putin<\/a>. It has, among other things, taken the lead in opposing the expansion of Musk&rsquo;s own Tesla plant in Brandenburg.<\/p>\n<p>The party did not start out that way. When the AfD was launched a decade ago, it was mainly a campaign against the euro. Its first leaders were economists, university professors, and businessmen. I was glad to welcome them as fellow members of our conservative caucus in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>However, those high-minded academics were soon ousted by a leader who wanted to focus narrowly on hostility to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/policy\/immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">immigration<\/a>. Then, she was ousted by someone even more hardcore. The party crossed the line between being anti-immigration and anti-immigrant and was shunned by most of the other European parties that are habitually labeled right-wing.<\/p>\n<p>Does that mean that the AfD wants to reintroduce the Nuremberg Race Laws or annex the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/czech-republic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Czech Republic<\/a>? Of course not. However, not being literal Nazis is hardly setting the bar high.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The portrayal of the AfD as rightwing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party&rsquo;s leader, has a same-sex partner from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/sri-lanka\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Sri Lanka<\/a>,&rdquo; wrote Musk. &ldquo;Does that sound like Hitler to you?&rdquo; As a matter of fact, there were plenty of gay Nazis, most famously Ernst R&ouml;hm. But the problem is not that the Weidel is a Nazi. She is not. It is that the AfD feels closer to Putin than to the West. The party blames the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Ukraine<\/a> war on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nato\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">NATO<\/a>, boycotted Volodymyr Zelensky&rsquo;s visit to the Bundestag and argues that Americans every bit as guilty of war crimes as Russians.<\/p>\n<p>There is an ideological ocean between AfD and Argentine President Javier Milei, over whom Musk drools. Milei is pro-NATO, pro-Ukraine, pro-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Israel<\/a>, pro-trade, pro-immigration and pro-U.S. That difference has always been ignored by left-wing commentators, who are prone to the self-centered fallacy that holds that if you disagree with A and separately disagree with B, A and B must be the same.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is also missed by many on the Right nowadays, who see only the disruption, the move-fast-and-break-things radicalism. Yet, disruption is not intrinsically beneficial. Hayekians and Leninists equally threaten the corporatist consensus, but that does not make them equally laudable.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/conservatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Conservatives<\/a>, of all people, should understand this. The clue is in their name. As Roger Scruton put it: &ldquo;Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our nation-states, laws, unwritten social norms, institutions &mdash; these things have come down to us as the accreted work of many generations. We do not own them as much as hold them on a repairing lease, aiming to pass them on intact to our children.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;d add to that list the Western alliance, political pluralism, civility in public life, and equality before the law, regardless of race or ancestry. There comes a point when punishing the elites turns into punishing the nation. Forget that, and we are lost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1922352\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1922352\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musk seeks disruption in Germany, focusing on politics now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3097,"featured_media":2385847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2183892325.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21304,3946,7297,4250,32076],"class_list":["post-2385846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-disruption","tag-germany","tag-innovation","tag-musk","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2183892325.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385846"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385850,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385846\/revisions\/2385850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2385847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}