Summary
Elon Musk’s address to Germany’s far-right AfD party, where he downplayed Germany’s Nazi past and criticized multiculturalism, has sparked global alarm.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, called the remarks “incredibly dangerous,” warning of their potential to embolden right-wing extremists and threaten Jewish security worldwide.
Critics highlighted Musk’s alignment with far-right ideologies, including his Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration.
This is the part the American press can’t seem to learn. They’ve appeased and both-sided these dangerously bigoted fools for so long that they’re incapable of actually changing their coverage strategy.
“They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this alignment. It has been a steady stream of signaling to rightwing extremists that they have an ally now in the White House.”
We all have eyes, it’s the job of the press to tell us what we’re seeing and why, not tell us we didn’t see what we all know we saw. Cover Nazis like they’re Nazis.
Yeah but this is more profitable. Remember, the major news orgs like Fox News are controlled by people like Rupert Murdoch. They benefit from this.
But I’m not sure why it has to stay that way. Reality doesn’t have to be less profitable than bigoted fantasies, and news was never really meant to turn a profit anyway. Regardless, Fox News and Murdoch properties are a lost cause in my opinion. I care more about the traditional press that calls themselves free and fair but hasn’t acted that way in years.
Reality is always going to be less profitable.
Traditional journalism is dead. It doesn’t pay nearly enough to survive these days, not to mention the stress from being attacked by politicians and their followers.
Can it change? Yes. But that means taking down the oligarchy and capitalism.
After repealing the fairness doctrine and the conglomeration of news networks into multinational corporations, profit is now all that matters to them.
All those campaign bribes which corrupt our politicians and prevent them from doing things to materially improve our lives? Mostly going right into the pockets of news corps as ad revenue.
It’s a dangerous downward spiral of misinformation, gaslighting, and grifting.
it’s the job of the press to tell us what we’re seeing and why
That’s a pretty dangerous way to approach other people. Journalists are just as capable of error or corruption as everyone else.
Of course they’re capable of error and corruption, every human being is. That’s why they ideally need institutions behind them to protect them and ensure they’re only reporting the truth. The point of a free press is to describe events as they happened and provide context, which serves as the first draft of history. They’ll certainly make errors here and there, but as long as they accurately describe reality, offer explanations based on history and uncompromising contemporary interviews, as well as promptly correct any mistakes with humility, then they’ve done their job. I don’t see how that’s the least bit dangerous.
they ideally need institutions behind them to protect them and ensure they’re only reporting the truth.
lol you should check out who owns and runs the institutions sometime.
as long as they accurately describe reality, offer explanations based on history and uncompromising contemporary interviews, as well as promptly correct any mistakes with humility, then they’ve done their job. I don’t see how that’s the least bit dangerous.
What’s dangerous is believing in this nonsense.
They don’t even need error or corruption to be unknowingly biased, using hegemonic framing, working within capitalist/racist/patriarchical institutions, etc.
That’s the far worse and far realer danger than people just making individual mistakes.
I’d argue that you’ve just described one source of error, but it still furthers my point that allowing strangers to tell you what you’re seeing and why will not result in providing you an accurate picture of reality, and potentially return a highly distorted one.
The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. Moderating this comment is pro-Nazi.
The Guardian using that image is gold. That flag is perfectly in place.
The photo has got to be a Pulitzer winner. Talk about being at the right place and the right time…or should I say rhight? You know, how do you spell the word associated with Nazis again?
It’s okay though because Musk and his husband support the right of Israel to do their own holocaust, so they can’t be antisemites. It’s the anti-holocaust people who are antisemitic! /s
