Summary
Elon Musk accused 60 Minutes of deception, saying its staff “deserve a long prison sentence” after the show aired an interview with ex-USAID administrator Andrew Natsios, who refuted claims of fraud in the agency.
Musk has previously criticized 60 Minutes for allegedly deceptive editing. However, Mediaite’s Colby Hall reviewed the released footage and defended CBS, stating it followed standard journalistic practices.
Meanwhile, JD Vance condemned European speech laws but distanced himself from Musk’s stance.
To be fair the Nazis are projected to get around 20% of votes in the election (which will happen next Sunday). And as I see it, it still is unlikely (not impossible though) they would be part of a government. Yeah this is bad, but a long shot from an active fascist coup like in the US.
I got news for you. Trump only got about 35% of eligible voters, and probably 60% of those voters didn’t want him as President, but vote because Republicans are pushing the single issue they care about (pro-life, or anti immigrant…) so we probably only have 10% or so actual bootlicking fascists successfully getting their leather-granddaddy elected. 20% is more than a large enough block to align with them because “the ends justify the means” and “they aren’t that bad” or “the left just calls everyone they don’t like fascists/Nazis” and bam, you’ve got your own Trump in power.
Before you ask yes, the numbers are just pulled out of my ass, but the vibes I get from talking to people in a very politically middle of the road state, they feel in the right ballpark.
Germany doesn’t have a FPTP system, and therefore is not a two-party system like the US. No party can form a government on their own and needs a coalition with at least one or two other parties.
Besides that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the supreme court equivalent) is not corrupted like in the US and we just had a change to our constitution that is supposed to make it more resilient against being watered down (based on the authoritarian playbook we were able to observe in other countries in the past years, mainly Poland).
I could go on about differences between Germany and the US, but the bottom line is: We might have a problem in Germany, but it is an order of magnitude smaller than in the US, so saying stuff like “Look at Germany where the Nazis are about to be back in power”, is just not something I can let stand.
It would still be a good idea to break up AfD into its constituent atoms. All the European hard-right parties are quislings for Putin and Trump, and without foreign support (and foreign troll farms) they’d be polling around 1%. It’s good to know that there are safeguards, but don’t be so certain that the system will protect you. Things can turn to shit suddenly.