The US billionaire can be brutal, mean, and unfair, but Scholz, Starmer, et al deserve every bit of his ire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elon Musk has been at it again. Using his X platform and pure oomph as the richest man in the world and President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cfirst buddy,\u201d the tech tycoon has been dishing out unsolicited political, especially electoral advice, imperious demands, and some harsh insults, too. Indeed, he is so busy on X you\u2019d think he has little else to do. There is, as the thoroughly conservative British Telegraph notes, something \u201cbaffling<\/a>\u201d about Musk\u2019s priorities, \u201cwhen anyone else would be concentrating on the task at hand, set for him by Mr. Trump, to knock $2 trillion off the US federal budget.\u201d In any case, this time, Musk has targeted Europe, in particular Germany and Britain. Or to be precise, their political leaderships and, more generally, traditional, mainstream parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Germany, which is heading for crisis-induced snap elections on February 23, Musk has supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing insurgent challenger to the traditional parties. The establishment\u2019s dubiously democratic, unimaginative, and probably futile counterstrategy is to, in essence, freeze the AfD out of government participation no matter how many votes it gets. The problem is that the AfD polls as the second-most-popular party<\/a>, currently around at least 18%. By endorsing it \u2013 and not only on X but in the major conservative newspaper Die Welt as well<\/a> \u2013 Musk is threatening the mainstream parties\u2019 \u2018firewall\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the American uber-tycoon has also taken part in an X livestream chat with AfD leader Alice Weidel, could Musk\u2019s support make the AfD so strong that it simply can\u2019t be excluded from building Berlin government coalitions anymore? Consider, for instance, the cases of the Netherlands\u2019s Geert Wilders or Austria<\/a>\u2019s Herbert Kickl. Indeed, government participation of right-wing parties roughly resembling the AfD is already an accomplished fact in several European countries<\/a>, including, of course, Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And even if the German firewall holds again on February 23 \u2013 one last time? \u2013 an empowered AfD in opposition would then be in a perfect position to profit from all the predictable failures and immobility of yet another creaky, hamstrung, quarrelsome \u2018great coalition\u2019 of one sort or another in Berlin. In that case, the AfD would end up in a very advantageous place largely comparable to that of Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally in France at the moment: Watching from the sidelines as the old establishment and its parties continue their self-destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, Musk has just been having bratty fun, literally adding insult to injury, by, for instance, calling Germany\u2019s dour figurehead President Frank-Walter Steinmeier a \u201ctyrant\u201d and the spectacularly deficient barely-still-chancellor Olaf Scholz an \u201cincompetent fool<\/a>,\u201d before mangling his name in a very rude manner indeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Britain, Musk has called for the end of Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s government<\/a>, accused him of covering up and even facilitating an infamous case of mass child sexual abuse between 2008 and 2013<\/a>, demanded that a minister go to jail, and that notorious far-right activist Tommy Robinson get out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson, a former football hooligan<\/a>, convicted fraudster, and founder of the now largely defunct extremist English Defense League<\/a>, is as odious as it gets, real gutter class. Take it from the Times of Israel<\/a>, which pegs the British agitator as \u201cthe founder and former chair of a far-right Islamophobic group\u201d and \u201cmore than just an agent provocateur\u2026 one of the main forces bringing extremist forms of hate and bigotry from the fringes to the mainstream.\u201d And all that while Robinson, who identifies as a Zionist, is plausibly suspected of spreading his misinformation, hatred, and chaos for Israel\u2019s benefit<\/a> and with its support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One theory for Musk\u2019s obsession with Robinson is that it\u2019s all Jordan Peterson\u2019s fault<\/a>: The right-wing fashion philosopher and culture war guru \u2013 think Derrida but for bros \u2013 was first in honoring the English rabble rouser with undue attention. Be that as it may, in addition, as in Germany, Musk has publicly thrown his support behind a right-wing insurgent party, Reform UK<\/a>, under former Brexit star Nigel Farage, but with a twist, about which more below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By now, Musk\u2019s meddling in British politics is so brazen that it has made page one of the Financial Times. Surely intentional leaks from his surroundings confirm what has been obvious for a while: He is thinking about how to pro-actively help topple Starmer<\/a>. No biggie: Just a British prime minister, sort of like a Canadian one, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Musk\u2019s preferred candidate to replace Starmer, at this point at least? Andrew Tate, it seems<\/a>, a self-promoting bro-fluencer who has been accused \u2013 among other things \u2013 of criminal sexual misconduct, including rape and human trafficking, as it happens. How ironic. Musk, some say, is on some sort of crusade to save what he considers to be \u2018Western civilization\u2019. Well, maybe. But that says a lot about that civilization\u2019s real nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No wonder a Washington Post op-ed<\/a> is asking whether Europe will soon be dominated by US corporations in the same vicious manner that \u201cthe United Fruit Co. once subjugated Honduras.\u201d Way to go, European \u2018elites\u2019, slow claps all around: After the Cold War ended more than a third of a century ago, your obvious and eminently feasible task was to emancipate all of Europe from the US, but you chose \u2013 were coopted, bought, blackmailed, who knows \u2013 against all rhyme and reason to do precisely the opposite: To \u2018lead\u2019 your countries into total, helpless, slavish dependence. De Gaulle would have expectorated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across the cold, choppy North Sea, Germany is in deep economic crisis (a polite expression). Less than a month ago, Bloomberg described its economy as \u201cunravelling<\/a>,\u201d approaching \u201ca point of no return\u201d on a path of decline that could become irreversible. For once, there is a shorter way of saying it in German: Welcome to Valhalla. Starmer, meanwhile, is the British prime minister everyone loves to hate, and for good reasons, too. After winning his election in July simply because the preceding Tories were so relentlessly disastrous, Starmer\u2019s personal popularity rapidly cratered so badly that he is hated even more, producing \u201cthe biggest fall in approval rating after winning an election of any prime minister in the modern era<\/a>.\u201d Way to make history, Sir Keir. So, Musk\u2019s attacks have hit plenty of sore spots and the reactions among his targets have ranged from inadvertently comical high dudgeon to transparently sly backhandedness and maneuvering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scholz has pretended to play it cool<\/a>, while still making room for a swipe at Musk in his New Year\u2019s address to the nation. There! That will teach him you don\u2019t care, Olaf! Other members of his party have charged Musk with interfering in Germany\u2019s elections and endangering the US-German relationship<\/a>. Not so cool anymore, it seems, after all. In Britain, one cabinet minister huffed and puffed about Musk\u2019s \u201cdisgraceful smear<\/a>,\u201d while also suggesting the American oligarch could redeem himself and \u201cwork with us<\/a>.\u201d So subtle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other British politicians have urged Starmer to set up a dedicated \u201cMusk rebuttal unit<\/a>\u201d and take legal action. Good luck with that one, against an oligarch whose fortune is approaching half a trillion dollars. That\u2019s no innocent Julian Assange for you, dear British establishment, to be cajoled and tormented at will with pseudo-legal bigotry and on behalf of Washington. Musk is a guy who is as mean and ruthless as you are, and he can torment you because he has oodles of money and the US is on his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What most of the responses to Musk\u2019s provocations have in common, in any case, is that they are predictable. There is almost a ritualistic feel to the clash between the American bad boy oligarch and the objects of his barbs and arrows. He flaunts and taunts, they dodge and fume. And that\u2019s why there is only so much one can learn from following the detailed twists and turns of this season of the Great Elon Musk Potshot Saga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, let\u2019s take a step back and focus on some broader issues. Maybe there are some lessons here. First: Why are we even having this discussion? And there, believe it or not, is something for which we have to thank Musk. Namely, just how brash he can be. By conventional standards \u2013 that is, in terms of preserving appearances \u2013 Musk\u2019s behavior is, of course, inappropriate, as some never tire of pointing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s take words literally for a moment \u2013 then Musk\u2019s open lack of minimal respect for the governments and sovereignty of what once were great powers (in Britain\u2019s case, even a 19th-century superpower) is entirely appropriate. In the simple, literal sense that Musk\u2019s brutally open disdain reflects the reality of these US vassals\u2019 current submissiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s put it like this: For starters, Germany, if you don\u2019t want one American slapping your leaders in the face one after the other, then here\u2019s a hot insider tip: Next time other Americans help blow up your vital energy infrastructure and systematically wipe out your industry\u2019s competitiveness, don\u2019t just stand there and grin, Olaf-style. Kick them out. Britain: If you think an American oligarch should not presume to redesign your government, consider stopping obediently co-perpetrating a genocide<\/a> with Israel on the side of Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesson number one: Try having a spine, and you might find some respect again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s another thing too often overlooked. Thought experiment: What would have happened if Musk had tweeted about European politics but to support mainstream parties and politicians? For instance, a quasi-declaration of love for EU Empress Ursula von der Leyen instead of Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni (now in, it seems, for a big Space X deal<\/a>, too)? Or what if Musk supported not the raucous AfD but the German FDP \u2013 hapless but mainstream free-market liberals who have, literally, embarrassingly been begging him for his benevolence<\/a>? What if he had come out to congratulate Britain\u2019s Labour leaders on their brutal slashing of benefits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Germans say, in your heart, you know it: If Musk were precisely as meddlesome as now but on the side of the traditional establishment, the latter would lap it up, wagging their tails with delight and rolling over to show their bellies for more cuddles. In Germany, Musk would receive a \u2018Bundesverdienstkreuz\u2019 from President Steinmeier in person or, at least, a \u2018Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels\u2019 (just Google that one; it\u2019s beyond explication). And in Britain, the always very, very flexible upper classes would find a freshly knighted Sir Elon eminently clubbable. In short, Europe\u2019s sub-elites do not have a problem with being humiliated, they just don\u2019t like it when their American masters threaten to replace them with new favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, lesson number two: If you want respect, don\u2019t allow them to buy you. Because once they buy you, they can also throw you away and buy others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That, by the way, is what is now also happening to Nigel Farage, leader (at the time of writing, at least) of Reform UK. He has rubbed Musk the wrong way by being deeply submissive but not quite enough. Perhaps in a futile quest for personal dignity, Farage tried to have it both ways, agree with his hero Elon in the most fawning manner and cautiously hint that sometimes he may want to have a tiny bit of a mind of his own. Boy, oh boy, did that hammer come down! Musk\u2019s immediate response was to slap down Nigel-the-uppity-underling and tell his Reform UK party it needs a new leader<\/a>. Farage\u2019s response: More almost comically abject groveling<\/a>. And perhaps that will work. Because, clearly, the new boss likes his submission complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesson number three: Don\u2019t try to be clever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n