Summary

Polish Tourism Minister Sławomir Nitras has called for a Tesla boycott following Elon Musk’s remarks urging Germany to “move past” its Nazi history.

Musk’s comments, made during a far-right AfD campaign event, sparked outrage, particularly in Poland, which lost 6 million people in WWII.

The controversy comes ahead of Germany’s February 23 election and just before Musk’s Tesla earnings call.

As a key advisor to Trump, Musk’s stance could impact Tesla’s market position in Europe, where historical remembrance remains a sensitive issue.

  • Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 hours ago

    As a Pole: Its funny to see hoe people in Poland is viewed by other countries vs how its actually viewed.

    1. Soon government starts program of subsidizing buying new EVs. Teslas are not excluded. Its basically poor financing rich’s new cars.

    https://www.gov.pl/web/nfosigw/program-naszeauto-do-40-tys-zl-doplaty-do-samochodu-elektrycznego

    1. Main opposition party demands deposition from minister who made unfortunate slip of the tounge and didnt immediately correct herself on international conference on 80th anniversary of liberating of the largest concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. “In the territory occupied by Germany, Polish Nazis built camps that were labor camps, which later became mass extermination camps.”

    https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/obozy-zbudowali-niemcy-polskich-nazistow-nie-bylo-barbara-nowacka-przeprasza-za

    • MonkeMischief
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      18 hours ago

      And those who do, are condemned to watch the rest of them repeat it. :(

    • __nobodynowhere@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      Those who do remember the past intentionally repeat it because they are fucking Nazis.

  • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    The only way for Germany to move past its Nazi history is not to forget it but to learn from it. For Germany to truly move past its guilt it must:

    1. Ban the AfD (they’re in the process) and ensure Europe is free of fascists
    2. Guide Europe toward a bright free future (they are doing this)
    3. Protect Europe from its threats and ensure no nation will ever devisate it again (they’re in the process, hopefully they can establish a federal European military)
  • JoYo 🇺🇸@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    it’s only been 80 years, these motherfuckers can’t get over the US civil war after 160 years.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    1 day ago

    The Swedish strike is still ongoing. The German protest against their factory is still ongoing. The cyber truck can never be approved for use on roads in all of Europe. Every fourth Tesla fails the first EU-inspection. The average for all cars is 3%, so it’s exceptionally bad.

    I don’t think a boycott is even necessary. There are enough reasons not to buy a Tesla.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      3 hours ago

      It might not be necessary to stop him from selling cars in the EU, but the symbolism of it would be fantastic.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        They are surving ok here in SoCal but if the rainy season hits hard enough my 24 year old 3 cylinder Tacoma is gonna be out driving them here soon.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            11 hours ago

            Why would you drive an electric car in -5F weather? Thats just asking for issues, battery drain alone will cause problems add on the cybertrucks shitty build everything and you are mooning fate.

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              3 hours ago

              Because you need to drive somewhere and your car is electric? Come weather makes me that I got a plug-in hybrid rather than a full electric, though.

    • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Every fourth Tesla fails the first EU-inspection. The average for all cars is 3%, so it’s exceptionally bad.

      I also wouldn’t buy a car from that freak for various reasons but that high failure rate at the first inspection can be at least partly explained. Tesla - unlike most manufacturers - doesn’t do regular inspections on their own. Most cars are checked (and repaired!) by the dealership before they get officially checked. Therefore, the 25% aren’t completely comparable to the 3%.

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          Top tip: if you want your local cybertruck off the road. E scooters can total them by denting the impossible to repair body panels.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Yes that was one of their big business model points. Saves thousands on each vehicle. Technically afaik there is no “dealership”, it’s their corporate store.

          • biofaust@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            But do they really have those many qualified QAs to send to each dealership? I entered one of their dealership only once and the guy talking to me, and appearing to run everything in there, sounded like a cryptobro on coke, but that was in Sweden, so I may not have a good idea of the reality of things elsewhere.

            • Cort@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              At least in the US, they lock things down so heavily that they’re the only one able to do most repairs, so they’ve got tons of people in house or for body work they’ll have someone they exclusively sub-let the work to.

  • Technotica@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    As an aside, I love the irony of that speech. Musk tells the wannabe Nazis that they can forget about the sins of their (great)grandparents.

    The idiots of the AFD want to forget the past simply so they can repeat it.

    They want to repeat the sins of their forefathers, they just don’t want to be reminded of the consequences that followed.

    • rascalnikov@literature.cafe
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      14 hours ago

      I somewhat disagree. They don’t want to forget, they want to finish the job. They have immense pride in something they should feel shame for. That, I think, is the issue. The unwillingness to feel shame, so they replace that feeling with over-zealous pride.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Still grandparents in a lot of cases. I’m 40 and my grandfather fought the Japanese in WWII.

      Plenty of people left on this planet who had grandparents on every side of that war.

      Or maybe your parentheses was meant to cover both.

      Yeah it was.

      Fuck it. I typed it. Maybe some other idiot will read it wrong.

    • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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      18 hours ago

      I had the same question with Trump copying so many of his political plays from 1930s Germany… does he… does he know how the story ended?

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        He thinks Hitlers generals were loyal so… Nope. Seriously even the Wehrmacht foot soldiers turned on the Nazis in the end openly attacking the SS.

      • MonkeMischief
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        18 hours ago

        does he… does he know how the story ended?

        Let’s lock him alone in a bunker with a Walther PPK for a few hours to see for ourselves.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Any democratic society should boycott Tesla until Musk is removed from the company.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    The EU should impose a continent-wide ban on Tesla imports (or steep tariffs eh? Why not copy the orange peel) until Tesla offloads Musk - including buying back his shares.

      • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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        14 hours ago

        In this instance, this isn’t a trade war, it’s a war against neo-Nazism. Imposing tarrifs specifically on Tesla wouldn’t be about helping European car manufacturer, it would be about extinguishing Musk’s rhetoric.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      It’s too early in the morning for me to look this up but I bet his worth is more than most of the EU member’s GDP.

      Sanctions on him individually as well as anything he owns. Bar him from entry, tax the living shit out of any of his properties including any assets he has in the EU.

      • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        It’s too early in the morning for me to look this up but I bet his worth is more than most of the EU member’s GDP.

        EU members aren’t third world countries. The poorest in the EU - Romania - has a GDP roughly comparable to Musk’s theoretical worth (I say theoretical because it’s really tied to what Tesla shares are worth. It’ll only be real if he sells them, and he can’t without collapsing the price of the share).

        But comparing GDP and someone’s wealth is comparing oranges and apples, because Romania’s GDP happens every year, unlike Musk’s wealth.

        And more importantly, the EU is all those countries’ GDP combined. That’s in fact exactly why those countries have united: to have more weight to throw around. Musk is no match for the GDP of the entire European Union, which is roughly $19tn.

        • RandomVideos@programming.dev
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          1 day ago

          Since piracy is a pretty important part of Romanian culture, i dont think it should be excluded when talking about theoretical GDP

          The average download speed, according to speedtest.net, is 63.78 MB/s

          According to a source i cant find, but looked credible, 68% of computers have pirated software

          According to romania-insider.com, 61% of households in Romania own computers and have access to the internet

          According to wikipedia, there are 6709224 households in Romania

          According to ncesc.com, the average game costs 69.9 USD and takes up 20 GB

          According to my calculator app, there are 31536000 seconds in a year

          In 31536000 seconds, 2782986 computers could pirate 273320490308 average games, increasing Romanias GDP by 19105102272553 USD

          This would put Romania as the country with the third highest GDP, slightly less than Russia

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    I keep getting this feeling that Musk is a stooge and he sacrificed himself/was sacrificed with the Nazi salute thing as a distraction.

    He doesn’t give a shit about Tesla tanking, as long as he can use his new connections to ride the stock market waves through some well-planned trades (i.e. insider trading).

    These guys can insider trade all they want now. Who the hell is gonna stop them? Nancy Pelosi? Lol.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      Nah, he’s looking higher than just money. He was making a bunch of moves that the MAGA folks weren’t happy about, such as getting into fights with Laura Loomer over the specifics of how they’re going to fuck over everyone. A little hand gesture at a rally, and suddenly all those people are lining up to defend him.

      • tvbusy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 hours ago

        Agree. I don’t care about Trump’s second term since I’m not a US citizen but I’m worried about the trend of money buying everything. Recent events have shown that billionaires don’t need to pretend to care about society. They can just join a political party and use their money to do whatever they want.

        Musk supporting AfD is just him proving his power. He could not care less about Germans or even Tesla. As much fun as seeing Trump having to clarify that he’s the president, it’s a really bad trend that in this age of media content and AI, it’s easier than ever to influence any society.

        I’m pretty sure DeepSeek will play in this direction: give free AI with “PRC influence” to everyone, and when repeatedly enough time, people will believe what they’re told.

  • NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    He’s right we should move past the guilt and onto whatever it is that strips modern day Nazis of their wealth for reparations.

  • NeuronautML@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    I would say he’s right if he meant Germany would move past it’s Nazi guilt, stop funding a goddamn present day genocide and arrest the perpetrators of the currently ongoing one, like the ICC has told them to do.

    Can you imagine, Germany standing against genocide one of these days ? That would be a grand step forward.

    • RidderSport@feddit.org
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      4 hours ago

      What do you want? The ministers for foreign and inner affairs have both stated that they would obviously comply by the law and would have Netanjahu arrested. He has not come to Germany though, so what is it you want? Have a spec ops team invade Israel and arrest him?

  • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Yes, let’s forget the colonial past and what we used to do to people coming from Africa that moved to the Americas.