Elon Liberates

Last Wednesday, just two days after the inauguration of the newest U.S. president, employees at the local TV station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a brief notice stating that weather forecaster Sam Kuffel, 31, had "left" the station. The management gave no reason for the young meteorologist’s departure, but a day earlier, conservative radio host Dan O'Donnell harshly criticized Kuffel over two of her Instagram posts, accusing her of "spreading lies that Elon Musk performed a Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration." He, quite justifiably in my opinion, described her posts as "vulgar."

Let’s not forget — this is Elon Musk, a man who, in the eyes of millions, represents hope that speech might finally be freed from the chains imposed by corrupt liberal authoritarians. After all, we Slovenians are directly affected as well. The first politician to propose Elon Musk for the Nobel Peace Prize — precisely for his contributions to liberating speech — hails from our own country. Even the Slovenian Prime Minister recently proudly posted a selfie standing with Musk beneath the caption: "From Slovenia to America, for a better world."

Elon liberates. He liberates even us — those of us who mean well at heart. That’s why it's right and just that the Milwaukee station's management reacted as it did. One must ask: What will become of Musk’s valiant fight for free speech if any weather girl can spout off whatever her wicked woke brain concocts about him?

Anyone who watched Musk’s appearance at the inauguration closely would immediately realize that it was not a Nazi salute at all, but merely a gesture of enthusiasm and love — one that just happened to strongly resemble a Nazi salute. Let’s set aside the fact that many neo-Nazis recognized and celebrated it as such. They’re people too, and people can be wrong. After all, what do neo-Nazis know about Nazi salutes?

We must, at all costs, prevent the woke from continuing to mix apples and apples in the same basket with impunity. Where that can lead was clearly demonstrated by the unpleasant experience I had after a recent post on the platform of Musk’s fellow freedom-of-speech warrior, Mark Zuckerberg.

In my post, I summarized an article by American historian Timothy W. Ryback, who, on the eve of the 92nd anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s inauguration, described in The Atlantic — dryly and impartially, as befits a historian — the early weeks of the then-new German chancellor’s rule.

That Monday morning, January 30, 1933, Ryback writes, Hitler first swore to uphold the constitution, then crossed the street to the Kaiserhof Hotel for lunch, and afterward, at his first meeting, explained to his newly appointed Reich ministers what his initial steps would be. He promised to drain the parliamentary swamp and announced the removal of key government officials, whose positions would be filled by loyal party soldiers. He declared he would take revenge on his political opponents. “Heads will roll in the sand,” the new chancellor vividly illustrated what lay ahead. He also mentioned increased military spending and withdrawing from international treaties. Special attention was given to purging the state of foreigners, whom he claimed were “poisoning” the nation’s blood.

A few weeks later, on February 20, Hitler met secretly in Berlin with leading German industrialists, including the owner of the Krupp company and four directors of I.G. Farben. He told them, “In a democracy, it is impossible to maintain private enterprises,” and promised to destroy the trade unions and communists. The industrialists were thrilled and immediately offered three million Reichsmarks [worth about $30 million today] “to strengthen and solidify the Nazi party in power.”

Just a month later, on Tuesday, March 21, a decree was issued granting amnesty to National Socialists convicted of crimes, including murder, committed “in the fight for national renewal.” Men convicted of treason were declared national heroes. The first concentration camp was opened that afternoon in an old brewery near the town center of Oranienburg, north of Berlin. The next day, the first group of prisoners arrived at a second camp in an abandoned munitions factory near the Bavarian town of Dachau.

No sooner had I posted these dry historical anecdotes on Facebook than outrage poured in from all sides. Pathetic emojis, shallow comments, and above all, completely baseless comparisons between what I’d described and what we’ve been witnessing in recent weeks and days in the United States. Even the fired weather forecaster from Milwaukee might blush at such malicious oversimplifications and distortions of facts.

Anyone who thinks clearly will see that these are not identical events — merely similar ones. It’s obvious they didn’t occur in the same social, economic, or political context as today. They simply resemble today’s circumstances and therefore cannot possibly have the same consequences. At worst, only similar ones.

Superficial readers ignored important differences. While Hitler hesitated and delayed pardoning his stormtroopers, Trump did it immediately after taking the oath. While the Führer secretly courted industrialists behind the public’s back, Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos stood openly and transparently behind their leader at the inauguration — as befits a true democracy. And above all: Hitler did all this because he was an evil Nazi. Meanwhile, Slovenia’s son-in-law and Musk act — in their deeds and gestures — purely out of enthusiasm and love.

Ryback’s article concludes with an event that my Facebook “friends,” in all their blindness, (so far) haven’t dared to link to current events surrounding the new U.S. president. On Thursday, March 23, 1933, delegates of the last Weimar parliament gathered at the Kroll Opera House across from the charred ruins of the Reichstag. Under a massive Nazi eagle, dramatically lit with outstretched wings and a swastika in its talons, Hitler, dressed in a brown stormtrooper uniform, introduced the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich” — effectively granting himself absolute power. Only the Social Democrats voted against it.

Joseph Goebbels later marveled that the National Socialists had managed to completely dismantle a federal constitutional republic in such a short time by legal means. “The greatest joke of democracy,” he remarked, “is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools for its own destruction.”

A joke, perhaps — but the woke, both then and now, have shown that they have no sense of humor.

P.S.

Just hours after I sent this article to the editor, Facebook removed my post for violating its standards — for which I am sincerely grateful to Mark Zuckerberg. It gives me hope that we will manage to defend freedom of speech from those who do not deserve it.