The AfD paradox

A realistic scenario? An AI generated image imagines Adolf Hitler as a communist.

Dear Reader,

When AfD leader Alice Weidel told Elon Musk last week that Adolf Hitler was a “communist socialist guy” and “the exact opposite” of right-wing, public outcry was guaranteed.

Now, you might think that the fact that Hitler put the word “socialist” into the name of the party he founded in 1920 would mean that such a comment could be shrugged off as “controversial but not crazy”.

But you’d be wrong.

Historians and commentators took to the airwaves to laugh at Weidel’s ignorance of historical facts, or to suggest that she was deliberately trying to wash her hands of her party’s most controversial forefather.

For Die Welt newspaper, Weidel’s claim was “completely ridiculous.” For historian Andreas Wirsching, it was an “infamous propaganda manoeuvre” meant to “camouflage the right-wing past and the true goals of right-wing extremist policies.”

Media outlets up and down the country found some expert to tel…