Two weeks ago, Elon Musk stirred unusual hysteria about the prospects and future of German democracy by tweeting that "only the AfD can save Germany." In the days since, Musk has repeated the sentiment, both because he believes it, but also because (one suspects) he likes to troll unreasonable ridiculous people. German bien-pensants can't help but lose their minds every time Musk tweets anything positive about the AfD, and so Musk will probably never stop poking them by doing precisely this.

There are two reasons that they react in such absurd and self-defeating ways:

1) Musk's tweets confront our political establishment with an outside view of the insane, benighted and insular politics they have imposed on the Federal Republic. This is very uncomfortable for elites who larp as adult, serious and farsighted people, while advancing some of the craziest policies the West has ever seen.