Last month, tens of thousands of Germans and legal immigrants received fake “deportation tickets” in their mailboxes telling them to go back to their “country of origin.” Due to the history of ethnic intimidation in Germany, including when Jewish citizens were given fake travel cards to intimidate them to self-deport, local police investigated the mock ticketsas “incitement of racial hatred” by the Alternative for Germany (AfD)—an “extremist” party with associations to Nazism. Now, American leaders like Vice President J.D. Vance and “Special Government Employee” Elon Musk are trying to help AfD by normalizing hate speech as “free speech” boosted by Russian interference and biased social media algorithms.

Vance reportedly “stunned” European leaders expecting to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference when he told them he was more worried about “the threat from within.” Vance accused German political parties of censoring AfD by refusing to coalition with them in government. Vance seemed to equate Europe’s laws protecting citizens from hate speech with Russia’s silencing of dissidents, and he downplayed the threats of Russian disinformation campaigns—casually dismissing sophisticated intelligence operations as if they were just “a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising.” Russia has been ramping up “hybrid attacks” to boost the AfD and depress support for its opponents in the leadup to Germany’s February 23 election, using “fake news sites, sleeper accounts, and AI-generated content to spread false narratives and erode trust in Western institutions.”

Vance also downplayed the extent to which oligarchs leverage their media empires to amplify disinformation at the expense of credible sources, falsely equating Musk’s biased manipulation of algorithms with Greta Thunberg’s grassroots activism. The ideological alliance between Musk and Putin reflects the alt-right “Breitbart Doctrine” that “politics is downstream from culture.” Musk’s boosting of propaganda on X, like influencers bankrolled by Russia, effectively amplifies existing socio-political fractures—not only to depress support for policies like aid to Ukraine, but to weaken civil society by promoting a culture of ignorance and intolerance.

Musk’s endorsement of AfD, combined with Vance’s defense of Russian assistance to illiberal parties, is part of an increasingly globalized strategy by autocrats and oligarchs to normalize prejudice and conspiracies so they can divide and exploit democratic societies. Springfield, Ohio suffered the consequences last year when Trump and Vance amplified the conspiracy that Haitian immigrants were eating pets. Even after local officials asked Vance to stop spreading lies about their residents, Vance refused to acknowledge that his “free speech” contributed to the incitement of bomb threats in Springfield. Instead, Vance admitted that he and his partisans “create stories” for attention by demonizing minorities.

While lying and scapegoating are considered free speech in America, Germans uniquely understand the danger of the “paradox of tolerance,” in which a tolerant society can be undone by tolerating intolerance. Recent generations have forgotten that the Nazi regime didn’t start with death camps. The path to violence was paved by dehumanizing rhetoric that exploited prejudices against Jews and anyone who didn’t assimilate to German culture, treating them as threats. A culture of intolerance normalized the mistreatment of Jews and other minorities until pogroms and ethnic cleansing were seen as justified.

When Vance claims Europeans are censoring speech, he is claiming that groups like AfD have a right to harass and persecute minorities, while oligarchs and autocrats like Musk and Putin have a right to amplify hate and lies that contribute to a culture of intolerance.

European leaders view Vance’s accusations as hypocritical when they see Trump threatening freedom of expression, including by targeting individuals and institutions that support diversity, equity, or inclusion. Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz even mocked the White House for barring the Associated Press for calling the Gulf of Mexico by its centuries-old name. They see Musk’s DOGE bypassing the legislative branch’s constitutional authority by dismantling congressionally-appropriated agencies and programs that supported democracy and development and guarded against corruption and discrimination.

Since WWII, the United States operated on a bipartisan consensus that supported democracy and development through open markets to sustain a network of alliances against autocracies like Russia and China. Now Vance and Musk have signalled that consensus may be over as the United States appears to be siding with Russia to support illiberal parties like AfD against German democracy.

As a German-American, I hope that people of goodwill on both sides of the Atlantic will be able to work together to defend our shared national interests by supporting pluralistic democracy and human rights. As a patriotic American who pledges allegiance to our republic, and as an elected official who swore an oath to our Constitution, I will use my right to free speech to guard against intolerance for as long as I can. I hope more will speak up in pursuit of liberty and justice for all.

Views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of any organization, employer, or affiliated group.