We’re at the “normalizing fascism” stage.
Historically there’s no way out of this. We’re going to have to push through a very sad, very deadly phase in American history and see what happens on the other side.
Buy a gun.
You only get three hots and a cot for doing that salute in my country.
Here’s the thing, in a normal, functioning society if someone gets caught doing a gesture that is interpreted by some people as being a Nazi salute, that person apologizes.
Even if in their heart of hearts they really didn’t mean to do a Nazi salute, they still apologize. They’re not necessarily apologizing for Seig Heil, they’re apologizing for how the gesture was received and interpreted. In a normal world, in a non fucked country, it’s very important to clarify “I’m not a Nazi, I hate Nazis, I would never do that, and I’m very sorry that what I did hurt and scared people.” In some countries, merely doing that gesture is grounds for arrest, but someone might avoid arrest if they made it clear it was an accident.
Whether or not it truly was 100% a Nazi salute matters less than the aftermath. No consequences, no apologies, no denials. The US is so fucked now that there are no consequences for credibly behaving like a Nazi in public. He won’t be fired or censured by the boards of his companies. Trump and the rest of the GOP will continue to eagerly have him around.
The US is now a place where for about half the population (including a lot of non-white people) being a Nazi is not a dealbreaker.
in a normal, functioning society if someone gets caught doing a gesture that is interpreted by some people as being a Nazi salute
But it isn’t. All media has clearly told us within minutes that we did not actually saw what we saw with our own eyes and it’s just error in judgement on our side to have mistaken his “odd looking gesture” for a nazi salute.
Not just in public, the richest man in the world, during the inauguration of the President of the United States that he just spent a shit load of money getting elected.
This is terrifying. People should be terrified.
I’m too tired to be terrified
This take i agree with. I still have reservations on what Musk really was intending to do there. There’s a slight variation in the way Musk did it and the way the Nazis used to do it, but it still demands an apology regardless of the facts.
It’s quite consistent with immature edgelord behavior, he probably concocted how to “almost” do a Nazi salute get people all riled up and then say we are all dumb for taking it as a Nazi salute because his hand was open, and he tossed in a “my heart to you all” as a rationalization.
Like back in middle school a kid said “The teacher is a bitch” and the teacher overheard and called him on it and he said “the teacher is a fish, you know, glub glub” and thought he was so clever. That’s the general energy of Musk.
It’s not just immature behaviour though, it’s also a demonstration of power, both his and the Nazi faction’s power. Showing that he can get away with it, and that he won’t even face criticism for doing it, as long as he doesn’t outright admit that yes, he was doing a Nazi salute.
I’m of the opinion that Musk didn’t do an actual nazi salute. He did what he thinks is the nazi salute because he himself isn’t a real nazi. He’s just an insecure little man who wanted some approval and acknowledgement from actual nazis, so he did the salute as a “look, I’m totally one of you guys”. He’s a wannabe nazi. Not that there’s a big difference because whether you’re an actual nazi of a wannabe nazi, you’re still a piece of shit. But I think him being a wannabe nazi fits with his public persona of being wannabe everything. He’s a wannabe engineer, he’s a wannabe tech bro, he’s a wannabe gamer and now he’s a wannabe Nazi.
A sign of weakness.
Journalist in the middle of a highway road as a truck driven by elon musk barrels down towards them at blistering speed: IT IS UNCLEAR WHAT MUSKS MOTIVES AR-
You could tell he’s been waiting for the opportunity to do that for ages. He almost did it early and when it came time, he did it as hard as he could.
So who wants to take bets on how long it’ll take Musk to say the N-Word?
And justify it because he’s African American.
I think he was practicing it in the mirror, too. There is no way that this is a coincidence or a mistake.
Yeah, claims are already going around that this is just must being clumsy
You don’t clumsily accidentally make a Hitler salute, especially after cosying up with far right politicians that love what Hitler did.
There must be consequences for this. Anyone who is not a neo nazi should stop doing anything with any of the products from musk. You work at Tesla? Congratulations, you work at a neo nazi factory, you might want to reconsider your career future. Same goes for those at SpaceX; do you really want to be that guy who, ten years from now, has on their record that they worked at the neonazi rockets company?
People should leave Twitter in droves now, and so should companies. They should all stop buying Tesla shit, sell their Tesla stock, and get with the normal folks.
Fuck musk, let there for once be real consequences that he’ll at least feel in his wallet.
I am legit worried about him so brazenly display his fascist tendencies. If this goes anywhere how it went 80 years ago, and I fear it may very well be, then at the end of it, let’s please make sure we get rid of the Nazi scour forever.
I grew up with “never again never forget” and within a decade that went to “well this is cool man!” Clearly we didn’t do enough to teach people and we’ve been way, WAY too lenient with those that love fascism
I was one of those who kept their twitter account because it was a good source for weather updates and breaking news. I wanted to leave but I justified it by not posting, and only interacting with my feed. Today I reached my breaking point when a comment chain on a non political post on my feed devolved into blue checkmarks saying why the platform owner was allowed to do a Hitler salute. I realized that the weather and niche news I got from the platform was VASTLY devalued by the sheer amount of racist and hateful commentary on everything. Yeah, I’m not being part of any of that, this man is a danger, and anyone who still follows or defends him is dead to me.
This is the fourth or fifth post I have seen, again, without a video anywhere to be found
The video doesn’t help his case at all, he does the same gesture multiple times.
There are two videos linked in the article. One clip, and one full speech.
Were you under the bizarre impression this was photoshopped? It was broadcast internationally.
No I literally just want to see but no news site, post or otherwise had a video accessible at time of commenting
Finally a link that works in Australia, thanks
Not odd at all. Very specific in fact.
Magas are apparently explaining this with
“PBS News, which is publicly funded, is spreading propaganda that Elon Musk made a ‘fascist salute’ during his speech at Capital One Arena,” the post said. “Their own video clearly shows that he was motioning ‘my heart goes out to you’ to the audience. DEFUND PBS.”
Yeah, Hitler’s heart also went out to all those poor Jews…
JFC
News media is dead. Anyone still in business a year from now will be strictly because they bent the knee for propaganda. We can’t even rely on foreign news lately like we always did in America BBC seems gone too.
Yeah. So weird, this Nazi salute. From the actual President of a fascist admin. Odd. Odd looking, even.
Just saw a video of it, that’s not just Nazi like, that is a textbook ENTHUSIASTIC NAZI SALUTE!
I say it’s almost a frame by frame match
Thanks for excellent documentation! 👍 Showing that just as I claimed, it’s textbook enthusiastic heiling, There is no explaining this away. USA has become a Nazi country!!
That, and I can’t believe the ADL, of all people, was equivocating on it.
Oh, wait, I can, because the ADL has long since stopped giving a shit about antisemitism and has instead started accusing anyone who protests against a genocide of being Nazis.
Twice.
This is the clincher for me. I could MAYBE give him the benefit of the doubt for being basically an excitable toddler who waves his arms around like a dickhead, but the fact he did the exact same salute, TWICE, shows he blatantly meant to do it. I think he meant to look a lot cooler than it did, and not like Butt-head.
I mean, not textbook. It was sloppy and uncoordinated. Dipshits can’t even fascism without looking awkward.
That was the ketamine fucking with his coordination…
It kind of reminded me of someone doing a dab.
It’s deliberate for plausible deniability, but it’s so obvious.
Maybe but I also think he’s an uncoordinated dip shit
Odd looking is a kind way of looking at it.
