I’ve had several conversations/arguments recently with my brother making clear my system of values and my hatred for the wealthy. He is nearly diametrically opposed on all accounts and often makes light of their actions. He goes so far as to say that poor people and people in need of social services should have to figure things out for themselves. He often defends Elon Musk and champions him for being self made.
He is getting married in a foreign country soon and I have been able to put aside our differences and have been planning on going
…up until yesterday that is. I asked him of his thoughts on Musk’s seig heil maneuver and he sent a right wing meme of democratic leaders caught mid wave, saying that “they did it first”. He continued to be avoidant and didn’t respond to me calling it a strawman.
In this moment it feels necessary to cancel my plans to send a message that this is not ok. Am I the (or an) asshole for not going to his wedding because of this?
If it siegs, heils, and screams discrimination, it’s a Nazi. No ifs, buts, or copes.
That guy certainly isn’t a run of the mill liberal/conservative if he tries to cop out his way out of that.
Also, Jewish advocacy groups worldwide aren’t exactly a good one to consult – as they often have been shown not to be independent, but work together with Israel’s government, which has a habit of ethnically cleansing Palestinians, like the current genocide in Palestine. The victims are turning into oppressors there, and that saddens me – ideally, Israeli, Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, agnosts and all alike should be able to live together in harmony.
That said, concerning Nazi aspects: assuming all other conditions are satisfied, you don’t even need to hate only Jews to be a Nazi. You can hate Palestinians and be a Nazi. Or queers. The original Nazis did that too. We were put up in concentration camps for being queer. And Musk hates those.
And your answer is, “Noooo, I don’t think he was sieg heiling”?! Come on.
You cannot be a good person until you actively work for the liberation of people, instead of voting against their rights. And reactionaries (that’s what I call ““conservatives”” do the opposite: they want us to go back to the Middle Ages.
With due respect, but your opinion should be reconsidered immediately.
I do think he wasn’t zeig heiling. So do most people in the real world who aren’t hooked in to leftist social media 24/7.
Anyways you’re missing the point. The point is that OPs brother thinks Musk didn’t do it. So are you really going to cut someone out of you life for having the majority opinion that someone isnt a Nazi and therefore is defensible?
“You cannot be a good person until you actively work for the liberation of people, instead of voting against their rights.”
“OK what if you think fetuses are people”
“But they arent”
“But I think they are, so I think I am morally righteous”
“But they aren’t and therefore you are a bad person”
Just using abortion as an example… I am strongly pro-choice myself but I dont think people are bad just because they are pro-life. Misguided? Sure, but thats hugely different than being evil. There is a ton of space in society for good people to have different political views. The notion that everyone who disagrees with you politically is a bad person is childish.