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 wouldn’t doubt it, but Elon is like a walking 4-chan, so I have no idea…
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.
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-
“This is a man with Aspergers exuberantly throwing his heart to the crowd,” the journalist said, calling Musk “a friend to the Jews.”
Also, Asperger’s is no longer a medical term and there is no indication that Elon has ever actually been evaluated. Autism is not an excuse to throw a Nazi salute, for fuck’s sake!
Someone should tell Musk what the Nazis did with “Aspergers” kids.
as a matter of fact, Hans Asperger’s work during the national socialist years in Vienna can actually be described as dialectic. a rough summary would be that while participating in the evaluation and killing of children he developed his dissertation in order to get some of the kids out of the T4 program. that dissertation later became the base for the diagnosis that was named after him and found its way into popular culture.
Seriously… The fucking irony
For lack of a better term I find it “interesting” that they’re using the outdated term named for a Nazi collaborator
Thank you.
with that guy’s history of making sock puppet accounts, this eric one is highly sus.
On Twitter, no less — a sycophant whose opinion is a net negative.
I actually did speculate on neurodiversity yesterday (as a neurodiverse person myself) and I can tell you it was because of shock over the whole thing. I’m not going to speculate.
edit: fixed some spelling
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.
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
I mean, not textbook. It was sloppy and uncoordinated. Dipshits can’t even fascism without looking awkward.
Well… a certain mustache guy was also know to be a rather sloppy saluter.
It’s deliberate for plausible deniability, but it’s so obvious.
Maybe but I also think he’s an uncoordinated dip shit
That was the ketamine fucking with his coordination…
It kind of reminded me of someone doing a dab.
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.
You’re a better person than I, then. I can’t give him any benefit. Not for a long time now.
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.
Elon I had well figured for a Nazi, certainly paints a message doing that at the POTUS podium, but CNN just calling it . . . odd? What the fuck is that non response about? I can only imagine that if they managed to open up labor camps CNN would call it ‘slightly concerning’. Now more than ever we’re on our own, the big club has give up all pretense of being unbiased and unmasked themselves for who they always wanted to be.
edit: And this is the NYTs enlightened take
Is it really hard to find meaning? It’s not even hinting at it anymore.
CNN got a right wing CEO a few years ago IIRC. Late 2020 or maybe 2021 if memory serves. IMO the coverage was almost immediately different.
I’m confident that they are being forced to not compare the current situation to nazi Germany.
All of the “liberal media” (lol, that phrase was always silly and now it’s beyond farcical) was already obeying in advance. This is just more of it.
The fourth estate is complicit and always has been.
They are looking to avoid libel suits from Musk and Trump.
everybody‘s ready to put on their new suits
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.
This will be the most terrifying aspect over the next handful of years.
Our media will begin to become state media. Historically, that’s one of the last phases before the end of democracy.
I don’t think people want to accept it yet, but this is actually happening here in America. We are on the path. It can happen here. I can happen anywhere.
As social media exploded with condemnation of what some were calling a “Sieg Heil,” with some others applauding the world’s richest man’s gesture, there was also some speculation that Musk’s movement was more like that of an Imperial Roman general in the Gladiator mode.
Do people think the Nazis invented their salute? They took it from the Romans. To say it was actually a Roman salute is to also say it was a Nazi salute because they are basically one and the same.
They didn’t, the association with Rome comes from this painting. The author didn’t have anything to believe it was historically correct.
It is correct though that Italian fascists had a hard on on everything that was classical Rome-adjacent and they picked the salute from a French painting like a bunch of noobs.
The Roman salute, also known as the Fascist salute
God I love Wikipedia
All the more reasons to donate, imo. Based af.
Are we donating? I used to donate; but I read somewhere that they actually have more money than they know what to do with… I would donate if this claim were plausibly denied.
I don’t see the issue with donating more money than they can use. Their contribution to society is immeasurable and the more Wikipedia the better as far as I’m concerned! :D
I haven’t heard anyone say they’re drowning in money, but it you have links I’d love to read them.
Interesting, so instead of them stealing the actual Roman salute, they stole what they thought the Roman salute was. Sure the Italian fascists used it too, but the Nazis compared what they wanted, a 1000 year Reich, to what Rome had created when they had a massive empire that lasted 500 years for the western empire and almost 1500 for the Eastern years if they include the West and almost 1000 by itself. So they didnt just take it from the Italian Fascists just cause, they did it because they thought it was Roman as well, and associated it with their desire to replicate the Romans.
Thanks for the info!
Edited the years for the Roman empire after being called out for being wrong.
So the nazi salute is the equivalent to the naruto run of their time.
Ackshually it’s only 2000 years in the east (up until 1453) if you count the kingdom and republic (which would make it 1000 years in the west, up to the traditional date of 476) assuming the traditional ab urbe condita date of 753 BC.
I said almost 2000 years. It lasted from, officially, 476 BCE to 1453 CE, that’s 1929 years. Which is almost 2000 years, like I said.
When it comes to the West, the empire officially was made in 27 BCE with the first Emperor. I don’t think the republic really counted because all historical articles I can find say it lasted 503 years, not 1000. From 27 BCE to 476 CE.
Also, 753 BCE isn’t the Roman empire. It was the founding of Rome itself, meaning the city.
I’m just saying it only lasted 2000 years if you could the republic, in which case it lasted 1000 years in the west (traditionally until Augustulus was deposed in 476) not 500 years. I realize this has nothing to do with the topic at hand and I’m just being a pedant.
Ah I misread a bit of what you said. Thanks for the clarification.
Edit: Fixed the dates in the original post
No worries, I didn’t explain myself very well. If you’re in the US, take care today.
There’s sone subtle differences but fascism is modeled after the Roman Republic with intense nationalism thrown in. The salute the Romans did was the fascist salute.
Dafuq is this unelected dipshit doing at the podium to begin with? That should be the first question to ask.
I mean we all know why but I refuse to pretend this should be the “new normal”
Unelected? What do you mean? He bought his top spot of a kleptocracy fair and square.
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.
Yeah. So weird, this Nazi salute. From the actual President of a fascist admin. Odd. Odd looking, even.
I think he was practicing it in the mirror, too. There is no way that this is a coincidence or a mistake.
A sign of weakness.
