Also, the Nazi's are celebrating him for it. So in a way it doesn't matter at all if other people are making excuses for him. As long as he doesn't apologizes and distances himself with mature believable words, he is intentionally keeping the ambiguity.
It’s this particular fatal strain of Exceptionalism to keep up a facade of business as usual. “Don’t be hysterical, no Nazis here” ,“COVID is not that bad, it’s over”, etc etc
Admitting you stole the cookie because your mom caught/noticed you did it doesn't invalidate that you stole the cookie, or that Elmo Mollusk is an Apartheid nepo-baby and a neo-Nazi hiding behind "asperger's" and Autism when people notice/catch him.
And like, lets take a step back for a second. The Nazi salute is a really specific gesture, pretty easy to avoid doing accidentally. I don't think I've ever accidentally heiled any siegs in my life, and certainly not at a political rally where you'd think you should be more cautious about doing one!
Any normal, sane person would both be very cautious about doing any gestures that can be misinterpreted as a nazi salute, and if they accidentally did something that looked like one, several times in fact, they'd be horrified by the fact! It's literally the most famous physical gesture in politics!
The 'generous' way to interpret this would be that he was just shit-stirring (I mean look at that smug facial expression). His association with nazis and fascism (he's pretty obviously a eugenicist!) is only needed to debunk that interpretation. The fact it was the nazi salute is unambiguous to me.
Me and someone had a cute little thing going of saluting each other and then one time they dramatically swung from their forehead into the air and they were MORTIFIED. We started doing the smallest little salutes after that. This is to say yes, an accidental SH is an immediate oh fuck moment
Yeah, and that's far less of a nazi salute then like, hand from the chest to dramatically pointing palm-down fingers together 45 degrees up in the air and holding it there for a second or so! Humans are so communicative with gestures and body languages that we're pretty finely tuned to minute...
differences in expression. So many little details could have made Musk's salute seem less nazi, from wrist angle to hand height to the snappiness of the motion, and yet..
The only thing I'd say he didn't do to make it movie-perfect was dramatically lock his legs together and squaring his shoulders.
It’s crazy! Just because someone from a racist culture who supports racism and endorses White supremacy and endorses a White supremacist President and gives a Hitler salute doesn’t mean he’s racist.
I thought for a bit that his fingers were splayed at the outstretch and I was like “ah that’s unfortunate” and then I saw another angle and THAT’S A NAZI SALUTE THOSE FINGERS ARE PARALLEL
Here’s an actual counter factual that I think supports that point.
An Oakland A’s coach made a gesture like this, he apologized, and said it accidental. I personally believed him, because he didn’t have a public history of racist speech and behavior.
And also, yeah, I feel like we mostly would. Context makes it clearer, but video of two Nazi salutes, from anyone, would tend to be interpreted as Nazi salutes.
Also a picture of somebody waving that kind of sort of looks like a solute in one of the frames is quite different from a video of somebody very clearly doing this and pausing and repeating to make sure you GET IT
Also, if I had not intended to do a Nazi salute but accidentally made a gesture that kinda looked like one and people were getting mad about it, I'd be very quick to apologise and clarify. Now I haven't actually checked, but I'm guessing there has not been a convincing apology.
Yes, but lol
As a German, I would totally interpret Musk‘s hand gestures (he did it twice) as a Sieg Heil, the Hitler salute. Even absent any kind of context. Musk platforming and promoting and supporting literal nazis of course makes it crystal clear.
I dunno -- did that other person spend the last few weeks advocating for a resurgent Neo-Nazi party in Germany? If they did, then yeah, I would also call that a Nazi salute.
Comments
Take the win.
Thereby confirming his ideological support of Nazism.
Its the fucking trademark we've all been seeing in every movie and old newsclip featuring images from Nazi Germany.
The whole world knows what that was.
That, and he's actively boosted neo-Nazi accounts, especially the ones that pay him for the blue check-mark.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-musk-nazi-extremist-white-nationalist-accounts-rcna145020
This solute? That was his endzone dance, mocking everyone and showing us he could get away with it.
The point is that people are trying to pass it off as nothing.
No distancing himself on ideological grounds whatsoever.
Admitting you stole the cookie because your mom caught/noticed you did it doesn't invalidate that you stole the cookie, or that Elmo Mollusk is an Apartheid nepo-baby and a neo-Nazi hiding behind "asperger's" and Autism when people notice/catch him.
Thereby confirming his ideological support of Nazism.
The only thing I'd say he didn't do to make it movie-perfect was dramatically lock his legs together and squaring his shoulders.
An Oakland A’s coach made a gesture like this, he apologized, and said it accidental. I personally believed him, because he didn’t have a public history of racist speech and behavior.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/us/mlb-oakland-as-nazi-salute-spt-trnd/index.html?cid=ios_app
Salute!
As a German, I would totally interpret Musk‘s hand gestures (he did it twice) as a Sieg Heil, the Hitler salute. Even absent any kind of context. Musk platforming and promoting and supporting literal nazis of course makes it crystal clear.