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by kitsune_ 518 days ago
You are not allowing a broader discussion on this by having it flagged. I asked you how a discussion on ethics and symbolism doesn't fall under "intellectual curiosity" in a other reply. It's difficult to not come to the conclusion that you support Elon Musk and approve of his behavior. Calling it "celebrity trolling" is the cherry on top.

On Elon Musk:

- By most measures one of the richest and most influential persons in the world

- Owner of X

- OG member of the PayPal mafia

- Spent millions on Trump's election

- Official member of the new administration

- Makes two (not one) Nazi salutes on public television

But no, discussing what this means or implies does not satisfy one's intellectual curiosity.

1 comments

It always feels like the mods are against you and secretly on the side you don't like. The other side feels the same way when we make a call in your direction. This is a well-established pattern. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

In this case the call is clear because the inputs to the discussion are provocative, inflammatory, and intense; and there's almost no information. Discussion will break down along partisan lines. Nobody will come to any new conclusion or persuade anyone. They'll just say things they would have said before, only more strongly. That's the kind of dynamic we hope to avoid on HN.

dang, first I think you do a great job.

That said, I have to call out 'almost no information'. There are videos and photos from multiple angles of Elon making this salute, very intentionally, in a very specific way, stylistically matched both times. Seems like a heck of a lot of information is being ignored and too much graciousness is being given that would not be in any other situation. Elon has endorsed extremely right wing German nationalist party, has come as close as humanly possible to publically aligning with 'white replacement theory' as possible, interacts with nazis/white nationalists on Twitter. Be honest, you wouldn't give two recorded on video seig heil passes to anyone else as 'almost no information'. Dude. Come on. Look at the multiple angles. Confusion on this is forced confusion because people don't want to admit the reality.

> there's almost no information

This is flat out untrue. And it's a self-fulfilling prophecy if you don't allow people to collate the information there is.

Look, you just end up normalizing Nazism. One of many small actions that add up.