[zwirbl]

The 'awkward gesture' take is a fun one.

"Sorry officer, I did not flip you off twice, that were both just very awkward gestures"

There is tons of data on how Musk became a far right supporter and sympathizer, like his support of UK racists and the German far right. You seem to still use X, you could just scroll through his posts there and try to not ignore the evidence you see with your own eyes

[try_the_bass]

Have you considered that perhaps the increasing levels of vitriol and outright hatred directed at him by the left might have had something to do with his rightward trend? They seem pretty correlated.

I struggle to see how doubling down on the hatred is going to convince anyone other than _already hateful_ people of the righteousness of your cause?

[phillipcarter]

Have you considered that doing a nazi salute, whether earnest or ironically earnest, is just not okay?

[try_the_bass]

No, it's not okay, and I'm not trying to justify it.

But you (and everyone else in this thread, with perhaps a few exceptions) hated him long before the salute, so to try to blame it on that is pretty disingenuous.

I think trying to justify your hatred of someone based on something the did after you started hating them is pretty "not okay", too, fwiw