[exodust]

Obviously it wasn't a Hitler Salute. Are you cross-trolling from reddit, or associated with a competitor EV brand? Both?

The whole point behind any salute is clear communication and intent. It wouldn't make sense to back-pedal a nazi salute.

Americans fought the Nazis and lost 400k young men. If you honestly think a leading American businessman or politician would align with Hitler ideology and try to pump up the crowd using a nazi salute, I would suggest taking a vacation because your judgement is seriously impaired.

[dagss]

What about the 14 US flags posts on X?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesnownews.com/world/us/u...

There is a long string of veiled and plausably deniable nazi references from Musk now.

No the intention wasn't to make a crystal clear nazi salute. The intention was to make a veiled salute, gradually testing the waters and reducing society's defenses. Same as the long string of similar things on X.

And if YOU got half the worlds press to talk about your arm -- would you not issue some clarification or apology where you explicitly rejected nazism?

The motivation isn't to unequivocally support nazists as you assume.

It is to slowly rehabilitate the symbols and remove society's immune system. This year, it is seen by many Musk fans as just about for LOLs and joking around.

But already Bannon did the salute properly and now he is "only the 2nd one". See how Musk cleared the way for Bannon's more explicit salute?

In 2-3 years, people will as a consequence have less knee jerk reactions against the real nazi groups. In 4 years, Trump can openly use the symbol if he so wishes, as it now represents a new movement and not the "old", and so on.

[exodust]

> a veiled salute....reducing society's defenses

Conspiracy alert. Amusing how you'll settle for a half-baked nazi salute in order to hold your argument.

What would be the end game? Self-sabotage every gain they made winning the election? Real nazi salutes are like fingers down a blackboard for the majority of people. They also look different to what he did, and are delivered not with elated gratitude, but with authoritative posture.

Giggling "let's go to Mars" super-nerds are not toying with actual Nazism. His choice of hand motion was clumsy, that's the crime.

> would you not issue some clarification or apology where you explicitly rejected nazism?

Not if I thought those making accusations were "woke morons." Why would Musk play your game of needing to apologise for something he never intended?

Straight from the cancel culture playbook: "He may not be racist, but has anyone actually heard him reject racism?"

Corner someone with accusations until they're forced to make a statement. It's an attempt to legitimise the complaint. Musk is not playing by those rules. As much as that might irritate you, surely you can respect someone for, dare I say it, following his heart.

[dagss]

With this interpretation at least I hope you agree the 14 US flags were intentional?

It can of course be read as "trolling the ones who think he is a nazi".

Problem is that kind of double-signalling and layers of irony is so widespread in white supremacist circles on the internet.

Musk's X/Twitter history has been steadily going in a direction, he wasn't a "going to Mars nerd", he was a "going to Mars nerd whose Twitter history showed someone clearly falling down a political rabbit hole" (and BTW working for someone who pardoned people who assaulted police officers as long as they did it for him -- an act that has nothing to do with left vs right politics or what people vote for, but is easily associated with authoritanism)

Curious what you think of Bannon's hand gesture...

[exodust]

> layers of irony is so widespread in white supremacist circles on the internet

Is it? I wouldn't know. I don't participate in white supremacist circles. Very few do, which is why it's joked about so easily. It's a damn shame though to hear "layers of irony" is blacklisted!

I had to google the 14 flags thing. Ridiculous! At worst it's inverted trolling; shitposting by a calculated provocateur - a term Grok coined about Musk.

Falling down conspiracy rabbit holes to construct allegations about hidden meanings of rants on X, is to fuel the fire Musk is toasting his marshmallows by.

[foogazi]

> His choice of hand motion was clumsy

So according to you is he smart or stupid ?

[exodust]

The only time "clumsy" carries any weight or consequence, is when operating machinery or doing physical tasks. If he was driving a bus then did his arm gesture causing an accident, we could call him stupid.

When humans communicate with arms flapping in celebration and excitement, clumsy arm movements are not a safety issue or significant in any way.

I suppose you could always manufacture outrage about arm movements, then campaign and argue that others should adopt that outrage?

[Hikikomori]

Gonna keep that frog boiling huh.

[t43562]

Whether you or I see a conspiracy or not the nazis out there have got the message. The support for the AFd, for which their leader thanked him publicly, has just accentuated it.

[exodust]

The suggestion Musk was trying to "signal the nazis out there" is absurd. It's on the level of "Hitler liked dogs. Who else has aligned with Hitler's like-ideology?"

[JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B]

Same salut as Hitler. It’s pretty obvious but also: Musk is not from the USA, and what about the KKK in the USA? You can get that vacation to read a few books.

Last but not least, he back-pedaled because he’s a fucking idiot full of drugs.