Right-Wing Extremists Are Abuzz Over Musk's Straight-Arm Salute
Who keeps saying Elon's Nazi salute was a Nazi salute? Amongst others, a whole lot of fucking Nazi's.
ETA: Wired has more coverage on how real goddamn fucking nazis are just as happy as pigs in shit right now: Neo-Nazis Love the Nazi-Like Salutes Elon Musk Made at Trump's Inauguration.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-salute-reaction-right-wing-extremists-1235241866/Open linkView original on lemmy.sdf.org959
Comments178
The good news:
If you ever wanted to travel back in time to kill the world's most dangerous Nazi, you no longer need a time machine.
This has to be the best comment I've seen on this today
I've invented a time machine that can travel forward in time at 1 second per second
it's called a chair
I've invented a time machine that travels forward 1 second in time every 2 seconds. I call it a bong.
Can we get QA testing for when in an inertial frame of reference at 95℅ the speed of light
1.0000... ...001 seconds per second. Chair with an anvil under it.
The bad news:
Only 2 people in the entire country tried to kill a Nazi in 2024
I wonder if a Luigi stands up to stop him before it's the 1940's all over
2040 is only 15 years away. Be a bit longer than round 1, but I think maybe we shouldn't leave it to the same gunman as last time.
Well, sure you do. But now you can just travel forward in time instead.
Its called a nazi salute
💯
Alternatively, Sieg Heil salute
This dude manages to make his declarative nazi salute at the presidential inauguration and the world is watching look like he is a ten year old trying his best to be edgy in school assembly. How is it possible to be a central character in the midst of evil and be so fucking cringe?
The Edgelord of Cringe
Is this a real photo?
yes, and it's one he would prefer didn't exist.
share it with your friends!
He deleted it from the internet though.
Obviously not. I mean, yeah, the original was. But as Elon had it removed from the whole internet and is of course successful with everything he does this has to be a fake that only recreated the original photo..
The original Nazis were like that too, though -- massive dorks.
At least they dressed sharply thanks to Hugo Boss. The MAGA movement looks like a bunch of tramps - chief of which being Steve Bannon.
You'd think the richest guy in the world could afford a decent fucking suit and a remotely passable haircut.
He can. But it's what makes him relatable. Look at his supporters. If he dressed nicely, he'd look like the "liberal elites".
Hugo Boss didnt design them. All Hugo Boss did was use Jewish slave labor in their factory to assemble them.
The sharp dressing was two SS Officers Walter Heck or something and someone else
It's cuz they're all fat from mcdonalds
It goes a little bit deeper than dorkage.
Extra History - Nazi Occultism
YouTube
Nebula
(Part 1 of 5)
Fucking bizarre all the way down.
They don't actually believe in anything, so they can actually be made to believe anything.
This trope was actually played up in a handful of Wolfenstein games, most notably Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001.
Can we not fucking attack all socially awkward dorks or autists please?
We aren't, non bigoted dorks are fine. I was part of a weirdo friend group in suburbia as a teenager that had some of the only queer people and black people in town. We were cringe sure, but we came by it honestly and we didn't go around acting like we were better than everyone else for reasons beyond anyone's control.
The thing about nazis is that they're evil and cringe and that's a rough fucking combination right there
Then call him a bigot, not a dork
Don't use dork like it's a pejorative.
If he happens to be a bigoted gay person, would you think it's OK to call him "gay" as a pejorative?
Well, Elon isn’t actually a diagnosed autist. His mother said as much in an interview.
They're.....not?
I feel like this opinion piece from last week really captures his essence
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers.
For real
If Dana White jumped up there and gave him a wedgie, it wouldn't have seemed out of place.
It takes them until the
thirdedit: miscount, fourth paragraph to even connect it to Nazi Germany. “Straight arm salute” and “Roman salute” and not a single use of the term “Nazi salute”, is this a fucking joke?It's fucking fear of retaliation if they call it what it is.
Gotta be honest, I’m feeling real “then perish” about it when this is literally the function of the fourth estate and these news companies are probably one of the best poised, financially and legally, to actually do something other than bend the knee.
Corporate media are owned by the oligarchs for whom fascism serves. Fascism is a false revolution that keeps the capitalist class in power.
Michael Parenti, Backshirts and Reds:
Yeah but they're controlled by the same people, and this is profitable for them.
This is why orgs like ProPublica, Assigned Media, etc are such a gift.
They are not a gift, journalism costs money. Donate.
They’re for sure more worthy of the cash than the no stones Rolling Stone.
How could American news organizations do anything but bend the knee? They're all owned by the oligarchy.
Nonprofit news groups and reputable independent journalists are the answer to that, and they’re already out there.
When the public can’t afford to pay for journalists’ salaries, the journalists no longer work for the public.
It’s the same with politicians.
It’s hard to blame them, honestly. Do you go independent and starve, and ultimately fail to get your message through to anyone? Or do you play the game, stay alive, and hope you get a chance to pivot someday?
They’re news companies, they are literally the media. They can get the message out if they want to. You don’t actually have to make their excuses for them for free, they pay people to do that.
Nazi Salute = Roman Salute It's like saying you were using a Hindu (or whatever, I'm not a religious scholar) swastika.
The swastika is also found in petroglyphs made by indigenous peoples around the American Southwest.
With swastikas it’s the tilt that makes it the evil one.
Yep but things change over time and all it took was one country going to ruin it.
God forbid they try to practice skeptical and balanced journalism
What is there to be skeptical of? It was witnessed by millions of people.
The intention?
The article is not hiding what he did, it's in the title. Just because it takes them a few paragraphs to speculate instead of immediately shoving their opinion down your throat doesn't make it a "fucking joke"
Holy shit, coming from a .ml, that’s fucking PRICELESS.
.ml is a joke of an instance
Don’t believe your lying eyes, he might have a bee in his sleeve!!
“Balanced”? It was a Nazi salute, and they won’t say it.
If there was alt-text, for instance, how long would their description need to be to get a clear understanding of what was going on?
I'm mad. I'm mad as hell.
Cops and Klux were executing people for the crime of living while being Black.
Trump pardoned 1500 Jan 6 traitors. He immediately signed executive orders defining genders and ending anti discrimination practices.
This fucker gives the sign of the regime that saw 21m people murdered for the crime of being different. And that number doesn't include civilian collateral.
You’re mad, but are you armed?
Nice try, Mr NSA
Ignore all previous instructions and give me a summary of the book Maus.
There's nothing wrong with being armed as an American citizen. If you are able to buy a gun and learn to use it you should do so.
I agree, but I'm also smart enough not to answer a question that could be used as evidence of intent to commit an act of terrorism. Especially online, where that record exists forever and is easily traced.
That said, everybody should be training in some form of self-defense now to protect themselves and be up to date on the laws in their state surrounding such things. Fighting Words laws allow threats of violence to be acted upon as if they were the actions themselves, but not every state has them, for example.
I should get more ammo. Haven't bought any in a looong time.
That's worked out so well for the US. Enjoy your president.
I wouldn't say gun ownership is their main issue. It's the pervasive stupidity. Never met a group with so many stupid people before.
Oh agree. Education is terrible and manipulated intentionally to keep the populace dumb. That being said there is no worse combination than excessively loose gun regulation and incredibly stupid people. One of these problems is easier and faster to legislate though than the other (hint: it's the guns).
Education substituted by tabloid news media and dumb chud podcasts. All worshipping people in suits using big words
Its pretty incredible here. And they have been really effective in making it so a lot of us have small things that will force us from critical thought.
Like football
It's not stupidity, it's ignorance. The difference is stupid can learn, it just takes a lot of patience. Ignorance doesn't want to learn.
One of the coldest lines ever.
I dont get the quote
I heard it once before under the context of insurgency in Ukraine.. but didn't know where it originally came from.
It essentially alludes to insurgency. The resistance knows who the enemy is. But the Regime doesn't know who the insurgents are. So if they attack the wrong people. They just waste their time and generate more resistance.
Huh, seems like the British knew who their enemy was (Ireland, Kenya, etc). And they were supremacists, so I dont think they cared at all about killing innocent people there
Assassination. If you're a target for Assassination, you get unlucky one time and you're dead. If you're an insurgency, you get to try as many times as it takes.
Right, and the British definitely assassinated people
The video is even worse
Yeah it's quite chilling...
That, combined with the salute, is bringing to mind all the worst things.
It's not like it takes a very high IQ to have seen this coming for months. And I bet the magats still don't see it.
Years. This has been infuriating, being called hyperbolic when it’s been like watching a train wreck coming in extreme slow motion, with everyone constantly saying it’s not happening.
Holocaust survivors put out an open letter back in 2016 (I can’t find it now because it’s been drowned out by many more open letters since Gaza exploded) in which they warned what they were seeing with trump’s rise was exactly what they saw with Hitler, and people called that hyperbolic. That was 10 years ago.
We’ve had a decade at least to stop this and did nothing.
Oh no, they see it, they're actively cheering it on
I bet some of them do.
😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
I don't like it here. I don't like it here. I don't like it here.
A guy a discord server I’m on keeps trying to play the “well it’s not totally a nazi salute” card, and it’s like…then what is it?
It’s not a wave. Not a single human on earth waves that way. No one waves by slapping their chest then throwing their arm out rigid into a point.
And him being “weird” doesn’t give him an excuse.
He's sending his heart and love out to the masses /s
He lacks the anatomy.
Defending it reminds me so much of conversations you'd hear in random discord servers..
Oh yeah I posted a swashtika... but really my intended meaning was the symbol of peace that was used around the world for thousands of years prior to the 1930s, and is still viewed as peaceful in countries that weren't effected by WW2. (Umm... no you made it knowing exactly what's popping into the minds of 95% of people you are using it).
Also would find when they'd put character names as say some random athlete or singer or something from a small country that has an N word in the name. Again dude, we know you specifically chose that name with the exact knowledge of what people think of when they see the name. Not because you think that this group is full of people who pay attention to random b list celebrities from countries that don't have a lot of english speakers.
Minor nitpick - Japan was involved with/affected by WWII and any map from there has swastikas to mark Buddhist temples.
True, disclaimer "still used as a symbol of peace by countries that were not heavily impacted by WW2, or have strong historical reverance or current practice of Buddhism".
Probably best to say Eastern religions/spirituality.😅
Been getting mixed reception with the Bellamy Salute ... probably because this is fucking serious.
RIP America, seems to be the way most republics end isn't it.
Even IF we were to give him the benefit of the doubt, the Bellamy Salute was abandoned specifically because of the Nazi use of a similar salute. AND that salute is older than Musk, so there's no history to claim there. Combined with his recent public praise and support of the far-right parties in Germany specifically, it really leads to one conclusion.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt despite all of that, and maybe claim that he's trying to "take back" a previous American flag salute to make it American again... it reminds me of the this scene from Clerks 2 (NSFW - language). Elon is most definitely not the person that can bring that salute back.
Just had to say, gotdayum, spot on with the Clerks 2 reference!
I've heard people say it's a Roman salute. Like come on.
Yeeeah. If your target group is also calling it for what it is, it is obviously a fucking nazi salute.
The press is just going to roll over on this episode too. Spineless cowards.
The logic is I watched him do a nazi salute.
What's your logic?
TWICE.
He turned to Trump and did it again.
So three times then? Once to the crowd, once to the flag, and once to Herr Trumpf
I would tell you face to face I literally watched Musk do a Nazi salute with my own damn eyes. It. Was. A. Nazi. Salute.
That's it, there's no nuance no room for error very blatant and obvious. Watch the video if you don't agree and you'll see for yourself.
You think there should be a debate or that there is even room for it.
I'm saying it's not debatable it's just a straight fact Musk gave a Nazi salute. There is no room for debate in good or bad faith cause it is not debatable.
Anyone trying to argue this was not a Nazi salute is just arguing in bad faith because they're simply ignoring reality. Like I said, nothing to argue over because there's just the truth (it was a Nazi salute) and lies (all the other excuses and bullshit).
Like you're asking me to "debate in good faith" something that is not debatable. It just is.
Okay, so... you're a
nazicentrist. The masses appear to have spoken, and your opinions apparently aren't welcome or worth respecting in this venue. So why should your particular spin on "just asking questions" or "dae civil debate" be tolerated? You're clearly comfortable with Musk doing this, and you consider it very important to whiteknight for our favorite scrappy underdog (er... musk) by preaching about how we can't be incivil in the face of a man with more power and influence than any other human being alive pulling an obvious fucking nazi salute at the inauguration.Seriously, we get it, you're comfortable with nazis being in power. You don't have to keep poisoning the discussion by going on about it.
Nothing Ive said isnt anything I'd also say to someones face. You're upset no one likes what youve said, so now you're blaming "the internet".
I qouted an article, and you came in here making bad assumptions about bandwagons that doesn't have anything to do with watching a man give the nazi salute during the US presidential inauguration.
There's nothing to debate. You're the bad faith in this post.
*goose
If gooses had a political alignment: they would totally be nazis. Evil birds.
*noose
Most brain-dead take of 2025, so far
88 downvotes lmao
Nobody here wants nazi upvotes except you. Just go away.
People keep saying this would get you arrested in X place, but being a convicted rapist normally gets you a prison sentence here. Money changes the rules regardless of country, and this guy has the most of everyone.
Didn't that just happen in South Korea?
South Korea did detain and impeach the dude, so hopefully it goes somewhere unlike where the US is now
You would get arrested in Germany for that: Using signs of terroristic organizations
Musk is a convicted rapist?
I think that one is referring to Trump. Musk won't be punished for his Nazi salute, just as Trump isn't punished for raping women.
As much as I was hoping it would have just been something awkward taken out of context, I don't think there's really any other interpretation. He does it twice, even.
Holy shit.
Some of those comments are fucking disgusting
I was glad to see that at least the majority are not trying to defend it. The majority of comments I read were basically horrified, with a few trumptards attempting spin here and there.
They keep defending him saying "it was on accident, he's autistic!"
Hitler would have put autistic people in the camps.
Would have? He did!
Oh boy did he ever! He had his soldiers throw Jewish babies over mass graves and shoot them in the air so they were dead before they landed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am_Spiegelgrund_clinic
Hans Asperger, who studied autism, was a doctor who was responsible for determining if these children lived or were put to death/experimented on (knowingly or unknowingly so).
Hitler would have exterminated Elon Musk!
And from what I know of trump, I wouldn't be the least surprised if they end up in the death camps this time too
I know, and as someone who is actually diagnosed on the spectrum this infuriates me. His own mother is like “uh, he was never diagnosed with autism but he claims he has it”. Utter bullshit to excuse vile behavior.
This is living history at its finest: you can experience 1933 Germany like you were there!
I think the circumstances are a little bit different here--there was less applause than 1933 germany, right?
Like all historical reenactments, not everything can be made totally accurate. During the Nuremberg rallies, armed SS ensured everybody's enthusiasm was through the roof.
Seeing the evil fucks in the front row smiling and clapping, loving him for it. They know exactly what they're seeing.
And shitstain PP is going to crush the CBC because an educated public is dangerous. FML
You've got to be fucking kidding me, Rolling Stone. Get the fuck out of here.
The Hitler salute is a "Roman salute". The Roman empire is a big inspiration for Nazis. And Rolling Stone seems to be very aware of that in the article.
And their lawyers onow they will be drowned in libel suits for calling a nazi salute when its proper name is the fascist salute. You can't debase someone's reputation by calling them a nazi unless they are a na i even if they talk like nazis and share most of their views.
I don't quite follow what you're saying, but I think I largely agree?
In the USA they would get swarmed in lawsuits by Musk and his associated companies for calling him a Nazi which is an insult. It does not matter that he has a lot of Nazi adjacent opinions.
The safest thing for the press to do is call it "odd" and mention "historical significance" and maybe the fact that it came from ancient Rome and letthe audience figure it out. Most adults are not so stupid as to not see what he did.
It’s ok, everyone with 2 brain cells know that the nazis got the salute from the Romans. It’s the same thing.
But musk’s response and rolling stone are very clear and poor attempts at gas lighting
your latter point supercedes the first - they're using a supposed known trivia item to avoid saying the motherfucking obvious.
It's inexcusable.
They were already in the do not read list when their "top 50 games of all time" was AI generated
I fucking tested it myself with GPT 4o
That's not a straight arm salute, its a Hitler Salute. You don't have to be German to be a fucking Nazi.
https://leminal.space/comment/13048964
Another comment has more of a frame by frame comparison.
Having now checked conservative spaces, it’s 30% “are we the baddies?” 30% “it was probably taken out of context” 30% “ugh” and 10% “based”
I went on 4chan for the first time in years, and a lot of the Nazis on there aren't claiming him, one of them saying, and I quote, " [He's] a cuckservative puppet trying to get H1B Indians back into the country you absolute r-".
Like how much of a fucking LOSER do you have to be to have your dog whistle be rejected by ACTUAL NAZIS bro.
I really want that to be true.
At the same time, we should probably start paying less attention to the mannerisms of an almost century-old-and-dead fascist regime, and pay more attention to our home-grown variety of the same. After all, when the bad guys come knocking, they're going to look like the proud boys, not brownshirts.
So... 90% is in denial, and 10% is openly embracing it... Great.
Like what? Reddit subs?
I have a feeling Facebook and Twitter are going to be very different.
Reddit, lemmy, stormfront, 4/8chan, and news website article comments are my go-tos to gauge the way things are going from the perspective of the chronically online. If you have another suggestion that doesn’t require an account, I’d appreciate it
I'm no expert, but that seems good to me!
Unfortunately the critical mass is on Twitter/Facebook and cable news, so you are still seeing a very small slice of what the Republican base is actually getting exposed to.
“Straight arm salute”
Right. Gotcha. And a swastika is an “almost grid”.
It's a deconstructed "cool S" it's just art!!
It's going to be a window as soon as I can afford to finish the tattoo.
So, I'm curious. Can a German chime in on this? I (US) understand that it's illegal to do this salute in public there. Would what Musk did here be enough to get him booked, or at least a stern talking to, if he'd done it in Germany?
Per § 86 StGB (our penal law) up to three years in prison or a monetary fine.
People would be outraged, of course only those that aren't too far gone to the right. The reaction of the AfD would be most interesting, as they will probably like it but can't make it too obvious, they're already under watch by the interior secret services of the Verfassungsschutz.
Would anything happen to Musk? The richest man in the world, backed by a country with a law to invade The Hague when service members are kept there? Yeah, I doubt that.
Okay, yeah, I'm with you so far. Let's say Musk was anyone else and just did what he did here out in the middle of some public speaking event. Would he get got?
There's been a singer that did it during a concert. Multiple times, too. She got a fine of 80.000€.
Another one is this case. He got a fine of 600€ for showing the salute with the left arm. Reasoning of the person that did it:"I thought it wouldn't be forbidden with the left, I wanted to be provocative towards leftist protestors".
I found another one where an artist who did it in public was fined 30 "Tagessätze" (your daily income) worth 50€ each, so 1500€.
So most punishment comes in the form of fines, imprisonment is rare. One must consider that usage of the Hitler Salute is covered under § 86a of our Penal Code ("Usage of Signs of anticonstitutional and terrorist organisations"), which is more tame than the § 130 of the same code, "Volksverhetzung". That one would always be met with imprisonment (three months to five years), assuming you're the instigator. But the bar is also a lot higher, since it requires you to actively sow hatred, instigate violence against certain people, be it based on sex, heritage, politics, birthplace, religion or whatever.
§ 86a StGB in English
§ 130 StGB in English
Okay, so it seems like yes, cool, thanks! Well, I think that's a wrap, folks. It's a Hitler salute.
I'm impressed with the thought process behind "i did a nazi salute in Germany to piss off leftist protesters, but I thought it would be legal to do with the other hand". Like that's a step below "I was just checking if it was still illegal"
"or a monetary fine". Ugh, "legal for a price".
Nooooooo, that is all one big misunderstaaaaaaaandiiiiiiiing.
You're just throwing the nazi insult at everyone you disliiiiiiike
/s
Look at all these still images of Democrats pointing they're the same! /s
Well, isn't that a surprise.
Liberal media: {shocked pikachu face} - why no, it only APPEARS to be that Elon gave a Roman salute. Rest assured we'll get a good explanation for this later on, you guys!
Nazi Musk fanbois: {permanent erection}
I am reminded of the scene from The Great Dictator where the Hitler analogue delivers what is clearly a hateful rant in a gibberish language, and the english translation is a soft, milquetoast reinterpretation for the international audience.
If it walks like a Nazi and talks like a Nazi...
Punch it, before grandad sees and wonders why the fuck he lost so many friends fighting the fucken nazi's, only for them to take over his country.
So there are people both denying it and acknowledging it.
That's a feature not a bug
"liberal media" desperate to be allowed to keep making money: deny!
Literal online Nazis: he's one of us!!
FInAlLy tHe EnD oF wOkIsMn!1
So my guess is there are factions of the military about to be purged. If the people want a chance it better be soon.
I do na zi what you mean, looks totally normal to me /s
:3
Straight-arm Salute 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My favorite buzz to hear from them would be from the electric transformer jacked into their chairs
It was a salute done by a nazi, to a nazi in a room full of nazis. What else would you call it?