On BBC Newsnight the panel of journalists and politicians were discussing Elon Muskās emphatic salute at US President Donald Trumpās triumphal inauguration rally in Washington.
Probably most people have seen Muskās Dr Strangelove moment by now but none of the panel would say what it most clearly was: a Nazi salute.
Musk did not just involuntarily raise his right arm and point his fingers to heaven. He slammed his right hand into his chest, paused for a long moment, and then thrust his arm outwards as tens of millions watched nationwide, and thousands of Trump supporters in the auditorium cheered.
At this point, many people were no doubt watching stunned and wondering if they had just hallucinated Muskās gesture, but helpfully, he then turned his back and did the same salute to those in the seats behind him.
And yet somehow Gabriel Gatehouse, a seasoned BBC observer of US politics and the far right, played down the moment, as did the great sword-carrying failed Conservative leadership contender Penny Mordaunt. Gatehouse suggested it could be a āRoman saluteā and compared it to a cartoon frog that appeared in the 2016 presidential campaign.
āTrump is a fascist! Letās run a pro-genocide candidate to defeat him that parades around with Liz Cheney & praises Dick Cheney, a war criminal. Letās send out Mark Cuban to tell everyone how much Democrats love big businesses. Letās script all our interviews & only go on shows that already agree with us. Letās attack other progressive candidates & say that they are Russian agents.ā
Yeah, you did this to yourselves.
Nice whataboutism. You are free to call out others where you see issues, that does not somehow make this any less worse or less noteworthy. No idea why you think that just because there is other shit means that we need to ignore this?
Because it is nothing more than tabloid gossip level opinions. The ADL already came out said it wasnāt a Nazi salute. You havenāt proved it was. Youāre entitled to your opinions, but that is all it is. You do you though but Democrats will continue to lose if they scream at everything.
How to prove something is a Nazi salute if the way it is done is not said proof in itself?
Why do you trust the ADL in this?
I donāt but if anyone is a defender of the Jewish state it is the ADL. They want to make it illegal for students to protest what Israel has been doing in Gaza & are clearly against the ceasefire that Israel already broke, while blaming Hamas.
Being a Nazi has specific context & meaning. While rich people on the right like Musk may fit into some of those categories, it seems more likely that they just care about money & abuse of power, but that their ideology is substantially different than that of Nazis.
If anything it could be strongly argued that Israelās ideology is much closer to that or Nazis.
At what point can we call musk a nazi then? If he publicly recites the 14 words?
I never said he isnāt a fascist, but again a fascist doesnāt have to be a Nazi. Democrats were calling Trump a Nazi before & it only backfired. I guess the question is do Democrats want to lose again in 4 years?
I donāt think the flavor of fascism is that important. We in Germany also call our local fascists neonazis, which got shorted to just nazis. Itās the same ideology.
What does Elon giving a Nazi salute have to do with Trump? Last I checked nobody suggested banning links to truth social.
People donāt like Nazis and donāt like Musk.
Maybe other people are different but I would not be happy with Elon Musk and twitter if he gave a Nazi salute at a Kamala inauguration. Pretty sure most people donāt like Kamala and thatās why she didnāt win. Many people who voted for her probably thought she was less bad for America than trump.
I donāt like that the price of eggs keeps going up. At the same time I see the wealth of billionaires like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos grow exponentially. Canāt help but put 2 and 2 together.
I donāt go to church, but I live by the teachings of the bible. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. Musk has more money than he could spend in a 137,000 American lifetimes and it is still not enough for him.
I see all this online fighting between team red and team blue and canāt help but feel it is by design. Musk, Tik Tok, Google, and Zuckerberg control the algorithms they donāt want people cooperating. It is the best way they can keep the boot populationās neck as they hoard ever more wealth for themselves. At the same time everyone around mes quality of life continues to drop.
Donāt be so surprised that people donāt like Nazis. This isnāt 1940s Germany. At least not yet. Also in the 1940s plenty of people hated Nazis then too. There was even a war and although the Nazis put up a very good fight they were vastly outnumbered.
Also some of the highest grossing and most beloved movie franchises of all time (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) were about fighting and resisting Nazis.
I donāt find it surprising that many people donāt like Nazis but I do find it surprising that other people are.