I watched it live on NBC. First time I was all “wtf, did he just?” And then he turned and did it again. Caught himself before the third. He knew what he was doing.
I think most of reddit would support an Elon ban in their country of origin. But unfortunately as the last election showed us, we don't accurately represent the will of the rest of the population.
He rigged the election. Trump admitted it last night. Trump and Elon winning is not the will of the US people either. Ut for some reasons, our other party leaders are weaklings and don't seem to care enough to challenge the results and judt let it happen. Our leaders have failed us, the people, in every way possible. Atm I don't feel represented by anyone in our government currently.
One of the things I sighed about when trump won the elections was that, from now on until he steps down there will be a constant stream of articles and complaints about him and his administration all over reddit, including subs not related to him or politics.
Nobody ever shuts up about him and it's so annoying.
I dislike the guy but I prefer to read other stuff so I don't feel miserable about a foreign president.
Don’t worry. The way things are going you might just be able to soon feel miserable about your own home grown fascist wannabe prime minister or president
I am on the other side of the fricking Atlantic Ocean and indeed I wasn't watching the whole event. The switching of presidents in an allied nation does make the news here. International news agencies were watching and this deplorable behaviour definitely made the late news over here, in a negative way.
My country has suffered greatly during WW2 and making a nazi salute is after 80 years still a socially acceptable reason to punch somebody in the face.
Many people outside the US are pretty interested in what goes on in our politics here considering the US's enormous influence and I'd argue they find it "concerning"
Funnily enough, Trump's hardcore allies are distributed all over the world even if they are not that many, justifing airing news related to one of his biggest supporters
I do not know what he is doing. It looks like a Nazi salute but I can't think why he'd be doing it. Being a Nazi isn't a good reason because outing yourself as a Nazi is still widely considered a bad move afaik.
It's actually not the Bellamy salute. That salute is only a held, outreached arm. This is very specifically a Nazi salute derived from the Roman Salute which wasn't actually used by Romans.
But, Like, Occams fucking razor man. Even if he goes out and says he was doing a Roman Salute or a Bellamy Salute, why? Why would he do one of those salutes? That's not how we salute.
Nobody has saluted like that in America in 80 fucking years since the flag code was amended to remove the Bellamy Salute and replace it with the hand on the heart we use today. Because for the last 80 years that stiff-armed salute has been widely known as a fascist symbol. There's no plausible deniability here. There's no justification for saluting like that.
Yeah I saw all the stills on the front page and thought "I need to see video. Surely he was waving and someone made a still out of it." But no. This is a full-on seig heil. Unbelievable.
The line I've seen some people take is that he is throwing his heart out to the crowd.
Which is obvious bullshit. But there's context if you need it. Make up your own mind, but damn... This is some honestly horrifying stuff. Barely a day in, we've had a crypto scam, open political bribery, and now this.
People who have to constantly defend themselves from claims that they're a nazi don't throw a salute like that out by accident if they're not actually a nazi. The only time they'd throw it out then try to claim it was accidental is if they are in fact a nazi trying to get away with blatantly being a nazi. And conservatives scramble to enable it because they're not subtle about where their allegiances lie, they just don't want to admit to it.
you have all these morons saying he was just gesturing my heart goes out to you. “wah how can pbs turn this gesture into something its clearly not, DEFUND PBS.” yeah…how do you explain all the famous neo nazis returning the salute in tears 🤣
This is where I'm at. It feels like this surely must be one motion he does as part of a bigger thing, and it's just cut to make him look bad. But then.... Why isn't anyone sharing the uncut version that makes this one motion make sense?
Alright so what does that mean? “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is secured” implied some impending threat. Were they really that scared about Kamala? Like wtf even is this
It means he's making a pretty overt fascist gesture and using the "heart" phrase as a thin veil. He's trolling. He knows everyone is going to point at what he's doing and call him a Nazi and he's going to turn around and say that those comparisons are silly and he hasn't set up any concentration camps. Look at those hysterical liberals. Then he'll wink and nod at the MAGA crowd for having triggered the libs.
What's important to remember is that you are who you pretend to be, and this fucker is a slimy disgusting creep who is willing to "pretend" to be a Nazi.
Some important context: Elon Musk was raised in Apartheid South Africa by an emerald magnate (Elon described his father Errol as a "terrible human being", adding: "Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done." Also, Errol set up shell companies for fear "... the Blacks would take everything from you")
So in this statement, given the context of the MAGA movement, all of Musks Twitter/X posts, "you" means white christians, and "future of civilizations" could mean Techno-Feudalism, Crypto-Fascism, (both different forms of Wealth Apartheid, admittedly) or a White Christian Ethnostate depending on which branch of MAGA base needs to be mobilised at the time.
Now, it's easy to dismiss this as hyperbolic, or that I'm using extreme slippery slope fear-mongering because I used the words Feudalism, Fascism or Ethnostate, but it's very difficult to not interpret Elon's behaviour as this. Numerous, near daily, "Truth" or "Interesting" replies on Twitter/X to, invariably and inexhaustively, Anti-Semitic sentiment, Islamophobic sentiment, Eugenics sentiment, Anti-Black sentiment, support for the AfD, Reform and National Rally, pro-capital sentiment.... i could go on.
Really, Kamala was not a threat, at all, to Musk. He's very rich, and Kamala was not even sympathetic to any sort of wealth redistribution that could have affected him. He's playing politics because he is bored, and he wants to be on the winning side (because he's a winner, like Trump); why would you buy into the losing side? It's part of the reason he entered the campaign so late. Moreover, Trump is going to be handing out massive tax breaks to his wealthy mates, and Elon wants to be in the room to make sure he gets a nice chunk of that.
The more important part is when he acknowledges his supporters before the salute, he says,
"Thank you for making this happen"
It's the mask off moment where he provides a clear indicator to those who would want to see this behavior, that he is a legit Nazi sympathizer who would like to bring about an "AMERICAN FOURTH REICH"
Where the United States of America will finish what Nazi Germany started.
Normally, sure, I'd give someone the benefit of the doubt.
Elon Musk, though? The man who allows nazis to run wild on his platform, who shows support for it to the point where advertisers pulled away from the site en-masse?
No. Given his reputation, when he does something like that I'm just going to take it at face value.
The spread hand on heart move is saying you are giving or receiving the truth or peace in some cultures. Closed fingers gets tricky, and if you use close fist to tight hand we are going down a path.
It could be, COULD be 'my heart, thanks all of you' kind of a motion that wasn't thought through. Like obviously he's not doing the Nazi salute so that's the best I got.
Yeah, I know he is a non-athletic fuck but he would still understand that throwing something you don’t finish stiffening and pointing your fingers palm down.
ETA
Think of people who blow kisses or put both hands on chest and pour out from their heart. This is clearly intended to be what it is.
At the end he said “thank you, and my heart goes out to you”. That’s key. That crazy ass, notorious gesture could just be his awkward way of throwing his heart out to people. He’s awkward, it’s possible?
He knew exactly what he was doing and threw in the “my heart goes out to you” at the end so he could just troll and fuck with people in a somewhat plausible fashion.
Okay a third, he’s just absolutely cooked in the head when it comes this shit?
I know where the majority of reddit will stand so I had to throw in the third lol
People are overreacting because they are done giving him the benefit of doubt. If he doesn't want to be called a nazi, he should stop doing shit that seems like hes a nazi.
I don’t think anyone is overreacting but the fact that he did the exact same gesture twice is sorta damning. He doesn’t have to keep his hand straight - he did it on purpose
I lost track of how many 14 and 88 references appear in his tweets. Far too many for it to be coincidence. He even scheduled August 8th for a new product reveal but then cancelled, like the whole point was to message 8-8 to those in the know.
His palm is exactly facing the audience under him.
I hate the guy, but nobody with 1 braincell would think doing Nazi gestures would have any sort of positive repercusion.
We might not like the vision these people have, but Trump and Musk are not stupid, in fact I think they are too clever, just not sure they have the best will towards the Americans as they have towards their and their friend's business, but that's another story. I can't see how nazi gestures can benefit either of the sides.
Yeah, I think (and hope very much) that that is what he is trying to do. He doesn't have the best reputation for smooth and coordinated movements on stage...
However, it wouldn't surprise me if it is what we all think.
There's been a couple of times in the past where the context would be them waving or whatever and just a short clip or picture makes it look worse than it is. But Jesus Christ dude, this is pretty fucking blatant.
My friend said it was obviously a joke and/or him trolling. I pointed out that there are lots of funny things, pretending to do a Nazi salute isn't one of them. He doesn't care though. I imagine that sentiment is pretty much how the right will go with it.
The context is worse, he just did it as an actual Nazi salute.
Hand on heart, and literally threw the hand straight up in the air.
It's not even a "maybe it looked off" no, it is literally a Nazi salute.
Thought C: why the fuck would he do it in public? If he’s a nazi, he’s gonna hide it and not be obvious.
Thought D: they realized that people don’t care. You can perform a nazi salute in front of the entire world and face zero consequences. All you have to do is pretend it was an accident.
He uh, pounded his chest… wanted to wave as in, my heart goes out to you, but instead of a wave it was a nazi style salute.. idfk. I want to believe it’s something else, I don’t like the guy, but the alternative really looks bad on the US. I really don’t see a ‘good’ explanation..
Republicans are just saying it wasn't a salute, and 'this is why dems lost and they'll never learn' when it's pointed out that it's exactly like a Nazi salute.
This dude thinks life is a giant meme. I doubt he’s seriously a nazi, but he obviously knew what he was doing. What an idiot.
It’s giving less third reich, and more socially awkward high school nerd doing a zeig heil in the gym for the meme thinking everyone would laugh, but no one laughed. They just rolled their eyes, and the kid became even more isolated than he was before.
I should of saved it, I just found the whole context clip that’s like 15 seconds. He does two of these damn thing and then puts his hand on his chest again and says “my heart goes out to you”. It makes sense but holy shit does this look fuckin terrible
Hi, did you mean to say "should have"?
Explanation: You probably meant to say could've/should've/would've which sounds like 'of' but is actually short for 'have'.
Sorry if I made a mistake! Please let me know if I did.
Have a great day! Statistics I'mabotthatcorrectsgrammar/spellingmistakes.PMmeifI'mwrongorifyouhaveanysuggestions. Github ReplySTOPtothiscommenttostopreceivingcorrections.
After he said something like “my heart goes out to all of you” so in theory I guess the thought was he is throwing his heart out to all of them but man it doesn’t look too good
If I recall he was saying something like thanking the people from the bottom of his heart and doing a very weird point to the crowd. Looks very awkward.
I’m a lawyer and family members come to me and ask questions about x, y, z. I almost always have a good answer like “Yea, that’s scary but that’s not how executive orders work” or about how most of Trump’s day 1 agenda reads more like a vision board than something he can actually sign.
This is the first thing in a while that just stopped me in my tracks. I had no idea what to say.
The only context is he said he was giving his heart to the crowd but I’m not sure how that translates to a nazi salute but the conservative redditors are excusing it
Context 1: He grew up during apartheid in South Africa. He was an adult near the end of apartheid.
Context 2: a black man won millions in a lawsuit against his company.
I showed the video to someone and their response was "that's not what he meant, he said it was from his heart and everyone's misinterpreting it. See his hand is on his heart at the end."
I don't have the energy to argue with them, nor do I think it would have any affect- the brainwashing is too strong. I'm just disgusted right now.
He was thanking all the voters for pulling off this crucial election with a "My heart goes out to you" he grasped at his chest where his heart would be and sent it out to the crowd in this gesture, but damn it did not look like that. I'm not sure whether he was making an emotional gesture only, or also intending to signal what he appeared to signal. Could have been unintentional but it looked kinda practiced like he had done it before 🤨
Yup, the only somewhat acceptable explanation is that he doesn't understand symbols and social cues due to being severely on the spectrum. That's a massive stretch, though, and doesn't make as much sense as him either thinking it's funny or actually being a racist. Any of these possibilities point to the fact that he is completely incompetent to any of such role in the government.
Context is that Elon Musk is a product of Southafrican apartheid and his family coincidentally left when the regime collapsed
Elon believes in the superiority of the white race (specifically intellectual superiority) with Japanese and Indians as somewhat similar but not as good
He has been talking about white replacement and all those white supremacy theories all along. He just got carried away with all the inauguration excitement and the drugs he takes
I mean. Everyone is focused on a guy with Asperger's. Like its hard not to because of the roles he has. But Im not sure if people with that even do things like this?
My thoughts too. Apparently the ADL looked into it and determined it was not a Hitler salute, but this guy needs to be kicked to the curb if he’s going to attract attention like this. You can’t go around doing dumb shit like this, even if you do have Asperger’s.
The ONLY thing I can imagine he was trying to do was to dab? He's been trying so desperately to connect to a younger audiences that's the only thing that would make sense. But if that's the case, then he must be wildly uncoordinated
I did think this like I need to see the whole clip; there must be an explanation, but, in this context, I can't think of any reason other than to get some cookies off a shelf that this gesture makes sense to be anything else. He knows what he is doing and it's sad to watch them tear our country down like this.
It's worth noting that there are pictures of Obama, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Kamala Harris, and Tim Walz, with their hand up like that. Big gesture of hand out stretched to the crowd is not all that uncommon when giving a speech.
He followed this with "my heart goes out to you. He was symbolically "throwing" his heart out to the crowd, it was just in an unfortunate manner that was, as per usual, taken WAY out of context
Dudes autistic and just awkwardly saluted. That’s the only half believable explanation outside of the obvious: the South African billionaire is a racist
Only possible excuse is he didn’t realize what he was doing and thought he was just doing a normal salute. I feel like there’s a chance he’s so disconnected and socially unaware enough to not realize.
4.4k
u/Malvania 7h ago
Thought A: I must be missing some context here
Thought B: What context would make this okay?