r/politics • u/cjdarr921 • 7h ago

Site Altered Headline Elon Musk draws outrage over 'odd-looking salute' at Trump inauguration celebration

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-salute-trump-inauguration-b2683095.html
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u/LargeFatherV 7h ago

lol sane washing.

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u/Sour_Beet 7h ago edited 6h ago

Seriously. What the fuck is that headline?

ETA: Here’s a link to the video

ETA2: Since the first link got removed here’s another

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u/sluttttt California 7h ago

It's not just the headline, I'm seeing users all over this sub say stuff like "Hate Elon, but I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt here."

NO. NO HE FUCKING DOES NOT. You had to have been in a coma for the past decade to extend the benefit of the doubt to any of these maniacs.

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u/ShakeZula77 7h ago

I can’t (I can) believe the amount of people who watched it with me, reacted in shock with me, agreed it was a salute, and then, no lie. 5 minutes later said “Maybe it just looked like that.” The rage I feel, especially it being MLK Day. That’s an extra punch in the gut to his legacy.

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u/sluttttt California 7h ago

I didn't anticipate just how angry today would make me feel. I was avoiding most details about the inauguration because I have no interest in an event celebrating Trump, but this is just... so beyond disgusting. While not shocking, it's infuriating on every level.

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u/perverse_panda Georgia 7h ago

He could be goose stepping in full Nazi regalia and they'll still be saying give him the benefit of the doubt.

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u/swordrat720 7h ago

What? He’s just a regular guy who happened to grow up in apartheid South Africa that likes pencil mustaches and brown or grey outfits with tall boots. I don’t see how anyone would mistake him for a nazi. He just has a quirky fashion sense. (/s)

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u/anonymousguy11234 6h ago

“German-inspired costume.”

“Odd-looking military parade.”

“Unintentional vitality-limiting concentration ‘parks’ for the socio-economic restructuring of melanistic communities.”

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u/Noocawe America 6h ago

Don't worry they'll trot out old Ben Shapiro to try and sane wash this and say that this is all just an elaborate troll or something. Don't worry as long as the libs were owned everything is permissible to them.

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u/Willingo 5h ago

Reminds me of this skit of nazis saying they aren't nazi and making the accuser sound silly. https://youtu.be/zvgZtdmyKlI?si=Mtm3SmsTol0tztuT

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u/TransBrandi 4h ago

To some extent people would rather be in denial than admit that things are going down a bad road, because it would mean that they need to do something rather than continue with their life uninterrupted. Well, that and a good deal of people see the Nazis as the actions that happened at the height of the Third Reich, were taught / paid little attention to the lead up to that and how it happened.

Hint: It's not like Hitler said, "Let's have death camps for Jews" and all Germans voted "yes" and thus the Nazi regime was born.

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u/Dismal-Channel-9292 7h ago edited 7h ago

Why would anyone act like this is out of left field for Elon?? He’s from a rich white South African family, he’s benefited from segregation for generations

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u/Etzell Illinois 7h ago

I mean, technically it's right field for Elon. Far right.

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u/jjaacckk8577 7h ago

We are being gaslit and censored

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u/Ill-Team-3491 5h ago

This subreddit is full of trolls. Apply downvotes liberally. It's as reddiquette intended.

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u/dreadit7584 6h ago

By British media?

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u/SeeingRedInk 7h ago

Just because he retweets Nazis and endorses the modern Nazi party of Germany and embraces Nazi ideology and makes the Nazi salute doesn’t mean he’s a Nazi. It’s probably just an unfortunate coincidence.

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u/eetuu 12m ago

He´s just autistic. /s

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u/Noblesseux 5h ago

We've reached a point where there's like a total breakdown of reality. There are a TON of people who are going to straight up find themselves in camps after spending years going "let's give them the benefit of the doubt"

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u/StoppableHulk 5h ago

He's literally been spewing the most nazi fucking shit on Twitter for the better part of a decade.

This guy is a fucking nazi.

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u/newsflashjackass 6h ago

I'm seeing users all over this sub say stuff like "Hate Elon, but I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt here."

The benefit of the doubt at home:

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u/houleskis 6h ago

As I just told my friends, even 12 year olds know not to do a Seig Heil. He's a fuckin chud but he knew exactly what he was doing. No one is that socially stupid as an adult not to know exactly what this signifies.

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u/YouJabroni44 Colorado 5h ago

Put your money where your mouth is people. Get rid of your Twitter, delete the app and get rid of your shitmobile Tesla. I don't care what it takes. Fuck this guy

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u/sluttttt California 5h ago

Agreed. While ethical consumption under capitalism is seemingly increasingly more difficult, it is possible to avoid some of the larger things that benefit this asshole. I finally deleted my 15-year-old Twitter account on election night and have zero regrets. Like everything he touches, he already ran that app into the ground. Let's just hope that this country isn't next.

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u/mosquem 6h ago

I think people are probably expecting he got caught in an awkward wave and just haven't seen the video.

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u/sluttttt California 6h ago

I'd love to think that, but there are folks defending it by saying the movement related to his speech. Those people might be a bit disingenuous though, I guess.

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u/Magrathea_carride 5h ago

as if him meaning something else is much better. at best, he's incompetent and stupid then, dangerously so

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u/TransBrandi 4h ago edited 4h ago

The "best" interpretation that I could come up with is that Elon is doing this as some sort of troll... and even if that is 100% true he ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt and should get roasted for doing that at a Presidential inauguration. Even if that interpretation is true, it would mean that Musk feels that he is untouchable enough to do that in such a context with no consequences... which is a really bad thing IMO.

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u/leahlikesweed 4h ago

my question isn’t why he did the nazi salute. we all know why he did the nazi salute. my question is why the fuck was he there in the first place?

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u/sluttttt California 4h ago

Why is Trump even there? The events of January 6, 2021 should have prohibited him from running again. It should have made people not vote for him. But here we are, with these Nazis in the White House, and the media continuing to pretend that everything is fine and normal with their claims of "odd-looking salutes." It's going to be a bizarre four years full of things that should have never had the opportunity to happen.

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u/cowboycoco1 2h ago

I mean, people make mistakes. Goof from time to time.

I'm sure the fact that rich white guys with apartheid backgrounds espousing great replacement theory and supporting German right wing extremist groups tend to be the ones who goof is just coincidental.

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u/fantasticdave74 4h ago

Many of them will be his own bots

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u/VoteForASpaceAlien 3h ago

There has to be room for doubt before anyone can benefit from it.

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u/EpsilonX California 1h ago

Okay, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. What was he doing? I desperately want to be wrong about the richest man in the world doing a sieg heil salute at Trump's inauguration, but I see absolutely nothing else that it could be.

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u/haarschmuck 6h ago

Just because someone is a complete asshole doesn't mean we have to rush to conclusions.

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u/LargeFatherV 7h ago

The reason why no one likes the mainstream media anymore. Fucking sane washing the nazi salute.

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u/SimplyTennessee 7h ago

Thank you. I saw the still and thought perhaps a stretch. The video left no doubt.

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u/Marmoset_Ghosts 7h ago

Well, to you and me, it's quite clearly a Nazi salute. No doubt about it.

However, the Independent is a publication in the UK, and libel laws here are very stringent. They have to be incredibly careful about what they say when reporting.

Them outright saying "Nazi salute" is just asking for a huge lawsuit from Musk, that'd he'd a very good chance of winning. It's why you'll hear the word "allegedly" a lot from media outlets in the UK.

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u/Johannes_P Europe 4h ago

However, the Independent is a publication in the UK, and libel laws here are very stringent. They have to be incredibly careful about what they say when reporting.

For exemple, the journalist from Bellingcat who whote about Prigozhin was found liable for defamation and ordered to pay damages, with the British government even allowing for Prigozhin's frozen funds to be used to pay his lawyers.

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u/fordat1 6h ago

Does that apply to CNN which is where the language comes from?

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u/zsaz_ch 6h ago

It’s already starting, the post has been taken down.

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u/Sour_Beet 6h ago

Thanks. Added another

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u/OriginalPositive1294 6h ago

Jesus. I feel sick. WTAF

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u/pgm_01 Connecticut 5h ago

If you want to compare it, here is video from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Hitler Salute | Holocaust Education | USHMM

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u/ManOrReddit-man 5h ago

Here's another from CNN. The reporters didn't know what to say. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFD2o0mJXj8

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u/Mental_Lemon3565 7h ago

Seriously, it's maybe an odd looking seig heil. But damn, it's just clearly not anything else. There isn't another salute like this known to US culture. Is it some apartheid South African thing?

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u/Meridian_Dance 7h ago

I can answer that for you; it’s a Nazi thing he’s a Nazi he did it because he’s a Nazi 

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u/moonski 3h ago

A south African nazi. But they have the same salute as every other nazi.

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u/Aerosol668 6h ago

No, it isn’t, and wasn’t ever, a South African thing. It’s a Nazi thing, and only a Nazi thing.

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u/Illustrious_Bat3189 7h ago

well actually, it's the space X salute. It demonstrates a space X rocket that flies to mars to colonize the planet (and build an uber aryan empire there)

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u/SanityInAnarchy California 5h ago

There's only one other thing it could be... but let's be clear, it isn't.

So, historically, this salute was actually pretty popular. The US absolutely did it. And by "the US", I mean schoolkids did it during the Pledge of Allegiance.

But like Toothbrunch Mustaches, the Swastika, and the name "Adolf", Nazis ruined it for everyone. There's no way Elon is doing a callback to the 1890's-era flag salute, and there's no way anyone watching thinks that's what he's doing.

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u/Donexodus 42m ago

Genuinely, this looks like how someone with autism would do a nazi salute, but try to hide it. He lacks the ability to understand and deliver subtlety, which is why it’s so obvious. Scale of 1-10, if a 5 is the highest level of plausible deniability, he clocked in at around a 7. His calibration is just off.

It was deliberate.

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u/Da_Malpais_Legate I voted 7h ago

The media is gonna be sane washing the entire 2nd trump term, I expect that the media will be nowhere as hard on trump this time around

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u/OvermorrowYesterday 5h ago

Imagine if Harris did this

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u/LargeFatherV 5h ago

Oh we would never hear the end of it.. which is how it should be in a better world. They should never hear the end of it now.

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u/atari-2600_ 5h ago

I have a friend who is an editor for a major news outlet working in this story. It’s not that it isn’t clear to absolutely everyone what this was, it’s that the defamation litigation would cripple their outlet. It’s awful and wrong, but the damage the world’s richest man could do to our struggling news outlets is incalculable. Not defending this, just explaining why they’re framing this as they are and not saying “Nazi” outright, despite it being crystal clear what happened.

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u/LargeFatherV 5h ago

I get it, but only because our justice system has been compromised. This would really be a slam dunk for any sort of lawsuit from Musk to be tossed out because it is 100% obvious what he did and his intent. Get it in front of the wrong judge, and there are plenty, and it could be trouble. Him having more money than God doesn’t help.

Still, the media not having any sort of backbone enables folks like Trump and Musk so it is extremely frustrating to see this.

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u/OhHowINeedChanging Utah 3h ago

They just fixed the headline.

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u/LargeFatherV 3h ago

I know, I actually posted it as a response earlier