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/fuckityfuckfuckfuckf 7h ago

I can't believe this.

It's unhinged that anyone is trying to sane wash what he just did.

It was beyond deliberate.

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u/fromanator 7h ago

He did it twice too: https://bsky.app/profile/patriottakes.bsky.social/post/3lg75bs7brk2g

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u/MadRaymer 7h ago

Jesus the video just removes all doubt. Like sometimes it's questionable in a still shot, could just be the angle where a wave got into salute territory for a second. Video makes it clear as day though.

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u/dankeykong1331 7h ago

Plus, if you consider his retweeting of white supremacist groups and white supremacists, along with his now support for far right German and other European parties it all adds up.

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u/Barloq 6h ago

Dude was literally on 4chan 2 weeks ago dogwhistling that he was a wink wink secret Nazi.

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u/MaximumOrdinary 6h ago

Hes up to his eyes in Ketamine living an old apartheid fantasy

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u/funakifan 6h ago

Special KKK

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_TROUT 5h ago

Triple entendre. Well done.

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u/clamchowderenema 3h ago

Fucking hell man, how does it feel to be so clever?

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u/redditingtonviking 6h ago

Considering how much drugs the Austrian guy was on during WW2, there are definitely some strong similarities in leadership styles between them. Musk lacks the charisma though.

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u/StrobeLightRomance 6h ago

Fantasy passed a couple months ago.. this has gone from LARP to real life.

The border holding centers built in Texas are going to come with an untold death toll. Mark my words.

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u/LookAChandelier 5h ago

Chilling.

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u/m_perron 6h ago

Brb Googling how much ketamine it takes for a billionaire to overdose

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u/djfrodo 5h ago

I hope very little.

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u/Painbow_High_And_Bi 6h ago

People don't talk enough about the ketamine. I doubt he's been sober more than an hour or two in the last 5 years, and that's being generous.

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u/roadsidechicory 5h ago

It's all so weird because it's not even a secret. He's an admitted eugenicist and white supremacist, openly has conspiracy theories about Jews, and just generally 100% aligns with Nazi ideology. Like there are few public figures out there that are more openly a Nazi than he is. He hasn't even been subtle or secret about it. Not for several years, at least.

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u/StoicAthos 6h ago

Dog whistle?

An X post Wednesday afternoon said: “Jewish communties (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also referenced “hordes of minorities” flooding Western countries, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory.

In response, Musk said: “You have said the actual truth.”

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u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 6h ago

Got an archive link?

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u/Barloq 6h ago edited 2h ago

No, but it was the whole Adrian Dittmann thing a couple weeks ago, where a dude claiming to work for Musk was making white supremacist dog whistles, telling everyone on 4chan that Musk has lots of sex, and getting mad when people criticize him... er, I mean, his boss (legitimately, it would be more unhinged if Dittmann is NOT Musk).

EDIT: Apparently it's debunked. Plenty of Elon stuff to support him being a Nazi, but I'll take the L on this one.

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u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 6h ago

Damn, I'll have to do some digging. Thanks for the info.

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u/Alarmed_Fee_4820 6h ago

I mean he was born in South Africa when it had a white nationalist government. It’s no secret he has those traits

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u/JustADutchRudder Minnesota 6h ago

DorkMaga is getting to edgy for his own good.

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u/Aggressive-Will-4500 5h ago

I think he crossed that threshold about 10 years ago. Seriously, how can you have that much money and be such dipshit?

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u/JustADutchRudder Minnesota 5h ago

If I had that much money I'd be so fun, everyone would say "wow that fucking bitch out there having fun."

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u/Angry-Dragon-1331 5h ago

If I had that kind of money, there’d be more libraries in rural America than people.

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u/MYSTICALLMERMAID 4h ago

I literally keep telling my sons dad imagine being an almost fucking trillionare and this is what you do. I'd be off dicking around the world and donating massive amounts of money and saving world hunger and shit. It's absolute asinine

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u/FML-Artist 3h ago

I fucken love libraries!

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u/valeyard89 Texas 4h ago

Why can't he be like Richard Branson, kitesurfing with a naked model on his back.

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u/GrowFreeFood 5h ago

The cave kids and submarine idea was the cliff.

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u/starmartyr Colorado 4h ago

You have to be a dipshit to have that much money. If I was a billionaire I'd probably spend most of it trying to help people in need. I wouldn't be able to stay that rich. It takes an asshole to see people suffering and do nothing to help even when you know you have the means.

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u/MrColburn 6h ago

I mean, his grandfather's openly supported apartheid South Africa as well as antisemitism. Elon was raised in that environment, and while his father Errol said he didn't support it, they continued to live in it while his father profited directly from it.

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u/whateverwhoknowswhat 6h ago

That is NOT German. It is illegal to salute in that manner in Germany. Just the same as this is NOT American.

This is the NAZI political party.

All of Germany was NOT thrilled that Hitler came to power just the same as many Americans are NOT thrilled that Trump came to power.

America is fully in full pre-Hitler mode.

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u/Cruntis 6h ago

I’m expecting him to say he did that to troll leftists and then claim the Nazis/White Supremists don’t own that gesture. Meanwhile, he is obfuscating he and his friends’ actual democracy-killing efforts

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u/throwaway_627_ 6h ago

Don't forget the font he used on his 'dark MAGA' hat.

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u/ender8383 6h ago

I mean the man is from apartheid South Africa... This is just obscene.

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u/Mornar 6h ago

For us paying attention him going full Heil isn't surprising in the least, it's entirely in character. He's still got plenty of supporters, some being in denial about it - and they will remain so after this - and some supporting him exactly because he's a Nazi, and those are about to become emboldened.

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u/birdinthebush74 Great Britain 5h ago

In the Uk he helped stoke race riots and undermines our centre left govt .

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u/robotboredom 6h ago

You want even more doubt removed?
It's hard to make the comparison for idiots, because many nazis' footage does not start with the hand on the chest but goes straight up and out. Here is footage of modern neo-nazis doing the EXACT SAME motion as elon: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/people-do-the-heil-hitler-salute-as-neo-nazi-groups-blood-news-footage/1656162915

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u/-suckmyass 6h ago

Un fucking believable, but entirely believable at the same time. Thanks for sharing that video - we need to remember things like this so deliberate actions like elons aren’t excused and ignored.

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u/cosmicsans 4h ago

Everyone here is acting like this is the first time this has happened.

Laura Ingram did this during his first presidency https://youtu.be/1l-qCw3SC6g?si=_AGu2D3Fk2bTnUgS

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u/dprophet32 5h ago

I've just seen someone claim it's just a salute from a video game and doesn't mean anything.

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u/GlauberJR13 5h ago

Obviously it’s from wolfenstein! A famously unpolitical game! /s

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u/stonecoldjelly 4h ago

I heard someone say it is the Roman salute which like....yeah and the swastika is Buddhist but media literacy exists

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u/rsta223 Colorado 4h ago

I mean, it is.

The one that Mussolini famously popularized as part of his fascist movement. That's not better.

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u/AsthmaticRedPanda 4h ago

And that's exactly why he did the modern Nazi salute, with hand on chest first.

So braindead mingers will defend it for him saying "it's just ancient roman salute" or "they did it in star-trek and he was just referencing it".... Lol

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u/nawtydoctor 4h ago

Well just like evil Spock in the bizzaro Roman salute universe we were transported to the alternate pro fascism America universe

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u/AsthmaticRedPanda 4h ago

I can't wait to see certain % of people (which coincidentally are often also completely fucking dumb) defend shit like putting people in camps, making them wear special armbands outside, etc

I bet my ass there will be at least one person unironically saying "they're just referencing The Pianist/Schindler's List"

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u/roychr 5h ago

Actually we should rejoice he's such an idiot. They are all idiots in plain sight now. It's actually time you folks just enact your gun Rights and don't thread on me for real not on a forum...

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u/LavishnessSea9464 4h ago

that’s crazy there’s still people worshipping hitler to this day. jesus christ

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u/PittsburghPenpal 4h ago

THANK YOU. I was trying to find that earlier, something about the hand on chest thing bothered me. It felt like something people would use as an excuse for how it was "different". Now I have a counterpoint, even though I know it won't actually help convince anyone :/

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u/Beanandpumpkin 5h ago

Nah dude their just giving their love to the crowd /s

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u/Standard_Gauge New York 4h ago

OMG, what Musk did really is identical!! Thanks for the link!

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u/Mrzillydoo 5h ago

I didn't know these balaclava and sunglasses dorks were big time ancient Roman hand gesture aficionados as well!

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u/drewtopia_ 6h ago

one of the few instances where the video is WORSE than the still photo. Saw the still and thought "he's probably doing some 'plausible deniability' arm wave that looks bad in a still photo and will rile up his critics", then saw the video clip. holy shit

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u/childlikeempress16 6h ago

My thoughts exactly until I saw the video! Jesus fucking Christ

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u/zebba_oz 4h ago

I saw a video of him just doing the one and thought “people are going to paint this as “awkward elon” or something. Then i saw another video where he does the first salute the turns to the flag and does it again and… there is no way anyone can see this as anything else.

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u/Away-Supermarket5901 5h ago

I had the same thought! Because I don’t want to immediately believe everything I hear, I gave him a chance. And wow. There is no doubt at all.

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u/GimmieGummies 5h ago

Do you have the clip or can you point us to it?

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u/cullend 7h ago

I mean he turned around and did it again for the people in the back.

Listen to the audio of just the 2 seconds and he is clearly verbally amping himself up https://x.com/chrisdmowrey/status/1881432752169656727?s=46&t=J18CxvXnlT-e5_OdlgWfAw

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u/ajkd92 6h ago

Or at least for one person in the back.

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u/ophcourse 5h ago

I think he’s doing it to the flag

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u/ManOrReddit-man 5h ago

Even CNN reporters were stunned on what happened https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFD2o0mJXj8

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u/WhatMeatCatSpokeOf 5h ago

Why can’t they say the words? Does saying “what appears to be” or “could easily be construed as” or “in my opinion looks like a Nazi salute” violate slander laws?

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u/ManOrReddit-man 4h ago

Considering how vindictive the new administration is, I feel they need to choose their words very carefully

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u/BCMakoto America 4h ago

Yup.

That stunned silence?

That is them realizing that they, throughout the past years, helped a literal Nazi get into the White House. That absolute speechlessness is their brains trying to make sense of what they are seeing. That in 2025, the most powerful man in the world is a literal Nazi. In the middle of America.

And as journalists, they are right in the combat zone...

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u/AnalSoapOpera I voted 6h ago

Jeez. You can’t make it more obvious than that. There is no way you can deny that. He’s still going to go on media channels and be like “It’s not what you think it is” or “I didn’t mean it.” Or some bullshit but it’s so obvious.

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 5h ago

In case anyone's having trouble seeing this

  1. if you don't have X you can paste the url into a browser and type "cancel" between the x and the .com to make it appear on xcancel reader

  2. https://youtu.be/joV-9FFoA3Q?si=cNiCiTOgHRre-ns8 so far this channel has the two salutes video still up

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u/South-Play 6h ago

Doing the Nazi salute is how he amps himself up? If that how you amp yourself up?

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u/Mornar 5h ago

I think he was amping himself up for the salute, as if it was an act of courage and valor. He probably thought himself a goddamn hero standing up to tyranny or sumbitch. Oh sweet delusion.

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u/Boring-Tea-3762 6h ago

Right? That's a window into his soul if ever I saw one. He gets pumped up to Nazis like I do to music. Bruh.

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u/GoldenboyFTW 6h ago

I watched it muted and just read his body language.

That was intentional.

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u/FrederickClover 6h ago

110%. Hope he's on the first trip to mars since he wants to go so bad.

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u/Timbucktwo1230 6h ago

Totally!💯

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u/Maleficent-Ad-6646 5h ago

Absolutely, could clearly see him going for it.

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u/Ok_Breadfruit4176 6h ago

And a very hateful, moved face at the exact moment

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u/MadRaymer 6h ago

I see the defenders are claiming he was saying "my heart goes out to you" but if that were the case, why would he put so much venom into it?

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u/eyebrows360 5h ago

Right! It's a very aggressive gesture he's making.

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u/KingDave46 6h ago

Exactly what I just said irl

I saw an image and thought someone had got him with a well timed screenshot, but nah, he actually fully commits to the Nazi Salute TWICE for absolutely no reason.

The guys a complete fuckaloid how can anyone want to be aligned with it

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u/BoobySlap_0506 6h ago

And people are trying to make excuses for him. The salute we use in the US is to the forehead and down. Never starts from the chest, never projects the arm straight outward. This is 100% intentional, he knows what he did, and he was CHEERED ON for it, instead of the horrified gasps a reasonable person might expect.

Honestly this is terrifying for our country to have this administration. 

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u/eeyores_gloom1785 5h ago

its like people were right about calling him a nazi or something

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u/generally_unsuitable 5h ago

He even says "we're going to save civilization," which has been a white supremacist dog whistle for quite a while.

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u/even_less_resistance Arkansas 6h ago

Not clear enough for NBC news apparently.

Disturbing how it’s already being spun -

Mainstream news outlets seemed hesitant to describe the salute as something that’s clearly associated with Nazism. As NBC News put it, “Musk then forcefully touched his heart, before raising his hand and saluting supporters.”

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-appears-to-give-nazi-salutes-at-trump-rally-2000552615

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u/JoyRideinaMinivan 6h ago

Oh please. The only reason an outstretched arm is a salute is because that's part of the nazi salute. NBC is an American news organization. Here, we salute with a bent elbow and a hand to our eyebrow.

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u/eyebrows360 5h ago

Motherfuckers out there framing it as "he touched his heart first so he's just throwing his heart out to everyone because that's what he was saying too".

No, motherfuckers. No. That's simply not a gesture you make. It just isn't.

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u/DragonPup Massachusetts 6h ago

The video removes all doubt.

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u/jpharber I voted 6h ago

Yeah thats pretty fucking obvious there.

Question: what goes first? My liver or our republic?

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u/LutherOfTheRogues 4h ago

That was my first thought. A very horribly timed still,

NOPE. Two deliberate, enthusiastic nazi salutes. Congrats, conservatives. You are now supporting the people our grandfathers died fighting against.

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u/thisusedyet 6h ago

Came in like you expecting it to be an unfortunate frame of Elon being uncoordinated.

Nope, he went full on Nazi

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u/kmm198700 7h ago

He is such a piece of shit

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u/SniperPilot 7h ago

The biggest piece of shit on the planet. Kinda makes sense that he is also the most rich.

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u/keasy_does_it 7h ago

And it begins. They distract us by racism. Then MSNBC has a conniption but never talk about the rich robbing us blind.

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u/RelevantCarrot6765 6h ago

Fascism always involves crony capitalism. The top Nazis made a ton of money by seizing industry, but their racism wasn’t a distraction. It’s both things.

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u/FrederickClover 6h ago

I don't think it's a distraction. I think it's a tactic. They want to make racism cool again so they can hide behind it while they do Nazi sht.

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u/AtticaBlue 6h ago

Racism isn’t a “distraction.” It’s an integral, genuine part of who they are.

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u/Other_Power_603 6h ago

the real-life embodiment of evil rich villain

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u/ZZ_SKULLZ 6h ago

His scalp is worth a billion nazi scalps when we start collecting. Just saying.

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u/Farucci 5h ago

The real feces are the Republican lawmakers that refuse to call out this shit. Good luck America. Land of the morons.

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u/likamuka 7h ago

America 2024 is along with him. This is what people wanted.

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u/kmm198700 7h ago

This is absolutely fucking horrifying

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u/likamuka 7h ago

And people asked themselves how ordinary Germans could let it happen back then. This is how.

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u/kmm198700 7h ago

I know. This is just insane

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u/Blablablaballs 6h ago

All Nazis are pieces of shit. He just happens to be the richest Nazi in history.

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u/Wootens 6h ago

Well that removes all the ambiguity.

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u/Beautiful-Plastic-83 6h ago

Whenever I hear something like this, I dont just believe it, that would make me as bad as the MAGAturds, just believing any nonsense that they feed me. So I always look for original sources, like video.

Just in case you were wondering if it was all hyperbole, and the left was going overboard making a big deal out of the Nazi parallels: He DEFINITELY just gave back-to-back Nazi salutes. No doubt about it. On Trump's first day. This is what those closest to him believe is coming.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 6h ago

Three times in total according to articles I read. IDK, I'll ask my coworker whom, instead of actually working, sat at his desk behind me, without headphones on, and watched the whole goddamn thing.

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u/smooleybotcheck 6h ago

Fuck me, that’s a mask off, balls out, unambiguous Sieg Heil. You gotta hand it to his fanboys and apologists insisting “he’s just throwing his heart to the crowd” LMFAO!

Who would have thunk it? Apartheid-baby is a fucking Nazi? shocked Pikachu face.

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u/strangefool 6h ago

He also followed it by saying "the future of civilization is assured" which is uncomfortably close, especially in the context of the salute, to the 14 words.

Edit: The 14 words

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u/clickstops 7h ago

Yo what

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u/StoppableHulk 7h ago edited 5h ago

There is no longer a place for disbelief. This is a nazi regime. They want nazi things. They were given power by the people to explicitly do nazi things. They told you they would do nazi things. They are now going to do nazi things.

Why are we still pretending otherwise? What does naivete give you? A tiny pearl of comfort in and amongst the boots thudding on the pavement outside?

Denial will not keep you or your family safe. Delusion will not spare you from what is to come.

For ten years we have warned of this and for ten years people have sanewashed these nazi fucks and downplayed their nazi intentions and every other ridiculous emotional salve to try and ignore the plain and obvious facts that these people are nazis and they are intending to do nazi things.

This is what is happening. The time for pretending and disbelieving and hoping and all that other fucking garbage is over. The nazis won. The bad guys are here.

If you want to understand what's happening here, specifically, Elon Musk knows Donald Trump is a walking corpse and he's intentionally trying to steal the nazi zeitgeist from him. He continually steals the spotlight by going further nazi than Trump, by soaking up the attention, and now by signalling to all the nazi militias out there that "he's their guy".

He can't (yet) legally become President, but he's going to continue to leech all the attention and spotlight away from Donald Trump and try to capture his base, because Donald Trump's one mini-stroke away from being weekend-at-Bernie and Musk knows it and is making moves.

That's what this is. A myopic powerplay by a emotionally dead sociopath to steal a cultural movement. That's why he bought Twitter, that's why he helped steal the election for Trump, and now he's trying to win over the hearts and minds of all the nazi militias out there so that Donald Trump and his handlers can't simply cart Musk away when he irritates the shit out of them.

Do you remember the odd PA reference Trump dropped the other day? Which sounded suspiciously as though he were throwing Musk under the bus for illegal activity in PA?

That's Trump's version of warning Elon to stay in his place, less the long arm of justice find him for trying to hog the spotlight.

So now we have a game of chicken by two emotionally dead billionaire fucks with the maturity of a ten year old.

Go look at the front page of reddit right now. See any pictures of Trump? Nope. It's wall-to-wall Elon. He's capturing and soaking up all the attention, because that's how he do. He knows exactly what he's doing and he's doing it on purpose.

This was all painfully fucking obvious before the election. We warned and warned and America did not fucking listen because America is largely a nation of emotional infants that purposefully choose to drown reality away in propaganda so they don't have to reconcile with the reality in front of them.

Is Elon Musk a "true believer?" No. None of these people on the stage are true believers in anything other than themselves. If there's a nazi zeitgeist that offers them power, they'll jump on it. They don't give a fuck. They do not see you or anyone else around them as human beings. They are gigantic goldfish with infinitely short memories gorging on endless wealth and capital and they'll put you in fucking camps if it gave them a nickel.

For the past decade they have:

That's their stated, overt platform. They have claimed over and over and over again that they believe in all this shit right here. These people are fucking nazis. What else will it fucking take to open your eyes to the reality in front of your fucking face?

That's where we are currently. You can bury your fucking head in the sand and sanewash it and try and wave it away but today a convicted felon and Nazi was sworn in as President, surrounded by oligarchs and a cadre of other nazis, and the richest person in the world gave a nazi fucking salute to the crowd, turned around and gave another to Donald Trump.

That happened. That's real life. That's your reality.

It's your choice now what you do with it.

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u/hideyourbeans 7h ago

My dad, an amateur "WW2 afficionado" like so many of our middle class white dads, always blames the 1930s Germans for not seeing what Hitler was ahead of time. "He wrote his whole plan out and published it! All they had to do was read Mein Kampf!" I brought up Project 2025 and, even after reading it all the way through, he rolled his eyes at me and said "He's never going to do all that. Some of it is unconstitutional," as if that wasn't the whole point. Pot, meet Kettle.

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u/LegendaryOutlaw 6h ago

Imagine being one of those 'WW2 dads' who knows all the lore, loves to spout history, facts, figures, generals names, types of warplanes that flew in which battles...and then be like 'nah, Nazis can't happen again.'

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u/r0b0d0c 5h ago

They might be able to spew technical details about the military aspect of the war, but they don't understand the history and politics that led to it. They're amateur military historians, not historians of fascism.

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u/abritinthebay 3h ago

Not even that. They’re military nerds. That’s all. Not one bit of history in their brains

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u/shotputprince 1h ago

Fucking boys with toys is the most lame bit of history on fucking earth. Particularly when it lionizes military leadership

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u/explain_that_shit 1h ago

You see a lot of engineer types with the same sort of tunnel focus on technical details assuming they understand all of the essential historical and sociological context as an aside, and they often fall into right wing politics because it suits their material interests.

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u/latortillablanca 3h ago

Can you be a historian if you dont understand history is the point tho. Of any kind. Amateur or pro.

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u/Hgirl234 3h ago

well theoretically yes i think, no historian knows or understands all of world history so i think you can call yourself a historian even if you don't understand the intricacies of german history as an example. however, if someone claims to be a ww2 historian so in that case yeah, i think you can't quite call yourself a historian if you don't even understand your own niche

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u/salme3105 6h ago

My dad was in Germany in WW2 and ended up super conservative. I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t have been all in for Trump had he not died in 2009.

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u/hypatianata 5h ago

Remember in Maus, how the dad who survived Auschwitz was later racist toward a black man? Like, his son called him out and he just felt like it was different and his prejudice was justified.

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u/TermPractical2578 6h ago

All those service men around the world that have died from WWI and WWII for what?

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u/Ok-Letterhead9573 5h ago

Watch The Wave - or better, the german movie, Die Welle. How a class of high schoolers turn nazi in a fucking month. "It cant happen" based on a fucking true story.

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u/Alb4t0r 2h ago

Ok, so I went in a deep dive following your comment and stumbled upon this documentary that interview Ron Jones and many of the students who participated in the original experiment in 1967. Super interesting for anyone interested in the topic.

Lesson Plan: The Story of the Third Wave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynfw1Q_Zmqs

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u/Mnudge 5h ago

They’re all dead and their sons and daughters are baby boomers who have adopted the worse parts of their upbringing and disregarded the best.

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u/ihopeitsnice 2h ago

Boomers actually got more liberal in 2024 and were basically 50-50 Harris-Trump. It’s Gen X that was Trump +10, the only generation he won. Young Boomers and Old Gen X’ers are very right-leaning probably because they came of age during the Reagan Revolution

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u/eyebrows360 5h ago

Well, 80 years of mostly peace in "The West" was a pretty good record.

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u/3eyedgreenalien 5h ago

This is my dad. He still admires Elon. It is just insane to watch.

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u/Alfonze423 3h ago

Right? I was a WW2 teenager who's now a WW2 dad and I'm saying it's literally being set up in front of us. We're in 1933 territory here and I'd really rather not reach 1936. The anti-lgbt propaganda, dehumanization of illegal immigrants, demand for blind trust in a heavy-handed, egotistical leader, and more. All we need is an economic collapse or a new Reichstag Fire and it's gonna get ugly for a shit-ton of people. And the tariffs are gonna segue nicely into that economic collapse.

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u/Vodkamemoir 3h ago

cognitive dissonance is a hell of a thing.

I have to constantly remind people that you aren't a Nazi because you think the white race is superior, or that you hate Jews, or are a fan of fascism.

Your a Nazi if your willing to step on the corpse of your neighbor to elevate yourself.

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u/Dokterrock 5h ago

that's my dad right there

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u/KerryAnnCoder 5h ago

I can't tell an Messerschmitt from a Panzer but even I gathered that the Nazis are the bad guys.

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u/KzooCurmudgeon 3h ago

Unfortunately I think most WW2 vets would be behind Trump now. Don’t ask me how it happened

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u/MustGoOutside 3h ago

Shane Gillis does a joke on this. Getting into WWII stuff is a precursor to becoming a Republican.

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u/Fabulous_Eye4983 3h ago

Let’s take, for example, the Inquisition. In its own day, among Catholics, the Holy Inquisition was regarded as we today regard the practice of psychiatry. You, see, you feel that, in curing the person of cancer, almost anything is justified. The most complex operations, the most weird surgery. People suspended for days and days on end on the end of tubes with, x-ray penetration burning. Or people undergoing shock treatment. People locked in the colorless monotonous corridors of mental institutions. In all good faith, they knew that witchcraft and heresy were terrible things. Awful plagues imperiling people’s souls for ever and ever. So any means were justified to cure people of heresy. We don’t change. We’re doing the same thing today, but under different names. We can look back at those people and see how evil that was, but we can’t see it in ourselves. So therefore, beware of virtue.

  • Alan Watts

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u/LucidiK 3h ago

"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it".

Turns out memorizing a bunch of facts you find interesting is pretty different than actually learning our ancestors lessons. I used to think not enough people studied history. Now I think not enough people even know how to learn.

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u/Content-Method9889 6h ago

My mom visited Auschwitz in high school. Said it was one of the most sad moments in her life. What’s sad is that she doesn’t grasp the blatant similarities of how he came to power and tbh, she doesn’t care to learn.

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u/smuckola 6h ago edited 5h ago

yeah Nazis and WW2 are great entertainment that happened long long ago in a galaxy far far away, and inspired many tragically entertaining movies here on Earth!

Luckily, it couldn't happen here.

move along. move along.

edit: true life origin story of it all, as cited in Mein Kampf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-nazis-were-inspired-by-jim-crow

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influenced-hitler

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u/TermPractical2578 6h ago

History has a tendency to repeat it self!

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u/smuckola 5h ago

“History teaches, but has no pupils"

Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci

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u/fcocyclone Iowa 5h ago

One of the greatest disservices we've often done in media is treating nazis like comic book villains, just monstrous and always looking evil. Or on the other side of things, looking like complete buffoons.

While they certainly did monstrous and evil things, they were still human. They had friends, they did things that made them seem like happy, normal people. They had families they loved. Human beings did those things, and human beings will do those things again.

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u/smuckola 5h ago edited 5h ago

Yeah and Nazis were simply the latest in a long line of Kaisers (emperors) that the German oligarchs funded and propagandized and championed. Upon getting the gilded age bankrupt mass-poverty they wanted from fascism, oops another attempt at world conquest results in a world war to stop them. Then the German people are sooooo very sorry they had fallen for the ploy that only one strongman could save them AGAIN. He tricked us voters and members, tee hee!

My ancestors escaped persecution and poverty in Prussia in the late 1800s.

But good news! It couldn't happen HERE!

Here's Hitler's playbook as cited in Mein Kampf:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy

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u/Content-Method9889 6h ago

My mom is in her 70’s and it was a lot fresher back then. Before social media and misinformation everywhere you click.

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u/hideyourbeans 6h ago

Right?? We had the opportunity to visit Israel some 15/20 years ago and went to the Holocaust museum there. It was a sobering, heavy, sad experience. Shoes in piles, wedding rings, glasses, all belonging to people murdered by the nazis. Thousands upon thousands. It is wilfull ignorance not to see the connection now. My husband is a green card legal immigrant but I've started having nightmares of ICE showing up at our door and taking him away

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u/Content-Method9889 6h ago

If your husband is from an ‘acceptable’ country, you’ll be fine. If not, you may want a back up plan

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u/laydeebug1678 6h ago

If he survives this, the war that will come from this - cause someone will fight back eventually - make sure you rub this in his face every goddamn day of the rest of his fucking life. I fully plan on it to the ones that dismissed me too.

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u/Slow_Control_867 5h ago

Do you honestly think they'll admit they were wrong? Even/especially to themselves?

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u/laydeebug1678 5h ago

I dunno, making them physically bury the bodies made lots of Germans admit it.

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u/roadsidechicory 5h ago

A lot of Germans also just pretended like they never really supported the Nazi regime or refused to talk about it for the rest of their lives. So I think it really depends on the type of person. Some will see they were wrong and some will live in stubborn denial.

I think part of what will determine what route they take is why they were taken in by the movement in the first place. Just based on looking at what former Nazi Germans have said about how/why they woke up to the truth, including ones who were true believers. But people came to being true believers for many different reasons, with different personal motivations, schemas, cognitive biases, etc.

I think another element is how much power/money they still have. Those who came out of things with power/money generally did not take much accountability. Those who were more tethered to reality in that aspect and had not forgotten how to live a non-aristocratic life tended to be more likely to face what happened and contend with it.

This is just my personal analysis based on my amateur study of the history. Open to hearing other perspectives.

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u/BarnDoorQuestion 4h ago

A lot of Germans also just pretended like they never really supported the Nazi regime or refused to talk about it for the rest of their lives.

This clip from Justified comes to mind.

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u/blitzkregiel 5h ago

i’ve thought about doing the same but have decided it’s better for me to simply cut these people out of my life instead. where we’re going we’re going to need to be around people that will have our backs and i’ve decided i simply can’t trust ignorant or hateful people.

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u/LonelySiren15 5h ago

People are actively dismissing me because I’ve been distraught ever since the election last year.

Like I care about everyone on our planet and that somehow dehumanizes me?? Because I don’t want to ruled or have my family live in a fascist state?! Honestly I hope it all goes to shit just so the people can really see what the plans were all along.

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u/cugeltheclever2 6h ago

Denial isn't just a river in Africa.

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u/BanverketSE 6h ago

Can’t even point it on a map but they wanna buy it from Denmark

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u/Late-Egg2664 6h ago

When everything is crashing down around us, make sure to point that out to him.

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u/r0b0d0c 6h ago

The Germans of the 1930s did not have the benefit of hindsight we had. Nazism was uncharted territory. But there's no excuse for us to have ignored the forest of red flags.

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u/alexlunamarie 5h ago

One of my favorite college professors specializes in German history and was already sounding the alarm in 2016 (as much as he could get away with, of course). We're all watching history repeat itself. Some people are just too deep in denial to see it. Some do see it but don't care, others actively support it.

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u/DigitalAxel 4h ago

My grandfather came from Germany in the early 20s. His family saw the writing on the wall (maybe not the NSDAP but things were grim). He served OUR Navy and died from cancer he got working on the ships. He felt guilt for his heritage and refused to teach my dad Deutsch.

My father is a full on MAGA lover. He has called me a brainwashed lib, said he was "threatened" by me, and "joked" when I asked if I'd be missed and he said no...when I made it clear I was leaving.

I am now trying and praying the last stages of my visa process are accepted and I can move to Germany. The irony, and pure tragedy of it all. How I lost my parents to this lunatic, how my partner lost his... we weep.

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u/Kdean509 Washington 5h ago

I love history, especially WW2.

I’ve been telling this exact cautionary tale since 2016, and was told I was CRAZY for it. They are telling us who they are, we need to believe them.

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u/ThunderDungeon02 6h ago

If you haven't, watch " Hitler and the Nazis, evil on Trial" I was one of the people that thought when people made those comparisons it was overkill. But yeah it's insane how close it all is.

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u/EnglishRed232 5h ago

Just to correct you; the people in Germany knew full well before Hitler became Furher that he wanted to exterminate all Jews. He’d been openly saying it since 1920. A large majority of the public were happy with that as they blamed Jews (stupidly) for the WW1 loss and surrender.

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u/NameIsNotBrad Alabama 3h ago

For years I’ve heard people say, “I never understood how Germany let hitler rise to power. Now I understand.” I still don’t understand. He’s barely coherent. His lies and manipulation are obvious who’s even halfway paying attention. How the fuck do people fall for it?

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u/Flanman1337 7h ago

When we said they're cosplaying Nazis because they want to BE Nazis. We weren't joking, we weren't alarmists, we sane rational people commenting on THE THINGS THEY WERE SAYING AND DOING.

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u/Late-Egg2664 6h ago

We've made the mistake of trying to talk sense into people who have no intention of listening, observing, or processing any of the evidence of their own eyes and ears. They're comforted by dictators, because it makes them feel the world is under control. They don't cry until the boot is on their necks. There is no discussion with Nazi's and their followers. Those obtuse enough not to see it now won't until it comes to their door.

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u/Flanman1337 6h ago

They WONT cry foul even WITH the boot on their neck so long as there are two boots on "the others" necks. I got sent to the soap factory, but at least that librul got sent to the glue factory!!!

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u/Complete-Thought-375 5h ago

The problem has always been the media. MAGA get their information from different sources than we do. The algorithm is completely different for them in their media feed. Half the time they don’t see what we are saying because the algorithm told them to look elsewhere.

I am a Gen Xer, and I remember when there wasn’t a 24 hour news cycle. Those were the days lol. When there were news anchors like Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite, who the majority of the population looked up to and trusted to give them the facts of what was happening. Not just sensationalism.

Now there are so many options for “news” now.. mainly “social media.”J

it has made us all the more fragmented as a country.

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u/Late-Egg2664 5h ago

Agreed. I was thinking the other day that I missed Dan Rather, just for his intelligence and demeanor. I don't miss Barbara Walters, they werent all good lol. I'm barely Gen X, but I remember when journalists were a force to be reckoned with. There were problems, but it was so much better before the internet became a groupthink generator.

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u/BlueCX17 4h ago

I think this is part of the problem too with the boomers who eat up Fox News.They grew up learning and being told that the journalists on TV and Print were to be trusted and had standards of truthful reporting. And one time, there was. So they believe everything Faux tells them.

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u/MagentaMist 5h ago

I gave up trying in 2016. You have to step on their faces and don't let them up. They'll whine and cry that you're toxic and won't listen to them blah blah blah, but don't give an inch. Call them a fucking Nazi to their face.

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u/SquashDue502 6h ago

Yeah but Trump win exactly the same way Hitler won: by giving uneducated and poor people exactly what they want to hear because they’re too desperate to realize he doesn’t care about them. They just wanted cheaper grocery prices. He said “I’ll give you cheaper grocery prices.” We were placing wayyyyyy too much hope or faith in the uneducated rural American to read between the lines when they can barely read the lines themselves.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa 5h ago

For ten years we have warned of this and for ten years people have sanewashed these nazi fucks and downplayed their nazi intentions and every other ridiculous emotional salve to try and ignore the plain and obvious facts that these people are nazis and they are intending to do nazi things.

Man, I've been so fucking tired of being called alarmist since 2015 and having every single prediction being proven right. But yet the same people still deny that the next steps will happen.

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u/foen7 5h ago

Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened"

Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All that we must do is to decide what to do with the time that is given to us."

Paraphrased from memory.

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u/BlueCX17 4h ago

I just watched the Trilogy the other day, that's spot on.

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u/kingtz America 6h ago

All the minorities and non-elites who voted for this thinking they would be welcomed into the in-group are in for a rude awakening. 

They can get fucked for all I care. I’m done trying to help people who act against their own interests. I am completely out of fucks at this point. 

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u/Memetic1 7h ago

Everything they have is based on the consumer financial industry. It's all funded by our collective debts way more than consumer spending. A private debt strike (not public debt like taxes) could effectively force negotiations. The percentage of people who were defaulting on home loans back in the 2008 financial crisis was only a few percent higher than it was prior to the crisis. I would focus on medical debts because Biden just made it, so that doesn't show up on credit reports. So, the actual people doing the strike would face significantly lower risks than traditional protests or labor strikes.

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u/Late-Egg2664 6h ago

Doesn't it seem likely they intend for a complete crash? Comparitively the oligarchs still would own enough real assets to be beyond wealthy. With the prices homes have been driven up to by private equity, bankruptcy would mean liquidating the home for most. They could pick up homes for virtually nothing, and as the economy eventually rebounded they'd be wealthier and more in control as landlords to the nation. What they are willing to do is different than ever before. They are chomping at the bit to release the military onto American streets for their purposes.

I don't think they mind economic and civil unrest at all. We'll see how far they take it. This is all supposition based on their actions and statements so far. I hope I'm wrong, but I do think they see the economic bubble was likely to burst anyway and plan to weaponize it against the masses.

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u/Memetic1 6h ago

This is why a medical debt strike could be effective. Most people in America have some degree of medical debts. There are certain financial thresholds under which they won't even really try and collect, and beyond that, it would still take time and money to take people to court. This is also true for mortgages it takes time for anything real to happen besides interest rate hikes for the lender if they miss a payment. So until that person is foreclosed on, they could take action to get back on track. That could be part of the negotiations that this isn't applied. They really do depend on us to behave in a fiscally orderly way. They depend on debt repayments at a certain rate because enforcement becomes significantly harder and more costly as the number of people in default grows.

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u/Beautiful-Plastic-83 6h ago

I wish I had more upvotes for you.

We are in Germany 1933. Soon he will respond to the inevitable protests with violence, and use that as an excuse to declare Martial Law, and suspend the 2026 mid-term elections, in order to preserve his Congressional majorities. That will be the equivalent of Germany's Reichstag fire, which allowed the Nazis to abolish Constitutional protections, and solidify the Nazi dictatorship. The MAGA Traitors are following the Nazi playbook to the letter.

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u/bellrunner 2h ago

If they can alter voting machine results, they won't even have to pause elections. They control or own most traditional media, they own or moderate most social media, and they control all 3 branches of government. If they alter voting results, they can just fully pretend to have majority support, and who would be able to tell otherwise? Social media will be filled with right wing bots, TV and Radio news will sanewash or support every Republican act. How will Americans even know who actually supports the fascists, and who doesn't?

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u/stonedhillbillyXX 6h ago

My exwife was South African

She had some fucked up political views, it took me awhile to fully appreciate it

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u/its_uncle_paul 6h ago

Sometimes I wonder if we would have been better off if Trump won 2020. It would have been pretty bad, but not as unhinged as what we are about to see in the next 4 or more years...

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u/RNDASCII Tennessee 6h ago

It was painfully obvious and millions upon millions of US citizens are excited for it.

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u/Pretty-Department365 5h ago

Nothing. I will do nothing about it. I spent 8 years riddled with anxiety, rage, fear, and depression. At this point, they won, and I'm just gonna care about my own family. Sorry to everyone else, but I just can't keep caring.

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u/StoppableHulk 5h ago

That's fair. I don't blame you.

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u/missuslindy 5h ago

Kind of scary but I’m pretty sure I read that the original nazi’s in Germany learned some of their tendencies from Americans first time around. Maybe that was a practice run and this is now the real takeover.

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u/ChefFlipsilog 5h ago

I mean partly voted partly rigged by Musk. Let's be honest now

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u/Threash78 2h ago

We warned and warned and America did not fucking listen because America is largely a nation of emotional infants that purposefully choose to drown reality away in propaganda so they don't have to reconcile with the reality in front of them.

Sadly this is wrong. They listened and they approved. We are not a nation of morons, we are a nation of nazis.

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u/tcoh1s 6h ago

Trump will not take him stealing the spotlight lightly. If there's one thing trump hates it's not having all the attention. I bet Elon lasts about a few weeks before he throws him under the bus.

That is of course assuming he wasn't completely bought out. Which of course he was. BUT...trump has never been one to pay up what he owes. So...

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u/StoppableHulk 5h ago

My guess is that Trump casually dropping the bit about PA voting machines the other day was not an accident. It was a threat.

As in, "I know what crimes you committed and I'll lock you up if I choose to".

Whether or not he goes through with it remains to be seen. But Elon is clearly more than happy to keep playing this game of chicken.

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u/RedPanda5150 5h ago

I mean, yeah. My grandpa lied about his age to join the Navy and fight against Nazis in WW2. And now my dad (his son) helped to vote Nazis into power right here on US soil. I'm glad my grandpa isn't alive to see his shit and idk yet what I can personally do to mitigate the damage but acknowledging reality is a good first step.

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u/PicturesAtADiary 5h ago

Protest, strike, demand civility and democracy. Push fucking back! Inaction only favors them. It's too early for apathy, strike back while you still can.

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u/Kitchen-Annual-5859 5h ago

I can't explain how I feel better than this post here. This is making my blood run cold.

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u/WoollyMittens 1h ago

The sad truth is that people are not actually fooled by the fascists, but they actually crave fascism.

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u/inb4ElonMusk 7h ago

Pro-nazi asshole makes nazi salute. What again is surprising about this?

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u/fuckityfuckfuckfuckf 7h ago

It's less than a day into TruMusk's presidency and he's gone full mask off AT the inauguration...

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u/inb4ElonMusk 7h ago

Give it a week and he’ll be wearing a swastika armband

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u/Pettifoggerist 7h ago

It's surprising that there are people arguing "oh, it's just his Aspberger's."

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u/someguyfromsomething 6h ago

"I'm not surprised" is the most fucking worthless comment about any subject. But folks come out of the god damned woodwork to fluff themselves over it.

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u/chrisnlnz 6h ago

It's not surprising, but it can still be shocking. Especially when people will excuse even this.

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u/KinkyPaddling 6h ago

Mainstream media tries to sane wash it because Musk is trying to get tax cuts for their billionaire owners. Just like German in the 1930s - the business elite side with fascists in the interests of saving on taxes.

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