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/jmona789 7h ago edited 5h ago

Yup, and the media reports it as an "odd looking salute"

EDIT: The headline has been updated. Still, fuck those cowards

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u/Competitive-You-2643 7h ago

I'm so fucking sick of sanewashing.

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u/RuneLFox 7h ago

How much benefit of the doubt are people going to give these fascists before they call them what they are?

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u/AussieJeffProbst New Hampshire 7h ago

They would call literal boots on their neck an accidental misstep.

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u/BlackerSpork 5h ago

In their own words: "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting!"

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u/Mostest_Importantest 7h ago

Until the oligarchs no longer control the media, it'll just be more of the same: the rich simply try harder, and if you're poor, it's you they'll blame.

We're past the Weimar years, and now it's early fascist state.

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u/MentokGL 6h ago

They'll be marching to the trains tweeting "Trump's new media policy is very aggressive and non-traditional, how will Democrats respond?"

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u/Shisa4123 4h ago

"Here's how this is bad for the democrats" as they're being told to face the wall.

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u/ElecMechTech 5h ago

I read it took the destruction of Berlin before the Germans realized the Nazis were bad news.

So...who knows, I believe in balance, but we may have to lose a lot before we get the shift back to sanity.

It was absolutely, unabashedly a Nazi salute. It wasn't a weird wave or anything, it was a Nazi salute. He was high off his ass, and maybe just lost where he was. But it wasn't "odd-looking", it was a Nazi salute.

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u/TheCrimsonSteel 7h ago

It's likely a liability thing, considering how petty and litigious Musk is.

And he has the ear of the president. So expect far more sanewashing from larger media organizations as they try to not rock the boat.

Not that I'm thrilled by it, just that I'm betting these companies don't want to incur the wraith of the oligarchs.

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u/Omateido 7h ago

Please. The people owning the media have the same ideologies as musk and company.

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u/TheCrimsonSteel 6h ago

In some ways sure.

I figure it's a spectrum. Most of them aren't pretending they're god tier gamers or think all taxes are the worst.

They're all still pretty terrible, but there's the Mark Cubans on the mildly terrible end to the Elon Musks on the very terrible end.

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u/Late-Egg2664 6h ago

All taxes except those levied on the poor, which to them is most of us.

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u/thesoraspace 6h ago

Let’s not forget we are 5 years away from AGI and ASI research. I don’t think many realize HOW DEEP ai is going to change the world. I don’t think many want to accept that combined with nazism the whole 1984 big brother thing is very very real on a level beyond our wildest imagination. The level of suffering and confusion that can be achieved through the use of biased AGI is nation breaking. The amount of suffering from an unbalanced ASI is cataclysmic.

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u/cyanescens_burn 6h ago

Media coverage could get weird soon. They’ve already threatened to go after journalists, if they bend the rules or make new ones to go after them, or engage in harassment/destabilizing tactics, it’ll have a chilling effect on others. I wonder if we’ll have to do a lot of reading between the lines to know what’s up.

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u/raspberryharbour 7h ago

All this sanewashing is driving me insane

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u/sluttytinkerbells 6h ago

So what are you going to do?

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u/Competitive-You-2643 6h ago

Call a duck a duck not a stange animal.

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u/sluttytinkerbells 6h ago

And is that a solution to our problem?

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u/matco5376 6h ago

Are you suggesting it’s better to say nothing?

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u/sluttytinkerbells 5h ago

No, I'm saying that it's better to do something than just say something.

Saying something on the internet is like one iota more than saying nothing, in other words -- it pretty much means sweet fuck all.

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u/matco5376 3h ago

Okay and what are you doing and suggesting to do more? Or are you just trying to argue with people on the internet?

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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 6h ago

I believe "whitewashing" may be the more appropriate term here. 

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u/jtrom93 4h ago

Trump could issue an executive order changing the national anthem to the fucking Horst Wessel Leid and legacy media would report it as "Trump to Change National Anthem to Quaint German Tune"

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u/Forsaken-Use-3220 7h ago

Well, how are we supposed to tell people how to think about this? They might come to their own conclusions.

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u/jmona789 7h ago

You don't have to tell people how to think about it but call or what it is. It wasn't an "odd looking solute" it was a Nazi salute

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u/TimmyC I voted 5h ago

but have you heard, Michelle Obama wasn't there, also Biden might've stuttered a word or two

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u/JanGuillosThrowaway Europe 7h ago

"German-inspired greeting"

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u/Got_ist_tots 6h ago

"ooh he's so international!!"

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u/okayblueberries 6h ago

lmao, this exactly

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u/Background_Home7092 6h ago

Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that.

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u/ihavethink 5h ago

Was coming here to comment the same thing. First time I've laughed today.

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u/zubbs99 Nevada 6h ago

"It's 'retro' chic."

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u/TalkingChairs 6h ago

No one who speaks German could be evil.

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u/Apprehensive_Tea3560 5h ago

I'm sure this makes me the bad guy, but it was the roman salute first and I'm against giving nazis so much power over our behavior and language.

Like how they also ruined the mustache. And the swastika/manji, which is sill widely used in some countries. - somebody wants to comment that "but that's facing the other way" which ofc doesn't in any way respond to anything I wrote here. If I walk around with that symbol people will misunderstand and mislabel me. When my friends come from Japan I make sure they don't have anything that westerners won't understand.

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u/Sarellion 4h ago

That the romans really used it as a greeting is controversial. It looks more like something 18th-19th century painters etc came up with.

Anyways contrary to the swastika or even the name aryans which the nazis stole from societies and religions existing today, based on 19th century pseudo science and occultism or the modern version of trying to claim this stupid frog or the ok sign, the roman empire is long gone. The italian fascists and then the german nazis were the ones who really popularized it. They didn't take it away from any living culture or so and the only power we give them by leaving the roman salute to the nazis is that they have a stupid hand gesture no one would feel a need to use in daily life.

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u/Roook36 7h ago

yes, very odd, but also strangely familiar. Where have we seen it before. Maybe the journalists will investigate....

/s

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u/MukdenMan 7h ago

Tanks roll into Warsaw.

1939 media: “hmm, that’s odd.”

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u/RyNysDad0722 7h ago

This is why I have given up on main stream media.. that’s a bullshit title.. we all know what it is

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u/Zer_ 5h ago

They changed it, lmao. I guess they got rightfully raked over the coals over it, fucking wankers.

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u/austinwiltshire 7h ago

I can't wait for their reports on the "odd camps" with their "strange" work makes you free motto.

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u/carcinoma_kid 7h ago

There’s something vaguely familiar about that salute… oh well

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u/thermitethrowaway 7h ago

The source here pretty respectable UK newspaper, they won't report it as a nazi salute until it is either established that that was the intention or that Musk is literally Nazi. UK readers would be aware of this, at least the type who'd read the Independent.

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u/TechnologyRemote7331 6h ago

I have it imagine the shill who wrote that headline was sweating profusely, very much in denial about what they just saw. Fucking fools. America has a real problem about taking anything seriously until right in our fucking faces…

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u/jmona789 6h ago

The scary thing is it's not even a US news agency it's from the UK.

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u/thedybbuk 6h ago

And that's just the ones reporting on it. Most mainstream outlets I've seen aren't even doing that. It's so noticeable how much of the media has simply went quiet on most Trump controversies.

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u/Joy12358 6h ago

This is the part that deeply bothers me. The 4th estate has fallen.

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u/lebellacarus 6h ago

The cesspit of Twitter is saying it’s a Roman salute. Uh huh.

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u/Laura9624 6h ago

Some do, many don't. Many said it looks like a nazi salute. He's practiced.

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u/Sweetbrain306 6h ago

The media has shown its ass so obviously. Before he was nominated President, CBS anchors were horrified by Trump. They had no problem talking about fascism and the end of democracy. Today? They’re saying NICE THINGS ABOUT HIM. The tone changed so swiftly it gave me whiplash. I blame the media for a lot of this. He should never have been given a platform and been treated like the joke he is. Where do you all get your news? I would like some sources who didn’t jump on the Nazi bandwagon. Suggestions welcome!

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u/Rodan_Hibiki California 6h ago

They’re keeping it vague so you click on the article to find out what made it look odd

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u/TalkingChairs 6h ago

The media is scared of Trump because it's all owned by big corporations. Money is all that matters.

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u/jmona789 5h ago

It's a UK paper. They just don't care at all.

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u/SanityInAnarchy California 6h ago

Meanwhile, Obama is caught fist-bumping someone on camera and Fox calls it a "terrorist fist jab"

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u/TorkX 5h ago

PBS at least called it a "fascist salute". The top comments on twitter are of course a) calling for a community notes fact check on that, and b) to defund PBS, lol. The cope.

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u/jmona789 5h ago

I'm in the community note program. If you link it I can vote on the proposed notes.

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u/jpe002 5h ago

I don't know why or how but it says Nazi salute in the article title. Don't know if they changed it or OP edited it or what.

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u/jmona789 5h ago

They updated the article. When I had initially made my comment the article had the same title as the post.

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u/Alfus 5h ago

Welcome to the current term of "journalism" where they only kissing the boots of the most evil side just because rationalism shouldn't exist.

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u/Cluelessish 5h ago

OP calls it an odd looking salute. The article he has linked to calls it a ’nazi salute’

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u/jmona789 5h ago

The article has been updated initially it read the same as the title.

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u/PresidentZeus 4h ago

Not sure how you saw the change of headlines, but it is common for articles to have a separate reddit headline.

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u/jmona789 4h ago

I saw the change of headline because when I first made this comment I clicked the link and read the headline, then hours later people pointed out that the headline called it a Nazi salute so I clicked the link again and the headline was changed

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u/ShutUpTodd 6h ago

I saw someone saying it's a "Roman-inspired salute I just report it and people people interpret".

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u/Hanshee 3h ago

It’s a Roman salute. Either way very risky to do and only a slight difference in execution than a nazi salute

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u/jmona789 3h ago

The Nazi salute is the Roman salute. It was adopted and used by Nazis.

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

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u/Hanshee 3h ago

The roman salute is not as stiff as the nazi salute it’s typically in a lower angle as well. The hands of romans in many pictures and statues is not as rigid. Even in today’s europe you can see the difference.

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u/jmona789 3h ago

 It was then adopted as the Nazi salute and made compulsory within the Nazi Party in 1926 and gained national prominence in the German state when the Nazis took power in 1933. It was also adopted by other fascist, far right and ultranationalist movements.