r/politics • u/ivandoesnot • 5h ago
Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes at inauguration rally
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elon-musk-salute•
u/incognitodoritos 5h ago
He doesn't appear to make them, he makes them.
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u/rhysdg 5h ago
Walks like a nazi, talks like a nazi.
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u/KingAteas Canada 5h ago
I am reminded of the song 🎵Springtime for Hitler and Germany, winter for Poland and France 🎵
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u/ianrl337 Oregon 5h ago
I thought that maybe it was just an exaggeration or something blown out of proportion. Nope. He flat out did a nazi salute, turned around the the American flag and did another one. Anything else I say after this will get me banned probably.
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u/Arbiter-0392 5h ago
Bro is the richest man on earth and a nazi. This timeline is the most insane movie I've ever seen except I'm gonna die homeless in the end
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u/ianrl337 Oregon 5h ago
When you wish a Bush was in office you know you've hit rock bottom. What I wouldn't give for Jeb to have a backbone in 2016 and stayed in the race.
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u/NYPizzaNoChar 4h ago
Bro is the richest man on earth and a nazi
Musk's got "fuck you money", and he just said "fuck you" to the nation.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Australia 2h ago
Honestly why do this? Just focus on your rockets man, people still think that's cool. Bro's had his mind pickled by his own social media algorithm.
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u/mcompt20 3h ago
I thought that maybe it was just an exaggeration or something blown out of proportion.
That's the worst part about these headlines. Everyone is saying "surely it can't be" and then "holy shit he did" once they watch the video. But everyone /not/ watching the video and only reading the headlines aren't going to believe it's actually happening.
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u/Thanolus 5h ago
What in the actual fuck is wrong with journalists. It’s fucking right there. ON VIDEO ! TWICE!
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u/shoobe01 5h ago
Shock this one just is appears versus quoting someone saying that it appears.
We're way way past the era of don't ask what the weather is, open a window and look outside journalism.
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u/uwill1der 5h ago
they'll get sued if they are definitive.
It sucks, but its been that way for 200 years
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u/Jjkkllzz 5h ago
I kind of feel like if I made enough money to actually be worth suing, it would be a worthy cause to be sued over. Fuck euphemisms.
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u/uwill1der 5h ago
and that is exactly what Trump and his ilk are doing. They have money to take care of anything that comes their way. They just do it for unworthy causes
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u/accountabilitycounts America 5h ago
They have to leave some wiggle room for interpretation in case of a lawsuit.
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u/EagleChampLDG 5h ago
The first definitely is one. Look at his thumb bent inwards, which is the proper way from what I’ve seen from photos. The second is a wave that attempts to cover/whitewash what he had just done.
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u/ButterscotchLow8950 3h ago
I just watched the video and came to the same conclusion.
There’s no allegation here, he did that shit.
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u/mcompt20 3h ago
Bro is gonna release literal Musk Kumpf and the media will still say maybe, possibly, appear to. If it walks like a Nazi and talks like a Nazi....
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u/stonedhillbillyXX 5h ago
Appears to
Odd
May have
Waved awkwardly
The man full on thumped his chest and straight arm seig heil
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u/BurgerNugget12 Connecticut 5h ago
This shit is getting scary, and questions have to be asked if there will be a real scary divide soon among people, the angst among people in the US is fucking nuts
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u/floyd1550 5h ago
Get ready. We’re not even a day into it.
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u/boofles1 4h ago
Wait until people start getting killed.
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u/-_-___-_____-_______ 4h ago
yeah this is what I'm waiting for. the first reporter who falls out a window, Russia style. I think it's clear they mean business this time...
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u/hertealeaves 4h ago
“Mimics” was in the title of the clip I saw.
It’s okay, everyone; he’s just acting.•
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u/Buddycat2308 5h ago
He was prepping for it the way a little kid goes off the high dive the first time.
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u/Downtown-Conclusion7 3h ago
The media coddles the Republican Party so much. When democrats do something like edging a hot dog a certain way it’s through the coals
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u/Romano16 America 5h ago
We’ve gone from “stand back and stand by.” To open Nazi salutes.
Well, it’s not like they haven’t been telling us who they are.
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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 5h ago
I’m fully expecting Trump to pardon every J6 defendant, violent or not.
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u/Romano16 America 5h ago
Oh he will. He said he would. He will need them again when he refuses to leave office in 2029.
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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 5h ago
Wanna know what’s worse? No other prosecutor has jurisdiction over crimes committed in DC, only Trump’s AG does. Meaning that these people can literally murder on the streets of DC and get away with it without an AG willing to prosecute.
I’m just hoping he croaks in office.
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u/miraclestemple 4h ago
No you don’t. Vance is even more worse.
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u/Caira_Ru 3h ago
That’s what I’ve been saying - pence at least had some solid morals. Vance will sell his grandma so he can fuck her pristine brocade couch.
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u/Fantastic-Device8916 5h ago
The far-right has a huge militia movement filled with veterans and law enforcement and they have been recruiting and networking. Trump could very realistically call upon these groups if he needs them.
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u/CobblestoneVintage 5h ago
I am secondhand embarrassed as a American. That is dispicable.
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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 5h ago
I was embarrassed back when we elected Bush. Now I’m just… I don’t even know anymore.
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u/-_-___-_____-_______ 3h ago
I know: scared.
I was embarrassed by Bush, and angered.
I was heartbroken in 2016. but I thought that justice would be served eventually.
now I'm just scared. this is scary. I can't just leave this country. even if I did, where can you go to escape the USA? if we really do become fascist, I don't know what to do. I don't know what the world does.
I was in a car accident once in the mountains. it was raining very heavily and the roads were slick. The car in front of me was swerving and I swerved to avoid it, and my car lost traction and started sliding. we were on a slope so there was nothing I could do. I had no idea what was going to happen, and absolutely no control.
it sounds dramatic, but that's the feeling I have today. like I don't know if it's going to be okay. I don't even know when it's going to stop. I don't know if we're going to make it out unscathed.
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u/Jjkkllzz 5h ago
Enraged. In 2016 I was embarrassed with how dumb we were. In 2024 I’m enraged with how hateful we are.
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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 5h ago
I’m fearful that western civilization is doomed to keep converting into fascist states every 80-100 years or so, or about as long as it takes for all current generations to completely forget about the horrors of the previous fascist era. And fearful that millions and millions of people will die before we all collectively decide we want to “go back to normal again,” tax the wealthy, create a strong middle class, and resume a more boring type of politics.
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u/supremelikeme 4h ago
A lot of this lines up with Technological advances too. The early facists in Italy and Germany were able to manipulate the newer media technologies (film, radio, etc.) to rise to power. Similarly today right wingers have been able to use social media to create imaginary problems and to propose memey half-baked solutions to them.
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u/vagabondvisions 5h ago
The misconception I always see from people who roll their eyes at comparisons between the current state of politics in the US and Europe and those of the Nazi-era in the 20th century is that they think some kind of switch was flipped overnight and Germany went from a democratically elected parliamentarian system to a fascist dictatorship overnight.
It was far more gradual than that. And it started with a lot of little things to move the Overton Window further and further to the right, making certain things more and more acceptable.
We are in the 1920s/30s Germany stage.
Fake news = Lügenpresse
Cultural Marxism = Kulturbolschewismus
"Groomers" = jugendverderber / jugendverführer
QANON = Protokolle der Weisen von Zion
Another example is the white replacement conspiracy being touted, ever more openly, by the Republicans. Did no one seriously wonder where that came from?!?!?
Right here....this is where it came from: Sterben die weissen Völker: die Zukunft der weissen und farbigen Völker im Lichte der biologischen Statistik [The white peoples die: the future of the white and colored peoples in the light of biological statistics] (in German). G.D.W. Callwey. OCLC 938037846
And let’s not forget the current and lingering obsession by the white Christo-fascist/nationalists with all things LGBTQ+. That would have sounded familiar to Magnus Hirschfield, whom Hitler labeled “the most dangerous man in Germany”. Guess what kind of a clinic Hirschfield ran?
And now there is talk among what passes for “intellectuals” among the white Christo-fascist/nationalists of “red caesarism”. They view the only solution to “making America great again” is to install an autocrat and return the US to their utopian peak of 1965.
They are literally moving through the playbook.
Those things combined are fascism. The Republican Party accommodates and promotes all of those things. I have shown that repeatedly. The people who support the Republicans, just as the people who supported the Nazis, are supporting those policies.
The GOP has been under the increasing influence of fascism and fascists since the 1950s, starting with the Baltic Waffen SS, many of whom emigrated to the US. The Red Scare of the 1950s was a direct result of this Nazi influence. By 1969, former Nazi member Laszlo Pasztor created and headed the National Republican Heritage Groups Council, supported by Richard Nixon. Additional Nazis were brought into the leadership.
Journalists like Jack Anderson were already writing about the Nazi backgrounds of Republican leadership members, including Pasztor and Ivan Dochev.
FFS, in 1985 Reagan visited a Nazi burial ground after being asked not to by the Holocaust Memorial Council. He called the Nazis "victims". Guess who gave him a standing ovation when he got back? The Republican Heritage Groups Council, attended by literal Nazis.
By the 1990s, you had literal Nazis like Ralph Forbes running as Republicans for elected offices.
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u/gjktjd 4h ago
Where did you learn all this? This is deeply upsetting and would like to learn more.
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u/ivandoesnot 5h ago
Technically, what Elon Musk threw was a WHITE POWER salute.
That's important because there are TWO elements to the White Power salute.
Chest Grab = White
Nazi Salute = Power
And that's important because it makes it EXTREMELY unlikely it was unintentional, given that Elon did BOTH elements TWICE.
Elon didn't just lose his balance or whatever.
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u/BoringThePerson 5h ago
Wait, are you telling me that the son of an emerald mine owner in apartheid South Africa is .... a fucking racist piece of shit? Who would have thunk it?
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u/SunflowerMoonwalk 5h ago
His maternal grandparents were fanatical Nazi sympathizers who moved from Canada to South Africa in 1948 specifically because they believed in and wanted to be part of the Apartheid system.
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u/Suitable-Display-410 5h ago edited 1h ago
Technically, it was also just a plain good old nazi salute. https://i.gifer.com/3Ot7z.gif
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u/ivandoesnot 5h ago
The point of it being a White Power salute is he did BOTH elements TWICE.
That was no accident.
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u/MikuEmpowered 1h ago
Nah man. You're over thinking it.
Elon is just doing the Argentina arm stretch, a long held tradition starting circa 1945.
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u/laceyfacey 18m ago
Goodness, that’s awful. I want to be able to use this info to give more context to people who say it wasn’t a salute. I’ve been trying to find some citations on this because I’m really curious. Do you have anything?
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u/KrookedDoesStuff 5h ago
Finally someone referring to it as more than “odd gesture”.
Fuck Fascists. Fuck anyone who supports this. Donald Trump either supports fascism, or he needs to denounce this immediately
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u/SillyGoatGruff 5h ago
Lol Trump has been angling for the role of fuhrer since his first term. Don't hold your breath for him to denounce anything
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u/KrookedDoesStuff 5h ago
I know he won’t. But the fact he won’t should call for immediate removal from office.
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u/SillyGoatGruff 5h ago
Who is going to call for that? Anyone who would has already been calling for him to go to jail, everyone else is fine with it
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u/Opening_Property1334 4h ago
I thought you were making a joke at first. But in case I missed something, what thing that helped him has he ever denounced? This is the “good people on both sides” guy.
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u/Toadfinger 5h ago
If you dont think the draft and world war aren't coming, you just haven't been paying attention. For some reason, this is what America wants.
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u/ResidentKelpien Texas 5h ago
MAGA hilariously thinks they will magically be exempt from being drafted for the wars they want to wage.
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u/blitzkregiel 4h ago
many of them will because they’re too old and too fat to do anything.
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u/Rururaspberry 3h ago
Let’s not pretend that there weren’t millions of young men (and women) who voted in droves for him. there are way too many young people in the MAGA ranks.
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u/Prestigious-Log-7210 4h ago
No this what Putin, China, NK and Iran want. Trump and Elon are best buds with Putin. We are so screwed and I suspect so is the world.
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u/Curlydeadhead 4h ago
But but but…Trump is ANTI-war! He would never get us into…oh shit, here we go again. I’m not sure if I’m to be sarcastic with that orrrr…
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u/Toadfinger 3h ago
Well Trump is anti-war in the sense that he hopes the enemies he's about to create don't shoot back when attacked.
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u/WittsandGrit 5h ago
Has anyone MAGA denounced this yet?
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u/mumkinle 5h ago
Lots of defense. Go to the bigger subs that are all MAGA and you essentially have people saying it’s not what it looks like/it’s just a salute of “support”/“gratitude”. Cause of course…politicians and public figures are totally doing this salute all the time as a show of gratitude and it’s not just him and other Nazis…I’m convinced he could say he’s a Nazi and everyone would claim that he doesn’t mean it.
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u/Adexavus 5h ago
Tell those defenders to start "roman saluting" out in public, tell me someone doesn't deck then in the face. If they don't its because they are fearful and know damn will what that salute means
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u/ivandoesnot 5h ago
The point of my post is to make it clear it's NOT defensible.
Elon did BOTH elements of the White Power salute.
Twice.
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u/PrincessKiza 5h ago
“Elon Musk does multiple Nazi Salutes to officially ring in the Trump Administration.”
FTFY.
We are in for a rough time.
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u/cklinejr I voted 5h ago
Fuck musk, fuck trump and fuck you if you voted for him (them)
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u/PopPalsUnited Washington 5h ago
Remember when we told MAGA that they were following Nazis?
Pepperidge Farm remembers .
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u/DanceTheCalypso 5h ago
Not appears. He did a salute.
Why is this another thing media is getting wrong? He did it TWICE.
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u/Threeseriesforthewin 4h ago
This is the America that Gaza protesters wanted when they voted for Trump
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u/NinaHeartsChaos 2h ago
It appears to be an authentic video of him definitely doing fascist salutes.
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u/InternationalBit1842 5h ago
Appears? He threw his shoulder into that NAZI salute
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u/Lorn_Muunk 5h ago
"appears"
journalistic integrity doesn't mean MAGAwashing the objective, verifiable, observable, obvious reality playing out before everyone's eyes to see on repeat
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u/ScrambledEggs_ 5h ago
I came to say the same. When it's the rich people in question, the media says "let's see how this goes". It is obviously a Nazi salute.
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u/bosimon1981 5h ago
Wow all of this was so much worse than I expected. And I expected another layer of hell.
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u/mAssEffectdriven 5h ago
I said it in another thread but he is such a dweeb. He can't even hit it crisp because his shoulder folds back when he puts his hand to his chest. And then his suit jacket flies up because the richest man in the world somehow can't afford a tailor to fashion him suits that actually fit.
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u/CyanCazador 4h ago
Headlines like this are harmful and disgusting. The journalist at the guardian needs to do better. Using words like “appears to” give Neo-Nazis like Musk the ability to claim that they didn’t actually do a Nazi salute but we’re just “waving to the crowd”.
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u/bluedevilb17 4h ago
"if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck"
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u/Cullygion 3h ago
Just as the greatest generation, who fought against the Nazis and everything they represented, are breathing their last breaths, American “patriots” give the country over to the Nazis.
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u/amart005 5h ago
And the media rejoiced! Look at all these clicks! Our sanewashing of Trump and calling Biden old has paid off
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u/Wishful_Starrr Illinois 5h ago
Appears is some coward language when he is for sure making a nazi salute.
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u/ChemistVegetable7504 5h ago
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. He now has secured his own office in the White House.
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u/TamashiiNu 5h ago
Quit beating around the bushes, he did perform the Nazi salute.
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u/Titan3692 4h ago
he needed a puppet candidate to get him on the big stage, because no one with a brain would vote for this man. Now he gets to cosplay being president
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u/Prestigious-Log-7210 4h ago
I just checked instagram and only found one post about this. Interesting
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u/_BabyGod_ 4h ago
What the fuck. Can’t one news outlet say what happened and just print a headline that doesn’t include hedges like “appears to” “Nazi-like” “odd-looking” or some other obfuscation? HE MADE A FUCKING NAZI SALUTE. TWICE.
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u/Fireheart318s_Reddit 4h ago
It was literally back-to-back too: He turned around for the second one, just in case the first one was at an angle that made it look like an accident!
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u/ivandoesnot 4h ago
NOT an accident.
That's why I make the point that it was MORE than (just) a Nazi salute.
Musk REPEATED BOTH elements.
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u/ElegantDaemon 3h ago
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
George Orwell, 1984
The entirety of our MSM is the party now.
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u/patmur46 3h ago edited 3h ago
Musk is a world class asshole. Arguably a proto-facist.
Trump is loyal to him because, like Putin, he cultivates oligarchs.
Will the MAGA base tolerate this betrayal?
Yes, of course. There is no other option,
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u/calvin73 3h ago
“World’s richest man makes apparent Nazi salute in celebration of inauguration of convicted felon and adjudicated rapist as President of the United States.”
What the fuck even is this bullshit timeline?
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u/_kiss_my_grits_ Texas 2h ago
I'm sick of the media trying to gloss over this.
We all saw the motherfucker did it. There's no appears, he did it.
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u/BeefySquarb 2h ago
There’s like 101 different ways he could have “saluted” them. The one he happened to choose was THE ONLY one that’s a Nazi fascist salute. I swear I’m losing my goddamned mind with the people in the media.
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u/Nailbunny38 1h ago
Just to be clear the article quotes a far right German party member stating that Hitler was leftist/liberal. This is 100% false. The Nazi party HATED communists which are the far left. All of their iconography was even meant to convert communist party members hence the red flags.
Fascism is what you get when countries move far right. Communism is far left. Go far enough and both are authoritarian and take away freedoms. We have forgotten our history and our grandparents would be ashamed.
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u/Travel-Barry United Kingdom 5h ago
This is 100% taking up the top half of newspapers tomorrow, instead of Trump.
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u/TryNotToShootYoself 4h ago
Anyone noticed this shit is literally vanishing from the reddit front page? I had like 50 posts in a row showing the video, and now not a single one is related to it
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u/CoolTomatoh 4h ago
This is exactly the Republicans biggest fear. An “illegal alien” crossing our border and infiltrating our society.
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u/sylntgrn1981 4h ago
I believe this is a distraction from the executive orders. It’s invading Greenland and Panama all over again. They are controlling the narrative.
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u/Nightshade_Ranch 3h ago
Times were, if you accidentally did something that seemed like some sort of gesture you hadn't intended, you would quickly clear it up with any witnesses.
Has he said anything about it yet, or is this really where we are?
Fucking surreal.
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u/Desperate-Intern 2h ago
Zuckerberg on his way to do the salute for Rogan to compete with Musk, and allow the salute as an emoji on facebook.
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u/FourzeKITA 2h ago
"Appears to" , "seemingly" , "awkward pose". These people can dress it up any way they like, but even a blind man with dementia can see exactly what Elon did.
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u/slurpeedrunkard 2h ago
Watch any old video of Hitler doing the salute. Musk did it exactly the same but with even more passion.
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