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[–] 153 points 1 year ago* (9 children)

It feels so weird to call this controversial. Doesn't that usually mean something similar to "polarising"? Who are on the poles here? Nazis, and the rest of the world?

From the wiki entry, "...interpreted by many as a Nazi or fascist" salute. It's like, yeah I guess it was interpreted by many that way, in the same way many people interpret water to be wet.

Why are the writers of this wiki entry giving so much wiggle room for Nazis? What the fuck?

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  • [–] 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's "controversial" because Nazism has somehow became acceptable to a considerable chunk of the population, who publicly deny it, thus creating "controversy".

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    its because trump/maga do shit like this and constantly deny and pretend its a misunderstanding. Its like the guy with a schwastika in the red lines of the american flag he had in the background and the immediate response was it was the software doing it on video but the flag looked normal in person. Which was shown to be bs in like 5 seconds because the guy had hung up a flag given to him that walked around and offered them to all the offices in the building.

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  • [–] 98 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 62 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Please correct me, but as far as I know, Elon Musk has never explicitly denied that it was a Nazi salute. He never said the words "it was not" or anything similar. He has called accusers ridiculous, talked about a gesture being meaningless, and made Holocaust jokes.

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  • [–] 49 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    Lenz Jacobsen wrote in Die Zeit: "Someone who, on a political stage during a political speech in front of a partly far-right audience swings their right arm upwards diagonally multiple times, is giving the Nazi salute. There's no need for 'alleged' or 'similar' or 'disputed'."[72] Timo Feldhaus wrote in the Berliner Zeitung: "That Elon Musk carefully considered his energetically performed signal, is safe to assume. Even a man as oblivious to history as he is knows what he's doing in this situation."[73]

    No confusion as to what it really was.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    Even a man as oblivious to history as he is

    ‘Americans Don’t Know History smdh’

    To quote someone from that comment section:

    Autistic enough to not know the 90 year old history of the Nazi salute but not so autistic to not know about the 2000 year old Roman salute.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The "Roman salute" isn't real, it's from a movie. The fascists - who believed the Roman salute was a real thing because they lack critical thinking - copied it. It is 90 years old, not 2000.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Oh, you mean exactly like said in the linked clip? Yeah thanks for your input.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    The clip you linked to didn't clarify any of that... he just said it was something "no one's ever done or heard of." But it has been done - first by some movie stars in a film about Rome and then by fascists. And, well, I've heard of it.

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  • [–] 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It’s absolutely a Nazi salute. I’m about 90% sure he did it the way he did just to stir the shit because he’s an attention seeking asshole wanting to be the main character. Only 10% remaining because he doesn’t think he’s a Nazi despite sharing a shitload of their fascist traits.

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  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    My favorite this was watching all the people claim "It was a Roman salute! It means he is giving his heart to the people!" Motherfucker the Roman salute is the Nazi salute. They are the same thing. The Romans used it, then the Italian Fascist party used it and Hitler adopted it in Germany and called it the Sieg Heil.

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

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

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The Romans didn't even use it. It's from a French painting of Rome that became popular after the revolution. It existed for barely a hundred years, and was hardly used by anyone, until it was adopted by fascists and Nazis.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    And even if it was the "Roman salute", didn't they introduce the fasces? Isn't it just a symbol for "power"? Although I read, that it initially should signal "unity and harmony". Hmm, lost in translation

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  • [–] 36 points 1 year ago

    The Trillion Dollar Nazi. Sounds like a good title for a book.

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  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago

    What's the controversy? The man's entire body of work is authoritarian to the core. Are we debating whether this was a nazi salute or an awkward attempt at a nazi salute? Who cares about the gesture, look where he invested his money, what he says on a daily basis. Is there anyone who doesn't recognize the fascism? If you don't recognize it, I got news for you...

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  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago

    The salute is just one piece of the story. Musk is actively supporting right wing fascist and white supremacy groups in UK and Germany with funding. His activity on social media is just as bad.

    Even if he didn't obviously do Fascist salutes while high on ketamine, he has a deeper troubling history.

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  • [–] 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That is why I love wikipedia, this will be there forever (or atleast in the hard drives of people who backed it up). Not the sort of stuff you can find it in government backed projects. Happy to be an annual donator.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    More USA drama! Noice. It's clear what he did, there is no controversy.
    You fool yourself.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    I have no strong opinion on whether this was or was not intended to be a nazi salute. The bigger issue in my opinion is how Musk reacted to people asking him to confirm that it was not intended to be a nazi salute. Deflection, jokes, ridicule, and tacit approval. All served to bolster the white supremacists watching -- and this, for sure, was intended.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Imagine STILL thinking this is a "controversy".

    Propaganda has poisoned people's minds and I'm afraid it's permanent.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Someone said to me once, "he's just a awkward guy!" Give me a fucking break.

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    [–] 25 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Elon Musk's NAZI salute. There is no controversy

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    In my opinion, Musk does not consider himself a Nazi, despite his involvement in far right causes and patent racism.

    I think he just can't stand the idea of a world where other people can tell him what he can and can't do. This was him going out there to show the world, "I can do whatever I want" with the most extreme example he could come up with. The "lol you call everyone a Nazi" trolling afterwards was icing on the cake for him.

    I say this not to excuse or condone this in any way. It clearly was 100% intended as a Nazi salute.

    He's a pathetic creep whose mental development stopped in adolescence. See also: Stephen Miller.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    The distinction between ideological Nazis vs capitalists who are going with it for money is a pointless one; do you know what we call people who supported Hitler for business reasons?

    We call them Nazis.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    similarly, I don't think he is a nazi in the sense that he believes in the same things and means it; I think he's a nazi because he supports nazi ideology and verified nazi people, and he's just shitty to everybody of a different class regardless of race

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    He actively supports all the big nazi "causes" you can think of, and is a privileged white man from south africa, whose companies have been sued an abnormal amount of times for racial discrimination, and who constantly talks about white replacement theory while artificially having as many white children as possible, and you don't think he's a nazi????

    People really do be giving rich people every conceivable benefit of the doubt in existence. Holy fuck.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    IDK if you surround yourself with nazis, use your wealth and influence to further their power, and then do a fucking nazi salute I'm not sure what to call you but a nazi.

    Maybe not an "ideological" nazi, but he's definitely in the party...

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Oh yes, the Terran Empire salute.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Does it mention how high he was? Not that that’s an excuse, he was planning to do it anyway, but that fascist garbage fire is hiiiiiiigh

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It's a good article if only to get the full list of scum supporting the oligarch. Zionazi leaders and Zionist hate groups such as the ADL defending Musk's Zionazi support above all else is especially telling of their purpose/values.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    I'm never buying a Teslar.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Why don’t u just ask the guy if he is a nazi..I mean he is still alive…

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  • [+] -27 points 1 year ago (14 children)

    A part of me suspects that he tried to do that thing the cool kids do, "dabbing or something like that", but couldnt remember exactly how; then saw that everyone mistook it for something even "cooler", the nazi dab, and went with it.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    This was roughly my interpretation too. Ignore the mob self-righteously downvoting you, they don't know any better than you do.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I mean, it clearly was a nazi salute though

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    What's most clear to me is that a lot of people want it to be one.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    It's not a matter of want. It was.

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  • [+] -26 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Imagine thinking Musk is intentionally doing a Nazi salute. Such unbelievable nonsense.

    After being in front of a thousand crowds, denouncing Nazis, and being critical of the government, he wanted to show everyone he's actually a Nazi, just this once, with absolutely no upside in sight? Why would a massive capital holder, passionate about his businesses, want to hand over corporate control to fascist authoritarians? He constantly bashes the two-party status quo, government mismanagement of money, and fantasizes about the rise of a third party.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Fascism is a capitalist ideology they use to suppress the working class when we threaten the status quo.

    Also, the Nazis didn’t just nationalize industries, they nationalized industries that they had sabotaged, so that they could then hand them over to their cronies - other businessmen. Sound familiar?

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago*

    Fascism is capitalist only insofar as they give some deference to the "private" owner, but there is no proper respect for private property. Otherwise, the government controls all "private property" for national purposes. China is a fascist contemporary, marketing itself as communism (like Nazis did with socialism). But in reality, private property is being seized for the nation, not for the working class.

    Musk in no way want to give over his companies to any government.

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