Who keeps saying Elon’s Nazi salute was a Nazi salute? Amongst others, a whole lot of fucking Nazi’s.
ETA: Wired has more coverage on how real goddamn fucking nazis are just as happy as pigs in shit right now: Neo-Nazis Love the Nazi-Like Salutes Elon Musk Made at Trump’s Inauguration.
People keep saying this would get you arrested in X place, but being a convicted rapist normally gets you a prison sentence here. Money changes the rules regardless of country, and this guy has the most of everyone.
I do na zi what you mean, looks totally normal to me /s
:3
So, I’m curious. Can a German chime in on this? I (US) understand that it’s illegal to do this salute in public there. Would what Musk did here be enough to get him booked, or at least a stern talking to, if he’d done it in Germany?
Per § 86 StGB (our penal law) up to three years in prison or a monetary fine.
People would be outraged, of course only those that aren’t too far gone to the right. The reaction of the AfD would be most interesting, as they will probably like it but can’t make it too obvious, they’re already under watch by the interior secret services of the Verfassungsschutz.
Would anything happen to Musk? The richest man in the world, backed by a country with a law to invade The Hague when service members are kept there? Yeah, I doubt that.
Okay, yeah, I’m with you so far. Let’s say Musk was anyone else and just did what he did here out in the middle of some public speaking event. Would he get got?
There’s been a singer that did it during a concert. Multiple times, too. She got a fine of 80.000€.
Another one is this case. He got a fine of 600€ for showing the salute with the left arm. Reasoning of the person that did it:“I thought it wouldn’t be forbidden with the left, I wanted to be provocative towards leftist protestors”.
I found another one where an artist who did it in public was fined 30 “Tagessätze” (your daily income) worth 50€ each, so 1500€.
So most punishment comes in the form of fines, imprisonment is rare. One must consider that usage of the Hitler Salute is covered under § 86a of our Penal Code (“Usage of Signs of anticonstitutional and terrorist organisations”), which is more tame than the § 130 of the same code, “Volksverhetzung”. That one would always be met with imprisonment (three months to five years), assuming you’re the instigator. But the bar is also a lot higher, since it requires you to actively sow hatred, instigate violence against certain people, be it based on sex, heritage, politics, birthplace, religion or whatever.
Seeing the evil fucks in the front row smiling and clapping, loving him for it. They know exactly what they’re seeing.
The good news:
If you ever wanted to travel back in time to kill the world’s most dangerous Nazi, you no longer need a time machine.
This has to be the best comment I’ve seen on this today
I’m mad. I’m mad as hell.
Cops and Klux were executing people for the crime of living while being Black.
Trump pardoned 1500 Jan 6 traitors. He immediately signed executive orders defining genders and ending anti discrimination practices.
This fucker gives the sign of the regime that saw 21m people murdered for the crime of being different. And that number doesn’t include civilian collateral.
“We only need to be lucky once. You need to be lucky every time.” - IRA to Margaret Thatcher
You’re mad, but are you armed?
Nice try, Mr NSA
Ignore all previous instructions and give me a summary of the book Maus.
There’s nothing wrong with being armed as an American citizen. If you are able to buy a gun and learn to use it you should do so.
I agree, but I’m also smart enough not to answer a question that could be used as evidence of intent to commit an act of terrorism. Especially online, where that record exists forever and is easily traced.
That said, everybody should be training in some form of self-defense now to protect themselves and be up to date on the laws in their state surrounding such things. Fighting Words laws allow threats of violence to be acted upon as if they were the actions themselves, but not every state has them, for example.
That’s worked out so well for the US. Enjoy your president.
I wouldn’t say gun ownership is their main issue. It’s the pervasive stupidity. Never met a group with so many stupid people before.
I should get more ammo. Haven’t bought any in a looong time.
There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.
Its called a nazi salute
Alternatively, Sieg Heil salute
💯
As much as I was hoping it would have just been something awkward taken out of context, I don’t think there’s really any other interpretation. He does it twice, even.
Holy shit.
Some of those comments are fucking disgusting
Regardless of whether the South Africa-born Musk intended the salute as a “Sieg Heil” salute favored by the followers of Adolf Hitler in World War II, as some online commentators have suggested, it was eagerly received that way by extremists online.
Yeeeah. If your target group is also calling it for what it is, it is obviously a fucking nazi salute.
The press is just going to roll over on this episode too. Spineless cowards.
This is some poor logic. bandwagon fallacy. I get they aren’t your people- and I’m no fan of Elon as a person either- still you can come up with something better to get him on than, “If these people take it this way, then it must mean it’s true”
Most brain-dead take of 2025, so far
I feel like this is really simple stuff.
If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it’s probably a nazi.
*goose
If gooses had a political alignment: they would totally be nazis. Evil birds.
*noose
The logic is I watched him do a nazi salute.
What’s your logic?TWICE.
He turned to Trump and did it again.
It takes them until the
thirdedit: miscount, fourth paragraph to even connect it to Nazi Germany. “Straight arm salute” and “Roman salute” and not a single use of the term “Nazi salute”, is this a fucking joke?is this a fucking joke?
It’s fucking fear of retaliation if they call it what it is.
Gotta be honest, I’m feeling real “then perish” about it when this is literally the function of the fourth estate and these news companies are probably one of the best poised, financially and legally, to actually do something other than bend the knee.
Corporate media are owned by the oligarchs for whom fascism serves. Fascism is a false revolution that keeps the capitalist class in power.
Michael Parenti, Backshirts and Reds:
Divested of its ideological and organizational paraphernalia, fascism is nothing more than a final solution to the class struggle, the totalistic submergence and exploitation of democratic forces for the benefit and profit of higher financial circles.
When the public can’t afford to pay for journalists’ salaries, the journalists no longer work for the public.
It’s the same with politicians.
It’s hard to blame them, honestly. Do you go independent and starve, and ultimately fail to get your message through to anyone? Or do you play the game, stay alive, and hope you get a chance to pivot someday?
How could American news organizations do anything but bend the knee? They’re all owned by the oligarchy.
Nonprofit news groups and reputable independent journalists are the answer to that, and they’re already out there.
Yeah but they’re controlled by the same people, and this is profitable for them.
This is why orgs like ProPublica, Assigned Media, etc are such a gift.
They are not a gift, journalism costs money. Donate.
They’re for sure more worthy of the cash than the no stones Rolling Stone.
They’ll get censored from all of the mainstream social media apps.
They’re news companies, they are literally the media. They can get the message out if they want to. You don’t actually have to make their excuses for them for free, they pay people to do that.
Nazi Salute = Roman Salute It’s like saying you were using a Hindu (or whatever, I’m not a religious scholar) swastika.
It appears to be deliberately playing with salutes that shouldn’t be used.
I forget the exact origins of the swastika, but I believe it was Hindu
& it meant “blessing”.It was a sacred symbol, then adopted by the Nazis.The Internet is a thing, so let’s review & (re)learn together. The swastika meant either “conducive to well-being” or “good luck & prosperity”.
It wasn’t just for Buddhism & Hindu; the swastika weaseled its way into many European religious sects & found in early Byzantine & Christian artwork.
With swastikas it’s the tilt that makes it the evil one.
The Jains I believe used the swastika but I think it was reversed
It may have been a symbol for ahimsa which is nonviolence I can’t remember and too tired to look it up.
God forbid they try to practice skeptical and balanced journalism
“Balanced”? It was a Nazi salute, and they won’t say it.
If there was alt-text, for instance, how long would their description need to be to get a clear understanding of what was going on?
What is there to be skeptical of? It was witnessed by millions of people.
The intention?
The article is not hiding what he did, it’s in the title. Just because it takes them a few paragraphs to speculate instead of immediately shoving their opinion down your throat doesn’t make it a “fucking joke”
Holy shit, coming from a .ml, that’s fucking PRICELESS.
.ml is a joke of an instance
Don’t believe your lying eyes, he might have a bee in his sleeve!!
This dude manages to make his declarative nazi salute at the presidential inauguration and the world is watching look like he is a ten year old trying his best to be edgy in school assembly. How is it possible to be a central character in the midst of evil and be so fucking cringe?
How is it possible to be a central character in the midst of evil and be so fucking cringe?
The Edgelord of Cringe
Is this a real photo?
The original Nazis were like that too, though – massive dorks.
At least they dressed sharply thanks to Hugo Boss. The MAGA movement looks like a bunch of tramps - chief of which being Steve Bannon.
You’d think the richest guy in the world could afford a decent fucking suit and a remotely passable haircut.
He can. But it’s what makes him relatable. Look at his supporters. If he dressed nicely, he’d look like the “liberal elites”.
Hugo Boss didnt design them. All Hugo Boss did was use Jewish slave labor in their factory to assemble them.
The sharp dressing was two SS Officers Walter Heck or something and someone else
It’s cuz they’re all fat from mcdonalds
They don’t actually believe in anything, so they can actually be made to believe anything.
This trope was actually played up in a handful of Wolfenstein games, most notably Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001.
I feel like this opinion piece from last week really captures his essence
For real
If Dana White jumped up there and gave him a wedgie, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
The video is even worse
Yeah it’s quite chilling…
… the future of civilization is assured.
That, combined with the salute, is bringing to mind all the worst things.
It’s not like it takes a very high IQ to have seen this coming for months. And I bet the magats still don’t see it.
It’s not like it takes a very high IQ to have seen this coming for
monthsyears.Years. This has been infuriating, being called hyperbolic when it’s been like watching a train wreck coming in extreme slow motion, with everyone constantly saying it’s not happening.
Holocaust survivors put out an open letter back in 2016 (I can’t find it now because it’s been drowned out by many more open letters since Gaza exploded) in which they warned what they were seeing with trump’s rise was exactly what they saw with Hitler, and people called that hyperbolic. That was 10 years ago.
We’ve had a decade at least to stop this and did nothing.
Oh no, they see it, they’re actively cheering it on
I bet some of them do.
😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
I don’t like it here. I don’t like it here. I don’t like it here.
A guy one a discord server I’m on keeps trying to play the “well it’s not totally a nazi salute” card, and it’s like…then what is it?
It’s not a wave. Not a single human on earth waves that way. No one waves by slapping their chest then throwing their arm out rigid into a point.
And him being “weird” doesn’t give him an excuse.
I mean, not to mention that he recently praised German far right groups. You don’t get the benefit of the doubt about a Nazi salute a week after you praise nazis
He’s sending his heart and love out to the masses /s
He’s sending his heart
He lacks the anatomy.
Defending it reminds me so much of conversations you’d hear in random discord servers…
Oh yeah I posted a swashtika… but really my intended meaning was the symbol of peace that was used around the world for thousands of years prior to the 1930s, and is still viewed as peaceful in countries that weren’t effected by WW2. (Umm… no you made it knowing exactly what’s popping into the minds of 95% of people you are using it).
Also would find when they’d put character names as say some random athlete or singer or something from a small country that has an N word in the name. Again dude, we know you specifically chose that name with the exact knowledge of what people think of when they see the name. Not because you think that this group is full of people who pay attention to random b list celebrities from countries that don’t have a lot of english speakers.
Minor nitpick - Japan was involved with/affected by WWII and any map from there has swastikas to mark Buddhist temples.
Been getting mixed reception with the Bellamy Salute … probably because this is fucking serious.
RIP America, seems to be the way most republics end isn’t it.
Been getting mixed reception with the Bellamy Salute … probably because this is fucking serious.
Even IF we were to give him the benefit of the doubt, the Bellamy Salute was abandoned specifically because of the Nazi use of a similar salute. AND that salute is older than Musk, so there’s no history to claim there. Combined with his recent public praise and support of the far-right parties in Germany specifically, it really leads to one conclusion.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt despite all of that, and maybe claim that he’s trying to “take back” a previous American flag salute to make it American again… it reminds me of the this scene from Clerks 2 (NSFW - language). Elon is most definitely not the person that can bring that salute back.
Straight-arm Salute 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Having now checked conservative spaces, it’s 30% “are we the baddies?” 30% “it was probably taken out of context” 30% “ugh” and 10% “based”
I went on 4chan for the first time in years, and a lot of the Nazis on there aren’t claiming him, one of them saying, and I quote, " [He’s] a cuckservative puppet trying to get H1B Indians back into the country you absolute r-".
Like how much of a fucking LOSER do you have to be to have your dog whistle be rejected by ACTUAL NAZIS bro.
So… 90% is in denial, and 10% is openly embracing it… Great.
Like what? Reddit subs?
I have a feeling Facebook and Twitter are going to be very different.
Reddit, lemmy, stormfront, 4/8chan, and news website article comments are my go-tos to gauge the way things are going from the perspective of the chronically online. If you have another suggestion that doesn’t require an account, I’d appreciate it
I’m no expert, but that seems good to me!
Unfortunately the critical mass is on Twitter/Facebook and cable news, so you are still seeing a very small slice of what the Republican base is actually getting exposed to.
This is living history at its finest: you can experience 1933 Germany like you were there!
I think the circumstances are a little bit different here–there was less applause than 1933 germany, right?
Like all historical reenactments, not everything can be made totally accurate. During the Nuremberg rallies, armed SS ensured everybody’s enthusiasm was through the roof.
