this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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Summary

Elon Musk escalated controversy over accusations that his salute at a Trump rally resembled a "Sieg heil" by posting Nazi-related jokes on X, referencing figures like Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) initially defended Musk, urging "a bit of grace" and "benefit of the doubt," but later condemned his Holocaust-related jokes as offensive.

Conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also defended Musk.

Critics highlighted Musk's history of promoting far-right conspiracy theories and enabling neo-Nazi content on X, raising concerns about increasing offensive rhetoric on the platform.

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[–] glowing_hans@sopuli.xyz 14 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

can we acknowledge how insane these things are in combination:

  • the worlds richest man
  • buys a large social media platform X, where most political conversations take place
  • supports a presidential candidate with millions of dollars
  • candidate gets elected
  • starts doing a Hitler salute
  • starts posting Nazi Names in a joking/meme manner

This is Keyne West story all over again, but with more money and more power & influence.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 13 points 3 hours ago

Non-Nazi response to someone asking why you did a Nazi salute: "What? I would never do that!"

Nazi response to someone asking why you did a Nazi salute: "Haha it was just a prank bro"

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 12 points 3 hours ago

The problem with Nazi jokes is that Nazis don't think they are funny, and nobody else thinks they are jokes.

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 16 points 4 hours ago

Never let the nazis gaslight you or certain american media channels try to pan away and deemphasise what he did in their footage. If anyone tries to claim this was not a nazi salute, just point them to this few-seconds-long comparison video, maybe download with yt-dlp (cw: nazis doing nazi stuff like chanting) nya.

Also I'm autistic and nazi salutes are not stimming or simple social difference or whatever.

Stims are usually repetitive and/or simple motions or behaviours or similar (e.g. I stim by jumping up and down or repeating phrases or spinning my arms in circles, sometimes from happiness and sometimes as a way to regulate emotions), and not a complex deliberate action. That salute was a deliberate and non-repetitive action. I could see the bit at the start where he walks around and moves his arms up and down repeatedly being a stim, but the other stuff? And specifically the nazi salute? No.

Plus autistic people are not on the whole less capable of understanding ethics^1 or empathising (though we may have trouble reading non-autistic social cues or emotional states and thought processes, but if we understand what someone is feeling we experience empathy, though of course there are variations on that just like with non-autistic people, if you want to know more just look up the double empathy problem :p). He knows what he was doing.

I'm sick of people (usually bad faith actors of course but still) blaming this shit on autisticness and autistic people. Its like people think that being autistic just means being a dick and not caring about other people (of course, there are plenty of dickish autistic people just like there are of any other group of people nya). And its especially disgusting given that Nazis attempted to genocide us.

I do understand that not everyone understands autism very well but come on.... its such bullshit <.<

1: some studies suggest autistic people are actually more likely to follow their own sense of ethics even without social pressure when it would benefit them to break it, though these kinds of tests are done in very limited circumstances and I've not really looked at them in that much detail

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 99 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

His supporters have argued alternately that Musk’s autism affects how he behaves in public, and that the salute was nothing much out of the ordinary.

I'm on the spectrum. People, stop using neurodivergence as an excuse for someone being a shitty person. People like us can still tell good from evil even if we don't fully understand common social behaviors. The golden rule is easy enough to understand.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 51 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve never seen an autistic person just give a Nazi salute accidentally. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person do it accidentally, especially twice, and—twice with other Nazis in the room.

That asshole did everything except click his heals.

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 30 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It's like Rosanne blaming her racism on sleep medication. Sure thing racist.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 12 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I think her recent music video shut down any chance for her to claim it was medication lol

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Oh no, it gets worse?! 😂 I haven't been keeping up.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It’s something you can’t unsee. Just know it was pro-Trump, and she had dread locks. Much like two girls one cup, I won’t help you find it, and I’d suggest you don’t. ;)

[–] superkret@feddit.org 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

That video belongs in a South Park episode, not real life.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 3 points 3 hours ago

That is a very good description of the video.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 96 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

"Bet you did Nazi that coming"

We did. We did see it coming.

Any bets on when Trumpers start doing it at rallies? I give it a month max.

[–] TodaviaTyler@lemmy.world 42 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

OMG, I haven't even thought about this. Imagine thousands of people doing this together all at once. A terrifying visual indeed!

[–] blazeknave@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Look at the faces in the background of the photo of him from the side. Glee.

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 15 points 7 hours ago

Many people that would do this are the same people that criticized taking a knee.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 27 points 9 hours ago

Unfortunately I think it is now necessary to think of such things if only to inoculate ourselves against the numbness that follows horror. They escalate in shocking steps as an intentional strategy to stun healthy people into inaction.

At least for me personally, I have chosen not to spend the next 4 years in a state of emotional shock. I get it, they are callous monsters. I won’t let them distract me from working with every remaining sane person in my life to destroy them.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 19 points 8 hours ago

Any bets on when Trumpers start doing it at rallies? I give it a month max.

Umm... didn't they already durring his first term? (admitted not one trump showed up at),

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/13/us/13-thedaily/merlin_129332684_d6d72e78-5e0b-4b40-8d6f-41aff9746e30-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp

Trump famously said there's good people on both sides.

[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 149 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

The ADL lost all credibility forever, and the right to open their trap about anything, when they failed to condemn Musk's Nazi salute in the strongest possible terms.

It's not great when gentiles don't distance themselves clearly from the South African Nazi. But when jews don't either - especially jews who purport to defend against defamation of all things - it's extremely clear that those people are either totally corrupt or extremely wimpy.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 hours ago

Honestly, if you still gave them any credibility you haven't been paying attention. They have long held the opinion that antizionism is antisemitic.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 28 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

People said they were just an Israel lobbyist group and I just shrugged my shoulders. But after defending genocide and Musk, it's clear the last thing they actually care about is "defamation"...

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[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 36 points 9 hours ago

It's part of their name now. "The ADL, which defended Musk's nazi salute..."

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 20 points 7 hours ago

Apartheid Defense League

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 87 points 9 hours ago

It's not a Salute Controversy

It's not a hand gesture

It's a NAZI SALUTE and if you can't / won't / don't admit it or challenge it then you are enabling the problem and allow creeping Nazism and far right ideology into the public consciousness.

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 34 points 8 hours ago (11 children)

So the group that kept saying if you say "free palestanian" or "israel is bad" you are a nazi and antisemitic, suddenly had no issue with nazi marks by Musk?

if elon musk doesn't get sued for hate crime, while student protesting genocide do, then you know who is your enemies,,

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 51 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

-Jean-Paul Sartre

Fuck this quote has basically had nonstop use for ten years now. It's the same fucking bullshit every time. It's all "jokes" right up until it's not.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 points 10 hours ago

Nazi doubles down on being a nazi

[–] don@lemm.ee 27 points 9 hours ago

And Huffington Post still too busy being fucking jellospined little bitches to actually say that the fuckwit did indeed throw the Nazi salute. Twice. Call it what it is, you Nazi sympathizer fucking cheesedick shitmouth cowards.

[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 44 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Trump found his Nazi general.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

trump is hindenberg, musk is the chancellor

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 17 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I read that as "Trump is the Hindenburg" and it still made sense. Oh, the humanity!

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 hours ago

Huge Manatee?

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[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 21 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I’m having Deja vu. Didn’t he respond to something with a nazi pun tweet a couple years ago?

Edit: Well, fuck me! It was 3 months ago, almost to the day. Same “jokes” too.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

What was the joke? The article just said it wasn’t going to repeat it?

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Well, I did Nazi that coming! Those fools will Goebbels anything down …

I bet their pronouns are He/Himmler!

-Elon Musk, Oct 21, 2024

There is a link to the twat at the beginning of the article.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Oh yikes. Yeah. Definitely a Nazi.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 22 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

His puns weren't even good. And he probably stole them anyway.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 26 points 10 hours ago

100% just asked his edgylord ai to generate them.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

I'm like 95% sure he used this exact tweet like a few years ago. I could've sworn I saw all of these stupid puns before.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago
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