Here’s the thing, in a normal, functioning society if someone gets caught doing a gesture that is interpreted by some people as being a Nazi salute, that person apologizes.
Even if in their heart of hearts they really didn’t mean to do a Nazi salute, they still apologize. They’re not necessarily apologizing for Seig Heil, they’re apologizing for how the gesture was received and interpreted. In a normal world, in a non fucked country, it’s very important to clarify “I’m not a Nazi, I hate Nazis, I would never do that, and I’m very sorry that what I did hurt and scared people.” In some countries, merely doing that gesture is grounds for arrest, but someone might avoid arrest if they made it clear it was an accident.
Whether or not it truly was 100% a Nazi salute matters less than the aftermath. No consequences, no apologies, no denials. The US is so fucked now that there are no consequences for credibly behaving like a Nazi in public. He won’t be fired or censured by the boards of his companies. Trump and the rest of the GOP will continue to eagerly have him around.
The US is now a place where for about half the population (including a lot of non-white people) being a Nazi is not a dealbreaker.
Not just in public, the richest man in the world, during the inauguration of the President of the United States that he just spent a shit load of money getting elected.
This is terrifying. People should be terrified.
We’re at the “normalizing fascism” stage.
Historically there’s no way out of this. We’re going to have to push through a very sad, very deadly phase in American history and see what happens on the other side.
Buy a gun.
“This is a man with Aspergers exuberantly throwing his heart to the crowd,” the journalist said, calling Musk “a friend to the Jews.”
Also, Asperger’s is no longer a medical term and there is no indication that Elon has ever actually been evaluated. Autism is not an excuse to throw a Nazi salute, for fuck’s sake!
