Did Elon Musk give a Nazi salute at Trump's inauguration celebrations? The Left insist that he did, and they use it to justify their irrational, self-esteem-boosting idea that anyone who disagrees with them is a crypto-Nazi, that the US is now in the hands of crypto-Nazis, and that they (the Left) are the valiant, if temporarily defeated, forces of Castle Grayskull bravely battling a perma-tanned Skeletor. For the center right, who wish to be seen as the true heirs of Martin Luther King, regardless of what they might say after a few Gin and Tonics, Musk's salute is extremely embarrassing, so assorted forms of "copium" have been employed, such as still pictures of Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and assorted other Democrats lifting their arms to wave such that it looks like a Hitler salute.
However, for the extreme right, the simplest explanation appears to be the best one, even if they may desire this explanation to be true. "That was a straight up like 'Sieg Heil,' like, loving Hitler energy," proclaimed Nick Fuentes, whom Musk un-banned from Twitter along with Donald Trump. Keith Woods wrote on Twitter of Musk's gesture, "Okay, maybe Woke really is dead," implicitly, if light-heartedly, taking the gesture at face value. The Proud Boys, whose leadership was jailed over the events of January 6, 2021, posted the clip along with the phrase "Hail Trump!" On the other hand, of course, Musk is the same man who referred to a so-called "Anti-Semitic conspiracy theory" – "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them" – as "the actual truth" and, for so-doing, went on an "apology tour" of Israel.
My initial reaction was that the furore over Musk's "Nazi salute" was just the usual left-wing lies; an out-of-context photograph... but then I actually watched the video. According to the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid (1710-1796): "That those things do really exist which we distinctly perceive by our senses, and are what we perceive them to be." In other words, we must adopt a "Common Sense" philosophy; we must believe our own eyes, and what I saw was Elon Musk giving a Roman Salute, albeit talking about sending out "love" while he did so.
Everybody, in the West anyway, knows what a "Hitler salute" is, knows what its connotations are, and knows that it is, perhaps, one of the most taboo gestures you can give. Even the most severe high-functioning autistic knows these things and would likely only perform the gesture in such public circumstances if he had Tourette's Syndrome; with autism being noticeably elevated among Tourette's sufferers. All this being so, why did Musk give the salute?
Perhaps it was accidental or unconscious. In the exuberance of the moment, it just, somehow, slipped out. Autistics feel sensations, including those of their own bodies, extremely strongly. Consequently, they feel emotions with great intensity and can easily become emotionally dysregulated, leading to seemingly irrational behavior. In this regard, Musk may have been overwhelmed by a feeling that we – the good people, the based people, the honest people, the non-mutants – have taken a significant step towards vanquishing the mutated forces of evil who, for so long, have dominated our lives and told us what we can and can't do, say, or even think. These narcissistic transwomen and their shrieking enablers stab their stilettos into the face of freedom, but now, freedom is fighting back. If we want to talk about genetic race differences in IQ, we will! If we want to offend these New Church Ladies, we will! What offends them most? The Hitler Salute, and if we want to do that (even if we are appalled by many of the things Hitler did), then we bloody well will, and there's nothing these hypocritical leftists can do about it anymore! Freedom!!!!!!!!
A related possibility is that it was a deliberate "Troll." Musk may have thought to himself: "These vicious people have rendered infertile and destroyed my son and done their level best to collapse Western Civilization, so I'll do the one thing that will not only upset them but cause them to become utterly emotionally incontinent. However, plausible deniability is implicit in it: I can say it was a Roman salute; I can say I was symbolically pushing love outwards to my comrades. I can, in effect, gaslight the left and force their inner mental teenage girl who cuts and burns herself to come on full display for all to see!"
Yet another possibility is that Musk understands just how powerful he has become and that he is beginning to develop his own grandiose ideology, in which he is a kind of Caesar. And it will be an ideology, a la Jonathan Bowden, where you promote and worship strength and success, rather than encourage and idolize failure and weakness and flagellate yourself as immoral because you are successful. It will be an ideology in which, in Bowden's words, "We're not sorry!" We're not sorry for being masculine, mighty geniuses. This ideology will be a kind of Benign Fascism, and maybe Fascism, for Musk, is a partial inspiration. This is the Nuremberg Rally except that the Jews are regarded as a useful genius cast. Perhaps, he thinks, the Hitler salute can be repurposed as meaning "To Mars! To the Stars!"
Finally, and related to this, there is a childlike dimension to the high-functioning autistic. He doesn't quite understand how other people will react because he is low in cognitive empathy. As Musk becomes, increasingly, a kind of benevolent dictator – such is the power in owning Twitter that he can, for example, wreak havoc among Britain's Woke and frightened government – he may wish to establish precisely what he can get away with, albeit in such a way that there is plausible deniability. He may wish to test the "normie waters." With his Hitler-salute, he has done exactly this and he has learned that, such is his power and charisma, that he can get away even with that; even with the gesture that makes the sky fall in. "Can I get away with the word that makes the sky fall in?" he may well be thinking.
But whatever Musk may be thinking, we should believe our senses. It was a Hitler Salute. The question is "Why did he do it?" and "What does it say about his influence, and the extent of the putative conservative backlash we may be undergoing, that he can get away with it?"
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If you watch and listen to the full speech, he says: "my heart goes out to you" and proceeds to metaphorically grab his heart and throw it out to the crowd. The elevated angle is because there was very high seating in the auditorium. That's all. He was actually throwing his heart out. He proceeded to turn around and do something similar to the people behind him, but that was more of a throwing gesture and so the Leftie MSM didn't publish that photo/clip.
Musk's brain is full of ideas around rockets, AI, brain chips, saving western civilization and Mars. I don't think he even has time to choreograph his moves. He's a geeky engineer on the spectrum. He made an awkward gesture without the benefit of hindsight. That's the way I see it and I think that's the way most also see it - even on the Left.
Is it possible that the gesture is an automatic human response to certain emotions much like the BLM fist? The Romans and fascist types hijacked it just as BLM put a glove on the fist.
I note that Hitler ended up doing the little short arm version to avoid poking people's eyes out. Much like the Brit army full salute needs space, lots of space.