Elon Musk - news and discussion

[DotCommunist]

fascists and language/symbols is an interesting one. They are often, yes, playing games. But that, ah only joking, stuff is not new to them. Its all so very very funny. And they mean every word.

somehow reminded of this cunt

 

[Kaka Tim]

If this becomes a big story - and I have the feeling it absolutlely will - it will be "interesting" to see Musks reaction.
Given his form he will not explain it away or apologise - he may well double down and contunue trolling "the libs" (i.e. everyone in the world who doesnt like nazis) - to the point where his behaviour becomes an unacceptable emabrassment for the Trump administration.
Its his schtick isnt it? Trolling for attention to imrpress the chat room full of dudes that only exists in his head. Would be laughably pathetic if he wasnt so dangerous.

 

[Elpenor]

he's just hailing a bus I've done the same myself

 

[BigMoaner]

someone with X still, what are the comments like?

 

[Rompipalle]

 

[moochedit]

someone with X still, what are the comments like?

No idea but he will probably make any critical ones "disapear".

 

[seventh bullet]

The richest man in the world who buys his own social media platform but is still the sad little dweeb who has to create sock accounts on there to hype himself up.

 

[BigMoaner]

No idea but he will probably make any critical ones "disapear".

right.

anyway, i think that's enough internet for me today.

(i like Delueze's politics of silence (a man who spent a career babbling away about politics):

"It's not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don't stop people from expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves. What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying.")

 

[Boo Radley75]

someone with X still, what are the comments like?

A mix of roughly a third of people banging on about Rome, third of people slagging him off and a third of posts bots advertising Nike Air trainers.

 

[nino_savatte]

Not even remotely a 'genius'.

 

[ska invita]

Call me old-fashioned or naive but, on seeing those nazi salutes delivered at Trump's inauguration rally, my mind went straight to my late Grandfather, who survived, and the thousands of American troops who did not survive the landings on the Normandy beaches to defeat fascism. The US cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer contains the remains and names of around 11,000 US dead, most of whom died during the D-day landings.

View attachment 460479

Musk's salutes crown a truly shameful day for the US.

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’

The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[editor]

Here it is without the paywall: https://archive.ph/cyFPh

 

[danny la rouge]

Yeah I think people are getting a bit over excited.

One of them being Musk.

There are a number of ways of looking at this:

A). He knew what he was doing. When people show you who they are, believe them.

B). It was a coincidence that a traditional gesture historically popular among white South Africans resembles a fascist salute.

C). He had no idea what he was doing. Perhaps exuberance makes you give weird straight-armed salutes.

Reader, it’s A.

 

[editor]

Here's a handy scale:

 

[e.g.g.]

And a third of posts are bots advertising Nike Air trainers.

Air Max 98 in size 8.5 per chance ?

 

[Orang Utan]

Off topic q: Is a raised fist (like the black power one made by Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico '68 Olympics) now meant to indicate general rebelliousness/support for people power these days, or is it still specifically a black power salute?
eg Wolfie Smith's salute is one example of its use outside of the US civl rights
(I'm not suggesting Musk made it at all - it just made me think of a gesture I made recently that I probably shouldn't have )

 

[Coffeecup]

People do the clenched fist in many situations like fighting to win a vote or a sports event. Trump does it. I think the open hand is completely different. Also Musk showed an aggressive face which looked really ugly.

 

[skyscraper101]

I honestly didn't see it as a nazi salute even if it inadvertently was, I just saw it as another piece of bizarre theatre from an attention seeker. Clinging to it like it's something significant while trump signs batches of dangerous executive orders seems to be the wrong focus.

 

[teuchter]

One of them being Musk.

There are a number of ways of looking at this:

A). He knew what he was doing. When people show you who they are, believe them.

B). It was a coincidence that a traditional gesture historically popular among white South Africans resembles a fascist salute.

C). He had no idea what he was doing. Perhaps exuberance makes you give weird straight-armed salutes.

Reader, it’s A.

It accompanies his words saying something like from the bottom of my heart l send you my thanks. He starts with his hand on his chest and then moves it from there to gesture out towards the crowd. He does that both times, starting with the hand on his chest. I don't believe that to be a conventional part of the Nazi salute. I believe the options are:

A. It was simply intended as that, a gesture representing thanks going from his heart going out to the crowd.

B. It was a deliberate "dog whistle" move, planned with explanation A as the official one, but designed to have a second meaning for Nazi fans.

There's no way to prove it's one or the other (unless he himself confirms it as option B). Interpretation will come down to the beliefs of the viewer.

 

[JimW]

I honestly didn't see it as a nazi salute even if it inadvertently was, I just saw it as another piece of bizarre theatre from an attention seeker. Clinging to it like it's something significant while trump signs batches of dangerous executive orders seems to be the wrong focus.

Looked to me like some sort of "I throw my heart out to you" attempt, but obviously not inside the tech nazi's head, so who knows?

 

[skyscraper101]

Looked to me like some sort of "I throw my heart out to you" attempt, but obviously not inside the tech nazi's head, so who knows?

Pretty much how I saw it.

 

[danny la rouge]

I don't believe that to be a conventional part of the Nazi salute.

The Nazi salute often began with a clenched fist on the chest. But I didn’t say it was a Nazi salute. I said it was a fascist one, and conforms to the 19th Century made up “Roman salute”. (There is no evidence of it in Ancient Roman iconography).

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Similar situation, I figure. Trump won't care about the salute, only if he gets the feeling Musk is a liability.


Well, the ADL, at least, apparently don't think it's an issue.

View attachment 460464

Imagine others may take a slightly different view.

Trump won't care about the salute.

He might eventually come to believe that Musk is a liability for other reasons, but it won't be because of this. Because Trump doesn't care about the opinions or lives of people for whom a Nazi salute is offensive.

Trump's a white supremacist; he's previously commented about his superior genes.

Trump's father was arrested at a KKK rally. And was a notorious slum landlord who refused to rent out apartments to Black people.

 

[planetgeli]

If you stop the video (I don't believe I'm doing this)

NBC indulging in some censorship here:

at 7 seconds you can see his aggressive expression looking straight up at his arm. His eyeline is on his arm. He's not checking the crowd 'throwing his heart out to them'. He's doing a fascist salute, bumped up on ketamine and the occasion.

There is no nuance. Wake up and smell the fascism.

And everyone knew the executive orders were coming. Nobody was quite prepared for openly fascist imagery. The emboldenment is coming thick and fast.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

i think this is probably closer to the common ground - the genocide alliance

Yep. You've hit the nail on the head.

I've mentioned before in different threads about how years ago I was studying for an A'Level in politics and my tutor had an interest in US politics, so we were studying a UK + US politics syllabus.

One time, she set us some homework to watch a programme on BBC2 or something. This was way before iPlayer and I'd missed the first 5-10 minutes of the programme so I'd missed the introductions of the talking heads and name/title captions. And whereas for a programme about UK politics, I was familiar with politicians and commentators/think tank experts/spox, so could've recognised them, I didn't recognise their American equivalents.

Back in class, my observation was that because I'd missed the introductions, I'd been trying to figure out where on the political spectrum they were, were they Democrat/left aligned or Republican/right, but some of them confused me in that what they were saying seemed to go so far left that it came out the other side, iyswim, or vice versa.

My conclusion was that sometimes politics is less a political spectrum with polar opposites (or a political compass) and more like a circle.

There is some common ground between extremist Zionist and the far-right/Nazis when it comes their attitudes towards and treatment of the Other, ie Palestinians, Black people, racial minorities, etc. There's commonality in the supremacist/chosen people beliefs. And genociding Semitic people.

 

[ska invita]

Yep. You've hit the nail on the head.

I've mentioned before in different threads about how years ago I was studying for an A'Level in politics and my tutor had an interest in US politics, so we were studying a UK + US politics syllabus.

One time, she set us some homework to watch a programme on BBC2 or something. This was way before iPlayer and I'd missed the first 5-10 minutes of the programme so I'd missed the introductions of the talking heads and name/title captions. And whereas for a programme about UK politics, I was familiar with politicians and commentators/think tank experts/spox, so could've recognised them, I didn't recognise their American equivalents.

Back in class, my observation was that because I'd missed the introductions, I'd been trying to figure out where on the political spectrum they were, were they Democrat/left aligned or Republican/right, but some of them confused me in that what they were saying seemed to go so far left that it came out the other side, iyswim, or vice versa.

My conclusion was that sometimes politics is less a political spectrum with polar opposites (or a political compass) and more like a circle.

There is some common ground between extremist Zionist and the far-right/Nazis when it comes their attitudes towards and treatment of the Other, ie Palestinians, Black people, racial minorities, etc. There's commonality in the supremacist/chosen people beliefs. And genociding Semitic people.

many on the modern far right now are (at least pretending to be) very pro Israel. Its a way of washing off their historic antisemitism, pretending to be reformed, and also allows turning night into day by painting anti zionists as the real anti-semites, whilst as you say , enjoying the commonality for racial and religious discrimination that the Israeli state enacts.

 

[Lord Camomile]

A while back, someone in a WhatsApp group coined the phrase "jerrymandering your principles to fit your prejudices", which does seem to neatly sum up a lot of peoples' approach to things.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Ah, this is why Roman is trending on X.

"Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Musk who has connected him with far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted the clip of Musk with the caption: "Roman Empire is back starting from Roman salute".

The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party, before later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media said. He later posted that "that gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, 'I want to give my heart to you'," he said."

Elon Musk responds to backlash over gesture at Donald Trump rally

The billionaire says his critics "need better dirty tricks" after a gesture likened to a Nazi salute.

www.bbc.co.uk

Well, that makes me feel better. Knowing that the 'Hitler salute' was originally the Roman salute, widely used by fascists in Italy, before being adopted by Nazis in Germany is reassuring.

By which I mean, yes, I'm further reassured of the universal far-right/fascist/nazi significance of the gesture being unmistakable.

 

[Lotte]

many on the modern far right now are (at least pretending to be) very pro Israel. Its a way of washing off their historic antisemitism, pretending to be reformed, and also allows turning night into day by painting anti zionists as the real anti-semites, whilst as you say , enjoying the commonality for racial and religious discrimination that the Israeli state enacts.

They hate Jews but love Israel.

 

[ska invita]

The whole Roman thing is a massive part of what the far right chatter about now - they see themselves as new ceasars - a new empire - keikus maximus etc - fascism dressed in a toga