For context, it’s a very clear Nazi Salute — and Musk did it more than once. The NYT is implying doubt because they’re afraid of losing access if they speak the truth and because some people who are financially dependent on Musk are denying what it was in public.
Please can we not take the bait?
The goal of this is to get us flipping out while the Right and casual voters go “jesus, he just waved weirdly.”
Now more than ever we have to pick our fights well. More than half the country voted trump in part because they think The Left is overreacting, please don’t feed that narrative.
Fuck that, sound the alarm. Our defacto president threw up a Nazi salute during inauguration. I was done with allowing them deniability years ago. These stupid Nazis can suck a fat baby’s dick.
And that alarm was listened to by the same people who already believe he’s a nazi, convinces and mobilizes zero people and makes the majority of voters who voted for trump even less likely to listen to us when someone isn’t just making a stupid salute but actually doing dangerous shit that actually harms people.
I get that for spoiled mostly white kids online, life will pretty much go on and nothing that bad will happen. But to those of us who actually understand the potential harm, we also underground that how we react matters more than what feels good or is easy, like screaming nazi.
Did you see it?
https://youtu.be/-VfYjPzj1Xw
Yeah it’s bait. But it’s also dog whistling (if we can even call it that anymore). Obviously they don’t care if we call them fascist anymore. But it’s also a sign to their supporters and literally a call and acknowledgment to them.
It’s more important to point out that yes, Elon Musk is courting the NeoNazis. And we must not forget these moments.
Yes it’s bait and yes it’s a dog whistle and yes it’s a call and acknowledgement to their facsist supporters.
And it STILL doesn’t really matter.
Here’s one story that’s already getting buried that’s obviously far more important - Trump pardoning 1500 Jan 6 rioters. That’s 1500 people who stormed the Capital, at Trump’s urging, with the explicit stated goal of “stop(ping) the steal,” which is to say, using whatever means might serve, clearly including violence for which they were not coincidentally already equipped, to prevent the Congress from carrying out its sworn duty in accordance with the Constitution and the law of the land.
No matter how you look at it, that’s a FAR more grave threat to the US than a cringe manchild throwing a few sieg heils.
Literally anything we collectively get pissed about they’ll make an excuse and say we’re overreacting. It doesn’t matter what we react to.
Didn’t he also sign an executive order targeting Trans people?
It’s not important, it just makes us look like we’re in hystrionics about Musk etc.
To most Americans, they’re not worried about a handful of idiots in swastikas. When we take this sort of bait it just makes real criticisms look like more Lefty whining.
“Most Americans are not worried about a handful of idiots in swastikas.”
Yeah, that is entirely the fucking point. We should be, I am most of Americans and I give a shit about this and you would be a fucking moron not to because not giving a shit is literally how this stupid fuck ended up on stage making this shit normal for them.
If you are representing most Americans, then presumably you voted trump?
Musk is playing us apparently beautifully.
What literally made trump President is people didn’t believe the warnings on the Left, presumably because we screamed FASCIST for oh, the last 8 years and even the trump presidency we feared didn’t bring about a fascist revolution. But hey, now that there are hand waves it is clearly important to get outraged and be taken even less seriously! Otherwise trump might not dominate the mid terms I guess.
Fuck I wish my side wasn’t so goddamn easy to bait.
more than half the country?? source please.
He won the popular vote.
We can quibble about “okay but that doesn’t include those who didn’t vote!” Which is a pretty dumb argument.
But I could rephrase “of the people who cared enough about politics to be relevant to this discussion, more than half the country…”
In the same way I didn’t say I was only counting living people, some things seem pretty obvious.
I think it’s an important distinction.
I dont.
Because voting was too much effort and its zero risk, how bad is it going to have to get before they are willing to fight?
Apathy/ignorance and support are different. I don’t understand what’s so hard about that.
same, and it’s hard to not be immediately suspicious of anyone attempting to wave away that distinction as a form of normalizing this bullshit.
It’s not normalizing a damn thing to point out that the Dems and their policies are so impressively unpopular with a broad swathe of voting Americans that they looked at what we were offering, looked back at crazy trump rambling about Haitians eating pets and decided that that was preferable to another Democratic president.
Holding onto this fantasy of “oh the swathes of non voters will one day turn out for us!” is goddamn nonsense that has never come through and is just so much cheap hopium so we don’t do any of the difficult soul searching to figure out how to win elections. Far easier to pretend people secretly wanted the Dems or that everyone else is a secret nazi or whatever stupidity we’re onto.
OK but how does lying about the reality help anything? And why are you sooo keen to do so?
What on Earth have I lied about?
You said more than half the country voted for Trump, and then when corrected started throwing a moronic temper tantrum saying that it doesn’t matter. Why are so against accuracy in your statements?
You don’t deserve to breath my air scumbag.