President Elon Musk
He probably deserves his own thread at this point, discuss accordingly
100% he saw coordi's avatar and wanted to emulate it. And coordi says his avatar isn't Nazism, so nothing to see here.
The thing that makes the most sense is this.
For a half century, the US has done a single thing consistently well. It has made rich people richer at the expense of everyone else. How does such a system maintain this unlevel playing field ? It doesn't acknowledge the issue. The media and Congress don't talk about it because they are in on the skim.
But they have to talk about SOMETHING. The people need to be supplied with the "circus" half of bread and circuses in order to keep their focus off of the basic truth that they're being looted and basically left for dead by the insatiably greedy people at the top.
In such a scenario, there is a huge premium on people who can provide distracting content or content which divides the working class in a manner which prevent them from working together.
Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow make tens of millions of dollars a year to teach us fear each other and feed our addiction that we're virtuous and our political opponents are evil. It's lucrative to participate in the distraction business.
But they don't make the news. The status quo needs newsmakers who create fight or flight responses in us and keep that cortisol rush going. That's part of Elon's job. He is like Trump in being a master at attracting attention to himself. That's his role. He's not stupid. The Nazi salute is not a bug .... it's a feature.
That's not Elon's only role. His massive personal wealth enables him to engage privately in activities which would otherwise be subject to government regulation and scrutiny through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests from the public. If the plutocrats want to send a satellite up for the purpose of spying on the public, it's much easier to have a private citizen do it so that the people are no longer entitled to know it's happening.
I don't think people realize how dangerous this is. Concentrating so much power in the hands of people with such massive personal egos outside the realm of our ability to erect any reasonable checks and balances. Deep down, we have a perverse wish for a benevolent dictator to solve all of our problems. An alpha to make everything OK.
Elon Musk is not that dude. He's a sociopath who is obsessed with himself. It's not normal to seek this much attention.
To me the most interesting part about this is all the usual suspects are going hysterical about this. But nobody is really taking them seriously anymore and they're just screaming in to the wind. Kind of like the landslide election demonstrated, most people stopped taking the habitually hysterical seriously. Nobody will be taking any heat and everyone is still practicing their trump dance
Even snoop dog has pulled a complete 180. They even lost the highly esteemed snoop dog, dawg
What's most damning to me about this is Elon's reaction since his bizarre performance. If the whole salute thing was just a super awkward giving his heart to the audience sort of thing, AND if he cared about what it looked like when he saw it after the fact, he'd have something more to say about it in the days since, acknolwedging how it came across. Of course he hasn't, because he doesn't give a ****, or because this was exactly the reaction he was going for. I don't much care which one it is, because I find either scenario to be equally problematic.
I also honestly don't care because I wrote Elon off as a complete assclown quite some time ago. After my inital "wow" the first time I saw the performance, every time I've seen it subsequently, I just have to laugh, because it's so ridiculous - the intense biting the bottom lip face, the snapping out with the arm, the grunt when he does it, repeating for the audience behind. Clownshoes gunna clownshoes.
The fact of the matter is he did a nazi salute.
It doesn't matter what he said or did before, in relation to him doing the nazi salute. As in he said "my heart goes out to you" but then DID A NAZI SALUTE.
It doesn't matter what he said before doing the nazi salute. He could of said "I'm not going to do a Nazi salute" and then proceed to do the Nazi salute. Him saying he's not going to do the Nazi salute right before him doing the nazi salute doesn't mean he didn't do it.
Again,
Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism within the United States, said Musk's gesture was a "sieg heil", or Nazi salute.
"My professional opinion is that you're all right, you should believe your eyes," she posted on X, in reference to those who believed the gesture to be an overt reference to Nazis.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said: "Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too."
So we have world experts in Nazis and history, confirming he did a nazi salute. This is true.
He did a nazi salute, this is true.
He said "my heart goes out to you" before doing a nazi salute, this is true.
What we don't know is, IF he meant to do a Nazi salute or not. That is speculation.
If anyone thinks it 100% wasn't a nazi salute, then go to Germany, and do the same motion that Elon did, in a public place, and see if you get arrested. It's illegal to do nazi salutes in Germany.
What's most damning to me about this is Elon's reaction since his bizarre performance. If the whole salute thing was just a super awkward giving his heart to the audience sort of thing, AND if he cared about what it looked like when he saw it after the fact, he'd have something more to say about it in the days since, acknolwedging how it came across. Of course he hasn't, because he doesn't give a ****, or because this was exactly the reaction he was going for. I don't much care which one it is,
The botton line is that we have two obvious malignancies with the status quo. One is the half century of neoliberal economics which only concentrate wealth in fewer and fewer hands. The other is the toxic chemical byproducts of neoliberal economics such as civilization threatening increase in greenhouse gases and plastic accumulation in our brains and sex organs that have reduced male testosterone by close to half since the 1960's.
The job of the malignant status quo is to do everything in its power to distract the public from those fundamental malignancies in order to squeeze every last drop out of the consumptive orgy. The bigger these problems loom, the greater the extremes that the distractors must go in order to keep our attention away from emerging polycrisis. That's part of Elon's job and Trump's job ..... to provide the continuing supply of cortisol rush that distracts us from the fundamentals. Elon is pretty good at it. He's got us talking about his Nazi salute instead of class warfare.
He's not that obtuse, He has 4 minutes to communciate to the nation during Trump's inauguration. These entrepreneurs are seasoned at public presentations and everything is rehearsed. The Nazi salute was not a bug. It was a feature.
Personally, I think the public is very overstimulated and the threshold form igniting a cortisol is becoming ever greater. Frankly, I took the time to look at the White House transcripts of the executive orders that Trump signed and it's a lot of noise which creates an impression of big changes, but it's mostly just trolling with a lot of garbage which appeals to the lizard brain, but doesn't substantively make the public substantially better or worse off. The differences between a Biden and Trump Administration are more stylistic than substantive.
The most important in my opinion was the pardoning of the people who broke into the Capitol and killed a handful of people on jan 6, 2021. That sends a signal to Congress that they aren't safe and empowers future rabble rousers that Trump will protect them. This provides some legit intimidation to Congress critters to give Trump what he wants or risk version 2.0 of the angry mob. That's a level of bullying that became a slippery slope under the Nazis. Sometimes things have a way of manifesting into something like that of their own accord .... even if that isn't Trump's intention.
The thing I'll give credit for to Trump is that he grasps that the public is angry and his approach validates and channels their anger. If a sometime doesn't go his way, he'll provide them a target to blame.
Elon's heart throw is a distraction to keep people away from important things that are going on. Just like all Trump's clown antics (including the face paint?).
It's a distraction from all the evil things they're doing and plan to do. They want to keep people fired up and talking about nonsense rather than things like: 1500 pardoned insurrectionists, lack of health care, $7.25 minimum wage, stuff that's actually important.
It's not important to talk about. It's a waste of time. You're doing what they want by talking about that and not the rape of USA.
Libs saying he accidentally made a gesture with similarities to nazis is a harbinger of things to come. Libs are good at covering for fascists and they have a lot of form.
To me the most interesting part about this is all the usual suspects are going hysterical about this. But nobody is really taking them seriously anymore and they're just screaming in to the wind. Kind of like the landslide election demonstrated, most people stopped taking the habitually hysterical seriously. Nobody will be taking any heat and everyone is still practicing their trump dance
Even snoop dog has pulled a complete 180. They even lost the highly esteemed snoop dog, dawg
The earlier incarnation of this account (juan valdez) was terrible but at least attempted to be substantive. This version is just vapid.
If we must have one version or the other, the former is preferible.
No he didn't really. He would make highly dubious claims about black people being temperamentally different to white people based on biology, and when asked for credible sources he provided youtubes of Jordan ****ing Peterson.
The thing that makes the most sense is this.
For a half century, the US has done a single thing consistently well. It has made rich people richer at the expense of everyone else. How does such a system maintain this unlevel playing field ? It doesn't acknowledge the issue. The media and Congress don't talk about it because they are in on the skim.
But they have to talk about SOMETHING. The people need to be supplied with the "circus" half of bread and circuses in order to keep their focus off of
Wealth is not a zero sum game. Musk having hundreds of billions of dollars does not stop the average person from accumulating a decent amount of wealth. People should be thankful that such an inspirational figure such as Musk is taking an active role in our government. We need to look at what's going on in the UK and Canada right now. As Ronald Reagan once famously said when fascism comes to America it will come under the guise of liberalism. People are literally being thrown in prison or having their assets frozen due to expressing the wrong political opinions. I just hope the violence can come to an end. The trauma that Trump suffered from the 2 assassination attempts cannot be understated. I just wish the man and his colleagues the best in their administration and hope we can all come together with the sole goal of improving the lives of all Americans, that is the modern day Republican platform.
Wealth is not a zero sum game. Musk having hundreds of billions of dollars does not stop the average person from accumulating a decent amount of wealth. People should be thankful that such an inspirational figure such as Musk is taking an active role in our government. We need to look at what's going on in the UK and Canada right now. As Ronald Reagan once famously said when fascism comes to America it will come under the guise of liberalism. People are literally being thrown in prison or h
Wonder who this is?
Within six months, and maybe sooner, Trump and Elon will be openly antagonistic toward each other. Elon is a lot of terrible things, but an America-first nationalist is not among them. Most of the world's wealthiest people are globalists. They barely think of themselves as citizens of a particular country. Elon is definitely in this group. And it is almost impossible for Trump to have a functional, long-term relationship with anyone who has a titanic ego.
The rift with Vivek already occurred. Vivek just decided to go quietly because he isn't wealthy enough to be an independent force in the world like Elon.
A man telling you his heart goes out to you and doing a gesture from his heart to you? If you freeze frame it without the heart business and ignore what he said it's possible to conflate it with a nazi salute, but then when you put your thinking cap on for 2 seconds you realize that OF COURSE he is not intending to do that.
How is this a controversy.
Here let's freeze frame it real pretty for you
