I've seen several people try to defend it by saying that the Nazi salute doesn't start with your hand over your heart... Well this gif really clears things up.
I have a Jewish friend that is defending it saying that his arms were sideways and the Nazi salute is in front. I sent him this and he said.... Welp, I guess it's time to move.
Also, while I"m no physiotherapist, it looks like musk's shoulder mobility is hindered a bit. Maybe its the suit/shoulderpads, maybe he's just really out of shape. Which is to say that he knew that he had to get his hand up over his head to get the gesture right. It's significantly more effort than you'd do by accident.
Playing devil's advocate, it appears Hitler doesn't usually start with an open palm on his heart, but one perpendicular to his chest.
But sometimes he just goes straight from arms down to the salute. There's some variability.
Anyway, this is splitting hairs to an obscene degree. You have to contort your brain to not see this as a Nazi salute, ignoring the context or not, and in any other time a public figure would have at least apologized for doing this if they weren't impeached/dismissed/fired.
Every bit of energy and attention expended on the sieg heil is a bit of energy and attention that's NOT being expended on any of the actions being taken and policies being enacted by Trump and the oligarchs right this moment for the direct and explicit purpose of destroying liberty and democracy in the US.
The sieg heil is performative. It's a symbol. In and of itself, it causes no direct harm.
However, a terrifying number of the actions that Trump is actually taking - directives he's issuing and policies he's implementing -are causing and will cause direct and measurable harm.
They need to be the focus, and the sieg heil is a distraction from them.
He definitely shouldn't be dismissed and people are right to be absolutely pissed at the open nazism, but also the sieg heil is an extremely obvious distraction.
There's a world of difference between "a troll" and "just a troll." I expect you know that.
And you've evaded my point, so I'll repeat it, broken down into bite-sized pieces:
The sieg heil didn't cause direct and measurable harm in and of itself.
Meanwhile, there are many things that this administration is actively doing right this moment that are causing and will cause direct and measurable harm.
Every single bit of energy and attention spent on the sieg heil is energy and attention NOT spent on them.
It enables and empowers nazis. A group that is known to take violent action when feeling they can.
And as a bonus, all of those little nazi muffins that were either in jail or otherwise hampered by their earned felony are now free to go bananas, including acquiring arms stockpiles.
Numerous intelligence reports had found that those far right leaders were somewhat stifled by the J6 implications, and their organizations driven somewhat underground. Orange Caesar just took the lid off.
It depends how you use the moment. I like Die Zeit's article about it (in German, paywall can be bypassed with archive websites). They use it as on opportunity to discuss the context where it was made - an extreme right political event - and expose how mainstream media has helped normalizing nazi symbology by amplifying the gaslighting.
I'm one of the few users here whose not taken in by the Elon hate-train and I often find myself here fighting against a windmill defending him against baseless accusations but in this case there's nothing to defend - that was a nazi salute.
Now, as to what he was thinking when he did that I have no idea. Maybe he still feels like that edgy 15 year old that he no longer is. In fact - kind of seems like he immediately regreted it and came up with the "my heart belongs to you" excuse. Either way, that was incredibly stupid and he should face serious reputational damage for it from his own side but probably doesn't.
Or, he did a Nazi salute because, and I know this is some outside the box, crazy thinking: He’s a Nazi.
I know, right? Racist, apartheid profiteer, open supporter of racist far right parties across the world, frequent promoter & amplifier of far right wing and openly racist & anti-Semitic voices on his social media platform? The guy who just bought his way into power and has funded the rise of mask-off fascism in America? That guy is a Nazi? No way.
checks musks twitter history and his implemented moderation policies in action
Hmm if you put it like that, it seems like he only did it since he was zonked out of his mind on drugs which caused him to do a perfectly normal everyday american gesture 3 times in a row and not apologize for it at all days later.
Don't make excuses for the rat, he's born into privilege and wants to keep it that way.
The bloke parades around expecting people to believe he's a top tier gamer, being able to put in 16+ hours a day grinding at POE2 whilst being a CEO of multiple companies. All the while not being able to comprehend one of the most used interfaces on that platform.
But yeah nah, he's a good bloke. I'm sure he's done something good in he's lifetime.
I wonder if a bunch of pro palestianian protestors started "giving their hearts" to the people of Israel, if suddenly it would have a different meaning.
Oh funny an entire video made to make his gesture seem like a nazi one.
Oh wait they also have a time machine and somehow travelled back almost a year to post the video.
Whack!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDyPSKLy5E4&t=2735s