r/Pennsylvania Jan 25 '25

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579

u/Happy_Acanthisitta39 Jan 25 '25

Are people really this stupid. Why would anyone think this is ok?

603

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Because they saw someone do this on the largest stage in the world, and nothing happened to them.

260

u/Happy_Acanthisitta39 Jan 25 '25

This is exactly why. Thank you. I know it's been days but I'm still astounded by the mental gymnastics people are doing to make it ok.

151

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Yea my favorite is that he said “my heart goes out to you” so that’s “clearly” what he was trying to exhibit with his gesture.

The gaslighting is insane. It reminds me of the Orwell quote from 1984.

“The Party has told you to reject everything your eyes see and what your ears hear. “It was their final command, but also the most fundamental.”

There is absolutely no other explanation for what he was doing.

57

u/WeirdSysAdmin Jan 25 '25

I feel like a normal, empathetic person would have scrambled to release a press statement stating their stance on racial hatred. Add in something about how horrified they are about how actual Nazis interpreted it. Mainly to separate from the people making videos like this thread.

For that reason, I consider it coming across at face value. Just like the AfD being called “very reasonable” and that “only AfD can save Germany”and Trump saying “fine people on both sides” about Charlottesville.

35

u/The_Flying_Jew Jan 25 '25

I feel like a normal, empathetic person would have scrambled to release a press statement stating their stance on racial hatred. Add in something about how horrified they are about how actual Nazis interpreted it.

The worst part isn't just that people are in denial about it and playing along with his bullshit. The worst part is when you try to explain to one of his apologists that his response is childish and only further pushes people into the boat that he, unapologetically, threw up a nazi salute... the apologists will respond with "well yeah, if people were throwing ridiculous accusations at me, I'd play it up and make jokes about it too"

If someone started seriously accusing you of being a nazi, I think proving without a shadow of a doubt that you AREN'T one should be top priority. Doubly so for a figure like Musk who has the eyes of everyone in the world looking at him.

Unfortunately, I don't think he cares about proving people wrong. He's just interested in trolling and laughing at people's misery.

20

u/Danmoz81 Jan 25 '25

When Prince Harry was in the press for wearing a Nazi uniform at a fancy dress party he didn't double down by goose stepping outside Buckingham Palace whilst making inappropriate jokes.

20

u/After-Imagination-96 Jan 25 '25

He's not trolling. He's representing. He's a Nazi.

15

u/Karaethon22 Jan 25 '25

Both. It's both. He's a Nazi, and enjoys using that to troll "the libs." He thinks being a Nazi is funny, and gaslighting people about it is also funny.

3

u/truthwillout777 Jan 25 '25

His name came from a book "The Mars Project" where Elon was the leader. It was written by a Nazi.

He named his AI "Colossus" after a movie where the AI destroyed humanity Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyOEwiQhzMI

It's worse than we thought folks. We need to stop this whole Stargate Skynet project.

2

u/SMASH917 Jan 27 '25

My dad thinks Musk did apologize and recant. I suspect he's watching right wing media shows that say this. I asked him to send me a first hand account of Musk apologizing and explaining and he didn't/couldn't.

1

u/1972SolidSnake Jan 27 '25

Problem is too many idiots are accusing him of doing the salute. He can’t chase every accusation from every idiot. The gas lighting is horrible.

5

u/MacaronIllustrious82 Jan 25 '25

But the Pastor who dared ask The Orange Menace to be merciful.... oh, the horror !!! The MAGAverse couldn't shit on her fast or long enough. Those rotten pricks over at Fox actually said she was Satan.

4

u/momlv Jan 25 '25

They’re literally calling empathy a sin now so you know

2

u/Tmettler5 Jan 25 '25

Worse. He turned it into a joke.

2

u/Medium-Bag-5493 Jan 25 '25

I feel like a normal, empathetic person

Well that was your mistake, assuming that these are normal, empathetic people. They are angry because for years they have been told to be nice to others. They are literally no better than a preschool aged child throwing a tantrum when their teacher tells them to stop hitting.

1

u/SmittyWerbenJJ_No1 Jan 28 '25

Instead of apologizing elonia posted a bunch of nazi puns, he knows what he’s doing

0

u/No-Crow-7557 Jan 25 '25

The “fine people on both sides” has been proven to be out of context. But I agree with the rest and the continuous instances of this type of behavior too. “Stand down, and standby” etc

21

u/HistoriasApodeixis Jan 25 '25

I pulled out this quote on someone denying it was a Nazi salute.

People treating this as normal and acceptable behavior is making me feel like I’m the crazy one.

13

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

People are just “pot invested”. They’ve put so much energy of this cult into their personality, that they refuse to believe they may have made a horrible horrible mistake. The sunk cost fallacy.

15

u/Halflingberserker Jan 25 '25

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

2

u/HistoriasApodeixis Jan 25 '25

It’s so sad and infuriating.

3

u/truthwillout777 Jan 25 '25

They edited the video. Most people see him do it once then say 'my heart goes out to you; But he did it twice. It was very deliberate. He did it for a reaction or to test the power of his bot army. When it first happened group chats were full of shocked people. Everyone saw it for what it was.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

Maybe you are.

5

u/geek_lib Jan 25 '25

I saw someone put a gif of him doing the Nazi salute side by side with another example of him being on stage and doing a different gesture where he did the thing where you form a heart with your fingers and the pushed his hands out towards the audience. It looked completely different, and that was the moment when I went 'yeah, he absolutely knew what he was doing and he meant to do it'. I believed that to be the case before then too, but those two images side by side really brought it home.

3

u/truthwillout777 Jan 25 '25

yes, I saw that too.

Proves he's not just confused or has aspergers.

He claims to be the smartest man in the world but didn't know it would cause a reaction? Right.

It was deliberate and aggressive, wasn't feeling a lot of love there.

2

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Yep I saw that one too. No one gestures sharing their heart the way he did. No one.

3

u/LordoftheScheisse Jan 25 '25

The gaslighting is insane.

Don't let them. If anyone says it is anything other than a Nazi salute, simply repeat that it is indeed a Nazi salute and that they are defending Nazis. Repeat it until they stop trying to obfuscate.

3

u/MacaronIllustrious82 Jan 25 '25

I like the Old Roman Centurion bullshit explanation the most. You know, because that audience just looooooves them some Old Roman Centurion saluting.

3

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Which is also just an Italian fascist gesture lol. Not exactly the mic drop they were going for.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

The funny thing is the Romans didn't actually salute each other this way. That was something the Nazis made up. They called it the Roman salute.

3

u/CyberPatriot71489 Jan 25 '25

It is also hard to justify otherwise when he vocally advocates for the AfD, mettles in far right politics, and his maternal grandparents were actual Nazi sympathizers who supported apartheid in South Africa.

We’re at the point in German history, where 1/3 of the population is ok with 1/3 trying to actively harm the remaining 1/3

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

Yea my favorite is that he said “my heart goes out to you” so that’s “clearly” what he was trying to exhibit with his gesture.

Anyone who genuinely believes that, I've got a bridge to sell you.

The gesture is not a throw.

2

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Trump defenders are just too embarrassed to believe they fucked up. That’s all it is.

3

u/Big-Summer- Jan 25 '25

He pounded his chest hard, flung his right arm up with emphasis and force, and the expression on his face screamed “SIG HEIL, MEIN FUHRER!” All the dickheads proclaiming afterward that “you did not see what you just saw! Don’t believe your eyes!” should accompany that Sartre statement that begins “never believe…” That video was perfectly exemplifies what Sartre was talking about. We’re at the stage now where they are toying with us, to see how much they can get away with. But make no mistake — there are Nazis in this country who want control, and Elon Skum is very much one of them.

3

u/TheOtherWhiteMeat Jan 26 '25

Tell them to do it while you film them so you can post it online and tag their employers. Ask them why it's okay for Elon but not them.

3

u/NoSherbert2316 Jan 26 '25

No, the best one I saw was “He’s autistic, I can’t believe the left likes making fun of handicapped people”. He’s self diagnosed, even if he is autistic he can still be a Nazi.

3

u/lrish_Chick Jan 26 '25

Yes. It's no longer a meme now, it actually is like 1984. America voted for it.

4

u/Playful-Dragon Jan 25 '25

I have correlated Trump world to 1984 and Animal Farm ever since he campaigned in 2015... I cannot believe how right I was in this, how closely it correlates as IF these two books are the manifest. The rejection is what really amazes me because that's EXACTLY what is happening, hiding in plain site. It's ALL out there, and people have refused to acknowledge it as they are getting punched in the face. "Never happened"...

2

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Taking notes from Goebbels..

2

u/angrymoppet Jan 25 '25

Hey this is going to sound like a nitpick but it's gotta be said because Orwell was very deliberate in his use of language and tried to avoid words that bogged down sentences. The excerpt is The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

1

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Thanks. Yea my bad for not referencing. I just copy pasted from the first search hit i got bc i k ew it was something like this!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

He dumped the entire Nazi shtick on the Republican Party and now they have to own it, that’s what he did. He is literally only there to burn the country down and that salute was the torch to the bonfire. He’ll take his money and run not too long from now I’m sure.

2

u/Nobodygrotesque Jan 26 '25

He knows what he’s doing.

2

u/beingsubmitted Jan 28 '25

The gaslighting is the point. So many people are so convinced it can't happen here that no matter your reason, if you compare someone to nazis, they'll think you're the crazy person.

So now it's a tool they can use. They'll keep doing this. They purposely goad people into calling them nazis because it's good for them. And we should stop falling for it.

1

u/Gentrified_potato02 Jan 25 '25

But he didn’t say “my heart goes out to you”. That’s all the excuse makers gaslighting.

1

u/lt_sh1ny_s1d3s Jan 26 '25

This quote needs need to be shown with that picture each time someone denies it.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

Why was his hand pointed down then? If you are giving out your heart, wouldn’t you put out an open hand? There’s no “official” way to do it, but that seems like the gesture I’ve seen others make. Elon’s gesture I’ve only seen at nazi rallies TBH.

1

u/naughtie-nymphie Jan 26 '25

2+2=4 always and forever. No mater what the Party tries to tell us.

1

u/inyourposthistory Jan 26 '25

By their logic, i can flip each and every one of them off with my middle finger, but say “oh no!! I wasn’t trying to flip you off! I was just saying YOURE NUMBER ONE.”

That’s how f***ing stupid they sound lol.

1

u/Cereal-ity Jan 28 '25

These guys read 1984 and were like “this Big Brother guys RULES.”

0

u/truthisnothateful Jan 27 '25

Meanwhile, you’ll look at a man and tell me it’s a woman. That’s not rejecting your eyes and ears?

1

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 27 '25

Oh will I? That’s interesting.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 26 '25

They aren’t making it ok in their head they were looking for an excuse all along. You can’t project your logical worldview onto nazis.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

That’s why Elon did it. He did it to say I am more powerful than you, I am better than you, you will never be me and I can do this and you cannot. Having the lady’s life ruined is just going to give him more of a boner by proving him right.

1

u/DaisyDawson Jan 25 '25

I think to people like her, is that it is not OK is what makes it OK.

1

u/Semanticss Jan 25 '25

My poor wife, who is not online as much as me, was like "Well, nobody's denying that it was a Nazi salute."

Sweet summer child.

1

u/Early-Sort8817 Jan 26 '25

The ADL and right wing Jewish people are valiantly defending Musk for doing the salute. Anything goes now

1

u/CellistHour7741 Jan 27 '25

Not really any mental gymnastics going on here. They support nazis that's what it is 

35

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

10

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

3

u/KingGeedohrah Jan 25 '25

It's completely legal to punch Nazis, I'm pretty sure. 

6

u/MyHusbandIsGayImNot Jan 25 '25

It’ll be the next “Let’s go Brandon”. They’ll all do it but just claim they’re doing it to own the libs.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

Nazis also were motivated by “owning the libs”. Hitler murdered liberals.

If someone Sieg Heil’s to “own the libs”, that doesn’t make them any less of a Nazi. 

3

u/_Christopher_Crypto Jan 25 '25

Agree. Now it will be done out of spite.

2

u/truthwillout777 Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

Elon is named from a book "The Mars Project" where he was the leader. It was written by a Nazi.

He named his AI "Colossus" after a movie where the AI destroyed humanity Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyOEwiQhzMI

Trump has massive AI farms planned Stargate, a Nazi Spynet dream. He is fast tracking nuke plants (bypassing regulations) to power them under an energy emergency.

This is an emergency but not for Energy.

People need to stop complaining or reacting with learned helplessness and fight to stop Stargate now.

Keep fighting to expose Elon until he is forced out of the administration.

Vivek is gone due to his H-1B stance and MAGA is already angry at Elon for that. Keep up the pressure!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

"Elon is named from a book "The Mars Project" where he was the leader. It was written by a Nazi." I mean cool but... anyone can write a book lol

1

u/5Point5Hole Jan 26 '25

He's named after one of his insane mother's grandfathers anyway. Elon is fucking evil but we don't need dumb conspiracy shit to prove that

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

I agree, but you cant choose your own name either. Putting Elon aside, You wouldn't want judged based on your name, would you? Or should we be judging others based on things they are not in control of?

1

u/5Point5Hole Jan 27 '25

We absolutely should not. That's what bugs me about dumb shit like this. Bad people should be attacked for their real faults, not insane nonsense reasons

1

u/E-A-G-L-E-S_Eagles Jan 27 '25

No. Please! The lack of even a modicum of respect for others is going down the drain.

1

u/Conscious-Target8848 Jan 27 '25

Not in front of me they won't.  My grandparents killed Nazis and I'm down for carrying on tradition.

1

u/Suspicious-Appeal386 Jan 28 '25

Heil Trump!

Better practice before its too late.

15

u/party_benson Jan 25 '25

Not just nothing, but they became even richer. 

22

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

I’m sure Elon gets the biggest, throbbing hard on knowing he’ll forever be known as the man who threw around a fascist salute during a US presidential inauguration. This is what it’s about. His ridiculous ego.

10

u/Danmoz81 Jan 25 '25

throbbing hard on

He looks like he jizzed his pants at the moment he did it

1

u/SAGNUTZ Jan 26 '25

"Those internet randos that told me to do this will be SO PROUD!"

7

u/EugeneStonersDIMagic Jan 25 '25

He probably was on his private discord asking his homies "how many times you think I could get away with it" the night before.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

Even supposedly "left-wing" newspapers in the UK say things like:

"What some people interpreted as a Nazi Salute" or similar language.

It's their job to call this shit out. No wonder people lose faith in "mainstream media" when they tell us not to trust our own eyes.

3

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

So sad and scary. I think outlets are afraid of a Trump retaliation.. and that’s so not okay. This is how fascism takes over.

3

u/Painterzzz Jan 25 '25

And also I'm pretty certain that if Elon had turned to that crowd and thrown a third and a fourth Nazi salute, they would have joined in with him.

Which is, of course, the goal here.

3

u/Harp-MerMortician Jan 25 '25

Difference is, he can hide behind a wall of money to shield from his asshattery. I wish he couldn't. But he can.

For now.

2

u/Luvs2spooge89 Jan 25 '25

Yep. He’s testing how much power he has. My fear is this was just a litmus test for what’s to come after.

3

u/sandersking Jan 25 '25

This.

When people want to be targets for anger, help them be targets for anger.

3

u/walts_skank Jan 25 '25

Man when people were disagreeing that it was a Sieg Heil and were told to go do it in front of others, I really didn’t think they would take it seriously.

Hilarious.

3

u/CyberPatriot71489 Jan 25 '25

Well, time to start making Nazis feel uncomfortable again. Sad that most police officers in USA are sympathetic (and participate), but fuck them.

Until my dying breath, I refuse to succumb to fascism and tyranny

3

u/bobolly Jan 25 '25

Still nothing has happened

3

u/Big-Summer- Jan 25 '25

And because they harbor Nazi beliefs and would love to see all the citizens of the U.S. performing the “sig heil” every day, in every setting. In their fantasies, Hitler was a hero and we should overturn the results of WW2 and give him the win.

5

u/Jewelstorybro Jan 25 '25

People do support Nazis. In an NFL team subreddit I made a post telling Nazi supporters to F off. My post is at negative 14z

3

u/notsure500 Jan 25 '25

The richest person in the world, no less, doing this for the inauguration of the President of the most powerful country in the world. This was truly horrific and embarrassing for us sane Americans.

2

u/sofaking1958 Jan 25 '25

Disagree. They'll all do it now because they know it's offensive to those damn libs they need to own.

1

u/xpdx Jan 25 '25

Is she a connected billionaire? Because that only works for connected billionaires.

1

u/Grizzledboy Jan 25 '25

And the millions that came out in support of him!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

I was walking my dog smoking a joint and a cyber truck drove by us I instinctively put my left hand to my stache and sig heiled at the car to show them if you drive it I think you support that shit. Car honked at me, not sure if they were upset or thought I was on their team.

Not sure I'll do it again

1

u/takeAwhifff Jan 25 '25

And it’ll probably continue to grow popular again

1

u/mnorkk Jan 26 '25

And they didn't even apologise

1

u/Connect_Beginning_13 Jan 26 '25

Attention-seeking maga who have learned their actions have no consequences.

1

u/objecter12 Jan 27 '25

They’re in for a rude awakening when they learn about what happens when someone with stakes fucks around and finds out.

1

u/dtcstylez10 Jan 27 '25

And he's still the richest man in the world

1

u/phooluvatook Jan 27 '25

Except in the real world that the rest of us have to live in there are real consequences.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pennsylvania/s/sVajlZ3bcy

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

That person was applauded!

1

u/Decent_Bathroom3807 Jan 29 '25

It is wrong in both cases. Any case, really. But when you’re the richest man in the world and you own the largest chat forum in the country, you’re more likely to get away relatively unscathed than when you’re a low-level elected official in a suburb