This cannot have been an accident:
Watch the incident here.
No one could have thrown that salute by accident or even chance. It can only have been deliberate, chosen behaviour. It is also decidedly abnormal, so it was not a reflex.
Worry.
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I have seen a second photo of him making a similar gesture in front of a smiling, clapping audience. Definitely intentional.
Childish wind-up merchant – he’s having a ball.
It seems like an impression of someone impersonating a member of the nsdap. Intended as a joke but the action is far more aggressive then is required. It isn’t funny.
I can’t see anything in that gesture that suggests it was intended as a joke. The aggression is horrendous.
As a rugby referee, we were instructed to punish actions since we can’t guess intent…
Sad days for the world but deja vu. The Nazi Party in Germany started out a 100 years ago:-
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-role-of-the-conservative-elite/
With his support for groups like AfD in Germany, and the immediate actions taken by Trump to both establish authoritarian control and to deny the identities and rights of people including immigrants and trans men and women, and deliberate actions like this, hopefully more will be willing to acknowledge that America has just installed fascists into power
Politicians willing to shill for the rich has reached such a volume in Western democracies that rich fascists are now realising its easy to con voters and seize power. Never before has the saying “the price of democracy is eternal vigilance” become so apt yet again after the rise of Hitler 100 years ago:-
https://www.jeserie.org/uploads/Roth%20Book%20Notes–Democracies%20and%20Tyranny.pdf
i wonder if freeing the Proud Boys who were involved in the violent Jan 6th insurrection, gives them a recognition as the MAGA Sturmabteilung, (aka Brownshirts (Braunhemden))?
I just want to record here my thanks to you Richard for being a voice of sanity in these darkening times.
Thanks, Geof.
No coincidence then that the Twitter ‘X’ brand looks like a swastika with part of the arms missing.
His roots are rich, white, apartheid, (criminal?) South African. He’s just given up bothering trying to hide it.
A Nazi coup in America. No longer “Have a nice day!” It’s “Have a Nazi day!” What pillocks many Americans are much like many in Britain!
Oh for goodness sake. Imagine the mental gymnastics required to turn a random gesture into a global conspiracy. The real danger isn’t hidden salutes; it’s this kind of paranoia.
Politely, no it is not.
Only someone who is indifferent to fascism could say what you have done.
I saw the salute and in context he was thanking all the supporters and saying his heart went out to them.. covering his heart ( I guess he has one?!) and then making that expansive gesture that I agree looks very much like a Nazi salute but , ok maybe I’m being naive , but in this case I don’t think it was a Nazi salute, but a gesture that took in the whole audience. Who knows. Maybe we’re all being woke. Maybe he knew exactly what he was doing and is currently enjoying the consternation it has caused. However I think there was enough REAL stuff to be concerned about yesterday for us not to get hung up on this one. The whole day repulsed me, but then the US for the last several years has done the same.
He did it twice
No sane person would do it once because of the connotations, and the way it was delivered was very odd. This was not an accident.
It seems to me that the natural way to ensure out ‘from my heart to you’ ends with the palm up. Plus his verbalising this sentiment seems more like a post hoc gloss to cover a faux pas.
Liz wrote “The whole day repulsed me, but then the US for the last several years has done the same.” Wee Ginger Dug summed it up by calling it “The Turd Reich”.
🙂
OK,
Please feel free to suggest other explanations for this gesture.
As far as I’m concerned, apart from a fascist salutation, I don’t know any other uses this gesture (or anything resembling it) has had in society and history.
I’m neither historian nor social scientist, so genuinely interested if there are similar gestures with different usage!
Victoria Derbyshire on Newsnight last night asked her guests about it.
The journalist laughed it off,Penny Mordaunt dismissed it and the Labour MP only commented about how important it was to work with Trump.
Appeasement has started .
As you say,very worrying.
Agreed
He is either Nazi or stupid. You choose.
Likely both!
Or both.
Worry?
He did the gesture twice. Twice. If I was a betting person, we’ll see him quadruple down on it. His fans will quadruple down on it and copycat it, all to be seen as cool and with the hip genius entrepreneur crowd.
As for apologists of Musk: he uses the word autism when he means sociopathy.
Silicon Valley got involved with this year’s election due to the Biden administration cracking down on the rampant fraud and theft in crypto, the tokens, the meme coins, tokens etc.
David Sacks, who was part of the PayPal mafia, just happens to be another South African is the crypto’s are in the United States will stand down, it not aid and abet, and allow crypto to run feral.. as a saying goes, the fox are now in charge of the chicken coop. Their pressuring individual states as well as the federal government to go all in on crypto.
This is a 1929 moment on steroids. The people in power are criminal gangs in the world’s largest economy involving the world’s reserve currency.
Tend to agree with PSR’s ‘wind up’ .
Its sinister but also sort of deniable – and had the intended effect – got everyone talking about him.
Trump may be jealous.
Thank you Andrew.
That sort of behaviour – aping a well know fascist gesture – shows a person of no class whatsoever, someone who does not know how to win with dignity and composure because really, the whole thing to him with his money is a nothing but a game which he is already winning.
Magnanimity? Nope!! No way.
It was deliberate. He did it twice to make sure we knew it was deliberate, and then denied it was. He’s contending for Trump’s spot as chief liar.
I was dissapointed with the BBC coverage of Trumps speech. I dont think the BBC should live broadcast any of the pronouncements from Trump or Musk over the next four years. These broadcasts dont inform, they misinform, both of these dangerous idiots are proven compulsive liars. They should report after the fact, highlighting any lies and misinformation in their speeches.
I’m wondering if Trump will try to crack down on the frees press. He may not have to with legacy media being so easily manipulated, and a large portion of social media supporting Trump.