The Elon Musk Gesture / Salute
There are those who think Donald Trump is a saviour, someone who will truly Make America Great Again. And there are those who think he's the devil. Similarly, there are people who think Elon Musk is a generous genius who is going to use his power to right the wrongs of the world. And there are people who think he's an evil ruthless businessman with horrid intentions. I don't know enough about either of them to truly know. I have my own political leanings, same way you do, and for the most part I respect whatever anyone's beliefs are. So I don't know if these people are wonderful or terrible.
But I do know a Nazi salute when I see one.
I don't know his intentions. I don't know if he was signalling his beliefs, or pissing off liberals, or, as some are saying, maybe it was an accidental mistake.
But it was what it was.
Those who agree with me are adamant they saw the same thing.
Those who disagree with me keep sending me jpegs of other celebrities with their hands up in the air.
To clarify: Taylor Swift or Kamala Harris having their hands pointing at the sky doesn't mean they did an offensive salute.
Maybe they did. Maybe you have a video of them doing the same thing Elon did, but I doubt it.
I did see the Kamala Harris video. Hers was more of a pointing off towards the sky awkwardly, trying to be inspirational. The rigidity and specificity of Elon's gesture was different.
You could easily be mistaken for thinking that my questioning Elon but supporting Kamala is a political thing, but this is the only time I've ever said anything in support of Kamala. I'm only here to talk about the hand gestures.
Why do those defending Elon's action send a jpeg of celebrities pointing towards the sky?
Maybe this is how it worked in the 1940s. Whenever Adolf did a salute, people put together pictures of Winston Churchill and and Vera Lynn pointing up into the distance.
I'm not suggesting intent. I don't know what is in Elon's mind.
But if you invited me to a university to talk about movies, or if we had a coffee to talk about media, or perhaps if for some reason I became good at singing and was booked to headline Madison Square Garden, there's absolutely no way I'm doing that gesture by accident. And I very much doubt you would.
It's interesting how we're all viewing this differently. I've had lengthy debates with people I love and respect, who are certain it WASN'T a Nazi salute. They see it as a playful friendly gesture.
I see that video and I'm certain I saw something else.
I think symbols and gestures matter. People don't do things by accident. What he did is not normal - it carries a meaning.
Elon didn't apologise for it, he didn't explain it. Instead, he rallied against Wikipedia and mainstream media, saying it's all corrupt.
I don't know the guy's intentions, or the entirety of his beliefs. But I do know the gesture was troubling.
I wrote this to a friend after he posted something on FB regarding the gesture.
“Good morning Simon! Since we are real friends in the real world I am writing to you here. I saw your post on Elon Musk. I have no absolute truths, just 2 observations. Believe me I am on no side, just the love for humanity one. 1. That people (following the media, they are training us well) toxically interpret everything nowadays. It is what we do. And we feel so comfortable doing it on social media. 2. Whatever this is (like every other piece of news that goes suddenly viral), it is a distraction from bigger things happening. During these distractions, important issues/decisions are ignored by the public eye. They want us to be so fired up over something small and they succeed. Look at how much response this post received compared to your normal ones. Good food, animal attivism, a happy message, my book... Everyone is talking about it. Everyone has sides. It divides. Division. People are fighting on social media. It is doing exactly what it has been put out to do. Us feeding it (often innocently) by posting and talking about it. An easy topic for those who know less about the world to get into a discussion. Also, people like you said, are unfriending people for a point of view. For thinking differently. Again, they do their job well.
I am writing you here so that I do not feed the media and system and instead nourish our relationship. Again, this is just for reflection. You do not have to agree with any of this for my friendship. It is for forever. Have a wonderful day!"
One thing you say here that I think is very important is that we do not know what was going on in Elon's mind. I have seen all kinds of takes on this from all kinds of different people with often very different conclusions.
One commonality I see is that everybody seems to be absolutely positive they know what was going on in his mind. And when we assume we know what is going on in the mind of another person, we are highly prone to making mistakes. We all view the world through our own lens and are primed to see certain things.