1mo ago

Musk accused of giving Nazi salute during Trump inauguration celebrations - Anti-Defamation League defends tech billionaire for making ‘awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm’.

www.aljazeera.com Musk accused of giving Nazi salute during Trump inauguration celebrations

Tech billionaire says his critics need ‘better dirty tricks’ after coming under fire over hand gestures.

‘Not a Nazi salute’
Others defended Musk, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the most prominent organisations dedicated to opposing anti-Semitism.
The New York-based organisation, which has faced criticism for conflating opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism, said it seemed the billionaire had made an “awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute”.
“In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath,” the ADL said in a post on X.
“This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
Max Kaiser, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, said he believed that Musk had “unambiguously” made a Nazi salute and criticised the ADL for defending the billionaire.
“It was a clear signal to his rabid white nationalist and neo-nazi followers that he aligns with their values,” Kaiser told Al Jazeera.
“His platform ‘X’ is well known for promoting racist neo-Nazi content and he has recently endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) German political party. We should all be very concerned that the right-hand man of the most powerful person in the world is a Nazi. The ADL continue to disgrace themselves by defending Musk’s gesture while baselessly attacking expressions of pro-Palestinian solidarity as anti-Semitic. ”
While not addressing the controversy directly, Musk responded to a number of X posts about the incident, including to thank the ADL and express agreement with a user who said that calling people Nazis was “tired, boring, and old material.”

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1mo ago

ENG ADL defends Musk's "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm"

Musk accused of giving Nazi salute during Trump inauguration celebrations

www.aljazeera.com /economy/2025/1/21/musk-accused-of-giving-nazi-salute-during-trump-inauguration-celebrations

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41 comments

So, an org fighting anti-semitism sees a guy who openly supports a nazi party in germany, who says that the swastika symbol is not against twitter rules and who made the nazi salute in turd's inauguration and says that it was just "an awkward gesture" but that he's not a nazi at all.
Tell me again why should I not consider that the ADL itself is a nazi org.
- The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
- Tell me again why should I not consider that the ADL itself is a nazi org.
  if you have a table with ten people and 1 nazis, you have 11 nazis.
  Also, just to add to that list of things that makes musk a nazis.... he donates to the AFD. You know. the neo nazis party in germany.
  Also, also, just going to drop this open letter/oped to the NYT's that was signed by many then-promenient american jews denouncing the State of Israel for being fascists. it should be noted that the political parties mentioned in this letter became Netanyahu's party.
  of which it says:
  To the Editor or Thk Nbw York Times :
  Among- the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. ....
  <snippy>
  .... The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
- This might explain why they're wimping out.
- Literally anyone: "Palestine should be free"
  ADL: AntiSeMiTisM!!!
  Elon Musk: Performs a nazi salute. Twice.
  ADL: My, my, such enthusiasm! *bats eyelashes
- They're pro-isreali government, not anti-anti-semitism. That's it, that's the whole explanation.

The ADL are literally just Zionist propaganda and should not be taken seriously or at face value for anything.
- Keep mine that they're basically basicall spokespeople for the likud party who have a long history of working with the Nazis.

ADL: If it looks like a nazi, and quacks like a nazi, it deserves a bit of grace, the benefit of the doubt, and we should hope for healing and work towards unity in the months and years ahead.
- Also ADL: if you’re a Jew criticizing or protesting Israel or Zionism, then you’re an antisemitic self-hating Jew.
  The ADL lost their moral high ground years ago, if they ever even had it.
  
  Yeah exactly, they will bend over backwards to support trump because they see him as an ally of Zionism
- So long as it has money, or shits on Palestinians from time to time.
  If it's poor or suggests Israel is anything but the Platonic Ideal of perfection, it's committing a hate crime.
- We should come together and unify the country in support of bombing all the hospitals in Gaza. That's the important thing right now.

The ADL is part of the radical Israeli lobby group AIPAC. They have regularly faced criticism, which i share, that they are not dedicated to fighting antisemitism, but rather abuse the fight against antisemitism to further Israels political interests.
- This becomes extremely clear when opposing Israel's genocide of Palestinians is called antisemitic but repeatedly performing Nazi salutes in front of a far-right rally is not, and is even defended. The ADL, it seems, don't care about protecting Jews, just about protecting fascist Israel.
  
  But it's opposite day ... right?

It's wild how people (mostly the ADL and news outlets that want to pretend this is all normal and fine) just memory holed Elon posting "you have said the actual truth" in a reply to someone posting an antisemitic ramble about a Jewish conspiracy to import foreigners
(sarcastically) Like, wow, how could a man who endorses shit like this possibly do a Nazi salute, it seems so unlike him! 🙄
- Lol, the whole post is confusing as I'm pretty sure most western Jewish people self identify as white.
  Crazy how many racist don't understand the difference between ethnicity and race.
  
  Judaism is a pan-racial ethnicity. Someone can be white and Jewish just like one could be Ethiopian and Jewish.
  
  For most antisemites, Jewish people who consider themselves white are doing so as a ploy to infiltrate and undermine white society.
  Antisemitic conspiracy thinking is based on the idea that Jewish people are all deep down engaged in some sort of conspiracy to benefit Jews over non-jews, and so you can disregard actual Jewish people's thoughts and understandings of their situation as a smokescreen for their conspiracy. Antisemitic conspiracy thinking is at its heart, conspiratorial thinking, and can reinterpret almost anything into further proof of the conspiracy, even someone acting in a way that totally goes against how the conspiracy theory says they should be acting.

I mean he did it twice. Bit hard to call it unintantional when you do it once, turn round and do it again.

And the ADL is also defending Israel's genocide of Palestinian people. They lost the actual definition of antisemitism. They can get fucked.

"Please, just reject the evidence of your eyes and ears, it's no biggie"

Okay these are the people who in the past defended Apartheid South Africa and today defend Israeli genocide so I never exactly had high hopes, but... what the actual fuck? I thought they were just ideologically rotten; turns out they're another member of the circus.
- Don't forget that they also denied the Armenian genocide for years.

"Ignore the lie you saw with your own eyes and listen to the actual truth we tell you"
Guess somewhat understood 1984 as a guideline.

Don't you just hate it when you slip on a banana peel and accidentally sieg heil? Soooo awkward when that happens.
- Twice.

Pretty sure the first Public Relations people teach famous people is don't do the fucking Hitler salute.

Ok, so imagine that you're a billionaire and a really smart dude (as claimed by so many people on the internet). And you get into government and appear on TV and want to look good. You might hire a publicist, a PR team, some speechwriters, hell how about a body language consultant. When you go on TV you're going to project exactly the image you intend to. Anything less would be careless and stupid, right?
So yeah. This was a Nazi salute. And if you really want to argue that it wasn't, that Musk doesn't even know what a Nazi is, you gotta also accept that he's grossly incompetent and should not be in government at all. Throw him out, we didn't vote for him.

He should he prohibited from entering Germany and whole Europe altogether, frfr

I saw this post this morning and thought maybe it was out of context and just clipped from him raising his hand up to wave or something as a metaphor of who he is ... then I saw the gif.

I mean, he does it weirdly, like he's trying to do it like a dab or something, so even a nazi salute is something he fail in just like his companies. But a nazi salute is a nazi salute. When it's a gesture done in a moment of enthusiasm, you know what his true nature is inside. A fucking nazi. But that's not something he's hiding or anything. It says more about the people claiming he isn't a nazi. How fucking ignore't and blind can you be? When it's shaped like a strawberry and red like a strawberry, grows on a strawberry plant, it's highly likely a strawberry. But than there are people saying "nah, it's not a strawberry, it's a banana."

A bit like Dr Strangelove, but he makes no effort to pull the arm down to hide it.

Will no one rid us of this meddlesome ~~CEO~~ ~~tech bro~~ nazi?

Can't keep killing Palestininians if we piss off the conservatives that like the world's richest Nazi.

Expected more from the ADL.
- You did?
  “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is an antisemitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations.
  
  and the 1977? Likud campaign slogan was the inspiration for Hamas’ slogan.

41 comments