Elon Musk projection on the left

really? are you really going to stand by that statement? hate symbols, when used in their intended way, cause a great deal of fucking hurt.

Oh come on, you know what I mean, you're just taking the opportunity to have a performative holier-than-thou "gotcha" moment.

Yes, words and symbols are incredibly powerful. Tim Snyder talked about the underappreciated role of symbols in extending the reach of fascism into people's day-to-day lives. Stickers in German shop windows, yellow stars, Nazi pins. Trump flags and red hats are obvious extensions, but then a lot more interesting I think is the role face masks started to play in defining an obvious "with us or against us" sign that people have to decide which side of they want to be on, and engaging the everyday rank and file in the actions of enforcing "you're with us or you're going to get yelled at or maybe even physically attacked" as a new model for society. It's very dangerous. It's what forms and strengthens the linkage between what the leaders say, far away, on TV or the internet or distantly one time at a rally, with what people's day-to-day actions are in enforcing the dictates of the leader within the community.

I do think there's a small, small contingent of people who will be rallied to the cause by overtly Nazi symbolism. I think the main danger, though, is in normalizing overtly evil symbology within the discourse, and breaking in the pathways of enforcement at an individual level. It starts with "well of course you won't complain when I use racial slurs or advocate violent immigration policies RIGHT? RIGHT?" and then getting physically menacing. Once that precedent is established, they can continue into flexing their special-category-of-person nature by showing Nazi signs, or advocating for rape, or otherwise daring people to disagree with the terrible things they're saying, but knowing that they risk being placed in the "other" category and open themselves to attack if they do.

So yes, this stuff is dangerous. I'm saying no one was physically or financially or in any other way directly harmed when Elon did the Nazi salute, unlike some of the other activities they like to do. I'm not saying that the overall symbology that it forms a part of is harmless. Hopefully now we're on the same page. Yes?

Overthinking is sometimes a good thing. If you understand what's going on, you're in a better position to react to it. I more or less agree with your initial statements. He's just trolling. Probably in his mind that's how he interprets it also. But I'm saying the reasons why that is an effective thing for him to do are worth some thinking about.