Summary
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s daughter, accused her father of giving a “definitely Nazi salute” at two rallies in January, calling his actions “fucking cringe.”
In an interview with Teen Vogue, she criticized Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration and advocated for trans rights, emphasizing the importance of gender-affirming care for minors.
Wilson, who transitioned as a teen, described Musk as cold and absent, and revealed she no longer associates with him or his family.
She also expressed fear over anti-trans legislation under Trump’s administration.
Well, according all the comments here that I’ve read, I’m stupid.
Yes, when you watch the motion as a small repeating gif, of course it looks like a salute. When I watch the actual video, and listen to him speaking, I do not think its a salute.
His child in the article is obviously not happy their father, even before this happened. Reading the article, its obvious their opinion is based on the trans issue, and because they disagree on the topic, then he must be a Nazi. Since they give no other reason for him being a Nazi, I don’t think their opinion holds much validity.
It’s incredibly bizarre that there are people in the world defending this shit.
It’s even more incredibly bizarre that anyone could actually look at that video and see anything other than a fucking nazi salute.
People like you are why this world is turning to absolute shit. Just another cog in the wheel.
No person in their right mind would make such a gesture, especially not speaking in front of millions. It was not a 100% clear Hitlergruß. To me it seems pretty obvious that it was an intentional move to further divide the US population into people claiming he did a Nazi salute and those brushing it off as a random gesture, ridiculing the other side. Ragebaiting by doing a 99% nazi salute is not much better than doing an actual one.
How come its mostly people who behave exactly like nazis who ‘accidentally’ make very similar gestures to nazi salutes? I wonder…
What if he just made a motion, and it happened to look like that, even though it was not intentional? Watching the video, that’s how I see it. I think he just got caught up in the moment, and made a gesture of thanks, not trying to look like anything.
Then he would have disavowed it and apologized for it immediately. You don’t accidentally Heil Hitler and then just pretend it didn’t happen.
He did it again, just a second later.
Also, a ‘gesture of thanks’ usually doesnt involve tensing up your whole body and stretching your right arm with the palm facing downwards. This is as unnatural of a gesture as it gets.
He bent his whole body to give a salute. It was quite off-center and awkward, not really like the nazi salute as seen on historical videos of Hitler, which is a much more deliberate and aligned hand motion in relation to the body. If Elon time traveled to Hitler rallies and did this salute, he’d be reprimanded for doing it all wrong.
Yep, I just can’t buy that its legit.
When your defense is, “Actual Nazis would say you need to work on your Nazi salute if you want to do it right,” you need to realize you’re also saying, “Actual Nazis would recognize this as a poorly done Nazi salute.” And him being an unfit, physically inept fuck doesn’t make it less of a Nazi salute, no more than my hour of playing tennis doesn’t make my attempt at a backhand swing any less of a backhand swing just because Serena Williams would fall on her ass laughing if she saw me do it.
You may not be aware, but Nazis (both traditional and the neo variant) love dog whistles.
Obscure and hidden symbolism is core to their ideologies.
Nazis (and most hate groups in general) love doing things that are just innocent enough, but with a wink or a nudge, demonstrate clear intention.
It’s quite easy to not do a nazi salute and when public speaking, politicians (and people who practice their public speaking skills in general) have traditionally been coached on what features may be construed as, just look at the traditional ‘non-threatening’ two finger point.
Finally, I don’t think it really matters what it technically was or wasn’t, what matters is perception and reception.
Edit: I want to add some concrete examples of nazi dog whistling and symbolism.
Historically the numbers 88 have been used by neo Nazis to represent HH (8th letter of the alphabet) as a disguised way to say ‘heil Hitler’
The numbers on their own don’t mean anything, but given additional context, behaviors, or related ideals, then an additional meaning can be found.
This is often used as an intentional way to inform sympathizers to your position that you are on their side (for example a group at a political gathering) without overtly communicating your position to those opposed.
Another example is skinheads (not sharps) wearing and lacing their boots in a certain way with specific color laces.
Hitler himself was immensely into the occult and found hidden symbolism to be very powerful, it’s part of why he repurposed so much religious iconography.