Even this is underselling his actions. He's retweeted accounts of people who are openly neo-nazis, unbanned neo-nazis, tweeted many known nazi dogwhistles himself, and recently visited the German as-close-to-openly-neonazi-as-you-can-legally-be-in-Germany party.
(1) through I would say it's interpreted as Nazi idolizing fascists in many situations which isn't quite exactly the same as Nazi but not necessary any better either
Not to mention that your average dabbing looks like a seig heil while snizzing.
"The Roman salute, also known as the Fascist salute,"
Also from the link:
"However, no Roman text describes such a gesture, and the Roman works of art that display salutational gestures bear little resemblance to the modern so-called "Roman" salute."
But relevant questions are: Is that salute normalized now? Is the era between WW2 and present going to end?
Yes, post-WWII "thanks" to fascists.
As I've said in a different comment: I'm not saying this is somehow "ok" now or that Musk didn't do what he did. My point is that people see one's stupidity and immaturity as something bigger than it actually is.
As a symbol of fascism.
> average dabbing looks like a seig heil while snizzing
No one being serious would ever confuse the two.
Post WWII? Sure. Pre-WWII? No.
That's kind of the "will twist themselves to deny what is fairly evident in plain sight" OP is talking about.