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Comment by superflow | Hacker News Reader

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Yes, clear as night and day. He would face charges in Germany and if you ask the general public in Europe they will tell you it was that.

People think it was and that's all that matters

some people, and most a loud minority, thinks it was, the vast majority of people that can think for themselves do not.

so actual facts don't matter? Just what people think and feel? oh boy....

> but was it a nazi salute?

Yes.

It was either a nazi salute, or a "Heil, Ceasar!" In the context of a presidential inauguration, either one is very, very bad.

The “Roman salute” you’re referring to never existed in history up until the 19th century when art and later film took creative liberties.

It’s fictional symbolism that resonated with Italian fascists and eventually became the greeting associated with nazism.

The “Roman salute” you’re referring to never existed in history up until the 19th century when popular media introduced it. It’s fiction, it resonated with Italian facist which is why they started using it.

Yes the "Roman salute" was quite possibly invented by Jacques-Louis David. So what? The question isn't "did the salute match what actually was used 2,000 years ago," but "what salute did Elon Musk think he was doing?"

Either it was a real fascist salute, or a Hollywood roman salute. Either one is deeply troubling.

It was clearly something that looked a lot like a Nazi salute. And it was twice, this wasn't just an unfortunate camera angle. And Elon has been commenting (positively) on tweets by various extreme right figures for a long time now, so there is additional information here as well.

Tell you what: if it wasn't, then any sane person doing it would be mortified of the accusation that it was, and would do their utmost to emphatically ensure everyone that it wasn't.

So either it was, or Musk is simply not sane. Or both.

(It's both).

Does it matter if it was or it wasn't, specifically intended to be a NAZI salute?

He's acting like a NAZI in every relevant way except the symbolic and superficial. (Well... except for that one very public time.)

He's very aggressively and openly supporting far-right parties, including the AfD in Germany.

He's suggested to Germans to get over the shame of their past -- guess what he's referring to here!

He basically owns the US Executive branch in the same way that fascists "integrate" business and politics.

He loves to single out vulnerable minority groups for public vilification (the transgendered), including personally taking steps to materially harm them.

Him and Trump together want to control the racial makeup of the country, and have collaborated on mass arrests and deportations.

Etc...

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and salutes like a duck...

see it's word twisting like that, to suite your view point, and the lack of critical thinking that's the biggest problem in the US.

I don't live in the US.

I don't see how I've "twisted" words either, unless you consider "stating facts" to be deceptive somehow.

Maybe you have alternative facts?

Not only does it look like a Nazi salute to most people, Nazis also took it as a sign that he's one of them. His representative in Rome called in a Roman salute (same thing) before quickly deleting it.

It's a Nazi salute to everybody except a handful of people who are desperately in denial about it.

Weird that comments point out this obvious truth are all downvoted. Also, he is firing all FBI agents that worked on the case against Capitol attack. They are succeeding in making legal system composed of loyalist that will not prosecute his people crimes, but will abuse political oposition.

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