Historian dismisses claim that Musk’s raised arm was mere “awkward gesture”

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Historian dismisses claim that Musk’s raised arm was mere “awkward gesture”

While speaking to a crowd of MAGA faithful on Monday,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

made a grunting noise, placed a hand on his heart and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in a quick, snapping motion, palm facing down. He then repeated the motion for the people behind him.

“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” he declared.

Musk’s gesture, covered by some news outlets live, immediately

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to a salute first used by Italian fascists, then popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. While the gesture is also known as the “Roman salute,” there is no known Roman art or text that depicts or describes it, and the association was likely just a figment of fascist propaganda. The Nazi variation of the salute, still used as a sign of support and identification with Nazi and fascist causes, has been banned in some countries, including Germany.

“Did elon musk just hit the roman salute at his inauguration speech?” Hasan ******, a popular left-wing commentator,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on X.

The

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, an organization that supported police crackdowns against pro-Palestine student protesters, thought not. Writing

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, the organization claimed that Musk had simply “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” and that it was “not a Nazi salute.” The post added that “all sides should give one another a bit of grace.”

Some of Musk’s defenders posited that his rather stiff heart-to-crowd gesture was the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

of an “autistic” man. But others, including experts on far right politics, believed what they saw was unambiguous. “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Regardless of Musk’s intention, his gesture was well-received by neo-Nazis and far-right extremists, who have

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, formerly

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, since the tech billionaire took control of the platform and promised to make it a bastion of free speech. Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of the neo-Nazi group

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

the clip of Musk on Telegram with a lightning bolt emoji (a reference to the insignia of the SS, a Nazi paramilitary organization) and the caption: “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.”

Andrew Torba, founder of the far-right social network Gab, shared the clip on his account with the caption: “Incredible things are happening already lmao.”

Musk, who has allied himself with far-right causes in Germany and elsewhere, struck a defiant tone against his critics, sharing a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that said the “salute hoax” was part of a Democratic “dirty tricks campaign” against him. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” Musk

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

After giving the gesture, Musk continued to speak about “safe cities, secure borders, sensible spending” and America’s “manifest destiny” to colonize Mars.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Historian #dismisses #claim #Musks #raised #arm #mere #awkward #gesture

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up