Julie Bindel and JK Rowling laughing about the Musk Nazi salute incident

[HumHU3]

Thought someone might have already done a thread on this. I don’t always agree with Bindel but had a lot of time for her, but this has really surprised me. Not sure why they would be finding it amusing - Musk and Trump are hardly figures of fun, for feminists especially, whatever you think of the (clearly far right!) salute.

Yeah, I get it - Musk has spoken out about the UK rape gangs which is inconvenient because many in the chattering classes don't want to face up to them, and he's not pro-trans either (how infra dig), so he has to be the worst in the world, worse than the gang rapists I believe from some actual, real comments on here, we all need a villain to distract ourselves don't we? So of course he had to be doing a Nazi salute even though it's clearly nothing of the sort and it's definitely not fevered imaginations trying to turn a fairly standard gesture by some twonk into the manifestation of pure evil. It's easy for Musk to be the antithesis of humanity, it's not easy to examine what we've all done to society.

@7plusthinking my point is that academics seem happy to stand by while students directly threaten Jews but of course have to wade in on the ridiculous Elon accusation. The quote re context is of course from
Claudine Gay from Harvard.

Why would he apologise for something he didn’t do? To say how deeply offensive and vile an actual Nazi salute is is so damned obvious you’d have to be a fool to think it worth saying.

It's not a serious accusation. Why should it be given any credibility with a serious response? Any defence would be proof of the offence. It's like when women are accused of being right wing for thinking we have rights, they don't really think we're right wing, it's just fun to see us writhing like fush on a hook and it stops us standing up for ourselves while we try to prove to their satisfaction we're not right wing which we can't because the simple accusation means we're irredeemably guilty. So why play the game at all? It deserves mockery.

No Trump and Elon aren’t figures of fun, but people who seriously feel that anyone lifting their arm above their head in a wave to an audience is doing a Nazi salute are absolutely worthy of ridicule. There is lots to hate and mock about both men, so the puerile nature of seizing on an innocuous wave is farcical. Perhaps people could spend their time on the issues that matter, like understanding the impact of Roe v Wade, etc.

Yep. It’s a ‘look, squirrel!’ moment isn’t it?

It’s amazing how this site goes for it.

Agree with pp mockery is what it deserved

A good way to bring down your opponents is to ridicule them. I would assume that's what they were doing here.

Oh fffs sake it wasn't the nazi salute it was him saying I give my heart to you all and thrusting his heart out to the crowd. We all know he's an odd ball with the gracefulness and dexterity of a goat. He can't even clap without looking like an alien in a human's body. People love to be offended at anything.

It really did look like one though. It didn't look for a moment that he was making a loving gesture to the crowd and I think him laughing it off is disrespectful. I think in this case and on that platform -on the inauguration day of an American president - yes he does need to show some respect and explain himself.

While I understand the tactic of discrediting people seen to be giving secret hand signals (like KJK fiddling with a zip) and wouldn't normally get worked up I think in this case a bit of diplomacy really is required. It's setting such an appalling tone for the behaviour of those goons for the next four years.

Tbh I watched the clip and to my eyes it was not a nazi salute (or at least what most people who have seen a nazi salute would recognise as one)

My first response was to laugh and say c'mon on and it reminded me of old photos of the young queen where people claim she was giving the salute.

There's plenty to criticise Musk about and I find it weird that the focus is on a gesture made while he is saying that his heart goes out to his audience rather than the actual content of his speech.

I have no time for Musk or Trump. Any fool can see it was not the Nazi salute FFS. Or maybe not judging by this thread.

If you want to criticise do so on their policies or other behaviours, such as their appalling attitude towards women, but don’t choose a 2 second film clip as your hill to die on.

As Hannah Arendt adeptly put;

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."

Whether it was an intended Hitler salute or not is not the point. I along with everyone I have met or know or spoken to about it in recent days in Germany (including a Jewish historian ironically in the timing)believe it passed alarmingly for one. The discussion of it is the point.

Agreed

Got it, so raise arm waves are no longer allowed lest someone mistake it for a sign of Nazi sympathies.

Expect to see more of these at the podia going forward…

What do you suppose academics do about student protest?

Academics job is to research, not police students, that's the police job.

Great point

Exactly that. You get arrested for it in Germany so they can investigate. Laugh all you like…

@7plusthinking and is their job also to pass comment on Elon Musk and his “salute”? Is it only off campus fascism they should call out?

Then you live in a bubble. I'm Jewish and everyone I know thinks it's nonsense. We face daily threats and Elon Musk has shown to be a friend to Jews unlike almost everyone who is making an issue of this.

To be fair he is autistic and likely dispraxic.

I shall do, thank you.

I shall also continue to wave my hand above my head when greeting and bidding farewell to friends knowing that I am not a Nazi, especially as I do not live in Germany.

Agreed, it's disappointing, they are being unusually naive.

Why Musk's gesture when just about every major politician has done exactly the same? Why is Musk's intention not the point, clear recognition that it is not a Nazi salute at all, but the irrational and evidence-free projection based on the commentator's own prejudice is? It's the identity politics trap, all that matters is what's in your own head.

I deliberately avoided the usual distancing disclaimer earlier that I can't stand Musk etc in terror of the witch hunt coming after me because it shouldn't be relevant to examining a deliberately manufactured false narrative. I don't actually care either way about him. I do care about the truth.

Yeah, there’s absolutely no room for someone just gesturing to a crowd is there. It must be a Nazi salute. 🙄

To be clear, for the rampantly stupid or mischievous, I do not believe Corbyn gave a Nazi salute and I do not believe he ever has done or would do.