Democrat's Nazi Salute

Booker slammed for alleged 'Nazi salute' to Cali Dems just months after Musk was dragged for same gesture

Conservatives criticized Sen. Cory Booker for an alleged "Nazi salute" at a California Democratic Party event, questioning media coverage of Elon Musk's similar gesture in January.

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Booker slammed for alleged 'Nazi salute' to Cali Dems just months after Musk was dragged for same gesture​

iluvatar5150 said:

lol k

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iluvatar5150 said:

lol k

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Musk Does Nazi Salute at Inauguration

...because why not

www.christianforums.com

GoldenBoy89 said:

Remind me all the terrible things that happened to Musk because of it.

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The_Mantis said:

Rage bait is stupid. Leave it for the mouth foamers that protest everything.

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GoldenBoy89 said:

Random idiots aside, nothing actually happened to Musk as a result of his Nazi salute but at least now we got you all to admit that it really was in fact a Nazi salute he did and not the lame “my heart goes out to you” excuse that you all went with at the time to defend him.

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1. Gesture at Trump Inauguration (January 20, 2025)
   • During a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Elon Musk made a gesture where he placed his right hand on his chest and then extended it upward twice, once forward and once backward, while saying, “My heart goes out to you.” Some critics, including social media users, journalists, and Jewish organizations like the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, interpreted this as resembling a Nazi or fascist Roman salute, a gesture banned in Germany due to its historical association with Nazism.
   • The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) initially described it as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” urging all sides to give “a bit of grace.” However, others, such as German-French publicist Michel Friedman and U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler, condemned it as a deliberate “Heil Hitler” salute, with Friedman calling it a “disgrace” and a danger to the free world.
   • Musk dismissed the criticism on X, calling it a “tired” attack and saying, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” He later made Nazi-themed puns (e.g., “Some people will Goebbels anything down!”), which the ADL criticized as “inappropriate and highly offensive” for trivializing the Holocaust.
   • Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups reportedly celebrated the gesture, with some, like rapper Kanye West, posting pro-Nazi comments such as “heil Elon” on X.
   • Public opinion was divided: a survey cited in Wikipedia showed 49% of those who saw it as a Nazi salute believed it was intentional to signal Nazi support, 30% thought it was a joke or provocation, 4% an accident, and 15% were unsure. Trump voters (79%) largely saw it as a “gesture from the heart,” while Harris voters (73%) viewed it as a Nazi or Roman salute.
2. Support for Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)
   • Musk made a surprise virtual appearance at an AfD campaign rally in Halle, Germany, on January 25, 2025, ahead of Germany’s snap election on February 23, 2025. The AfD, a far-right, anti-immigration, and anti-Islam party, is labeled a “suspected extremist organization” by German security services and has been accused of downplaying the Holocaust and using Nazi-era slogans.
   • Musk urged the crowd to “move beyond” Germany’s “past guilt,” saying, “Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” and “It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.” He called the AfD “the best hope for Germany.”
   • This came days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27, 2025), marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, prompting outrage. The chairman of Israel’s World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Dani Dayan, called Musk’s remarks an “insult to the victims of Nazism” and a “clear danger to the democratic future of Germany.” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk labeled them “ominous” and “all too familiar.”
   • Critics, including Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, argued Musk’s support for AfD, a party with leaders who have trivialized the Holocaust (e.g., co-founder Alexander Gauland called the Nazi era “a speck of bird’s muck” in history), emboldened extremist ideologies.
   • Musk doubled down in a January 9, 2025, X conversation with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, calling her “very reasonable” and saying, “People really need to get behind AfD, otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany.”
3. Social Media Activity and X Platform Policies
   • An NBC News review in March 2024 found 150 verified “Premium” X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts posting or amplifying pro-Nazi content, including praise for Nazi soldiers, Nazi symbols, and Holocaust denial, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. This was cited as evidence of a “flourishing Nazi network” under Musk’s ownership of X, which he acquired in October 2022.
   • Before the purchase, Twitter had worked to ban Nazi symbols and accounts tied to violent organizations. Critics argue Musk’s lax moderation allowed neo-Nazi accounts to thrive, with some unbanned after his takeover.
   • In March 2025, Musk shared, then deleted, a post claiming Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong didn’t personally cause millions of deaths, but their “public sector workers did.” Critics, including the ADL, called this antisemitic and dismissive of genocide, as historians widely document Hitler’s direct role in the Holocaust, which killed 6 million Jews.
   • Musk’s Nazi-themed puns in January 2025, post-salute controversy, further fueled accusations, with critics like Tristan Snell on X calling him a Nazi for combining the gesture, AfD support, and Holocaust trivialization.
4. Musk’s Defense and Context
   • Musk has denied being a Nazi or supporting Nazism. In a February 2025 Joe Rogan podcast, he said, “What is actually bad about Nazis — it wasn’t their fashion or their mannerisms, it was the war and genocide,” adding, “You can’t be called a Nazi if you’re not actively committing genocide.” He called online hate “pretty stressful,” noting threats to kill and desecrate him.
   • On X, Musk rejected Nazi accusations as “insanely ironic,” saying, “Sure is insanely ironic that the people shooting bullets into Tesla stores, burning down cars and generally being violent are calling me a Nazi when I have done literally zero violence at all.”
   • Supporters, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defended Musk, calling him “a great friend of Israel” and saying he was “falsely smeared.” Musk visited Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, wore a “Bring Them Home” dog tag for hostages, and removed verification from some antisemitic X accounts.
   • Experts like Jean-Yves Camus and Constantinos Filis, cited by Al Jazeera, argue Musk isn’t a Nazi but is “ideologically unmoored,” driven by business interests, libertarian views, and anti-establishment sentiment rather than coherent Nazi ideology