Wasting no time with Godwin’s Law
Donald Trump has been the 47th president for barely 24 hours, yet the media and progressive academics wasted no time reigniting the “Nazi” theme following Elon Musk’s appearance at the inauguration.
According to the BBC, Musk told the crowd “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured,” and then “plac[ed] his right hand over his heart and […] thrust the same arm out into air straight ahead of him.”
Many on X, formerly known as Twitter which Musk owns, “likened the gesture to a Nazi salute.” This includes supposedly educated people.
Like Claire Aubin, a lecturer at San Francisco State University and UC Davis who “specializes in Nazism within the United States.” She said “My professional opinion is that you’re all right, you should believe your eyes” — that Musk did a “sieg heil” gesture.
Aubin, an “avid” tabletop role-playing and video gamer, did her PhD dissertation on “tracking the post-War lives and trials of Holocaust collaborators in the United States,” after all.
NYU’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat announced on X regarding Musk “Historian of fascism here. That was a Nazi salute – and a very belligerent one too.”
Historian of fascism here. That was a Nazi salute – and a very belligerent one too https://t.co/PB9sFCVJGA
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) January 20, 2025
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Ben-Ghiat worried Trump would use his first assassination attempt “to make himself more powerful.”
“[W]ith each failed attempt, the personality cult themes about the leader’s macho toughness, resilience and invincibility gain credence among his followers,” Ben-Ghiat wrote. “This was certainly the case with Castro and Mussolini, and it has been the case so far with former President Donald Trump.”
Northumbria University’s Waitman Beorn, former director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, posted on X “Hi! Holocaust historian here. Let me see if I can help. That wasn’t a ‘weird salute.’ It was a Hitler salute. Because Elon is a fucking Nazi. Hope that helps!”
Hi!
Holocaust historian here. Let me see if I can help. That wasn’t a “weird salute.” It was a Hitler salute. Because Elon is a fucking Nazi.
Hope that helps! https://t.co/T6L9PonwQr
— Dr. Waitman W. Beorn (waitmanwbeorn.com on 🟦) (@waitmanb) January 20, 2025
MORE: Black studies professor: Trump is ‘Hitler-brandishing,’ ‘anti-abortion criminal’
Historian Michael Phillips, author of the book “White Metropolis” and a former instructor at the University of Texas, Austin, wrote “Elon promotes white supremacy, suggests that people of African descent are violent criminals, retweets Neo-Nazis, and recently endorsed a German Neo-Nazi party in Germany. If it goose-steps like a Nazi, sieg heils like a Nazi, and salutes like a Nazi, it’s a Nazi.”
Elon promotes white supremacy, suggests that people of African descent are violent criminals, retweets Neo-Nazis, and recently endorsed a German Neo-Nazi party in Germany. If it goose-steps like a Nazi, sieg heils like a Nazi, and salutes like a Nazi, it’s a Nazi. pic.twitter.com/F63PmNBZvf
— drphillips2001 (@drphillips2001) January 21, 2025
Maynooth University’s John O’Brennan not only believes Musk’s gesture was a Nazi salute, he ripped various media outlets for not agreeing with him:
The newspaper which supported the Nazis to the hilt in the 1930s refutes the notion that Musk is a Nazi. https://t.co/L7KVvsHJJn
— John O’Brennan (@JohnOBrennan2) January 21, 2025
The media in the United States bear enormous responsibility for the slide into fascism.
Today, they failed epically to report the truth. https://t.co/xRxZ1UXurx
— John O’Brennan (@JohnOBrennan2) January 21, 2025
Christ, @politico you know very well what is going on here. https://t.co/ohAddgvqDv
— John O’Brennan (@JohnOBrennan2) January 20, 2025
Cal Poly Pomona sociology/criminology professor Philippe Durhart responded to a tweet mocking the notion that Musk is a Nazi (Musk is pictured with families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas) by writing “Or Zionism, like all ethnonationalism, is fundamentally fascist.”
Or Zionism, like all ethnonationalism, is fundamentally fascist pic.twitter.com/1XTYakb3qX
— Philippe Duhart (@PhilippeDuhart) January 21, 2025
University of Maryland PhD student and “anti-racist pedagogy” researcher Victoria Alexander, who two years ago made the ludicrous claim that professors in Texas could be jailed just for saying the word “racism,” ripped the Anti-Defamation League for criticizing anti-semitic college students’ “peaceful” keffiyeh-garbed protests, but not Musk:
College Students: *peacefully protest genocide*
ADL: That’s antisemitic violence
Professor: *wears keffiyeh*
ADL: That’s the same as wearing a swastika
Elon Musk: Does N*azi salute at a political rally on live tv, twice
ADL: That’s an awkward gesture pic.twitter.com/fbuPaxYxIC
— Victoria Alexander (@victoria_phd_) January 21, 2025
In terms of the media, PBS said Musk’s gesture “appeared to be a fascist salute,” with one of its reporters claiming “It certainly appears to be a ‘Heil Hitler.’”
A pair of CNN reporters repeatedly showed Musk’s gesture with one of them claiming their audience is “smart,” but then noted the salute was “not something you usually see at an American political rally.”
Rolling Stone wrote “Regardless of whether the South Africa-born Musk intended the salute as a ‘Sieg Heil’ salute favored by the followers of Adolf Hitler in World War II, as some online commentators have suggested, it was eagerly received that way by extremists online.”
And MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow attempted to link the Musk gesture to Trump’s pardon of January 6 Capitol rioters — by invoking dictators like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
“If you’re on my side, the law doesn’t apply to you,” Maddow said. “Don’t even ask me about the SA in Germany. Don’t get me started.”
The SA were better known as “Hitler’s Brownshirts.”
MORE: Duke University shrink: Trump may be worse than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao
IMAGE: Politics & American Ideology/X; Claire Aubin/Linkedin
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