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Written by Amanda Marcotte on 2025-01-22 at 11:25

Elon Musk's salute is a standard-issue far-right trolling tactic. I call it fascist peekaboo, and explain how it works here.

But it's not working so well this time. I explain how progressives and the press are getting smarter on how to respond.

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/22/elon-musks-salute-falls-flat-why-far-right-trolling-isnt-working-this-time/

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Descendants

Written by James Cridland on 2025-01-22 at 11:54

@AmandaMarcotte Great piece, slightly spoilt by the big link to Twitter at the bottom of the page. (I guess that’s the template). You might want to ask them to remove that ad for Musk’s social network.

His first name is spelt “Adolf”, not “Adolph” btw

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Written by Cabbidges on 2025-01-22 at 12:09

@AmandaMarcotte

He upstaged the inauguration.

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Written by This Old Hiker on 2025-01-22 at 14:01

@TheDailyBurble @AmandaMarcotte Well, Musk is the power behind the throne.

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Written by bhorst on 2025-01-22 at 12:33

@AmandaMarcotte Have media outlets been hounding Donald to repudiate Musk’s salute? No? Well, I guess they only do that sort of thing to harass liberals, huh.

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Written by Havyhh2 on 2025-01-23 at 01:38

@bhorst @AmandaMarcotte ....may have changed since yesterday, but someone posted list of outlets that had / had not published story/photo of musky's nazi salute... big US sites hadn't. Hardly a surprise....most (all?) owned by or clearly in the rightwing camp. Real, more comprehensive news will in future be found on sites like this, or blogs/newsletters/podcasts by people you trust to tell truth. The road out of this shit hole will not be quick, nor painless....

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Written by atlovato on 2025-01-22 at 13:11

@AmandaMarcotte - The guy is a loser; too bad he hasn't grown up to be a real human being

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Written by The Enemy is Within on 2025-01-22 at 13:25

@AmandaMarcotte Is it just me or is Musk getting significantly more attention than Trump because of this?

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Written by Matt McIrvin on 2025-01-22 at 13:32

@AmandaMarcotte aka "Schrödinger's asshole"

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Written by Liam Egan on 2025-01-22 at 13:46

@AmandaMarcotte

A perfect example of how to deal with this kind of behavior.

"People can officially stop listening to you as any sort of reputable source of information now."

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Written by Greengordon on 2025-01-22 at 14:18

@AmandaMarcotte

Great article, I wish the corporate media would do this, but...

"Ultimately, it doesn't matter what's in Musk's heart, but how he acts. When someone keeps casting warm smiles at racists while mocking anti-racists, they are promoting racism. At every turn, Musk's behavior is friendly and helpful to the worst people in our society. As Ocasio-Cortez said, those who refuse to see his behavior for what it is aren't worth listening to."

[#]musk #fascism

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Written by Alexander Karn on 2025-01-22 at 14:18

@AmandaMarcotte

🔥🔥🔥

“Since you can't murder people ‘ironically,’ the mainstream media had to finally admit the gesture was both a troll and a sincere symbol of white nationalist beliefs.”

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Written by Laminie on 2025-01-23 at 08:10

@xankarn @AmandaMarcotte hello 👋 how are you doing today nice to meet you

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Written by Deborah Sampson on 2025-01-22 at 15:17

@AmandaMarcotte

This reading helps put politics in perspective…

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong,

Gives it a superficial appearance of being right,

& raises at 1st a formidable outcry in defense of custom.

But the tumult soon subsides.

Time makes more converts than reason.”

&

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

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Written by otto on 2025-01-22 at 15:58

@AmandaMarcotte Does anyone know how to draw an absolute line between fascist signaling, dog whistling etc and gestures for which complaints are met with "you are misinterpreting that"? Or are most such distinctions doomed to fall into an abyss when one communicates them across the artificially wide gulf between progressives and the right wingers?

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Written by Holiday's Over, 👀 Patty. on 2025-01-22 at 16:06

@AmandaMarcotte Listen, any columnist or media that makes excuses for a Repeated Nazi Salute at a US Presidential Inauguration celebration (not at a small private non-partisan event) would justify Elon in an SS uniform and Hitler mustache as "just trolling hijinks" as they deliberately refuse to report Musk's active support of the modern German AfD, and on an American President who rewards the Nazi with a public paid Exec Bldg office and access.

This is the effectiveness of political terrorism on the soft squishy media.

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Written by pa27 on 2025-01-22 at 16:18

@AmandaMarcotte Article refers incorrectly to elon as "tesla founder". Another myth...

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Written by Tanquist on 2025-01-22 at 16:55

@AmandaMarcotte

This reminds me of how I got my MAGA relative to stop trying to bait me into pointless arguments. I started responding to every provocative statement with a disinterested "Uh huh." It really took the wind out of his sails.

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Written by piperef on 2025-01-22 at 18:28

@AmandaMarcotte

Great article. Thanks 🙏.

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Written by CynAq🤘 on 2025-01-22 at 18:36

@AmandaMarcotte While I agree that these are part of the same tactic, and the obvious weakening in its effectiveness, I'd say the line between appropriating the OK sign and throwing two back to back, unmistakable sieg-heils is as fine as a freight train.

The increase in bluntness (from plausibly deniable OK hand gesture to outright Nazi salute which can't be any other thing) is, I believe, in part what weakens the tactic this time around. There's no trolling when the denial isn't plausible. You'll just look like a douche at best.

It's also what happened to end the OK sign debacle. When the outright racist massacre happened, there was no plausibility to the denial anymore.

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Written by galinino on 2025-01-22 at 19:29

@AmandaMarcotte thank you for your article. These aspects will help me in future AFD-peekaboos.

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Written by Deborah Apthorp on 2025-01-22 at 19:46

@AmandaMarcotte thanks for this. Ugh, the pointless argument thing is working - I got into a huge argument with my husband about it last night, with him talking over me and hectoring about why we really need to be accurate about these things…

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Written by Havyhh2 on 2025-01-23 at 01:39

@AmandaMarcotte Nazi salute.

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Written by okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin on 2025-01-23 at 01:44

@AmandaMarcotte

I don't need to get into that twisted moron's thinks to see what he does. He's a racist, nazi troll, and anyone not describing him that was is either too stupid, too dishonest, or too cowardly to have a respected opinion.

[#]Musk #NaziSalute

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