European countries are quite capable of making their own judgement about a gesture, especially when it would be illegal in France and Germany.

https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-01/elon-musk-hitler-salute-i...

German media has been extremely coy calling Elon out about it. You would think that they'd be all over this, but them phrasing it as questions and digging out the "roman salute" (that no one here has heard of before) has been an eye-opening experience.

Have they?

I mean, that was a link to a German newspaper and the headline is:

> A German Eye On Elon Musk's Hitler Salute (Yes, That's A Hitler Salute)

It's an opinion piece, and exceptions confirm the rule. Just search for German news articles on Google.de. See how many legit news outlets mention "Musk Hitlergruß" and how many more opt to beat around the bush when you search for "Musk Geste".

Do you even get a count of search results? They no longer include that number in my search results.

But I have just tried "Musk Geste" on google.de news tab (I don't know how Google is personalising either my search results or your results, but FWIW I'm in Berlin), and of the first page, 6/10 links explicitly call the gesture a "Hitlergruß" in the summary, and the other four call it that (or note that some people have called it that) in the body.

Must has spent quite a lot of time recently supporting far right groups. Most likely he picked it up unconsciously.

Obviously this is room for a flame war, but I don’t think the poster was being deliberately malicious, rather it is perfectly reasonable to interpret the gesture as a nazi salute. You may disagree that it was.

We shouldn’t let that argument distract from the impact it has had on Tesla demand in Europe. For me personally it was the final straw and I won’t be buying one as I had hoped to.

Along with other actions certain to hit sales, and the lack of an apology (which would have been wise, even if you didn’t mean it as a nazi salute) suggests that Musk doesn’t care about Tesla car sales.

I suspect he knows the writing is on the wall for Tesla, so he’s betting on robotics as an escape hatch. I wonder if he’s also hoping tariffs against china will help vs their EVs. Either way, I don’t see much hope for Tesla right now.

Guy who talks like a nazi, supports nazi parties, boosts nazis on his social media platform does a nazi salute and you still doubt what he meant?

0 evidence to support these nonsense claims.

> 0 evidence to support these nonsense claims.

Either you've been living under a rock or you're trolling. In the very least, beyond the very public way he repeatedly did the Nazi salute and was very unapologetic about it, you can't ignore away how Musk went way out of his way to support a neoNazi party from Germany.

You are claiming your bias perception is fact with no evidence that he is a neoNazi. This is why the left lost. They are so sensitive to any form of perceived injustice, regardless of the truth.

"You have said the actual truth" ?

On the other hand, neonazis and their enablers are united in the inevitable cry for proof and "truth", and then looking the other way when it's delivered. Obviously this is a very efficient tactic, and I agree with you it's why the left lost.

Hey, I agree that he probably would never identify as a neo-Nazi. I think he thought he was being really cool and edgy throwing out the salute that was co-opted/adjusted by the Nazi party. The company he keeps still informs us on what he's willing to tolerate, and as I've laid out in your parent comment, he's chosen time and time again to endorse some pretty problematic ideas.

I dont know what even going through his mind, but I very much doubt it was Hitler.

Pound your heart and give it to an imaginary audience...suddenly it begins to resemble the salute.

Here's an example of Elon Musk agreeing with a man who repeated an antisemitic belief that the Jewish community is inviting immigrants to further racism against the white population (also alluding to the Great Replacement theory - and if you want to claim that it isn't explicitly being stated, implicit nods are inherent to most political statements)[0].

Elon Musk also endorsed and spoke at an AfD event[1], which comprises members that are 7.5X more likely to participate in Holocaust denialism: believing that the Holocaust is Allied propaganda[2]. Multiple former leaders (including a co-founder) of the AfD describe the party as extremely far-right and authoritarian[3][4]. Elected members of the AfD have been found on a Facebook group sharing memes about baking Anne Frank in a pizza oven and insulting interracial couples[5]. Maybe you could claim that these are past events, but the frequency of these issues are alarming. Even so, we have a more recent example: in 2024, a leading member of the AfD was fined for using a slogan that was used by the Nazi military[6].

At best, you could call Elon Musk an absolutely bone-headed moron who has no idea who he chooses to support or where he chooses to attend. With Occam's razor it seems like he has embraced a lot of hateful ideology.

Oh, and also, it was a Nazi salute.

[0] https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1724908287471272299 [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2025/01/25/elon-musk... [2] https://www.kiwi-verlag.de/buch/meron-mendel-ueber-israel-re... [3] https://web.archive.org/web/20230604004557/https://www.tages... [4] https://www.fr.de/politik/lucke-verlaesst-seine-11155453.htm... [5] https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.angst-vor-scha... [6] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/german...

> Elon is not known for his hate of Jewish people.

You might not know him for that, but people who pay attention do.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/business/elon-musk-reveals-hi...