It Was a Nazi Salute. Please BFFR

Why are the media and others defending the indefensible?

Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute while on stage during an inauguration day event on Monday.

Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute, and then he turned around and gave the salute again to those seated behind him.

You have likely seen legacy media circumlocuting their way through talking about it instead of calling it what it is.

MSNBC said the gesture “resembled” a Nazi salute.

“Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture,” according to a headline in the New York Times.

The Associated Press wrote, “Right-wing extremists are celebrating Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a speech Monday, although his intention wasn’t totally clear and some hate watchdogs are saying not to read too much into it.”

The Anti-Defamation League — having previously been beaten into submission by Elon Musk — wrote in a statement, “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath.”

An awkward gesture?

The leader of the tech broligarchy stood on stage and gave a Nazi salute in celebration of the new American regime that was put into power with Donald Trump as the face of it.

Andrea Stroppa, a Musk confidant who has reportedly brought Musk together with far-right Italian Giorgia Meloni, initially had a different take on the salute.

According to the BBC, Italian media reported that Stroppa posted a clip of Musk doing the salute along with the caption “Roman Empire is back starting from Roman salute.”

For those unfamiliar with the history of the gesture, fascist leader Benito Mussolini used the gesture in Italy before it was adopted and used by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Stroppa later deleted the post and instead blamed the gesture on Musk being autistic.

And let’s not forget, this is the same man who spent 74 minutes speaking with the frontwoman of Germany’s far-right party earlier this month.

Even Musk himself has not directly denied that the gesture was a Nazi salute, and we all know why.

He’s playing to his base just as Trump played to his, and now we as a country are preparing to descend into fascism, and no one wants to talk about it.

The one thing I am committed to as a journalist is speaking truth to power.

Every journalist should be committed to speaking the truth and calling out the lies.

As Michael Harriot said to me earlier today on a phone call, please show me an example of someone who was making that hand gesture when they were not referencing fascism or Nazism.

You can’t say “Maybe that’s not what it meant” if you can’t provide concrete examples of what it could mean.

That hand gesture was a dog whistle to the millions of Trump followers and Musk sycophants who have been waiting for this moment, and if you don’t believe me, simply do a search on Twitter and see what they are saying.

A common refrain is “We’re so back.”

Back to what?

Maybe we are back to open and unchecked racism.

Maybe we are back to Jim Crow.

Maybe we are back to a time when this country could openly celebrate and uplift white supremacy without having to sugarcoat it.

Whatever we are back to, it’s not going to be good for anyone who looks like me and a lot of you, and if we can’t depend on the media to be honest about that, we are in a lot more trouble than most might think.

Just some food for thought.