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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   35714 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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Dunno about any of this but do you think it's possible he was trolling and did a nazi salute deliberately despite not being a nazi? That is what I'm inclined to believe. I doubt he has any feelings about Jews at all tbh – I think he really cares, however, about the reactions of his nearer-at-hand political enemies, and so would be primarily motivated by creating a reaction from them.

I think this is exactly what occurred. Musk has really stepped up his troll game as of late and appears to look for every opportunity to edgelord.

What is interesting to me is that he also seems to be slowly chipping away at his plausible deniability in this domain. He has liked/retweeted some antisemetic tweets over the last several months and it has come out that he is a paid subscriber to a South African white nationalist who has advocated that things were better during apartheid.

I think all of this will end poorly for him and wonder if some of this behavior is due to his well known, extratherapeutic use of ketamine and suspected bipolar disorder.

I just saw this tweet he made, and yeah, you're right. I actually seriously regret defending him if he's going to turn around after my unwarranted good will for him and use the language of people that I hate, acknowledging that it was intentional. Absolutely disgusting.

I still don't think he's a neo-nazi, for reasons already said. But I hate this shit. He must hate the left so much that he would purposely use rhetoric that pisses them off. Quickest I've ever been wrong, and I hate it when I'm wrong and /r/politics is right.

I don’t understand how a tweet mocking the accusations as ridiculous is proof that the accusations are true?

It's not proof that the accusations are true. It's proof that even if it was accidental at the time, there is not even an attempt to say it was accidental. The mockery is embracing the move. He's not a secret nazi, but I despise the obvious trolling going on here.

I definitely don’t agree - why validate such bizarre slander with a genuine reply?

I’m steadfast in the belief that no one actually holds the opinion that Elon did a nazi salute. I’m confident that everyone who has watched the video is well aware that he was gesturing “my heart goes out to you”.

The continued accusation that “no, it was in fact a nazi salute” is just a performance; it’s said only to try to anger you opponents and motivate your base, and not to try to accord with reality.

To me, that sounds like trolling. So you know, if you’re being trolled you have two responses: “lol” or troll back.

no one actually holds the opinion that Elon did a nazi salute

Sadly, I am pretty confident that they do actually believe it. I started this thread after an argument I had with my left leaning friends, and they were incredulous I didn't see it for what they thought it was. "I'm not sure what else you need to see at this point," was something said a couple times.

I can't say I don't understand your perspective. But when you are continually insincere, it makes it difficult to tell which actions were actually supposed to be sincere or not. There was a conversation in one of the non-culture-war threads about his Path of Exile 2 claims, and I think it was @cjet79 was holding the possibility that he was trolling people on purpose in that circumstance as well. In that case, I was pretty confident he wasn't trolling. After the last few days, I still think he wasn't trolling in the case of Path of Exile 2 since he deleted some of the tweets that he made at Asmongold on the subject, and trolls don't tend to do that, but I'm no longer as confident. How am I supposed to stick up for someone that purposely complicates my sticking up for him?

I also share something with the left, in that I really no longer like Hitler-staff-name puns or anything making light of that stuff. My dad is a genuine neo-Nazi in most any respect you can think of, and he loves jokes like that.

Is there a single person more fucked in the world, as an individual, than Musk if the MAGA movement does just die with Trump?

Credible total commitment is an interesting angle, isn't it? He's now the one man Trump knows can never stab him in the back, because he'd be stabbing himself.

This would give Trump a pretty compelling reason not to stab Elon in the back. The counter argument would be "Lol" said the Scorpion "LMAO"

He must hate the left so much that he would purposely use rhetoric that pisses them off

Don't you? If not, give it a few years, they will come for something you care about. (probably)

They already have, and while I do like to sneer, I probably wouldn't view this forum if I thought that that was a productive thing to do. I also don't really like making jokes that extremists enjoy.

This is the only explanation that makes any sense and I still can't figure out why? To what point? Who is getting trolled? Is Musk actually stupid or a genius? It just doesn't compile for me.

Think about the incentive structure. What does Musk have to gain from capitulation here? The end of a media cycle about something none of his supporters or normal people care about freeing them up to dive into the controversial executive orders more? Every drop of ink spilt on this is a win so why not juice it? Especially in a way his supporters will get some enjoyment out of. I don't think the salute was deliberate but the response seems to perfectly follow what I'd expect someone in his position to do.

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