You're right, and I think I forgot to mention this in my reply - will people looking at those fans overlook it? When Musk was seen by many as a brilliant humanitarian ethical billionaire championing green vehicles and space innovation, that could be persuasive to typical people. But it's harder for typical people to respect any praise them now they've clearly unmasked themselves on a stage as a nazi.
And playing the “woke cancel culture leftists are taking him out of context” card.
An Australian neo-Nazi speaker recently pulled this coward move too, laughably. (Context: in their jurisdiction, the salute is illegal*).
Nazi promotion event 1: After [...] performing the Nazi salute, Mr Richardson asked the crowd if he was “going be fined now”. [1]
Nazi promotion event 2: i-i was just waving at my friend Beryl in the back row and they screencapped it out of context, it wasn't a salute :( leftism gone mad
Don't worry, antifascists bashed their office door in on Christmas regardless.
Footage appears to depict the alleged billionaire on a so-called 'stage' performing what could be interpreted as a possible Roman-inspired gesture.
If you've seen any leaked footage from neo-Nazi orgs, they're surprisingly garbage at performing the salute. It's actually amazing.
It's not news to anyone paying attention, but that weird Tesla fanatic uncle is going to find it a bit harder to rationalise an actual unambiguous world-famous Nazi gesture. We've even got those worshippers over here, and anyone reasonable who was on the fence with their pro-Musk proselyting can't overlook something this clear.
I've been to protests and thought 'well obviously most politicians won't see this and change their mind, we're dozens of thousands but not millions', but then that's not the actual point of most protests. I'd say they're:
- to publicly establish that there is an organic movement that you can get involved in
- to raise public awareness (e.g. there was recently a nearby protest at a facility manufacturing weapons which locals didn't even know was there and advertising in their schools to groom weaponry engineers, and since most of that community are Middle Eastern war immigrants, it was a big deal to raise awareness)
- to get interested activists, new and experience, all together in a place to network
- to build connections and form political organisation, which can accomplish more than a peaceful authorised protest
If you go there and stand around yelling, you might be wasting time. But if you go there and get involved, that's how you can begin resisting the regime. The people handing out fliers aren't just pests. (only half of them are ;)
I seriously hope you're not comparing one (1) vote in the US electoral system to actual political organisation, or rationalising non-participation in politics because you already expressed that opinion on a ballot.
That's not the goal of a protest. There's only one way to stop it, and the last couple of attempts missed. If you're not willing to do that, a protest is at least a step towards resistance.
The best way to get something out of a protest is to find your local activist groups there. Political organisation is how regimes are resisted. If you go there, yell, and leave, you're not really making much of a change.
Yeah I misread the context, sorry mate.
The FBI was aware of the suspect.
Generalizing 350 million people, yay.
It is a Nazi salute.
Musk is just shit at performing it. It's still a Nazi salute.