What did he do specifically to crater his reputation?

Is it his politics? He seems to have reasonable beliefs there. It's not like he's been supporting Trump unconditionally. He doesn't always agree with Trump. Is it because of his stance in favor of free speech? How is that a bad thing? As someone who doesn't like any side of politics, I don't get it.

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ndsipa_pomu 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Two very public Nazi salutes without any attempt to deny it afterwards will certainly crater anyone's reputation. It's not really politics, but more a question of humanity, but then people don't become billionaires without having a contempt for others and a desire to underpay and mistreat everyone you come into contact with.

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jongjong 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

He did deny it multiple times on Twitter/X. Probably your news source of choice is the one which omitted this fact.

I think it probably did look a bit that way and maybe he did it for engagement, maybe he intended to create controversy or maybe it was none of these things. In any case, it wasn't an actual Nazi salute.

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RickJWagner 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and innumerable others have likewise made the gesture.

Do you honestly think Elon is a Nazi? If so, what actual proof do you know of?

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comfysocks 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Fair enough, I see that online all the time. Here’s my take.

Raising your hand alone is a common gesture that pretty much everyone has done. Saying “my heart goes out to you” gives plausible deniability. But making the hand gesture while clicking your heels together and snapping to attention with a stern jaw-jutting look on your face is pretty unmistakably a nazi salute.

Elon has publicly denied it was a nazi salute, but any normal person would go a step further and also disavow neo nazi ideology in the same breath. But doing that would break the dog whistle effect.

Some people say he’s just trolling, and yes, Elon likes to troll. But trolling or not, it has the same effect if you don’t also renounce neo nazism. It normalizes and shows you are comfortable with it.

Can I prove he’s a neo nazi? No I haven’t gone through his wallet and found his membership card. But his support for the AfD and all his great-replacement-theory adjacent talk are strong signals.

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tzs 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Musk's gestures: https://x.com/BartoSitek/status/1882081868423860315?t=8F0hL-...

Those other people's gestures: https://x.com/ExposingNV/status/1881647306724049116?t=CGKtg0...

Notice anything different?

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ndsipa_pomu 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No they haven't. You've likely been misled by seeing still images of their hand in that position, whereas if you see the video, then it's clearly nothing like a Nazi salute. Meanwhile, the video of Musk makes it incredibly clear that it's a Nazi salute and he has not denied that as far as I know.

His politics also seem to align very much with white supremacy and the far right.

	▲	RickJWagner 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Here’s a denial from Musk. Plus the Anti-Defamation League clearing Musk. Plus a Democrat congressman clearing Musk. All this from a left-leaning publication. The ADL alone should give reasonable people reason to give Musk benefit of the doubt. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-01-21/musk-says-...

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surgical_fire 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Dude did a Nazi salute and made a speech in support of the neonazi party in Gernany.

I think we got a few steps beyond "reasonable beliefs".

I mean, perhaps it is reasonable for you, but then we will find very little common ground.