Oh Look. That Hand Gesture. Again

For your consideration.

The best-case scenario is that they are consciously trolling us all with Nazi symbolism.

That’s not a very good best-case scenario.

The notion that they don’t know what they are doing is simply absurd.

FILED UNDER: US Politics,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.

Comments

  1. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    aaaaaaaaggggggggghh!

    Will someone rid me of these pestilent Nazis?

    6
  2. Kurtz says:

    I saw some Twitter account posting his own ‘poetic’ street ‘art’ which consisted of antisemitic prose on rocks and other places. He seemed quite proud to be a self-ID Nazi. There was a serious lack of anything resembling poetry or art in his media feed.

    I saw him replying to anti-Trump news, proudly identifying as a Nazi. Yet, one of his replies was support for a libsoftiktok tweet. The subject? The dead hostages–young children–recently returned to Israel.

    So the proud Nazi speaks positively of Israel in a reply to a post by an Orthodox Jewish woman.

    Very confusing.

    Ohhh, maybe:

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend?

    She seems to believe in The Great Replacement Theory?

    Ohhh, I get it! proud Nazi is okay with Israel, because they aren’t in the US. Nah…that doesn’t seem likely.

    He thinks of Raichik as one of the members of the Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei who were more enthusiastic than some of their German counterparts in persecuting Jews in the ghettos?

    IIRC, it did not end well for them.

    Of course, Raichik seems pretty goddamn stupid.

    Just a troll account?

    Strange days, indeed.

    1
  3. SKI says:

    The best-case scenario is that they are consciously trolling us all with Nazi symbolism.

    Popehat’s Law of Goats

    7
  4. Jay L Gischer says:

    Musk is a fool who has very little social understanding.

    Bannon is not. Bannon knows exactly what he’s doing.

    2
  5. Rob1 says:

    @Jay L Gischer: Define “knows exactly what he is doing.” Because both exhibit delusion and grandiosity. Musk built an industrial empire and Bannon hit a few early tech-finance licks and then lapsed into ideologue dilitante status. The dust up is looking like “penis envy.”

    1
  6. @Jay L Gischer: You give Musk far more cover than he deserves. Far more.

    But, you are correct that Bannon knows what he is doing. 100%

  7. Kathy says:

    @Jay L Gischer:
    @Steven L. Taylor:

    Remember when eccentric plutocrats went deranged quietly in private?

    1
  8. Jay L Gischer says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: I know a great deal about people on the spectrum. Because reasons.

    There is a thing called pathological demand avoidance. It is common in spectrum people, for complex psycho-social reasons.

    I feel I have not expressed myself clearly. Musk should not have done that. I think he might have done it because he didn’t understand the associations, which would be typical. OR, he might have done it because, “You can’t tell me what to do!” Which is typical pda.

    The thing that is puzzling is Musks arc. These things we are seeing now were far less visible even 10 years ago. Do you recall how eager he was to offer Skylink to Ukraine in 2020? And now they are threatening to yank it?

    How did that happen? What’s going on with him emotionally/psychologically? Is it all because of his trans daughter? Or has he fallen in with the wrong crowd because of it? He is way too naive to be suspicious of someone trying to influence him.

    2
  9. Kathy says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    Remember he bought Texla because he was concerned about the long term environment issues? He’s shifted so much towards slef-driving on the cheap, I wouldn’t be surprised if he acquires a big car maker and begins to churn out gas guzzlers with high accident rates.

    All big business tycoons are assholes to some degree, some far more than others. The nazi in chief began to go off the scale, at least publicly, during COVID.

    1
  10. Eusebio says:

    @Kathy:
    Even as recently as 2021, after the car company’s announcement that it would begin accepting Bitcoin was met with outcry from environmentalists due to the electrical energy used in Bitcoin mining, the company reversed course:

    “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Mr Musk wrote.

    “Cryptocurrency is a good idea… but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”

    His concerns for the environment and other matters of the greater good seem to be long out of sight in the rearview mirror.

    4
  11. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Jay L Gischer: I’m tired of people accounting for inflammatory, irresponsible, bigotry and hatred by saying “he’s just a fool.” It’s doesn’t matter. He’s also inflammatory, irresponsible, bigoted, and hateful. Stop excusing/rationalizing it.

    “Bannon knows exactly what he’s doing.” So does Musk. “When people show you who they are, believe them.”

    3
  12. Jay L Gischer says:

    @Jay L Gischer: I think I’m more advocating for everyone else on the spectrum than for Musk. I’ve known a lot of them. Some I care quite a lot about. They act in ways that seem bizarre sometimes, but that’s because there’s a subtext that does not ever occur to them.

    Musk has crossed several lines. I don’t care to advocate for him, personally, any more.

    I have another friend that, at this point, is quite wealthy. Not Musk wealthy, but doing very well. He gives politically. To Democrats. He had at least one, maybe more, meetings with Rahm Emmanuel, during the Obama presidency.

    He comes off on social media as a complete jerk. He isn’t. He comes off this way because he is spectrum and not attuned to secondary meaning, to subtext. Face-to-face he is generous and thoughtful. I think though, in certain FTF contexts he will also come across as a jerk.

    I’m advocating for him, and all the other spectrum people I know. Not Musk.

    2
  13. Rob1 says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    and not attuned to secondary meaning, to subtext

    That may well be for some, but many of these rightwing warriors and culture trolls know exactly what they are doing as the seek to trigger as an act of dominance.

  14. Rob1 says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: If by “knows what he is doing” you mean Bannon deliberately and with calculation, seeks undermine the very social/government framework that provides the greatest security for his own being, his assets, his children, and future progeny, then that would either make him pathological or an agent of some other interest. But I do agree that he seems to have a more scripted plan than Musk, albeit both exhibit increasingly antisocial behavior.

    1
  15. Gustopher says:

    It’s all done ironically just to upset the libs. Same with the concentration camp in gitmo for undocumented folks. And sending Elon and his muskrats to “audit” the government. And the eventual death camps.

    Libs just can’t take a joke.

    Some people say these are just nihilistic fucks who don’t believe in anything, but nothing could be further from the truth. They care very deeply about ethics in video game journalism.

    6
  16. dazedandconfused says:

    It’s reflexive. He can’t help it.

    I hope this works out like the Delta crash, everybody survives but the right wing falls off.

    2