If It Quacks Like a Nazi …

Monday, during the presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington DC, unelected co-president Elon Musk twice made outstretched, flat-palm gestures with his right arm, widely interpreted as Nazi salutes. That they were exactly that seemed obvious to me and on Facebook I shared two press photos of Musk performing the Hitlergruß* on stage.

A line from George Orwell’s 1984 comes to mind: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” MAGA is quick to embrace that command, at least whenever Trump or anyone in his circle says the quiet part out loud.

To wit: A conservative friend responded with a photo montage of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris making similar gestures, his apparent point being either that Barack, Hillary, and Kamala are also Nazis or that the gesture is a common one and shouldn’t be interpreted as what it appears to be.

My response: When people of color and dedicated anti-racists with progressive political views are caught making ambiguous gestures, it’s fair to assume they’re not saluting der Führer. When a white man from a former apartheid regime does it, a man who associates with and praises known fascists while allowing avowed Nazis to express their “views” on a social media platform he owns (and to which he frequently reposts racist & authoritarian memes), one can safely assume there’s nothing ambiguous about it.

Of course I could be wrong. I’m not, but I could be. We’ll know one way or the other on the 4th of July, 2026, our nation’s semiquincentennial, when Trump finally gets his long-desired military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. If the ranks of marching soldiers are goose-stepping, you’ll know I interpreted Musk’s signal correctly. If they’re marching normally, you can accuse me of wrongthink and send me off to Room 101.

*Hitlergruß: Hitler + gruss; literally, Hitler + greeting.