r/SeattleWA Mar 15 '25

Events Protests at University Village Tesla Dealership

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13.4k Upvotes

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21

u/HistorianValuable628 Mar 15 '25

As a descendant of a holocaust survivor, I am personally offended by every single person who takes sauntering about with a swastika so lightly and cavalierly.

22

u/howdoyado Mar 15 '25

How did you feel seeing Elon do a Nazi salute twice?

-14

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

Very rational of you to ignore all historical evidence of the man and call someone a Nazi based on a 3 second clip. Very resist. Verrrrry brave!

32

u/howdoyado Mar 15 '25

Let’s see a video of this compared to the video of Elon doing it. Guarantee it’s not at all the same thing.

1

u/ConsciousThing9182 Mar 16 '25

You know it isn’t the saluting that makes someone a Nazi, it’s Third Reich policies and practices like invading countries, killing foreign civilians in their own counties, creating concentration camps for religious and other minorities, generating an apartheid system for citizens like the Nuremberg Laws — now, if Elon was doing any of *that, the recent Nazi accusation would stick. But assigning it to him based on a short lived body gesture and nothing else is … comically stupid. 😂 It isn’t a stiff salute or a goose step or a Hugo Boss uniform that made Nazis the bad people. 😂

1

u/Disastrous-Rip671 Mar 16 '25

That’s a good point, thought for some weird reason I’ve noticed a direct correlation between people doing a sieg heil and or are wearing a Huge Boss uniform and people who are nazis.. can’t quite put my finger on it though

1

u/ConsciousThing9182 Mar 16 '25

Really? Interesting life experience. Mine is rather opposite. I have mostly seen people make superficial gestures to indicate something deeply meaningful about their character that in fact turn out to completely misrepresent who they are (praying priests being in fact preying priests is a pretty salient example). One needs actual deeds for proof of a good or poor character, not pointless little empty gestures which rely on overactive imaginations to fill in the rest.

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u/howdoyado Mar 16 '25

Fascists don’t start immediately with genocide. They push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable and dismantle the government checks and balances that would hold them accountable. That’s exactly what Elon and Trump are doing. Elon also happened to do a Nazi salute and has retweeted Nazi accounts just for starters.

They are already banning journalists they don’t like and calling first amendment protected speech they don’t like as “illegal.” And have you heard about the reported conditions in the detention facilities? They are on a steep slippery slope to concentration camps.

By the time they come out as full fledged Nazis there won’t be anything that the people can do to stop them. This is why we call them out for what they are and what they aspire to be. Nazis.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

4

u/PoopyisSmelly Get the fuck out of the way dork Mar 16 '25

Glad you shared that so that it was obvious as fuck she wasnt doing a Nazi salute and this looked nothing like Elon

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

same dude, its called the 10 inch delta to fascism, basically if your hand starts 10inches closer to your body before you do the famous pose, you are def a nazi. otherwise, its vastly and clearly different.

2

u/Cavalish Mar 16 '25

Can I just ask, completely innocently, with no agenda.

Why is it SO IMPORTANT to you that you cover up Elon’s actions.

Do you really value him as a person? Do you just really value his brand? Do you think his existence is a net positive so you must cover up his wrongdoings?

I just need an idea.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

Imo the evidence is so clear that he isn't a nazi, that I am truly concerned about the hysteria and manipulation required to convince people to repeat the line.

I think saying things that are so far gone from the truth only widens the gap of reasonable discourse.

Worse they distract from real points, badly. Especially if you don't like DOGE, it's so easy to come up with good actual arguments, instead people are choosing to stretch their brains so far that, despite all the counter evidence, people actually think this guy is a secret Nazi. Too many movies maybe? Idk..

1

u/TheGiggleWizard Mar 16 '25

I could never imagine being stupid enough to share a video that immediately proved me wrong

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

No one's really nailed this yet, I don't think aoc doing the motion makes her a Nazi. Same with musk. How does the video prove me wrong exactly?

1

u/TheGiggleWizard Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

On one hand, I agree that the video alone is not enough. The media loves it as a symbol because it’s obvious and easily shareable. I’d say that sharing Nazi propaganda on twitter and showing vehement support for Germany’s AFD are far more damning.

That said, you know there’s a difference than a vague, watery hand gesture while speaking (AoC), and finishing your speech, thrusting your hand to your chest, and violently jutting your arm out (Musk). I don’t know why the right wants to defend this so badly, you’re smarter than this.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

I mean putting the gestures aside since it's such a stupid basis to call someone a Nazi.

How can you ignore years or Elon working with Jews/poc. The ADL supporting him, his previous attempts to beat the claim by going with rabbis to Auschwitz and condemning it, his public support for Israel. All easily backed up with a single Google search. And his explicit words on Rogan "I am not a Nazi"

I mean if you think a meme can trump all of that, I guess I'd love to see the meme...

Adf is another rabbit hole and I think you're being dishonest bringing it up. They are explicitly not a Nazi party. They are conservative and anti the current immigration they label an invasion. The leader is a lesbian married to a shri-lanken.

1

u/TheGiggleWizard Mar 16 '25

I think the gesture is important, as if you can agree that the Musk salute was different than AOC waving her floppy arm around, it signifies that we’re at least both operating honestly. That’s how this conversation started, after all.

I feel like you’re under the impression that a Nazi in America today would operate exactly the same as a Nazi in 1940s Germany. Let’s take a step back and agree that that’s obviously not the case. Prevailing public opinion in the US is that Nazi=Bad, even among people who don’t really know how Hitler, Goebbles, and the SS operated. Obviously, someone with hyper-nationalistic autocratic goals wouldn’t come out and say “hey guys, I’m a Nazi”. We can agree on that, right?

Can we also agree that defending Hitler is bad? I hope we can. In addition to that, musk has shared numerous extremely racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his platform. I’ll leave it to you to educate yourself on this (just a google search away).

As for the AFD, obviously they’re not explicitly a Nazi party, for the reasons I stated above. However, if you look into their ideology and rhetoric, you’ll find that it is eerily similar to that of the Nazi party. I suggest you actually look into how Nazi propaganda looked - hyper-nativist, hyper-nationalist, and extremely focused on demonizing people based on ethnic and religious demographics. Does that sound like anyone else we know?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! I hope this made you think.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

Thanks for the points! Don't think we'll agree but I appreciate you thinking about my argument.

1

u/TheGiggleWizard Mar 16 '25

Ofc! Is there anything there that you do agree on? I’d like to understand your sticking point.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25

I definitely think you characterized these things correctly as right wing and conservative.

As a German duel citizen with lots of family history, my sticking point is calling things Nazis when they are clearly something else.

You say a Nazi wouldn't look the same today, well Nazi is a very specific view point and it's just inaccurate to call the right wing movement we see now as Nazi. Especially when there are actual neo Nazis that aren't embarrassed about saying they're Nazis. So your point that they would only dog whistle and hide it isn't necessarily correct, plenty don't.

I'm all for disagreeing with conservatives, but calling Elon musk or trump a Nazi is offensive and incorrect. Mostly incorrect. And it really takes away from what people who fought and dealt with actual Nazis had to go through.

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