4 ms·

> Musk responded by calling Mogensen “fully retarded,” adding that “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago” I'm risking going too off topic wit

> Musk responded by calling Mogensen “fully retarded,” adding that “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago” I'm risking going too off topic with this one, but how did we get to the point where a public (policital?) figure can call someone "fully retarded" in front of the world and not face any backlash? Especially someone with great achievements, that has been to the ISS multiple times, and so on. A few years ago this would have likely resulted in a defamation lawsuit, public backlash, criticism in news...

cgcrob 2y ago
In a civil society he shouldn't have lasted past calling someone a pedo in public. Most CEOs would have been ejected from their companies pretty damn quickly. Why not Musk?
- DonHopkins 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - Jtsummers 2y ago
    It is remarkable the number of comments scarab92 has posted defending Musk. Shows a weird obsession with the man.
    - DonHopkins 2y ago
      Yes, you're not the only one who's noticed. He's not the only one in the least -- sociopaths like that are a dime a dozen and there are many more in the pipeline -- but he's a perfect example of the kind of ignorant angry mentally ill hateful people who Musk attracts and inspires to worship and parrot and emulate himself (but without all the money to get away with it). Imagine how terrible it must be to be his wife or child! I bet he mistreats them just as badly as he behaves in public. They can't just ban him like dang can. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43124217 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43124217 dang 8 hours ago | parent | next [–] Could you please stop posting flamebait comments and please stop duplicating comments? You've been doing way too much of this and are over the line at which we'd ban an account. I don't want to ban you because everyone goes on tilt sometimes, but please stop now. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html krapp 11 hours ago [flagged] [dead] | parent | prev | next [–] You've posted this same comment verbatim or nearly verbatim at least five times in this thread. You keep getting flagged and you keep pasting it in. You're the one who has devolved into incurious and uninformed ranting here, not the people criticizing Musk. Go touch grass or something. 9283409232 13 hours ago | unvote | parent | next [–] I notice you very actively defending Musk in threads but typically leave the conversation when someone ask you to defend the indefensible. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113638 moron4hire 1 day ago | unvote | parent | prev | next [–] This is either woefully naive or active disinformation. Edit: OP dramatically edited their post. It originally made all kinds of claims of process and propriety that just aren't happening. This was the original that I was replying to: ”Most of the animosity comes from misunderstanding. Trump tasked "DOGE" with reviewing government spending across it's 400+ agencies, and coming up with recommendations on how to reduce wasteful spending. They have 1 year to complete this task. To make sensible recommendations, DOGE needs data about the major programs within each agency. They can't tackle each agency consecutively, since there are more agencies than days until the deadline, so they are parallelising the work. The access is read only, and they are not linking personal data between agencies, but rather doing a bunch of separate audits in parallel. Trump has prohibited Musk from being involved in with the review in agencies where he was a material conflict (FAA for example).” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43112911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43112911 ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1 day ago | parent | prev | next [–] Do you have an alert setup to tell you when people are bashing the DoGE? shrikant 1 day ago | root | parent | next [–] Wouldn't be a DOGE thread without scarab92 carrying water for this nonsense. reply kennysoona 7 hours ago | root | parent | next [–] This is the type of indoctrination we need to fight against (not your comment but what it references), and it's an open question as to how.
      - insin 2y ago
        I wondered why the username sounded familiar, one of the very few people I've ever muted on HN, but I suppose the threadshitting is the point.
        AnimalMuppet 2y ago
        How do you mute someone on HN? I've got a few that I wouldn't mind doing that to...
        justin66 2y ago
        An hn killfile feature would be a total gamechanger, in a positive way.
        insin 2y ago
        I implemented it in my HN browser extension: https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news
    - belter 2y ago
      We found Elon HN account...
      - cgcrob 2y ago
        Sorry but I exhibit far higher levels of clue than Musk.
    - buttercraft 2y ago
      Wait till it drops that the doge team is wasting taxpayer dollars shilling on HN Wait, am I joking? Not sure, honestly
      - Jtsummers 2y ago
        That's why they send so many things overnight. Trolling all day and charging taxpayers OT to send out poorly written memos at night.
  - cgcrob 2y ago
    My father was a big Musk fan and a notorious abusive asshole. He blindly followed the loudest authority figure of the hour because there wasn't an ounce of rational thinking in his head. There are a lot of people like that in society. It becomes their personality and identity which means any defence even if rational becomes a personal attack. End game is defensive measures are rolled out and even the person is brought up in normal conversation so that they can defend them. He is dead now. That is probably better for the world. I actually had little to no opinion of Musk until he started meddling in politics. An asshole CEO is expected. The market should kill them if they go over the line. An asshole politician is a very very big issue. More than stocks can be harmed.
  - scarab92 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - SauciestGNU 2y ago
      My brother the only way he could be more mechanically similar to Hitler is if he blew his brains out in a bunker.
    - computerthings 2y ago
      It's the exact same gesture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0 As is what Steve Bannon did: https://bsky.app/profile/eladn.bsky.social/post/3linqzuoecs2d https://bsky.app/profile/eladn.bsky.social/post/3linqzuoecs2...
- ZeroGravitas 2y ago
  His companies don't have great governance ratings because the board is stuffed with family members, friends and his divorce lawyer as General Counsel (that last one sounds like satire but isn't).
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    > and his divorce lawyer as General Council (that last one sounds like satire but isn't). ... Wait, really? That's absurd.
    - belter 2y ago
      Even cried during the court session... :-) "A former Tesla lawyer broke down in tears during Elon Musk's compensation lawsuit" - https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-pay-lawsuit-todd-maron-1851217016 https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-pay-lawsuit-todd-maron-185121... "...It wasn’t just Maron. Musk had a 15-year relationship with Ira Ehrenpreis, who chaired the committee that determined the CEO’s compensation. Antonio Gracias, another member of the compensation committee has a 20-year business relationship with Musk, and they’re such good friends that the two even go on vacation together..."
- 5aherFGi 2y ago
  He has good contacts with the MIC, provides Starlink in Ukraine, works on missiles, has friends who work on drones. He also is the right wing voice that keeps the culture wars theater going and will reduce workers' rights even further. Therefore, the uniparty likes him. The only issue where he ever had to recant was Israel.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
FrustratedMonky 2y ago
It's part of the Anti-DEI push. Anything polite is wrong, and calling names is just 'being honest'. The logic goes : "the truth doesn't care about your feelings, so if I hurt your feelings, then I must be saying something true"
- exe34 2y ago
  Ooh this is a nice way of putting it. Affirming the consequent. It's the same one creationists use: They used to laugh at Galileo, and they are now laughing at me, therefore I must be right.
- anal_reactor 2y ago
  I think it's more about using the language that is close to people. When you listen to Trump's speeches, he's virtually the only high-rank politician who speaks in a way that voters can understand. Politicians created their own lingo that only themselves and those actively interested in politics can understand, and using phrases like "he's a retard" solves this problem.
- Timon3 2y ago
  Another facet of the same fallacy: "A difficult choice is one that helps some while hurting others, but someone wise has to make them. Therefore, if I make a choice that helps some while hurting others, I must be wise." I see this often when people declare "you can't help everyone!" as an axiom. This is also strongly connected with, though I'd argue slightly separate from, "suffering builds character, therefore it's good if I make someone suffer".
martythemaniak 2y ago
Because "owning the libs" is basically the entirety of the right's ideology. It doesn't matter if it's calling people names, firing park rangers or cheering on Putins war, if it pisses off the libs, it must be great.
- mdhb 2y ago
  Reminds me of the old saying that republicans would happily let someone shit in their mouth if it meant that a liberal had to smell their breath.
- archagon 2y ago
  Shitting your pants to own the libs!
bloopernova 2y ago
The news realized that amygdala-bait drove "engagement". (I loathe that term used in its corporate sense) The US right wing realized that the firehose of lies could overwhelm their opposition. trump showed he could mock a disabled journalist and not have his approval drop. musk showed he could defame someone and get away with it in court. I don't have much hope that any of this will change soon.
fransje26 2y ago
> A few years ago this would have likely resulted in a defamation lawsuit, public backlash, criticism in news... Someone already forgot the "pedo guy" saga..
- janderson215 2y ago
  I can totally imagine him saying “okay, retard, you asked for it…” and sending up a Crew capsule next Wednesday. Edit: not endorsing the usage of the word, just saying it seems well within the realm of a possible reality.
  - amtamt 2y ago
    Was any plan made/ proposed since Jan 20?
  - cgcrob 2y ago
    That won't happen because they are late on delivering it. The mission was supposed to be Feb but has been pushed back to late March 2025. If SpaceX don't screw it up further that is. Musk is trying to talk over this.
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
He called someone a retard a few days ago for thinking (correctly, in case I have to spell that out for Musk fans) that the government uses SQL. I thought both the technical content and character of that statement were worth discussing here but it got flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43078219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43078219 He did also do three Seig Heils behind the president's seal at the end of a political rally, so there's that too.
- gulfofamerica 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - belter 2y ago
    His grandfather was a Nazi and a Racist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman His father advocates eugenics and married his stepdaughter "Errol Musk on dating his stepdaughter" - https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3188639/completely-normal-errol-musk-dating-his-stepdaughter-jana https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/31886... "Elon Musk's father suggests having babies should be more like breeding horses" - https://news.sky.com/story/i-wouldnt-call-it-eugenics-as-such-how-elon-musks-views-might-influence-donald-trumps-policies-13261496 https://news.sky.com/story/i-wouldnt-call-it-eugenics-as-suc... So Elon is....? "‘The gesture speaks for itself’: Germans respond to Musk’s apparent Nazi salute" - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gesture-speaks-for-itself-germans-divided-over-musks-apparent-nazi-salute https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gestu... "Nazi billionaires: Fascism in the Elon Musk family tree" - https://mronline.org/2025/01/28/nazi-billionaires/ https://mronline.org/2025/01/28/nazi-billionaires/ Is this what Mathematicians call proof by Induction?
    - scarab92 2y ago
      I think that's called guilt by association, which is a logical fallacy. Also, Musk is estranged from his father.
exe34 2y ago
He got away with a Nazi salute [1,2] at the white house, why do you think the R-word would scare him? [1] https://imgur.com/a/BQO6lBo https://imgur.com/a/BQO6lBo [2] https://imgur.com/a/WAflimH https://imgur.com/a/WAflimH
- hnbad 2y ago
  As I feel like having to point out every single time this is mentioned because I know exactly how people try to relativize this: Yes, he tried to use plausible deniability by talking about how "his heart goes out" to people right before doing this gesture, but you know exactly what this looks like and you know that this is not a gesture commonly used to express that sentiment anywhere in any cultural context that would explain this. This means there are exactly two scenarios in which this is not intended to be a Nazi salute: 1) Elon Musk is incredibly unaware and despite Twitter (including his replies) being overrun by people blatantly Nazi-posting (as in, literally posting videos of the Third Reich or Adolf Hitler and expressing admiration for that era and its sentiments) and him himself having made "jokes" before that suggest sufficient awareness to recognize this gesture for what it looks like - SOMEHOW he is gormless enough to have come up with a gesture that completely by accident unintentionally looks like a Nazi salute and used it multiple times without realizing what it looked like. 2) He's just as gormless as in the first scenario but did realize what it looked like and didn't think that's worth apologizing for and instead doubled down by making fun of those calling him out for it. But even in those two scenarios he is clearly okay with people (especially the far right) thinking that's what he did and doesn't feel like it's worth distancing himself from those who think that's a good thing. So in other words, either he did a Nazi salute or he is okay with people thinking he did a Nazi salute. Those are functionally and consequentially identical outside the brain of Elon Musk himself. Personally I think - given how obsessed he is with extremely stale and tired memes and low-effort shitposts - he wanted to do a Nazi salute but also wanted to maintain the thinnest of pretenses that he didn't, just in case it might come back to bite him. He saw that he got away with it and decided to double down in order to mask his insecurity. And no, those pictures of Democrats holding their hand at a similar angle don't demonstrate anything and anyone who posts them is fully aware of that. This isn't just him deciding to do a weird greeting and ending up in a position that looked awkward, this is him deciding to do a full, forceful motion that could not have looked any other way no matter the angle - and then repeating it to provide a second look from a different angle to eliminate all doubt to what he did. There's only one clip of a US politician or media figure who isn't an open Nazi doing a salute like this I have seen and it's from a Republican who quickly chickens out by waving at an awkward angle - and that's still offering far more plausible deniability because she only did it once.
belter 2y ago
HN flagged. Musk must have 20 interns flagging his stories here...
- prox 2y ago
  It’s a disgrace this is flagged, and more so if this gets buried by the admin. This is a clear cut case really. The astronaut is correct and Musk is on a tirade.
  - belter 2y ago
    More than astronaut. Aerospace engineer and ESA astronaut, Master’s in Aeronautical Engineering, Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, ESA astronaut since 2009, First non-American to pilot a U.S. spacecraft, ISS Expedition 70 commander and Honorary professor. One day Musk will learn how to run that Python script....
archagon 2y ago
Garry Tan (CEO of YC) has also been calling people retarded on Twitter since the election. What's "retarded" in the actual sense of the word is behaving like a poorly socialized child when you're in your forties and running global companies. I mean, honestly, what the fuck? I can't believe these are our leaders. (Worse yet, I get the sense this filth has just been welling up inside them for the last few years, and they are positively giddy at the prospect of turning public discourse into Call of Duty voice chat.)

cgcrob 2y ago

In a civil society he shouldn't have lasted past calling someone a pedo in public. Most CEOs would have been ejected from their companies pretty damn quickly. Why not Musk?

DonHopkins 2y ago
[flagged]
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  It is remarkable the number of comments scarab92 has posted defending Musk. Shows a weird obsession with the man.
  - DonHopkins 2y ago
    Yes, you're not the only one who's noticed. He's not the only one in the least -- sociopaths like that are a dime a dozen and there are many more in the pipeline -- but he's a perfect example of the kind of ignorant angry mentally ill hateful people who Musk attracts and inspires to worship and parrot and emulate himself (but without all the money to get away with it). Imagine how terrible it must be to be his wife or child! I bet he mistreats them just as badly as he behaves in public. They can't just ban him like dang can. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43124217 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43124217 dang 8 hours ago | parent | next [–] Could you please stop posting flamebait comments and please stop duplicating comments? You've been doing way too much of this and are over the line at which we'd ban an account. I don't want to ban you because everyone goes on tilt sometimes, but please stop now. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html krapp 11 hours ago [flagged] [dead] | parent | prev | next [–] You've posted this same comment verbatim or nearly verbatim at least five times in this thread. You keep getting flagged and you keep pasting it in. You're the one who has devolved into incurious and uninformed ranting here, not the people criticizing Musk. Go touch grass or something. 9283409232 13 hours ago | unvote | parent | next [–] I notice you very actively defending Musk in threads but typically leave the conversation when someone ask you to defend the indefensible. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113638 moron4hire 1 day ago | unvote | parent | prev | next [–] This is either woefully naive or active disinformation. Edit: OP dramatically edited their post. It originally made all kinds of claims of process and propriety that just aren't happening. This was the original that I was replying to: ”Most of the animosity comes from misunderstanding. Trump tasked "DOGE" with reviewing government spending across it's 400+ agencies, and coming up with recommendations on how to reduce wasteful spending. They have 1 year to complete this task. To make sensible recommendations, DOGE needs data about the major programs within each agency. They can't tackle each agency consecutively, since there are more agencies than days until the deadline, so they are parallelising the work. The access is read only, and they are not linking personal data between agencies, but rather doing a bunch of separate audits in parallel. Trump has prohibited Musk from being involved in with the review in agencies where he was a material conflict (FAA for example).” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43112911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43112911 ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1 day ago | parent | prev | next [–] Do you have an alert setup to tell you when people are bashing the DoGE? shrikant 1 day ago | root | parent | next [–] Wouldn't be a DOGE thread without scarab92 carrying water for this nonsense. reply kennysoona 7 hours ago | root | parent | next [–] This is the type of indoctrination we need to fight against (not your comment but what it references), and it's an open question as to how.
    - insin 2y ago
      I wondered why the username sounded familiar, one of the very few people I've ever muted on HN, but I suppose the threadshitting is the point.
      - AnimalMuppet 2y ago
        How do you mute someone on HN? I've got a few that I wouldn't mind doing that to...
        justin66 2y ago
        An hn killfile feature would be a total gamechanger, in a positive way.
        insin 2y ago
        I implemented it in my HN browser extension: https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news
  - belter 2y ago
    We found Elon HN account...
    - cgcrob 2y ago
      Sorry but I exhibit far higher levels of clue than Musk.
  - buttercraft 2y ago
    Wait till it drops that the doge team is wasting taxpayer dollars shilling on HN Wait, am I joking? Not sure, honestly
    - Jtsummers 2y ago
      That's why they send so many things overnight. Trolling all day and charging taxpayers OT to send out poorly written memos at night.
- cgcrob 2y ago
  My father was a big Musk fan and a notorious abusive asshole. He blindly followed the loudest authority figure of the hour because there wasn't an ounce of rational thinking in his head. There are a lot of people like that in society. It becomes their personality and identity which means any defence even if rational becomes a personal attack. End game is defensive measures are rolled out and even the person is brought up in normal conversation so that they can defend them. He is dead now. That is probably better for the world. I actually had little to no opinion of Musk until he started meddling in politics. An asshole CEO is expected. The market should kill them if they go over the line. An asshole politician is a very very big issue. More than stocks can be harmed.
- scarab92 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - SauciestGNU 2y ago
    My brother the only way he could be more mechanically similar to Hitler is if he blew his brains out in a bunker.
  - computerthings 2y ago
    It's the exact same gesture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zwiv8erk0 As is what Steve Bannon did: https://bsky.app/profile/eladn.bsky.social/post/3linqzuoecs2d https://bsky.app/profile/eladn.bsky.social/post/3linqzuoecs2...
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
His companies don't have great governance ratings because the board is stuffed with family members, friends and his divorce lawyer as General Counsel (that last one sounds like satire but isn't).
- rsynnott 2y ago
  > and his divorce lawyer as General Council (that last one sounds like satire but isn't). ... Wait, really? That's absurd.
  - belter 2y ago
    Even cried during the court session... :-) "A former Tesla lawyer broke down in tears during Elon Musk's compensation lawsuit" - https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-pay-lawsuit-todd-maron-1851217016 https://qz.com/elon-musk-tesla-pay-lawsuit-todd-maron-185121... "...It wasn’t just Maron. Musk had a 15-year relationship with Ira Ehrenpreis, who chaired the committee that determined the CEO’s compensation. Antonio Gracias, another member of the compensation committee has a 20-year business relationship with Musk, and they’re such good friends that the two even go on vacation together..."
5aherFGi 2y ago
He has good contacts with the MIC, provides Starlink in Ukraine, works on missiles, has friends who work on drones. He also is the right wing voice that keeps the culture wars theater going and will reduce workers' rights even further. Therefore, the uniparty likes him. The only issue where he ever had to recant was Israel.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

FrustratedMonky 2y ago

It's part of the Anti-DEI push. Anything polite is wrong, and calling names is just 'being honest'. The logic goes : "the truth doesn't care about your feelings, so if I hurt your feelings, then I must be saying something true"

exe34 2y ago
Ooh this is a nice way of putting it. Affirming the consequent. It's the same one creationists use: They used to laugh at Galileo, and they are now laughing at me, therefore I must be right.
anal_reactor 2y ago
I think it's more about using the language that is close to people. When you listen to Trump's speeches, he's virtually the only high-rank politician who speaks in a way that voters can understand. Politicians created their own lingo that only themselves and those actively interested in politics can understand, and using phrases like "he's a retard" solves this problem.
Timon3 2y ago
Another facet of the same fallacy: "A difficult choice is one that helps some while hurting others, but someone wise has to make them. Therefore, if I make a choice that helps some while hurting others, I must be wise." I see this often when people declare "you can't help everyone!" as an axiom. This is also strongly connected with, though I'd argue slightly separate from, "suffering builds character, therefore it's good if I make someone suffer".

martythemaniak 2y ago

Because "owning the libs" is basically the entirety of the right's ideology. It doesn't matter if it's calling people names, firing park rangers or cheering on Putins war, if it pisses off the libs, it must be great.

mdhb 2y ago
Reminds me of the old saying that republicans would happily let someone shit in their mouth if it meant that a liberal had to smell their breath.
archagon 2y ago
Shitting your pants to own the libs!

bloopernova 2y ago

The news realized that amygdala-bait drove "engagement". (I loathe that term used in its corporate sense) The US right wing realized that the firehose of lies could overwhelm their opposition. trump showed he could mock a disabled journalist and not have his approval drop. musk showed he could defame someone and get away with it in court. I don't have much hope that any of this will change soon.

fransje26 2y ago

> A few years ago this would have likely resulted in a defamation lawsuit, public backlash, criticism in news... Someone already forgot the "pedo guy" saga..

janderson215 2y ago
I can totally imagine him saying “okay, retard, you asked for it…” and sending up a Crew capsule next Wednesday. Edit: not endorsing the usage of the word, just saying it seems well within the realm of a possible reality.
- amtamt 2y ago
  Was any plan made/ proposed since Jan 20?
- cgcrob 2y ago
  That won't happen because they are late on delivering it. The mission was supposed to be Feb but has been pushed back to late March 2025. If SpaceX don't screw it up further that is. Musk is trying to talk over this.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

He called someone a retard a few days ago for thinking (correctly, in case I have to spell that out for Musk fans) that the government uses SQL. I thought both the technical content and character of that statement were worth discussing here but it got flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43078219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43078219 He did also do three Seig Heils behind the president's seal at the end of a political rally, so there's that too.

gulfofamerica 2y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- belter 2y ago
  His grandfather was a Nazi and a Racist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman His father advocates eugenics and married his stepdaughter "Errol Musk on dating his stepdaughter" - https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3188639/completely-normal-errol-musk-dating-his-stepdaughter-jana https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/31886... "Elon Musk's father suggests having babies should be more like breeding horses" - https://news.sky.com/story/i-wouldnt-call-it-eugenics-as-such-how-elon-musks-views-might-influence-donald-trumps-policies-13261496 https://news.sky.com/story/i-wouldnt-call-it-eugenics-as-suc... So Elon is....? "‘The gesture speaks for itself’: Germans respond to Musk’s apparent Nazi salute" - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gesture-speaks-for-itself-germans-divided-over-musks-apparent-nazi-salute https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/21/the-gestu... "Nazi billionaires: Fascism in the Elon Musk family tree" - https://mronline.org/2025/01/28/nazi-billionaires/ https://mronline.org/2025/01/28/nazi-billionaires/ Is this what Mathematicians call proof by Induction?
  - scarab92 2y ago
    I think that's called guilt by association, which is a logical fallacy. Also, Musk is estranged from his father.

exe34 2y ago

He got away with a Nazi salute [1,2] at the white house, why do you think the R-word would scare him? [1] https://imgur.com/a/BQO6lBo https://imgur.com/a/BQO6lBo [2] https://imgur.com/a/WAflimH https://imgur.com/a/WAflimH

hnbad 2y ago
As I feel like having to point out every single time this is mentioned because I know exactly how people try to relativize this: Yes, he tried to use plausible deniability by talking about how "his heart goes out" to people right before doing this gesture, but you know exactly what this looks like and you know that this is not a gesture commonly used to express that sentiment anywhere in any cultural context that would explain this. This means there are exactly two scenarios in which this is not intended to be a Nazi salute: 1) Elon Musk is incredibly unaware and despite Twitter (including his replies) being overrun by people blatantly Nazi-posting (as in, literally posting videos of the Third Reich or Adolf Hitler and expressing admiration for that era and its sentiments) and him himself having made "jokes" before that suggest sufficient awareness to recognize this gesture for what it looks like - SOMEHOW he is gormless enough to have come up with a gesture that completely by accident unintentionally looks like a Nazi salute and used it multiple times without realizing what it looked like. 2) He's just as gormless as in the first scenario but did realize what it looked like and didn't think that's worth apologizing for and instead doubled down by making fun of those calling him out for it. But even in those two scenarios he is clearly okay with people (especially the far right) thinking that's what he did and doesn't feel like it's worth distancing himself from those who think that's a good thing. So in other words, either he did a Nazi salute or he is okay with people thinking he did a Nazi salute. Those are functionally and consequentially identical outside the brain of Elon Musk himself. Personally I think - given how obsessed he is with extremely stale and tired memes and low-effort shitposts - he wanted to do a Nazi salute but also wanted to maintain the thinnest of pretenses that he didn't, just in case it might come back to bite him. He saw that he got away with it and decided to double down in order to mask his insecurity. And no, those pictures of Democrats holding their hand at a similar angle don't demonstrate anything and anyone who posts them is fully aware of that. This isn't just him deciding to do a weird greeting and ending up in a position that looked awkward, this is him deciding to do a full, forceful motion that could not have looked any other way no matter the angle - and then repeating it to provide a second look from a different angle to eliminate all doubt to what he did. There's only one clip of a US politician or media figure who isn't an open Nazi doing a salute like this I have seen and it's from a Republican who quickly chickens out by waving at an awkward angle - and that's still offering far more plausible deniability because she only did it once.

belter 2y ago

HN flagged. Musk must have 20 interns flagging his stories here...

prox 2y ago
It’s a disgrace this is flagged, and more so if this gets buried by the admin. This is a clear cut case really. The astronaut is correct and Musk is on a tirade.
- belter 2y ago
  More than astronaut. Aerospace engineer and ESA astronaut, Master’s in Aeronautical Engineering, Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, ESA astronaut since 2009, First non-American to pilot a U.S. spacecraft, ISS Expedition 70 commander and Honorary professor. One day Musk will learn how to run that Python script....

archagon 2y ago

Garry Tan (CEO of YC) has also been calling people retarded on Twitter since the election. What's "retarded" in the actual sense of the word is behaving like a poorly socialized child when you're in your forties and running global companies. I mean, honestly, what the fuck? I can't believe these are our leaders. (Worse yet, I get the sense this filth has just been welling up inside them for the last few years, and they are positively giddy at the prospect of turning public discourse into Call of Duty voice chat.)