Tuesday, January 21, 2025

“The Future Of Civilization Is Assured

The BBC provided some helpful background:
Musk, the world's richest man and a close ally of President Trump, was speaking at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC when he made the gesture. 
"My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured," the 53-year-old said, after giving the second one-armed salute.
First, I didn’t know about that “civilization” comment: at all. Which seems important context, doesn’t it?

I read about some calling it a “Roman salute” and even that Musk was “throwing his heart to the crowd (from his collarbone?). I thought these comments were at least as legitimate as the ADL excuse. But…
Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Musk who has connected him with far-right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, was reported by Italian media to have posted the clip of Musk with the caption: "Roman Empire is back starting from Roman salute". 
The Roman salute was widely used in Italy by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party, before later being adopted by Adolf Hitler in Germany. 
Stroppa later deleted his post, Italian media said. He later posted that "that gesture, which some mistook for a Nazi salute, is simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, 'I want to give my heart to you'," he said.
That apparently also started the “don’t blame Elon, blame autism” excuses.

As I say, I got all that information from social media. I got the context and correct information…from journalism. Not surprisingly, foreign journalism.

Is this a great country, or what?

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