Not the OP, but to me it's all of it. Just the nazi salutes would be enough for me not to buy Teslas (or StarLink), but at this point I would avoid any US car.
Well. the Wikipedia article on Henry Ford has a whole section entitled "Antisemitism" which starts "Ford was a conspiracy theorist" and details Nazi links.
So, what else is new in the world of Car Company tycoons?
See, the critical thing is, Henry Ford is, thankfully, very, very dead. Ford, the modern company, is not run by a 150 year old zombie bigot. It's a very different situation.
Yes, and as the other commenter noted, 75 years after Henry Ford's death, Ford's image is mostly rehabilitated. Mostly. People who avoid Ford vehicles for this reason (rather than avoiding the vehicles on their own merits) are rare but they do exist.
Perhaps 50 or more years after the end of Tesla's iconic leader, the same rehabilitation will happen to Tesla.
The guy is probably on some sort of spectrum and not well-composed at the best of times.
It would be monumentally stupid enough, beyond other stupid musk decisions, that I am convinced people who rage about it and boycott teslas or whatever are looking for a reason to hate rather than hating because of that.
Especially when there’s such a list of other legitimate complaints about the man, his politics, his companies, his words…
There's no such thing as a "genuine Musk heart goes out", there's only random shit people do in over-excited election result moments, in front of crowds. He's saying "thank you" while slapping his heart and mentioning his heart. It's on the level of cognitive malfunction not to understand this, or else, trolling.
A self-reflected sane person would see how that gesture in that context can be misinterpreted and would have avoided it in the first place. It's not like you can't express throwing your heart out only in this way.
So I guess it was deliberate. Deliberate to look like and walk like a sieg heil, only missing the quack. Maybe a provocation, but an unnecessary one and provoking with Nazi symbolism is completely unacceptable.
Surely you're having a laugh presenting that argument?
He's literally in the middle of saying "thank you"... that's what's coming out his mouth. Nobody in history has given nazi salutes while expressing elated smiling, laughing gratitude to cheering crowds, who in turn are not saluting back or even in the same universe as your nazi claim.
It’s odd how Musk never seems to have that awkwardness cause him to make other random gestures which don’t look like Nazi salutes.
Similarly, while it’s true that the ADL tried to excuse it, that’s the opinion of their controversial new president and is far from a consensus position. Many other people, including their former national director, did describe it as a fascist salute:
Most tellingly, of course, is that extremists all over the world recognized and celebrated rated it. The whole “Roman salute” excuse started as a claim by Musk’s connection to the Italian far-right, apparently hoping that American audiences didn’t know that was a fascist symbol:
> Musk himself mocked those accusing him, threatened to sue, and has made jokes about raising his arm the wrong way. Nazi saluters don't do that, they're proud to nazi salute that's the point. But I suppose if you hate Musk you'll cling to your story even with evidence supporting the contrary.
This is simply intellectual dishonesty: while they say they’re joking, that doesn’t mean that they’re being honest when they do so, that other people are not allowed to disagree with that excuse, that the only motivation for disagreement is some personal hatred for Musk, or that personal opinions constitute incontrovertible evidence which cannot be argued.
