The Decay of Public Discourse

Today, over 100 Reddit communities have banned links to Twitter (sorry, X) because ELON MUSK IS A NAZI. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, Elon Musk gave a speech and at the end did some slightly awkward nerd-ish attempt at a wave/salute that kind-of-maybe looks a little bit too much like a Hitler salute. Yes, it didn’t look great. But now the internet and the news have all gone mad, running article after article about “Did Elon do a NAZI SALUTE?”

Here’s an actual question: What has happened to us? These articles are not ironic, and the Reddit ban is not an April Fools’ joke. These people actually think that Elon’s weird autistic wave looks enough like a Hitler salute that we all need to panic that — what? He’s secretly a Nazi and he accidentally let it slip when he tried to wave?

The response to Elon and his mad antics on X represents nothing more than the extension of the by-now-well-known Trump derangement syndrome. The answer to the question “‘What happens when reasonable critique doesn’t seem to work?” which, as it turns out, is get really angry and start calling everyone a fascist/Nazi/Hitler.

And here’s the thing: I don’t think anyone cares if this really was a Nazi salute. If Elon were to simply come out and say, “Sorry, guys. My awkward wave did look kind of like that. I apologise. Next time I’ll be more careful about my gestures,” I actually think it would be kind of disappointing to all those who are using it as a way to shout, “I knew it! He’s a Nazi!” What would they have to do then? Come up with an actual critique? God forbid.

Yet there seems to be a persistent unwillingness to learn ever since the rise of Trump in 2016 that this kind of idiotic response doesn’t work. Trump has been called a fascist for nearly a decade, and here we are back at square one again with the abject left seemingly terminally defeated. Most sensible people are concerned by the resurgence of Trump, but not because he’s a Nazi, because he represents the degradation of modern politics into clichés and extremes and because, well, he’s a petty moron (seriously — renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America is like getting a promotion at work and immediately stealing your desk neighbour’s pen pot. Grow up.)

But this degradation is also represented by those unironically claiming that Elon is an actual Nazi. That doesn’t mean for a second, by the way, that I’m defending Elon Musk politically. I think Musk has always been a pretty questionable person, especially on social media. If it wasn’t apparent when Elon called that Thai caver “pedo guy” on X that he’s just another X user slinging insults as a mask for his fragile ego, it should be by now. His views on free speech are shallow, ignorant of history and equate to “I should be able to say whatever I want to whoever I want on social media.”

And the fact that “free speech absolutist” Elon has complied with government censorship requests at a higher rate than the previous owners and banned more people from the platform in a year than Jack Dorsey did in his entire time there should tell you that his views are about as intellectually sound as a baked potato. Social media presents us with many complex problems for the public world, and Elon Musk is absolutely not the solution to any of them.

But calling him a Nazi undermines serious criticism of his rhetoric and opinions. It plays exactly into the accusations that the political left and its “woke” worldview is shallow, built around political temper tantrums and lacking in any serious substantive ability to construct a critique. The response to his salute should have been an eye roll, should be one more thing to pile on the resolve to rehabilitate the centre and the left of politics into something that can step in in four years when Trumpism is finally on the dust heap of history. But the way things are going, that isn’t going to happen.

Which is depressing for the rest of us. I guess if you really do think Elon deliberately did a Nazi salute to cultivate a following from the far right and letting them into power, then you’d better get on with planning for the civil war, because that’s the only legitimate response to such a calamitous situation. But since I haven’t heard anyone claiming that is the case say what they actually want — an apology? An assurance he’ll wave differently from now on? — I’m going to guess they don’t really think that, they just want a bit of kindling for another four year slog of “he’s a Nazi!”

Lucky us. To the continued debasement of politics. But, perhaps I’m too naïve in thinking Elon is just an ego-driven twerp with too much power whose views on social media, free speech and politics just need a serious intellectual rinsing. Who knows? But if you actually want him to accept that his salute at the very least wasn’t advisable, perhaps there’s a better way of doing it than the standard internet temper tantrums. It hasn’t worked with Trump, it won’t work with Musk. We need better ways of talking to each other.