I’m definitely not defending Nazis. They can be blasted into the sun for all I care. I’m just saying we can’t assume someone’s intent and speak for them, even though we can 100% distance ourselves from others based on their impression. Don’t forget the salute came from an old Roman greeting, just as the swastika famously came from the manji (something Japan has never stopped using, even in anime and merchandise).

I mean intention-wise. Even though it definitely looks like a Nazi salute (why is Hitler saluting himself by the way), and even though many of us wouldn’t put it past Musk to have known this was coming, in the end, I would hold the view that nobody can speak for the intentions of an individual aside from that individual, and Musk is no exception even despite how tempting he makes it seem to interpret what he means, even in all his incompetent, politically-charged glory. Anyone distancing themselves from him for this is doing it based on the impression as opposed to the intention, not that this isn’t still understandable and their choice. We just can’t speak “for him”.

Intent is why we speak of Nazism as “taking” the salute (which used to just be a greeting) from the Romans, the swastika (or manji in this case) from the Buddhists, and a bunch of random Norse symbols in the first place. Japan, a nation where Neo-Nazism is much less of an issue, still uses the manji everywhere for spiritual significance, and this leads to a lot of culture shock in anime re-edits and Japanese merchandise because of this habit of forgetting our expectations don’t apply automatically.