Thoughts on our reaction to “the gesture...”

First, a little personal background. The summer before my junior year in high school, I had the privilege of participating in a student leadership program that included a month-long field-study across Northern Europe from Moscow to England. This was within 5 years of the fall of the Soviet Union and Berlin Wall. I can still sense the feelings of dense tension and disruption along with a hint of hope I experienced then. A few years later, I had the honor of participating in a course at my university focused solely on developing and launching a small library of materials on the Holocaust. Our course work involved pouring over, summarizing, and evaluating the implications of multiple dozens of source materials for the catalogue. These two experiences are among a couple handfuls that profoundly impacted my life and my sensitivity to the impacts of fascism, anti-liberal economies, racism, antisemitism, concentrations of wealth, and authoritarian governments.

When I saw the reports and edited clips of Elon Musk’s gesture at the Presidential inauguration rally, it struck me to the core. I felt fear, despair, anger, disbelief, and anxiety amongst a barrage of other emotions that left me frozen and speechless. My social feeds were being flooded by comments from those on both sides of the political spectrum. Many were immediately concluding that he had intentionally used the salute – one which has exclusively been used to connect oneself and one’s ideology to one or multiple of three things (fascism, antisemitism, and white nationalism) since it was used by the German Nazi Party and the other fascist governments and movements in Europe before them. Others were immediately concluding that there was no way in which he was intentionally using that salute, and proposing a number of other plausible conclusions that should (not could, but should) be drawn. I found the source recordings of his speech and watched them over and over again in hopes to draw my own conclusion, but primarily with the hope and prayer that I would see something that would ease the pain being caused by my first reaction. What I saw did not help me draw a conclusion. It did, however, open my heart and mind to the possibility of non-fascist implications.

All this said, the conclusion that I have drawn is not about Elon’s intent; it is, instead, about what I think our reaction should (should, not could) be regardless of where we find ourselves on the political continuum. And what is that reaction? It’s “may be.”

Maybe it was a simple gesture of gratefulness that unfortunately looked quite exactly like a fascist salute. I can hear some of you laughing now, but I’m serious about this. It’s undoubtably within the realm of possibility that this is the case (and I hope that it is). It’s a point of fact that Elon is often socially awkward in many ways including with the way he moves his body and expresses himself. Maybe this was the case in this instance; and if it was, we should hold a space for the same empathy and acceptance that we would want others to hold for us and our most loved ones.

AND… maybe he intended it as a nod to or a direct connection of himself and the newly elected administration to nazi and/or other fascist ideals. It is undoubtably within the realm of possibility that this is the case (and I hope that it is not). It’s also a point of fact that Elon has praised the far-right AfD party in Germany and called them Germany’s only hope; and the connection to that particular party in that particular country is at least of note. Also of note is that as of the time of my putting these thoughts into writing, there has been no apology offered from Elon Musk for doing something that would draw this connection into question, which further causes questions and concerns to rise in me both about his intentions and ability to lead in helpful ways. Given this possibility, even if it’s only a slight possibility, we should ALL be paying close attention, both to gestures, inuendo, and comments and especially to policies proposed or enacted that move us closer to fascism and away from a democracy for and by the people. We should be prepared to fight for the democracy we have inherited, both to keep improving upon it and making it even greater and to protect it by whatever means possible from those with greed for power and control to the detriment of the American people. This is something that we should all be able to agree upon. We should neither jump to conclusions and act as if our assumptions are fact, nor should we just dismiss the gesture and right it off as harmless. Both of these reactions distract us and put us all at risk of greater harm.

The French Enlightenment author Voltaire once wrote that “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.” Let us stand together in the discomfort of uncertainty and being ready to both accept the unfortunate missteps of others or, if necessary, fight against their tyranny in case either “maybe” is true.