Musk the Troll

It was a Nazi salute. Of course it was - you only have to look at it. This was as Nazi as salutes come: the movement of the stiff right arm from across the chest to out in front, repeatedly, at just the right angle, outstretched hand with palm facing downwards, and the look of pure aggression on his face. Put it this way: there is nothing about it you could change to make it more Nazi-like than it already was. Whether Elon Musk meant it that way is another question, but objectively, just looking at the action itself: it was a Nazi salute. Had he done it in Europe 80 years ago nobody would have been in any doubt what it was.

Sometimes the simplest explanation for something is the correct one. And it’s not as if Musk has denied it. He has treated it all as a joke, but at no point has he said it wasn’t a Nazi salute: he’s left that for others to say.

The question is not what it was, but why Elon Musk did it, what on earth he was thinking, and what it tells us about him - and about all of us. Because the responses have been, if anything, more interesting and enlightening than the salute ever was.

Some people have suggested that Musk was just acknowledging the crowd, a physical representation of the words “my heart goes out to you” which he said just after doing it, and any resemblance to a Nazi salute is pure coincidence. I find this extremely unlikely. I know he is a physically awkward guy, but still: everyone knows what a Nazi salute is and you can’t do one by accident - especially not twice.

Others have claimed that he can’t have meant it as a Nazi salute because it is unthinkable that such a powerful, wealthy man would do that on such a public platform. But that says more about what we find it comfortable to think about than about what actually happened. History is littered with people doing unthinkable things that nobody could imagine them doing, after all.

Still others have claimed that Musk can’t have done a Nazi salute because he likes Jews. The evidence for this is usually that he visited Auschwitz last year, and that he supports Israel and has called for the release of the hostages. And all of these things are true - which is where things get more interesting.

It is indeed the case that Elon Musk visited Auschwitz last year. It is also true that under his ownership, many prominent neo-Nazis who were previously banned from Twitter (now X) were allowed back onto the platform, purchased blue ticks for premium accounts, and have subsequently built huge followings for their neo-Nazi views. Musk himself has personally engaged with antisemitic, pro-Nazi accounts, amplifying their anti-Jewish messages to millions upon millions of people. The fact that these two things ought to contradict each other does not change the fact that they are both true.

Similarly, Musk visited Israel after October 7 and has expressed his support for the hostages. Many people have said he is a friend of Israel, and I am sure they believe it. However, again under his ownership, X has become the easiest place to find Hamas combat videos showing Hamas terrorists killing Israeli soldiers in Gaza. These are propaganda videos designed to encourage support for Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group responsible for the October 7 attacks, and they are very easy to find on X. Again, Musk’s support for Israel and X’s lenient attitude towards Hamas ought to contradict each other, but in reality, they both exist, side by side.

How to make sense of this? I think there are a few things this tells us.

The first, and most important, is to stop expecting everyone to present as neat packages in which their every thought, statement and action all line up together in a coherent ideological position. Human beings, even at the best of times, are rarely so consistent, and Musk is especially chaotic and capricious in his behaviour. Given the contradictions in Musk’s behaviour that I’ve just described when it comes to Israel and Jews, one more inexplicable action doesn’t change much when it comes to trying to work out what he really believes. Maybe he doesn’t really believe anything at all.

The next is to stop imagining there is a quick fix that can cure people of antisemitism. Every time a famous person says or does something antisemitic, a Jewish leader somewhere in the world will invite them to visit Auschwitz, as if that will cleanse them of their sins and inoculate them against any repeat occurrence. I have experienced the profound impact that visiting Auschwitz has on a person, but the idea that nobody who has visited there will ever say or do anything antisemitic again completely misses the point. Performative celebrity Auschwitz trips are not a panacea.

There is also a lesson here about claiming important people as “friends” of Israel, or of the Jews. I understand why we do this. The Jewish people are a small minority, often vulnerable, and we are living through a time of spiralling anti-Jewish hatred. There is an element of wish fulfilment in claiming that the most powerful leaders are our friends, and some are willing to overlook any flaws or inconvenient details as a result. I get it - any port in a storm, and all that - but it can cloud our judgement. The Pirkei Avot teaches us to “pray for the welfare of the government”, but also warns: “Be careful about the government, as they approach a man only when they need him. They seem like good friends in good times, but they don't stay for him in time of his trouble.” These two pieces of advice are both worth remembering.

Instead, we ought to focus simply on what people do and the impact it has, even if it doesn’t add up in a way that makes sense. According to one recent report, the amount of antisemitism on X has increased 115-fold since October 2023. When we set this alongside Musk’s visit to Israel and support for the hostages, which weighs more on the scales? Instead of asking which one is the ‘real’ Elon Musk (because the answer is probably that both are), ask instead which one outweighs the other, when we try to assess his overall impact, positive and negative, on Jewish safety and morale. Different people will answer that question differently, I imagine, but either way, I think this is a more useful question to ask.

As for that salute, I think there are two possible explanations for why Musk did it.

The first is that he was really pumped up - this was inauguration day to set the seal on Trump’s resounding election victory, which Musk had helped to bring about - and, suffused with a sense of victory and power and adrenaline, on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans, riffing off the cuff with his speech, perhaps the salute just burst out from Musk’s subconscious, Dr. Strangelove-style, before he knew what he was doing.

The second explanation is that he knew exactly what he was doing, and it was all a wind up. This is Musk’s default anyway. He is, ultimately, a troll, just like so many of the accounts he engages with on his beloved platform, and this is the social media subculture where he clearly feels at home. Ever since the salute he has been trolling us all. He even trolled the Prime Minister of Israel who jumped to his defence, responding with a series of tone-deaf Nazi-themed puns, which is exactly what a troll would do - especially with Holocaust Memorial Day just three days away.

In that respect, by discussing his salute at length, we are doing exactly what Musk wants. Trolls want attention and love nothing more than ‘owning the libs’ with some Nazi-themed prank, then sitting back and watching the fireworks. I am fully aware of the irony of doing exactly what he wants by writing about this (although I am sure that Elon Musk couldn’t care less what I think). But the problem is, when this troll is also the world’s richest man and owner of one of the most influential social media platforms he is impossible to ignore, especially when he performs a Nazi salute, twice, to mark the inauguration of the new US President.