> Whereas if Trump is talking about DEI stuff, regardless of the details, you can deduce that ...
... it's consistent with his lifelong racism, as well as the racism that permeates Project 2025. On day one he rescinded LBJ's executive order from 1964 barring federal contractors from discriminating.
Accusations of racism have been bandied about with such reckless abandon that they've lost all meaning without specifics and hard evidence of context.
Employers are prohibited from discriminating by statute which can't be amended by executive order. The executive order in question was regarding the use of affirmative action.
If a little Sieg Heil at the inauguration didn't convince you that this administration is pretty down with racism, I don't believe there's any evidence on Earth that will.
Specific, hard evidence, all in context, the man who gave it got an ovation and an office built in the White House, and a free hand in the agencies that are supposed to be regulating him.
You're referring to the thing the Anti-Defamation League called "not a Nazi salute" and the prime minister of Israel said he "is being falsely smeared". It's exactly what I mean by reckless abandon. It's a desperation to find something regardless of whether it's actually there.
It seems like we've gotten to the point that actual racists are so uncommon that people have forgotten what they look like:
> "We recognize the fact of the inferiority stamped upon that race of men by the Creator" -Jefferson Davis (referring to black people)
> "Anyone who has traveled in the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results." -FDR
> "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race." -Strom Thurmond
These quotes are not ambiguous or taken out of context. If you had asked these people if they were being misconstrued, they would have reiterated their positions, because they were actually racists who thought that other races were inferior and openly favored slavery or internment or segregation.
And it's sad that we're losing the ability to distinguish these things because of all the crying wolf.
I'm referring to the thing that anyone with eyes can see is a Nazi salute.
There's a beautiful side by side video clip of Elon actually throwing his heart out to the audience, and you'd have to be blind to think it's the same thing.
Who should I believe? My lying eyes? Or what the prime minister of a country that's courting US support in an internationally unpopular war says to curry favor?
The man's grandparents were registered Nazis, the man's rubbing elbows with the AFD, he's throwing out the 'roman salute' to thunderous applause at a political rally, and you're twisting yourself into a pretzel to explain how no, no, this is all a smear job against an innocent man.
How can you not see it? It's hard to tell if you're cynically taking the piss out of me, or if you can actually look at clip, and see something else.
There is a reason that doesn't make any sense: He did it in public, but then denies that's what it was.
If he was trying to be open about it then there would be no reason to deny it. If he wasn't trying to be open about it there would be no reason to purposely do it to begin with.
> There is a reason that doesn't make any sense: He did it in public, but then denies that's what it was.
Doing it then pretending that he doesn't do it carries two messages. For actual fascists, it's an indication that he's will support them, and that they should support him.
For people apologizing for fascists, the denial provides them the chance to spill gallons on ink on speculating about his state of mind and other plausible deniability for their insistence that he's not really courting fascists.
When someone does one thing, but says another, believe what they do, not what they say. Doubly so in politics.
There's no ambiguity in this symbol, or what it represents. Believe your eyes.
> For actual fascists, it's an indication that he's will support them, and that they should support him.
What actual fascists? That is not a large population segment in modern day. And support for what? He's not running for anything.
> the denial provides them the chance to spill gallons on ink on speculating about his state of mind
The theory is then that he made that hand gesture on purpose, intending to deny it.
Opponents would (as you do) disbelieve any denial and then try to use it against him, which is a significant cost. In exchange for this he would be trying to shore up support among the a) far smaller group of actual fascists who b) were previously on the fence and c) would not remain on the fence even though denying the gesture would be sending mixed signals.
There is no gain from doing that. It's why opponents are the ones talking about it. If doing that was actually to his benefit then opponents would want to be silent about it because publicizing it would be helping him to court the hypothetical large group of fascists who would look favorably on it.
> When someone does one thing, but says another, believe what they do, not what they say.
That's kind of the point. Hand gestures are in the category of saying something rather than doing something.
> There's no ambiguity in this symbol, or what it represents.
The obvious problem here is that the Nazis used "raising your hand" as a symbol.
The most plausible argument that he did it on purpose would be as a troll. Which isn't completely out of character for him, but it still has all of the same negative consequences above with the unambiguous implication of "not worth it".
What I have yet to see whatsoever is any evidence that he supports genocide, internment camps, incarceration without due process or the like. These are the things that make the bad guys the bad guys, not some kind of 5-D chess dog whistle rubbish.
has he actually denied it? or did he deflect with more Nazi "jokes"?
his neo Nazi supporters have enthusiastically welcomed the success of getting a fellow Nazi in the white house and he has continued to work with Nazi organisations across Europe.
> his neo Nazi supporters have enthusiastically welcomed the success of getting a fellow Nazi in the white house and he has continued to work with Nazi organisations across Europe.
Asking questions to neo Nazis is like asking questions to asylum inmates. Their brains are known to be broken so anything they say is presumed nonsense, and they're also very easy to manipulate into saying whatever you want to put into a story.
These right wing talking points have been repeatedly refuted. ADL contradicted their own definition of the salute. Both they and Bibi have vested political interests and citing them is grossly dishonest cherry picking.
... it's consistent with his lifelong racism, as well as the racism that permeates Project 2025. On day one he rescinded LBJ's executive order from 1964 barring federal contractors from discriminating.