It launched with a Nazi salute. Where do you think it ends?
On Monday, in the Capitol Rotunda, tech billionaire Elon Musk threw what appeared to be a Nazi salute during the inauguration of Donald Trump. In case we missed it (or misinterpreted it), he made the emphatic gesture again.
The lame explanations offered for it must be roundly rejected. It doesn’t matter if Musk genuinely intended that gesture to have another meaning. Neo-Nazis were swift to celebrate it. And there’s no one on the planet who doesn’t know its symbolism.
It’s impossible to respond to every offensive comment or gesture that comes out of Musk, Trump, and their cronies. Their relentless offensiveness serves as a convenient smokescreen for their greed-driven, hate-fueled policy changes. From renaming the Gulf of Mexico to threatening to seize Greenland, these headline-grabbing shockers are part of Trump’s narcissistic personality – and have been integrated into the political strategy of his backers.
But that Nazi salute deserves our attention. We fought and died in WWII to halt that symbol and all it stands for. Its appearance during an inauguration (or anywhere) should have sent us pouring into the streets in outrage. Any public figure or government appointee caught making anything that remotely resembles a Nazi salute should be immediately forced to resign and barred from holding a position of power. Musk should not be exempt from this.
In a classic example of the head-spinning surrealism of these times, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) made a bafflingly conciliatory social post on X justifying Musk’s gesture:
“It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute … all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
This is unbelievable from a group of Zionist Jews who are swift to decry even the slightest insinuation of anti-Jewish sentiment. They recently compared the Palestinian keffiyeh to a swastika, for example. For years, they have sought to squelch student protests across the United States that criticize Israel’s brutal occupation and human rights violations toward Palestinians.
This pandering permissiveness is not only out-of-character for the ferociously defensive ADL, it is a deeply disturbing sign of the pervasive fear, cowardice (or else greed and self-interest) that is causing everyone from business moguls to media outlets to cower before Trump.
As citizens, we do not need to endure another four years of this escalating violence and hatred. There are other options besides waiting for an election cycle to hold this administration accountable. Nixon was impeached and forced to resign for spying on his political opponents. Clinton was impeached for lying about a sex scandal. Trump is a convicted felon guilty of 34 counts related to concealing payouts and bribes. He is a corrupt, self-serving liar. His policies are an offense to decency and a threat to human life. He pardoned 1500 people for violently storming the US Capitol Building in an attempt to seize power after he repeatedly lied about winning the 2020 election.
If we want to prevent a gesture from becoming a repetition of one of the bleakest periods of human history, the citizens and residents of the United States must take seriously our moral responsibility to oust this regime and its leader.
Around the world, other nations have faced tyranny, corruption, and abuses from presidents. Last year, both Bangladesh and South Korea ousted authoritarian presidents using mass protests, general strikes, and other largely nonviolent actions. Bangladesh rose up against unfair hiring practices for government jobs. They kicked out their president and replaced her with a Nobel Prize-winning exiled activist. South Koreans poured into the streets to oppose martial law, helped their parliament members get into the building to overturn it, forced their political leaders to officially impeach the president, and maintained the pressure of popular protests until he was arrested and brought to justice.
Nonviolent movements like these have stopped coups, ousted dictators and ended authoritarian regimes in Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti, Belgium, Colombia, Pakistan, Sudan, Thailand, Bolivia, Czechoslovakia, Benin, Nepal, East Germany, Mali, the Soviet Union, Malawi, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Serbia, Mongolia, Peru, Georgia, the Philippines, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, and more.
A gesture is symbolic, but beneath it seethe the ideologies that have led to genocide, repression, world wars, invasion, occupation, war crimes, human rights violations, and more. Last time it appeared at an official state function, it led to a global conflict that killed 70-85 million people.
Take it seriously. And take seriously our responsibility to remove the politics of hate from positions of power.
Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, has written numerous books, including The Dandelion Insurrection and the award-winning Ari Ara Series. She is the editor of Nonviolence News, Program Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence, and a nationwide trainer in strategy for nonviolent campaigns.
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