Heiling Trump

Elon Musk begins the predictable process of normalizing fascist rituals

If you’ve paid any attention to the festivities surrounding Trump’s inauguration, odds are you’ve already seen a clip of centibillionaire man-child and off-brand Bond villain Elon Musk giving what sure look like a couple of hearty “Sieg Heil” salutes to the eager MAGA throngs at Capital One Arena earlier today. Because this is a script we’ve seen play out a few times already over the past decade, allow me to venture a preview of what comes next.

If they have not already, Musk and the Trump camp will quickly begin gaslighting anyone who saw the entrepreneur’s Nazi salute and thought, naturally enough, “hey, he just did a Nazi salute.” There will be performative shock and horror that anyone would imagine Musk, a vocal supporter of Germany’s reactionary Alternative für Deutschland party, would dream of doing such a thing. While it’s possible they’ll dredge up some old Transylvanian cavalry salute and pretend that’s what Musk was doing, the most likely excuse will be that Musk, who pounded his chest before throwing his arm out straight, was pantomiming his earlier declaration to the crowd that “my heart goes out to you.”

If you choose to believe that, drop me a line so we can discuss some lucrative real estate investment opportunities. Never in human history has any person mimed “my heart goes out to you” with that particular gesture. Musk—steeped in adolescent online edgelord culture and far too experienced a public figure to do this sort of thing unwittingly—is trolling.

Here’s how I’m betting the troll plays out. Trump-friendly media will circle the wagons and ridicule the oversensitive libs who believe what their lying eyes are telling them, clearly in the throes of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Among the faithful—at least, those who aren’t openly thrilled by overt fascism—whatever flimsy pretext they settle on will be readily swallowed, and as Trump’s actions inevitably invite comparison to history’s ugliest authoritarian regimes, the backlash will be invoked as proof that Trump’s overheated critics are determined to see Hitler hiding under every bed. The mainstream press, terrified of being accused of anti-Trump bias, will duly treat it as an open question: “Critics say” it looked like a Sieg Heil, but who can know for sure?

The next step—and I will be delighted to be proven wrong on this score—is the “ironic” adoption of the Sieg Heil by MAGA supporters. Not because they’re actual Nazi sympathizers—heaven forfend—but to own those wacky libs with their overactive imaginations. While many of them will actually mean it when they say this, the trend will be eagerly encouraged by and provide useful cover for the nontrivial segment of the MAGA base that is already self-consciously pro-fascist. Trump welcomes it all with a smirk. Meanwhile those who find this new trend alarming will be chided for not getting the “joke.”

As Kurt Vonnegut once observed, “we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Even if initially meant “ironically” by many or most, there’s an inescapable psychological gravity to the ritual of performing a gesture of fealty in large groups. What begins as a joke still has the effect of cementing group cohesion and instilling the paradoxical sense of power that comes from collective submission to a strong leader. Before long, an infamous Nazi gesture has been laundered and normalized, and the pretense that it’s all in fun begins to fall away.

I would, again, very much like to be proven wrong about this. Perhaps enough of Trump’s geriatric base still remembers World War II to nip this sort of thing in the bud. But his movement’s track record to date provides little cause for optimism.