Elon MuSSk SShould JuSSt ApologiSSe

by Chris McGinty

Do they spell apologize as apologise in South Africa? Oh well. It’s the title of this blog and I’m sticking to it. I’m not going to take the standard left media approach to the Elon musk gaffe. I’m just going to say a couple of things and then I’m going to ask a very specific question that I feel is really at the heart of this discussion but somehow doesn’t seem to be part of the discussion.

On January blah blah, 2025, Elon Musk was giving a stirring speech to supporters of blah blah. I really did my research on this one, folks. He said, “My heart goes out to you,” and then he threw his heart out to the crowd at a trajectory that looked like it might land in WWII Germany. The debate has centered around whether or not it was a mistake with bad optics or a dog whistle to neo-Nazis. The reason it seems so weird is because if you watch most people do the my heart goes out to you move, it’s got finesse and a sort of loving approach to it. When Elon did it you can actually hear him grunt from the force of it all. But that doesn’t prove intent.

WordPress wanted to know if I should align this video left, center, or right… hmm.

I’m going to move onto someone else who has been cancelled by the left, Scott Adams. Adams talks about mind-reading in one of his books. A google search suggests that it’s in “Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America.” I’ve not read the book, but I’ve listened to Scott Adams explain parts of it on his Real Coffee with Scott Adams podcast. It’s basic critical thinking mistakes that people make when forming opinions. One of them involves forming an opinion based on what you believe someone is thinking. That your opinion depends on knowing the inner thoughts of a stranger.

We’re looking at a Dilbert book… Only, that’s not a Dilbert book… Isn’t that weird?

Who knows? Maybe it is a Dilbert book. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

This is where the left is failing on their coverage of the Elon Musk maybe Nazi salute. They can’t know for sure what he was thinking, or if he was thinking at all, in that moment. My own assessment that he seemed very aggressive and militant with his heart love is just a body language observation, but I can’t know what he was thinking.

To be fair though, when we’re dealing with this kind of thing and there could be consequences to ignoring the red flags, it might be best (Hi, Melania) to think to ourselves, “I can’t say for sure that’s what he meant, but I should be a little more suspicious of the guy than I was ten seconds before he did the thing.” I’m not saying to cancel him. I’m not saying to deport him to South Africa. I’m saying that you don’t give him a complete free pass and become vigilant for other signs that he may be a neo-Nazi. The declaration that he intended it would land harder (certainly not as hard as he threw his arm out) if there was a whole line of other questionable things.

Now, I’m going to ask a very simple question, and to me this is the issue. If that had been me… well, first of all I would use some of that money to get my cars fixed. Sorry, getting distracted. If that was me… if somehow, I was in the exact position that Elon Musk was in right after karate chopping Nazi style, right after he come on vogue let your arm fly like a Nazi hey hey hey, right after he made what we can only presume was a huge public gaffe and not an intentional signal. My first order of business would have been to go on any network, YouTube channel, my own social media website, wherever, and say, “Wow. That was really stupid of me. I’m not a fan of Hitler or his ideologies. I don’t support the neo-Nazi movement. If I had done that on purpose it would have been in poor taste. But you know what? That was just me making an incredibly stupid public blunder. I don’t embarrass easy, but I feel stupid as fuck about it.” I would rather admit to being foolish than for my beliefs to be misunderstood.

The reason I would make that statement is because I’m not a fan of Hitler or his ideologies, and I don’t support the neo-Nazi movement. If I made that gesture at a public event, it would either be intentional in poor taste, or because I fucked up, because I don’t support what it represents. When you feel so strongly opposed to something like that you will do and say whatever you need to make sure the world knows the truth, because you would hate that all the positive you represent be undercut by something you didn’t mean.

My question is why hasn’t Elon Musk done that?

Chris McGinty is a blogger who for full disclosure liked the movie “Downfall,” but he would only ever use that salute if he was throat punching a neo-Nazi.