You've likely seen footage of Elon Musk's "awkward gesture" during his speech at President Donald Trump's Inauguration Day event. During his speech, Musk made a gesture that looked one hell of a lot like a Sieg Heil before saying to the crowd that "my heart goes out to you." Musk then turns his back and does the same thing again to everyone behind him. Musk has since received a boatload of criticism over the gesture, because y'know – someone involved with the American government just did a Sieg Heil to a crowd, and what the fuck. America literally fought a war against this shit 80 years ago. A lotta people died.
One person among the droves of the none-too-pleased is Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe, who did not mince words over Musk and his gesture in an Instagram story.
"It's taken me a couple of days to wrap my head around this one," wrote Blythe. "I've tried to consider every angle. Maybe he's a Nazi? Maybe he's just trolling? Maybe he's just so socially awkward he can't control himself? WHO KNOWS? The motherf**ker is weird. But one thing is blatantly obvious — he's a FUCKING ASSHOLE. Does Elon Musk have Asperger's? Oh, I definitely believe so. That doesn't mean he's not a COMPLETE ASSHOLE- the two are not mutually exclusive, by the way. For fuck's sake, he named his son 'X Æ A-Xii'- who would do that to a child other than a pure and unadulterated thoroughbred PRICK?
"I know a few people with autism- not a single one of them has ever REMOTELY reminded me of Hitler. Even if it WAS an autism-induced mistake, he refuses to cop to it, and that tells us everything we need to know. Because, you see, that's what people with correctly calibrated moral compasses do — they admit their mistakes. Supposedly Musk may become an actual government employee at some point- that means we the people will be paying his salary (not that he needs it.) So as a tax paying citizen of the United States, I have a request for the 47th-President Trump, please put your KETAMINE-FUELED PET ROCKET MONKEY back in his cage so he can do things he's suited for- obviously appearing in public is not one of them.
"Oh, and of course: FUCK ALL NAZIS."
Musk has since played the gesture off, saying in part "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired." Musk and his following have also said the gesture was actually a Roman salute, which The Guardian debunked as false – the "salute" was actually something invented in the 19th century as part of dramas set in the Roman empire, and was not a gesture used at the time.
"But a 2009 book by the classics professor Martin M Winkler that delved into the Roman salute found no evidence of this," wrote The Guardian author Ashifa Kassam. "'Not a single Roman work of art – sculpture, coinage, or painting– displays a salute of the kind that is found in Fascism, Nazism, and related ideologies,' he wrote. 'It is also unknown to Roman literature and is never mentioned by ancient historians of either republican or imperial Rome.'"
"Instead Winkler argued that what came to be known as the Roman salute was invented in the 19th century to be used in melodramas set in the Roman empire. The gesture eventually made its way into films set in the same period, leading the myth to endure, he said."
