20 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Elon Musk misleadingly suggests other celebrities made controversial 'Nazi' gesture
I think it’s literally both reasons you list in your 2nd paragraph.
Elon is a known troll and probably thought ‘know what would be funny, if I did a nazi salute and watched America lose their fucking minds over it’.
And also, ‘hey it’d be funny to watch America meltdown AND it’ll keep people talking about that instead of actual policy changes’ - because reading policy is admittedly boring, and most people would rather argue over whether or not he’s a nazi instead of pouring through legal documents.
Comment by veryreasonable at 23/01/2025 at 22:00 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Yeah, I think that's dead on!
The fact that he is an intrinsic troll doesn't negate the fact that he also is clever enough to predict what the effects of his trolling might be (at least some of the time).
This is hardly meant to be a compliment to his genius: plenty of average eight-year-olds are more than capable of this.
But most eight-year-olds don't have political or financial power, and there can be no real greater purpose to their trolling, bullying, and shit-disturbing. Musk is uniquely positioned that even his trolling can have meaningful, far reaching effects. If we assume he's aware of this - and we should - then we should assume *both* motivations are at play.