Why people are arguing Nazi salutes are just a joke : NPR

A fascist salute surrounded by hard arms, once had a rather narrow meaning.

“I think most people in general still find it. Sheeg Heil It is an indicator and associate World War II, the Holocaust” said Kurt Braddock, a communications professor at American University, studying recruitment for extremists.

“If not physically and socially, if part of the neo-Nazi group on the far right, it means at least ideologically consistent,” he said.

But after being given two harsh salutes on the day of the inauguration after one of the world’s wealthiest men, and now a well-known White House adviser, the meaning of the gesture has once again expanded to some to the big alarms of others. After Elon Musk’s salute, NPR counted at least dozens of people mimicking the salute. Some have lost their jobs – for others, it hasn’t changed much.

Musk was made repeatedly joke After public protests including Make a pun With the names of Nazi leaders like Joseph Gebrel. He recently did so again as a guest of Joe Logan’s podcast. I have musk Approval However, the anti-Semitic ratio of his social media platform X He denies that he is anti-Semitism.

The prominent figure on the right reflects the example of a mask and has no serious impact. Steve Bannon Actor Eduardo Verastegui at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.

Examples accumulate everyday life of ordinary people recreating spectacles. Online, the anonymous poster says it watches salutes from colleagues, clients, armed service members and students. this week, Israeli students They reportedly tried to ruin a class painting with gestures at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

Former Trump Advisor Steve Bannon spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Oxon Hill, Maryland on February 20, 2025.

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Some people have been fired or resigned from their jobs surrounding salutes. Idaho CEO Construction company, a Texas Real Estate Agenta Pennsylvania County Authority And a Michigan Priest.

“They are not insulated by political power, just like Bannon and Musk,” Braddock said.

Michigan priest and right-wing political commentator Calvin Robinson temporarily revoked his US visa and lost it Minister’s license He concluded his anti-abortion speech with a salute before heading to the Anglican Catholic Church. Both he and his supporters sought to raise funds after the backlash. Robinson said he was not a Nazi, but he was sorry, but described the salute as a joke.

“Yes, it was cheeky,” Robinson said on a YouTube show. “I’m cocky and first and foremost. But it wasn’t immoral. It wasn’t unethical. I didn’t devastate the church.” Robinson did not respond to an interview request from NPR.

What’s not a joke?

“Overton Window“It is a concept of political science, explaining what is mainstream and open conversations accepted within a specific time frame.

“The joke is that you throw a brick out of Overton’s window and destroy it, and I think that doing so will open up space for others to say equally provocative and normative things.” The problem of jokes: humor and aggression in modern culture and politics. He studies organizational research at Stockholm University.

Jokes create groups within and out of groups of people who are laughing and those who are not. Butler described the joke as a sort of sonar that detects similar opinions.

Butler said humor was celebrated as a form of liberation and pushed back against oppressors and authoritarians. However, he argued that comedy is a tool that anyone can use, such as “a rather problematic actor who wants to destroy the important doctrine of liberal democracy.”

“Okay, this can be called humor. It’s “punching” rather than ‘punching down’, so you can call it humor,” Butler said. “But if someone is laughing, you have to accept that it’s kind of humorous intervention and that it’s kind of a joke.”

Part of the power of offensive humor, he said, is also to give birth to a kind of trap for those who hear people who feel uncomfortable or feel motivated to stick to democratic values.

“You can accuse them of lacking a sense of humor. Basically, they can accuse them of being an excruciating Killjoy.

“We’re having fun.”

Nick Marx, a professor of media studies at Colorado State University and co-author of the book, ridiculing critics as a strategy that has been cultivated over the years by the numbers on the right. It’s not funny: how rights make comedy work for them.

“What you’re looking at is the experimental period. Look at what you can and cannot escape. But it all supports the bigger goal on the right: ‘Hey, come here, come on for fun’,” Marx said.

He noted that rights may have managed to portray themselves as a home of comedy and free expression, but Republican policies continue to maintain their targets. LGBTQ and Reproductive rights, Protestors and Hundreds of words It is perceived as “waking up.”

Reveler disguised as President Trump walked next to a car holding a photo of Elon Musk’s salute at the annual carnival parade on March 2, 2025 on the streets of Aalst, Belgium.

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Marx said that while it is not clear that right-wing comedies are more popular or beneficial than other kinds of comedies, “If you’re talking about political outcomes and whether or not comedies successfully supports one side or another, I think the outcome speaks for itself.”

Protesters grab a salute

A few days after his inauguration, still shots of the mask salute were projected onto the Tesla factory in Berlin on the word “Heil Tesla.” That’s one of several examples image and the general of the mask Portrait It is reproduced as a form Protest Against Musk And his company. Recently, some Tesla drivers have reported seeing Nazi salutes from people expressing The rage of the rebel.

Regardless of intention, a hard armed salute is a speech protected under the Constitution. But as for those who play them as jokes, Braddock, a researcher of extremism, warned that ordinary people should understand that they are far more likely to face social and professional influences than the political elite they may be imitating.

“It’s not important to employers,” Braddock said. “And unfortunately, it’s not important for the hardline neo-Nazi, hardline Right-wing extremists Those looking for excuses to normalize ideologies and start engaging in violence on behalf of those ideologies. ”