> They're both becoming increasingly "extremist" in their respective viewpoints, and unwilling to move toward "the middle" even a tiny bit to allow for any productive discussion or compromise that could benefit everyone involved.
I don't see any other outcome when one side is usually supported by evidence and the other side is usually driven by hatred and hysteria generated by rage-bait media. How do you find a middle ground with a nazi?
He is a white guy raised under apartheid who's throwing nazi salutes, overtly referencing nazi ideology and symbology, hiring white supremacist staff to work for him, promoting white supremacist content on a platform that he bought for that explicit purpose, and attending rallies in foreign countries to promote far-right ideology.
There's no room for reasonable discussion with anyone who can look at that and come to the conclusion that they're being "framed" as nazis. To be clear, I don't believe all of their voters are nazis, just those who decide to stick with the party in light of the overwhelming evidence.
Disclaimer: this entire subject is so meaningless, I half hate that I'm writing about it because we should really be focusing on the neofeudalists / tech-feudalists who are further corrupting an already dysfunctional government with a sinister agenda, not about if someone did or did not make a gesture with "enough" intent.
Why do you think the ADL didn't call it a nazi salute? What was different about Musk recently then, and what nation is he a vocal supporter of, much like the rest of the political party and president he's attached to?
I believe you'll find it more obvious that it's a case of selective bias to promote political causes they're attached to -- especially given that this is an organization that's called the "ok" hand gesture a nazi one, and generally calls anyone an antisemitic nazi if they so much as doubt if Israel is behaving justly.
I dunno about most exactly, but it's really sad that we're on an anywhere remotely similar level to China, Russia, North Korea, etc in that regard and still have a goodly percentage of our populace not only completely unaware of the fact, but actively cheering on those who are doing it to them.
I've seen enough actual full blown Nazis call it a nazi salute that anything else is meaningless. The point is that it empowered actual nazis to rise up. That's the worst part.
And the ADL hasn't exactly been "left leaning" for a while now.
I, nor likely any of the commenters here, are political strategists. We are not creating electoral strategies. We are looking at a man who comes from apartheid money, a man who gives literal Nazi salutes (miss me with that "Elon wave" bullshit), who quotes white supremacist rhetoric, who actively supports the Germany far right party, etc. and etc. and etc.
Elon Musk is either a nazi or merely a capitalist who knows dog whistling as a nazi is good business right now. That my observation of this doesn't help with a national political strategy doesn't mean much to me in the moment. He's not been quiet about it, and people don't seem to care (do you?). So, I guess we'll see where it goes.
Elections are over and the winning strategy for 2026 is not appealing to fascists. We need to energize the 10m or so voters who voted in 2020 and skipped 2024 that this is serious and our only hope of ending this early is to shift congress.
It is more that they think it is true ... and it is true from many aspects.
The fact that the right and large part of center do not care about truth and cares only about verbal strategy is the issue. Otherwise said, these are people who honestly express their observations and opinions on what right is.
One reason right became what it is is that years of expectation that reasonable people must euphemism away who they are. That reasonable people must enable them.
> The DOGE logo literally has a Nazi wheel for an O:
If you read the link you provided, even a lot of people on r/EnoughMuskSpam are calling this argument weak - it is obviously an AI-generated image, and some subtle similarity between an AI-generated image and an obscure Nazi logo is much more likely to be just a coincidence than something intentional.
In all fairness, it's clearly that the Right has split over the past decade. There's MAGA which is as you describe, then there's your traditional conservative that simply wants to support small business and get tax cuts (among other things that comes down to "I want more money and control over my town/state"). There is definitely a question to ask on if all conservative congress has really shifted that far or what, though.
The left has also more or less split as of late between socialism and neoliberalism too. But that's a whole other conversation.
I don't see any other outcome when one side is usually supported by evidence and the other side is usually driven by hatred and hysteria generated by rage-bait media. How do you find a middle ground with a nazi?