Suzanne Harrington: Do not dare blame autism for Musk salute — it is neo-Nazism on the world stage

Suzanne Harrington: "What we could not ignore was Elon Musk seig heiling. Twice, a Nazi salute, for all the world to see."

We may have ignored Ivanka’s direct sartorial reference to Handmaid’s Tale – she came to the inauguration cosplaying a high ranking Gilead wife. 

We may even have ignored Melania’s dominatrix Mary Poppins ensemble, complete with don’t-look-at-me hat, under which she hid her cold, dead eyes.

But what we could not ignore was Elon Musk seig heiling. Twice, a Nazi salute, for all the world to see. Unambiguous, undisguised, unmistakable. In front of the whole world.

Fair enough. They elected a fascist, supported by the infinite financial muscle of a fascist tech bro. Seig heiling must have felt natural for Musk, a keen supporter of German fascist party AfD (“only AfD can save Germany” he tweeted) and fan of UK far right rabble-rouser Stephen ‘Tommy Robinson’ Yaxley-Lennon.

The salute chimed perfectly with Trump calling for “millions and millions of criminal aliens” to be rounded up and taken away, as he releases January 6 fascist extremists from jail. 

Substitute ‘criminal aliens’ for Jews / Muslims / queers and it’s straight from the 1939 playbook. Scapegoating minorities. Will we ever stop falling for it?

But as ICE dragged Juan from a poultry plant in Idaho or Maria from her cleaning job in Texas and shoved them on a plane to Guatemala within hours of their new boss clocking in, the rest of the world was reflecting on that Nazi salute. Was it an actual Nazi salute, or a ‘Roman’ salute, wondered the Guardian pathetically?

It's because he’s autistic, said his supporters. Which would suggest – were it not such a massive insult to autistic people everywhere - that there were an awful lot of autistic Germans in the 1930s. 

Do not dare blame autism. Call it what it is – neo-Nazism on the world stage. And Musk, believing he ‘won’ the US election by throwing money at it, wants to do the same for the EU far right.

Yet even as memes proliferated showing varied angles of a raised arm to denote the difference between calling a waiter, hailing a cab, patting a dog,and sieg heiling, nobody in charge condemned it out loud. Not a peep.

Yes, America does what it likes – if they think electing a fascist will make them great again, that’s their problem. Our problem lies in appeasing this, normalising it, sending congratulatory messages, like they’d elected just another dull head of state rather than a criminal propped up by neo-Nazis.

Hats off then to Irish MEP Aodhan O’Riordain, who unambiguously criticised EU leaders for pretending everything was normal, and for Simon Harris fawning over Trump’s “magnificent golf links” in Doonbeg. 

Harris wrote, “I hope we will have the opportunity to welcome him back during his term.” Really, Simon? Do we though?

O’Riordain was clear: “Anyone who believes in the founding principles of the EU should be appalled by what we witnessed.” 

He’s talking about Musk’s Nazi salute, but also the entire rolling-over-and-playing-dead tactics employed by EU leaders as Musk sets his sights on bank-rolling the EU far-right. 

Don’t we have legislation in place to prevent foreign electoral interference? Because now would be a good time to press that stop button.