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I'm genuinely curious why anyone cares about this.
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I see your point of view, but I would argue that many hackers would find interest in the fact that an idolised tech magnate made such an extreme gesture. In my (non American) point of view this transcends left vs right arguments, but this is exactly why I am curious what this community would have to say. It is an interesting topic, if only from an anthropological perspective.
it’s kinda obvious. The people that already like him would defend it and justify the act and the people that dislike him would do the opposite. I guess he might have lost a small % of people liking him here but I would not bet it to be much
Him being a nutty rightwinger doing nazi salutes should put at least some off.
I've heard so many people kinda denying to themself what Musk is. Like some sort of cope.
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it’s kinda obvious. The people that already like him would defend it and justify the act and the people that dislike him would do the opposite. I guess he might have lost a small % of people liking him here but I would not bet it to be much
The effect on society and the human psyche when political discussions are stripped away from forums is chilling. Internet forums and IRC channels, in their peak, welcomed discussions like these. If you didn’t like it then you don’t click on the clearly political topics. This is hurt even more by forums being turned into feeds that pander into a single category and into businesses where profit, and agreeableness, must…
I'm genuinely curious why anyone cares about this.
1) it's really weird. He's the richest man in the world, and he's spending his time by pretending to be good at video games? Humanly, it's just darkly fascinating. 2) an important part of his public persona is that he's supposed to be genuinely super smart and capable at everything. Many employees and other related figures have attested to him having preternatural abilities at rocket and car engineering. If he is wil…
Do you have examples of this? In the past, I've looked for accounts of people who've worked with Musk praising his technical (not product, not sales/marketing) skillset, and I have been unable to find any firsthand accounts. Such an account would somewhat change my assessment of Musk.
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The man utterly lacks empathy: > I see people posting that Elon was at Auschwitz this time last year - therefore, his recent "gesture" is not antisemitic. I was there, too. Last year. With Elon. I am embarrassed that I have photos of this on my phone. My love, Gidon Lev, was the "special guest" of this photo-op event. We thought, at the time, that it would be good publicity. But I would not share the photo today. I c…
How does the author know what Elon was thinking from 10 feet away?
I'm genuinely curious why anyone cares about this.
1) it's really weird. He's the richest man in the world, and he's spending his time by pretending to be good at video games? Humanly, it's just darkly fascinating. 2) an important part of his public persona is that he's supposed to be genuinely super smart and capable at everything. Many employees and other related figures have attested to him having preternatural abilities at rocket and car engineering. If he is wil…
All I know about video games is people play them 24/7. It was completely obvious to me he wasn't going to invest his time in something so stupid.
The idea the world's richest man who is trying to amass political power could be this delusional is deeply disturbing.
https://archive.md/ayoEv I wonder what HN's view is on the recent nazi salute of Elon ? All the relevant threads seem to become flagged very quickly. I think it would be a very interesting discussion, especially here.
As a community member I wholeheartedly disagree. Hacker News is one of the few places I can go and not be inundated with the political pocket sand nonsense. In fact, I think this entire post is probably off topic. With respect, please get your politics out of here. From the community guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to re…
Musk performing fascist salutes at a political rally is an interesting new phenomenon: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elo...
Like it or not, this is what's happening to the tech industry. So much of the tech sector is now precisely about politics and power.
You can't run away from it. You can't ignore it. And, if you're in the tech industry, you're responsible for it.
It's always best to see things as they are.
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It might be a dumb question, but if HN was alive in the 1930s, at what point did it start talking about things? Is there a point in the 1930s or 1940s when it needed to voice some concern? I don't think we are anywhere near that point. I am generally curious about the question, as I struggle with this answer as a person. I hate the constant troll/media cycles we are stuck in, but at what point should I be concerned?
What's the point of being concerned? If the majority want their fascist leader they will have it. If you have money look into getting a passport. Quite a few Dutch Jews found their way to the Carribbean. Or join the resistance and end up like Sophie Scholl.
So you don't turn into Russia: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/how-has-state-owned-media-in-russ...
Authoritarian regimes rely on disengagement and nihilism to remain in power.
I'm genuinely curious why anyone cares about this.
Hughes's downward spiral occurred before most of us were old enough to watch it happen, so Musk is our next best chance.