The salute was the final straw for the moderators of Phoenix and Arizona subreddits. On Wednesday, one moderator (aptly called AZ_moderator) announced that direct links to Musk’s social media site X are now banned from both pages. Other, larger subreddits, such as the ones for the National Football League and National Baseball Association, have also banned links to X.
X content was already rare on the Phoenix and Arizona pages, especially since Musk’s site requires a login to see a post and the subreddits limit links to sites that behave like paywalls. Screenshots of X posts are still allowed.
While the moderators had the power to ban X links, one said there was plenty of support from the network’s users.
“Bottom line, while the mods have our own views on the appalling behavior demonstrated recently, this is what the community here has expressed they want to see. We're not just forcing this decision on everyone,” wrote AZ_moderator. “I mean, we're not a bunch of Nazis.”
It's a Dry Hate - X links are now banned in r/Phoenix
byu/AZ_moderator inphoenix
Users applauded the announcement and liked the responses that cheered on the decision. Some responded with images and gifs from the Nazi-hunting film “Inglourious Basterds.”
“Musk is a past master of media manipulation and it’s clear this was a deliberate and practiced attempt at emulating the Fascist salute,” wrote user Rains_Lee. “As many have pointed out elsewhere, he would have been arrested for this in Germany, and apparently Australia and perhaps other countries as well. Every online community that disassociates themselves with this shit is doing the right thing.”
Nazi salutes are indeed illegal in Germany and Australia, as well as other countries.
Musk’s Nazi salute isn’t the first time his behavior has been characterized as fascist, antisemitic or sympathetic to Nazis. Musk endorsed the political party AfD in Germany, whose far-right language has echoed the Nazis. Pro-Nazi X accounts have flourished since he bought the social media site several years ago. He also once responded to a post claiming Jewish communities were pushing anti-white hate by saying, “You have said the actual truth.”
The moderator of the Phoenix subreddit noted that 13 out of the 32 complaints about the announcement claimed that it was “promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability.”
Well, promoting hatred of Nazis doesn’t seem like the worst thing.
