What’s in a Gesture?

I wrote this some time ago, but didn’t publish it. Therefore, I would like to present it here.

In the meantime, a few weeks have passed since the inauguration of the new president, Trump. Trump’s ego must have been bruised, considering the most talked-about moment wasn’t about him. Not the fact that he didn’t swear on the Bible. Not the record number of executive orders he signed. No, it was his “first buddy” Elon Musk who, during a speech, waved to his audience with a… well… gesture open to interpretation.

It’s that interpretation I want to talk about. The debate is as divisive as the dog/cat debate, or the early riser/night owl discussion. Opinions are split. For some, the gesture was a clumsy wave caused by Musk’s Asperger’s; for others, it was a clear expression of his implicit neo-Nazi sympathies. Musk’s guardian angels point to examples of other leaders making the ‘same’ movement. Musk’s critics focus on the gesture itself and the angle of the arm. Who’s right?

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Musk’s intention will forever remain unknown. Who can tell if he’s being truthful? In this ‘Post-Truth’ era—ushered in by his inaugurated friend—we can’t really know what he truly meant. The real question is: why is it Elon Musk who sparks this debate about the Hitler salute?

There are indeed countless videos of celebrities placing their hand on their chest and then raising their arm. Yet somehow, with Musk, we’re inclined to interpret it as having a fascist undertone. It shows how we, as a society, look at such events. There are people who see Musk as a fascist, which becomes hard to dismiss when he explicitly supports the AfD and suggests that Germany feels too guilty about the past—as if that’s why things aren’t going so well there. I wonder how feeling less guilty is supposed to help Germany.

The debate arises because Musk might exhibit more fascist traits in other areas than we’d care to admit. His Department of Government Efficiency is already well on its way to silencing all opposition. When Musk receives criticism, he acts like a child losing at his favorite video game. In fact, that’s exactly what Musk is: someone who pays gamers to be world champion in his favorite video game on his behalf.

“There are no facts, only interpretations of facts,” Nietzsche once wrote. What the factual gesture was is irrelevant. The fact that people are interpreting a seemingly banal movement speaks volumes. We are looking for the big bad guy, for the signs we missed the last time. But the problem is, we didn’t miss the signs back then. The signs were right in front of us—we just offered too little resistance, afraid of being as hateful as those we accused. Now we see who is in front of us.

It is our responsibility not to get caught up in a semantic discussion about the interpretation of a hand gesture, but to challenge the policy proposals that lead to a worse society. In the end, we hold the power of interpretation. If even Fox News cuts the salute from their YouTube video, it’s clear that perhaps even right-wing news outlets see Musk’s fascist tendencies. And yet we keep focusing only on the gesture—not on the men behind it. We stood by and watched.