Elon Musk wants to criminalise calling people Nazis for some reason

In response to America’s latest mass-shooting event, Elon Musk has argued it should be criminal to describe “non-violent” people as Nazis:

Falsely labeling non-violent people as “fascist” or “Nazi” should be treated as incitement to murder https://t.co/CRwYzqdGLo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2025

In response, people have noted that Musk himself would be the most notable beneficiary of this law:

Elon is a Nazi https://t.co/CLF59fDNNF pic.twitter.com/aLxTw2WRiq

— BroShear🇺🇸 (@neutralAri) November 27, 2025

Be a smartie

We should highlight that Musk claims he did not in fact do a Nazi salute. According to him, he was doing a gesture which was supposed to translate as ‘my heart goes out to you’. As others have noted, however, Musk’s gesture had the Aryan rigidity of a Nazi salute:

always really funny when rightwingers try to do this because every time it’s a reminder of just how obviously what elon musk did was in fact a nazi salute https://t.co/QU0WL2A3rA pic.twitter.com/7enQMGgMQy

— onion person (@CantEverDie) November 5, 2025

I don’t think we can share the side-by-side of Elon Musk doing the Nazi salute next to Nazis doing the Nazi salute enough. pic.twitter.com/2TpcUDPWwf

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 22, 2025

On the topic of Musk’s links to far-right ideology, people have drawn attention to his support for far-right parties like Germany’s AFD (not to mention Britain’s Tommy Robinson):

Elon Musk, who did a Nazi salute and support the far-right AFD and Tommy Robinson, wants people to believe that he’s a centrist. He also moans about people calling him a nazi. pic.twitter.com/JfrohYFVul

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) November 1, 2025

Musk also engages with and follows blatantly far-right accounts on his toilet of a website:

Elon Musk is 100% a Nazi himself. This account praises Hitler daily. pic.twitter.com/7oH5FwJie8

— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) October 14, 2025

A notable issue with Musk’s intervention is that he’s previously described himself as a free speech absolutist. This ‘absolutism’ obviously isn’t compatible with arresting people because they call him names, is it?

It turns out, Elon is not for “freedom of speech” https://t.co/lGy8FCCXbT

— Jason Griffin (@jasonrgriffin) November 27, 2025

Oh, and then there’s this:

Attention JD, Musk is calling for you to be prosecuted for incitement to murder. https://t.co/cADpyvgsCB pic.twitter.com/G7ywZkXFGb

— Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) November 27, 2025

Another issue is that many have accused Musk of inciting violence himself:

“violence is coming to you, you either fight back or you die”. What could be more patriotic than cheering on a South African who lives in the US, while he encourages violent insurrection in a country he knows fuck all about? pic.twitter.com/tfZEiENSXr

— Parody Nigel Farage (@Parody_PM) September 14, 2025

Musk specified that he was talking about “non violent” individuals in his tweet, and yet the inherent point he’s making is that words can be violence. So basically, what he seems to be saying is that the state should step in when someone hurts his feelings, but his own pronouncements should be free from scrutiny.

Criminal behaviour

To be fair to Elon Musk, if the allegations about his drug use are true, it makes sense that he would contradict himself so often. This sort of idle tweeting isn’t nothing, though. Musk and his billionaire buddies are all linked in to the Trump administration which has sought to crack down on civil liberties and freedom of speech. These same billionaires are also making moves in the UK:

Well this isn’t terrifying at all. Here’s Blair talking to Oracles Larry Ellison.

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly watching & recording everything that’s going on.”

Now you can see why Starmer is so keen on digital ID

pic.twitter.com/sZuB0tj02p

— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) September 28, 2025

We live in a world in which today’s inane tweets are tomorrow’s policies. In that sense, calling Musk a ‘fascist’ is wrong, because it fails to convey just how much power he has to shape the world around him.

Featured image via PBS