america will never be great again: musk’s heil signifies the end of democracy
"Maybe I should go out and document this," I said to my self, in reference to the inauguration that was taking place, ironically on MLK day. "You can't write this shit man, what is the coincidence?", I said to myself yesterday as I sat at my computer, checking to see if I was a fucking idiot and if MLK day and inauguration day always happened on the same day. “It only happened once in 1997”, I read with relief via CBS . Thus, I went on thought out my morning, working from home even though I was given the day off.
The frigid temperatures quickly changed my mind; "ugh, fuck that. They're gonna send someone like Peterson out anyway, and I highly doubt I can convince any photo editor at this point to give me a tear. I did tell a bunch of them to fuck off, so...". Dissatisfied with the climate of editorial, a voice kept going in the back of my head, "this is actually important though dude; the climate of our entire democracy is going to be radically altered". But again, I dismissed the idea of crafting an editorial pitch of interviewing a myriad of people about how they felt now and how they think they'll feel in a year. It wasn’t worth my time to continue this bullshit charade nor did I anything was fully planned in terms of a protest or crowd gathering at Trump Tower, the location I assumed people would gather for such an event.
As I turned on my TV and began to watch the inauguration, a third wave of doubt solidified my decision. "I don't need to get stabbed..."; the fact that the idea of me being assaulted, in the chaotic landscape that NYC has recently found itself in, is a bit astonishing but simulatenously, not surprising. So I continued through my day, switching off between remote work and working on personal projects; after a 3 year stint of being completely drained from any desire to create after the loss of my mother to COVID in 2020 that rocked my entire world, I saw a rebirth of my creativity in 2024, and it has only continued to grow more and more feverishly. Rather than just accept my failure as a photographer, I have decided to branch out into a myriad of realms again; journalism, music, cooking, starting a business, and 100 countless other ideas have pooled and overflowed in my brain. I don't want to be one-dimensional like some of my fellow SVA alumni, who, I will admit, are way more successful than I am. Nonetheless, my desire to make things might be considered nearly addicting, and rightfully so, as I have felt myself so enamored by creating that I even utilize it when I meet defeat or disrespect; an act that at times, has put me in hot water.
And so I was continuing my day, the inauguration continued on my tv screen as background noise, catching glimpses here and there. For some reason though, when Elon Musk took the stage, I paused. "This bumbling fuck, how in the good lord's name is this man this successful? Let alone bag a dime like Grimes?" It was a bit baffling for me with Elon; he seemed to come out of nowhere for me during the mid 2010's, and honestly, I just knew him as some dude that started his own car company, which I felt was a bold feat. And next was his acquisition of twitter, and as I mentioned previously, almost wifeying up Grimes. Almost.
As Musk completed his speech, he did something that I thought unfathomable. I think we all thought it was unfathomable, but alas, it happened. In a stern yet jittery means, Elon signaled the nazi heil, not once, but fucking twice. TWICE. He did it twice. I had to do a double take; and then, of course, I had to check social to make sure I wasn't imagining things.
Of course, social media was an absolute uproar. The commentary was brilliant, yet horrifying too as there were just as many defending him as there were denouncing him. The most baffling thing, for me though, was the lack of acknowledgement from the mainstream media for this. The only publication that jumped on it, and, in these days of digital communication, technically slept and the latter publications a brief coma, was the Atlantic, with an article appropriately titled, “Did He Just Do That?”; disappointingly though, it was hidden behind a pay-wall. It was funny though, because I did make a search initially to see which publications would jump on this; I suspected that New York Magazine and the New York Times would be going ape shit over this, yet, I found NY Mag was more concerned with Melania’s outfit and the Times off doing similar; most major publications were avoiding the topic, yet social media was in an absolute uproar that was falling on deaf ears.
The first publication that I saw make an legit headline was the New York Post, which yeah man, disappointing. It almost seems deliberate that the only publication that made a headline stating what we saw the actual headline was one that is often considered a tabloid/rag shag publication.
And despite New York Magazine’s release of their article on the subject, titled “Did Elon Musk Really Do A Seig Heil at Trump’s Inauguration?”, it’s akin to the title of the Atlantic's article; we are entering a new age of America that is going to see an authoritarian state, and all major media outlets are petrified. They’re tip-toeing around what has occurred, in the fear of prosecution in the future. And our future is, without question, bleak.
The Seig Heil sign that Musk delivered not only once, but twice, is the sign of the times. We are dialing back the clocks here, and as a white man that has not seen any sort of percentage of hate or violence akin to a woman, a queer person or a person of color, I am horrified for what is ahead of us. Call me paranoid, but I honestly feel that along with the rights of the minorities that have built this country, our rights to free speech and press are also on the line; if the reaction to Musk’s heil isn’t an example of where we are head, I don’t know what is.
I hope I am wrong about what I assume our country is heading towards; a censored, monitored society that feels akin to John Carpenter’s “They Live”. Someone recently stated on Threads, which I found rather amusing, and hope I can eventually find the author but am too lazy to do such, but I will state is not my own words, in that, “I wish 1984 would go back to being a work of fiction.”
