Sooo, where did the blatant Nazism suddenly come from?

It’s always been there. Trump just told them it’s ok to be nazi in public? He’ll protect them. Because he is a damn nazi.
- This person has paid attention.

an important historical note is that the Nazis drew a lot of their ideology and argumentation from the American eugenics movement, which has been a major undercurrent in America since the early 1900s and never went away

They're looking for yes-men, who will be loyal to them in even the worst possible situations. Heiling is just a test to weed out anyone else.
Also, the heiling gesture came a little too natural to them.

It begins by realizing that economics is also politics. The US ran out of indigenous peoples and lands to exploit, so it is turning inwards.
There are many books one could recommend. But an easy one to understand is: Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror, this book was published in 2012. Whatever an empire perfects to crush other people, always sooner or later is used internally.

It's been fairly blatant for a while now. The seig heil is coming out now that they feel they've won. The goal is for the US to fall this time.

Someone that bought his place at the white house did it and didn't get shot by a flamethrower, so all the Nazis hiding literally just below the surface feel ok to talk a little louder now.
Honestly, with sufficient evidence it should be legal to kill them in public and receive any inheritance from their wills. I don't typically enjoy personally hunting people down typically, but these aren't people.
One comment blatantly in favor of it Goodies any human rights in my opinion. It's the only way. They may say it too (vermin, poisoning the blood, etc) but they've only ever been right about themselves.
I would give a pedo human rights before them. And that's saying something.
They're just rabid animals, and I defy anyone to give a reason they deserve a single second of life at all, for any reason, in any context. Maybe with the one exception of using them to find gatherings of others. But that's it.

MAGA has always been run by nazis; the blatancy came from winning the last election.
- So according to Putin, Nazis in Ukraine is not ok and must be stopped. Nazis in the US government is ok and while we're at it let's meet them and make a deal.
  Fuck Nazis and fuck Putin.
  
  Oh my, you had me just now realize: As long as US aid is coming into the Ukraine, putin is finally right: he is, technically, fighting against nazis - US.

It came from LIBERALS who demanded that we protect the free speech of Nazis while they were building their death camps.
- Underrated perspective. Absolutely a big part of the problem.

It's always been there, it's just now coming to the surface.
Like shingles

it's a combo of trolling and attention seeking. "there's no such thing as bad press" and all that.
we should point it out, condemn it, but not engage in arguments with them about what is and isn't a sig heil.
and when they pop up in other places trying to talk about other stuff, just bring up the fact that they threw a Nazi salute from time to time.
the most important thing is to focus on their evil policies and actions. but we can't forget their performative evil.
- Small nit: they didnt just "throw a Nazi salute"; they openly and loudly declared they were Nazis, and they have done so many times in their conventions

"suddenly"

Astroturfing and boosting on Twitter and other platforms.

It''s because the overall intent is not to unify the country under one government. It's to keep the America fighting with itself so that it can't interfere in Russian, Saudi and Chinese ambitions for an autocratic oligarchy. It's in their best interests if America descends into the worst version of fascism that the world can dream up, and Trump's GOP is entirely on their payroll.
Any potential positive government action by the GOP for the American people runs contrary to those goals, so they've turned to the tactics of fear and intimidation to maintain their hold on the population. Each public nazi salute is intentional, designed to strike fear and controversy into the hearts of the citizenry and publicly tarnish America's image on the world stage.
Look at how Trump ran on inflation, but the only actions he's taken have been to attack people's livelihood or erode trust in federal and state institutions. He's literally dismantling the federal government from the inside, but all anyone wants to talk about is the nazi salutes.
This is an intentional distraction.
This sort of thing doesn't work in a strong democracy with an un-compromised media, but our democracy has been hollowed out by the cancer of Citizen's United, rendering the power of a citizen's vote near worthless, and by the likely election fraud performed by Musk. So they're gloating and glorifying the symbol as a sign that no one can stop them.
See, the people in charge right now don't care if the US collapses. They WANT it to. America has been the symbol of democratic freedom for the entire world. With the US abandoning that fight, there's no real geopolitical power strong enough to take its place.
Which is exactly what Russia, China, and the Saudis want.

Fascism shouldn't be thought of as a static "thing" or an object of ideology. Peoples beliefs come from their environment. We are so individualized as a society that often we as progressives take "personal responsibility" too far, we buy the premise implicitly without realizing there are flaws with thinking in this way. Every logical system has flaws and contradictions, its proven mathematically though I think some systems are more rigorous and based on evidence.
GWF Hegel's philosophy of Right was written in 1820, and influenced political thought ever since. Liberalism was still in it's revolutionary phase and theories about it were still fairly new, the Wealth of Nations was written just 50 years before, and Karl Marx was like two when it was released, although it would serve as the basis for much of his work analyzing the hidden relationships of Capital, and ethical political philosophy on the whole.
The book is the closest I think someone can honestly get to an actual "horseshoe theory" because not only did it influence the left but it also influenced the far right. Hegel, using the works of other great liberal philosophers such as Locke and Kant, who Hegel was always working to surpass, applied his dialectical philosophical methods to the writings of liberalism.
What he discovered was a natural tendency toward what we would calll fascism. Like he prefigured fascism by 100 years. He wasn't a fascist, there was no such thing. He was just exploring the ideas of this revolutionary philosophy, one that purported to liberate the mind, body and spirit, and discovered the oppressive seeds which might grow into something quite different.
This isn't to call liberals fascists, I'm a communist and 20th century communism had a lot of problems, to put it mildly. I would say confidently that progressive liberals are not crypto fash, in fact the term "progressive" is a typically left-Hegelian ideal, in that it describes human progress and development as the subject of history. Instead it challenges the idea of the liberatory nature of private property, a key component of liberal thought. Of course this is all depending how you look at it, right-Hegelians see this same formulation as proof of the inevitability of their ideas and justification for their actions.
You're getting a lot of different opinions about this stuff so I'm trying to make sort of a different point about philosophy, history and action. Other reading for a deep dive on fascism is the essay Ur Fascism by Umberto Eco (great empirical analysis, but the least scientific IMO), Trotsky's pamphlet Fascism: What it is and How to Fight It, and HA Roy's Fasism, Its Philosophy, Professions and Practice.
In a way, fascism has always been there below the surface, informally shifting the sands of history until it was formalized in the early 20th century. I don't think you can have a society based on private property without some elements of fascism somewhere. Mostly "western democracies" will outsource their extreme cruelty to other countries where it doesn't affect their citizens.
But in summary, Fascism is the realization of the contradictions inherent in liberal ideology, its liberalism turned inside-out, with all its appearances of justice and freedom cut away, leaving only the logic of expansion and domination that most liberal democracies do their best to hide. This is how fascists are able to hide in our society, their individual beliefs are not completely unpalatable to centrists and conservatives who have also started to dispense with justice and freedom in the interest of national greatness. Its what makes their beliefs so malleable, and its also why liberals have such a hard time defining it. But fascism isn't an individual's beliefs, if it was it would be just regular bog-standard chauvinism. Fascism is a mass movement which will use charismatic leaders amenable to their politics to rally the masses.
In our society, the middle classes are the "battery" for fascism. Middle classes are constantly under attack under capitalism and the individuals often feel this and become paranoid (doomsday prepping, etc.,) and this paranoia and real social pressure to produce or be wiped out, the fear from the constant threat of precarity and uncertainty fits hand in glove with the aims and means of fascists.
- The entire problem with this conversation is that "liberal" has become an overloaded term. The concept was originally anti-feudal so the context of "private property" was very different from the industrial context Marx would eventually add. You can see this in the US and French revolutionary writers who are clearly more focused on the idea of "just laws" being a product of political self determination which requires individual liberty. And now we have modern liberal progressives who have extended that idea to a kind of radical inclusivity, and modern leftists who even got as far as suggesting it is a critical aspect of the post scarcity state.
  But Hegel is controversial for a reason. Elements of the Philosophy of Right is filled with equivocation and even Hegel's personal grudges. This is why everyone just projects their own ideas into Hegel's writing - because he spends a lot of time not saying much. Also I do not recall the conclusion being that free men inevitably create autocracy. I recall it being more like "I haven't figured out what comes next for the state "

It's not a new thing, and while I don't think it can be easily distilled into a social media reply. I'll do my best.
This has been a 40-year process, beginning with Ronald Reagan and continuing incrementally with every president since, including Obama unironically. (Remember how he crushed Occupy and ignored Ferguson and legalized torture on New Years Day?) It's become stronger as people have become poorer and more willing to not give a shit about the quality of our country's leadership. Now every person not only has personal biases, but a computer in their pocket constantly telling them everything they think is correct and actively angering them. Hitler would have creamed himself at the thought of being able to dictate social media algorithms.
If people can't afford to feed their kids or see a doctor, they're not going to give a shit about fascism, and no matter who we elect, most people can't afford to see a doctor and adequately feed their kids.
It's going to be worse now than it had to be. In 2016 people were willing to punch Nazis. Now, you can render a Nazi salute twice, in the seat of government, in front of the entire Democratic leadership... and they will fucking clap and smile.

It’s funny, the posters over at r/conservative truly believe they aren’t nazis and say thing like why is the left so violent, you do anything and they call you a nazi etc etc.
Crazy they can’t see the wood for the trees. Maybe they should have a bit of introspection, like maybe look in to why everyone calls the leaders and followers nazis…
Ironic coming from the “sheeple” crowd.

Nazis are a symbol of power and authority for the far right the same way every international dictator has used hilters style of government to rule and oppress. They aspire to build a country similar to the one of the Nazis. Elements of this include: "christian" values, centralisation of power, uniting of the country, removal of "impures" (trans people).
- Eugenics and the idea of a 'chosen' race is also powerful - you might be genetically destined for greatness, and the fact you have not achieved it is due to systematic oppression by a hidden conspiracy. People love that shit.
  I think OP is asking why narratives around that theme keep coming back to the Nazi narrative, specifically. Why not another example of populist authoritarianism, unburdened by the systematic murder of millions of civilians? Why not invent a new narrative rooted in their own national history?
  I think the answer to that is: creativity is hard. Once people have a successful first draft, they tend just to edit that draft rather than pitch it and come up with something completely new. People recognize any borrowed elements and return to the archetype. If you've every tried to write anything by committee or group project, you've probably seen people choose to edit a horrible first draft, retaining the same basic structure (however flawed) rather than start over. Committees where someone finds an existing, related text online, which then becomes an anchor for whatever the committee had planned to draft.
  In short, Nazis serve as 'best practices' example for any new ethnic nationalist group by the simple fact of their existence.
  
  I think the answer to that is: creativity is hard.
  Ask Curtis Yarvin, seems like most of his "theory" is Ayn Rand rehashed. These people think they're far more clever than they actually are.

Plenty of answers here but I don't think anyone has answered this part:
Surely they would have a much easier time pushing their rhetoric and establishing their agenda by keeping a purposeful distance from that sort of indefensible imagery and symbolism.
So here's my take ...
Musk did the sig heil as a fuck you to everyone that doesn't like him. That's it.
They just won the election by basically lying, ignoring, and playing for time. They can literally do whatever the fuck they like for the next n years with impunity.
Imagine if Harris had won and in her victory speech said something like "Don't worry Don, I'll make sure they give you diapers in jail." It would've been a low blow but we would've loved her for it because it's poking fun at the conservatives for no other reason than to stir them up.
I think there's another, longer conversation to be had about why racism (and by extension nazism) resonates with voters in 2025, but I'm too weary for that I think.

The fact that the salute is so offensive, they did it so blatantly, and their denial was so disingenuous is the point. It's a demonstration of power. They can do a Nazi salute and their opponents can't punish them. They can deny that they did a Nazi salute and their opponents can't control the narrative. If they did something more subtle, then people might think that they weren't facing any consequences because their opponents were giving them the benefit of the doubt. With the Nazi salute there is no doubt. The only explanation for why they aren't facing any consequences is that their opponents are powerless.
- I wish I could find it now, but there was a quote attributed to someone suffering under an oppressive regime which would blatantly lie, and yet it remained accepted: “The lie is the insult.”
  
  Happy cake day!
  
  I kind of feel like anybody who can get insulted by the likes of a lying nazi cunt deserves to be insulted. It isn't insulting if you don't get insulted. Call them stupid lying bitches and ask them how come tell truth make pee pee smol.
  There are many other problems that are harder to solve, but that one's trivial to solve, and it occupies a weirdly obsessively large portion of what nazis are chasing, so it can waste a surprising amount of their focus.

But Seig Heils? Even the most dense among them must know that blatant Nazism hurts their legitimacy in the eyes of the public, even among MAGATs
"hE wAs jUSt joKING 😡😡😡" -every magat ever

My theory is that they try to push the line on what is acceptable. For example, if you want something say you want 11 but what is acceptable is between 1 and 10. Then an 11 is not possible. But if you normalize 15 and keep pushing that, then 11 doesn't seem so unreasonable after a while.
I see this being done constantly. Say that your plan is to do something extreme (take Canada), everyone panics and then get what you actually wanted. If nobody reacts, do the extreme thing.
- This is it, and we (in the west) have gone so far to the right that the richest man of the world, with a powerful position (formally) near government can do the Hitler salute and the established media just shrugs.
  Doing the Hitler salute used to make you a pariah. Now, it's just a thing the extreme right does to 'provoke' (that word I saw used to describe Bannon's salute in a German newspaper title). In a couple of years, it is normal that the right does this, and the established media doesn't bat an eye anymore.
  It's clear that you still can't trust established media to be a force against nazism. They'll start analysing the nazi takeover as nazi only when it's much too late, out of fear of not being 'neutral'.

So, you lose an election and suddenly democracy is fascism, and the choice others made by voting now doesn't count, and voters are literally Nazis because you are an electoral minority now?
Is that what you guys are going with now?
Sheesh
- Thanks for the obviously disingenuous comment. Always good to have another name for the block list.
- Nobody engage with this person. Just do what the other person is doing and block them.
  They know deep down in their heart that Republicans have always been Fascists and Nazis. I used to vote Republican thanks to my brainwashing parents, and even then I still knew better. I used to make jokes about Nazis, as if they were no big deal. But then I grew up.
- We didnt lose an election; it has been openly admitted that Musk hacked the voting machines EXACTLY LIKE TRUMP CLAIMED IN 2020 and we are in Nazi coup.
  But you pretend otherwise....at your peril
  
  Sources? Mask is brain dead...

he's trolling leftists on twitter who use the term nazi to refer to racists in general
- In what universe is a Nazi not a racist? Expanding on that, how is a Nazi in any way different from a racist?
  
  that's not what i said

It's always been there. Just now that people in power are the Nazis ppl can come out

They've been doing Zeig Heils for years.
I wish I could find the documentary, about a woman who dated some alt right weirdo and he started taking her to like Turning Point USA meetings and other groups meetings and she describes how the first time she did Zeig Heils, and they just did this shit like it was normal. She describes going to a book burning, thinking it was a joke, and then it was like an actual book burning.
It's all nudge nudge wink wink. They're doing Nazi salute because they are Nazis.
Edit: Believe the documentary is called "White Right: Meeting the Enemy." Available here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0rhh5mbnA
- Reminds me of the Rule of Goats:
  If you fuck a goat ironically, you're still fucking a goat. Same goes with ironic Hitler salutes.
  
  Reminds me of McGregor the Goat Fucker.
  Nobody called him McGregor the bridge builder, despite a long and successful career as a bridge engineer. But he fucked one goat....
- Makes me think of my younger days hanging out on 4chan, thinking I was having ironic, satirical laughs with my fellow anons until eventually realizing most of them actually believed what they were saying
  
  Yeah, old 4chan was definitely something. You had some of the absolute funniest shitposting imaginable, right next to some shit that no amount of eye bleach and showers could cleanse you of. Like, it was fun every once in a while for shits and giggles, but it started messing with your psyche after even an hour. The casual racism alone was in no way ironic. And So. Much. CP; to the point where most of the images aren't even worth a glance because there's a good chance it's underage revenge porn. I genuinely don't know how that site is still up.
  Nowadays it's pretty damn tame, at least compared to how it used to be. And the wicked thing is, there are people who legit live on there, as in it's damn near all they do with their lives, both then and now. I'll go peek in every few months for a nostalgia trip, but I'm out after 10 min on average, it's still toxic as hell.
- I just don't get how you can be a nazi and be ok with yourself. I can kinda understand how someone ends up an alt-right weirdo thinking that minorities are inferior but nazism is THE bad guy in so much media. Its like admitting that you kick puppies so hilariously evil that most people would think you were joking if you expressed that kind of mindset.
  
  Cognitive dissonance is a lot of it.
  Maybe don't actually realize they are Nazis. I like to talk to these types and describe the events of the Boston Massacre (kid got shot after throwing snowballs and possibly rocks at the police, then a riot broke out and some rioters got shot) the Boston Tea Party (government raised taxes in an obvious money grab, so a bunch of protesters broke into a warehouse and destroyed a bunch of private property). Get them to take the side of the British, then tell them which events I'm talking about. They know from school, hopefully, at least as to those two events, how they felt about them when they learned about them, and you can see the dissonance contorting their faces.
  Others are Nazi sympathizers. I knew a dude who felt that the coolest thing he owned was a Nazi dagger from WW2. It was his "everyday carry" knife. Only visible as a Nazi knife if you looked at the hilt. He thought the Holocaust was a ln exaggeration and that the Nazis had a lot of good ideas that would translate well to today's problems; he thought Jews controlled the media, that blacks and browns were taking jobs from better qualified white people (hated "DEI"). He was delusional, living in a world that wasnt real. Brainwashed. Maybe not his fault, but he's responsible for his behaviors. If an alt right style cleansing or war breaks out, he'll be the first non-open Nazi to get excited to kill minorities.
  Then there are actual Nazis. Two types. Dumb, racist poor people who feel comforted by Nazi rhetoric. And intelligent, wealthy people, who want to steal all wealth from minorities and send them to ghettos (or worse), so their companies and investments have no competition and their personal wealth may go unhindered. These are people who want to use racism to bring about oligarchy and a new age of imperialism, and they recognize the oath of least resistance is a friendly dictator, brought to power based on Nazi rhetoric. This is Musk and Bannon. The people who now feel emboldened to do Nazi salute in public, as a homage to the group above, who might get caught up doing them in private.
  My hot take, anyway.
  
  It's mainly a mix of economic frusturation and a divide and conquer strategy by the rich in order to have the masses blame immigrants and people of other races/religions/genders/sexual orientations/etc. for all of their problems instead of blaming the elite class and capitalism. The lie of meritocracy being real also plays a big role here ("temporarilly embarrassed billionaires").
  There is another angle, though, and that's sexual frusturation. When a teenage male has issues getting laid and they look online for some kind of support, they find people like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson who tells them that men who "get laid" are "alphas" or whatever and that women should be treated as subhuman or as slaves. These incels have likely never actually attempted to make friends with any women outside of a sexual or romantic context, because if they did, they would learn that women are the same as them, even when it comes to their struggles (even pertaining to dating/sexual frusturations).
  I think the latter reason (specifically Gamergate) sparked the fire that made the first truely possible on a scale that we haven't seen in our lifetimes.
  There is also the additional piece of info that the majority of people won't take action against what is happening in politics until it personally affects them, which is a very unfortunate reality.
  
  There are people who proud themselves in kicking puppies and more would come forward if they felt it's acceptable.
- Sorry to be pedantic, but it's "Sieg Heil".
  Sieg means Victory, so it means "Hail victory".
  
  Thank you.
- Curious to hear more about this documentary
  
  Me too, I'd love to watch it again, but I can't remember where I saw it.
  The girl may have been a blogger or journalist at the start of it. It had something to do with Charlottesville. If anyone has any luck finding it, please ping me.
  Edit: I asked duck.ai and it seems to have identified it:
  The documentary you are referring to is likely "White Right: Meeting the Enemy." In this film, the director, Deeyah Khan, explores the world of white supremacists and far-right extremists. One of the key narratives in the documentary involves a young woman who becomes romantically involved with a member of the alt-right. Throughout the film, she witnesses disturbing behaviors, including Nazi salutes and book burnings, which challenge her perceptions and beliefs.
  The documentary aims to provide insight into the motivations and ideologies of those involved in the alt-right movement while also highlighting the personal struggles of individuals who find themselves entangled in these extremist circles. It emphasizes the importance of dialogue and understanding in addressing the issues of hate and extremism.
  Available here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0rhh5mbnA

Non-American here. My brother and dad STILL cling the the narrative of "He's autistic, he was excited." and nothing will disusde them from that.
- What about steve bannons salute? He's neither autistic or excited?
- Same with my partner's American family. They dont believe a word about what's happening. And if we can't turn the domestic terrorists in our homes back to reality what chance do we stand turning back the country.

What you're seeing is the end of Truth.
Especially in the face of AI generated photos, we're dealing with a future where the youth can easily be misled about what actually happened in the past, or even in the current moment. There is very much an upswing of young people questioning established narratives of the past, often under the guise of "well you weren't there, how do you know for sure?"
Reality is perception, and they are busy managing reality to deny any perception of Nazi behavior.
It's why Musk especially lies so fluidly and easily in the face of hard evidence.
It's all perception management, and as long as they keep talking and keep repeating the same lies, a significant number of people will believe them.
Musk still claims it wasn't a Nazi salute, and a significant number of people believe him. It's kind of like Trump's statement that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose any support. It's all attack, never back down, never admit fault.
EDIT: It's also Bannon's "flood the zone with shit" strategy at work, too. We've been in an Attention Economy for a long time now (at least since 2007 when the iPhone put a screen in everyone's pocket), and they know people's attention is limited, so they work to force themselves into people's limited time and attention spans. If your message is the only one they have time to hear, they'll probably be more likely to consider yours true. This, for example, is why Musk forced himself into everyone's Twitter feeds, he's force feeding himself the limited attention of millions.
- So how do we combat a DDOS on truth.
  Clearly the previous orders of “truth” were not perfect either, and it’s discontent at the elite and coverups which Musk and Trump and other neofacist populists have manipulated to fuel their attacks on the establishment’s regime of truth. Ironically they are replacing something bad with something far worse.
  How can leftists take the discontent with the current elite’s regime of truth and use it for the better ie. recruitment?

I wonder the same, my theory is that this gesture is used both as a loyalty test and a way to further polarize society.
Making this gesture draws clear lines in society: those who say it was fine, those who say it wasn't, those who don't take a stance (ie the media calling it a "controversial gesture" or similar). So Musk & al now have a clearer idea of who stand where. It also cleaves those "for" and those "against" further away, solidifying their base.
Another explanation is this is part of the normalization of extreme rethoric and symbols. I doubt he could have gotten away with it ten years ago; who knows what they'll be able to do and say in 2035?
Yet another possibility, he did it on a whim and the neo-nazis like Bannon are now seizing the opportunity. It's unclear how planned this was and how intentional the consequences were.
(And all might be true at once)

Nazis didn't come around all of a sudden, either. People have always, on the whole, been horrible. What changes is what is culturally acceptable to talk about.
- Yep, we have demonstrated that it's ok by not doing anything. So now they're all proud to show the world who they are. And until they start getting their shit rocked, that's going to continue.
  
  Normalize punching Nazis
- I knew this was coming after 9/11/2001. That was my first brush with how absolutely vile, ignorant, and racist most US citizens could be.
  I used to always say eventually they would bring the tools of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars home and use against their own citizens and god damn it, it sucks to be right.
  
  Funny you mention 9/11, because with the 2024 election, osama bin laden can finally rest, because his task is complete.
  
  Godamnit! At that time, we were visiting family stateside. It was like the window let in a chill, like a rug pulled out from under you, it was tangible that something in the very fabric of the USA had changed.
  I remember telling my grandpa, who fled soviet Bulgaria in WWII, that if this goes on, they can make anyone their enemy. 9/11 turned the hate siphon on full blast, and I was certain they would turn on their own.
  So happy he didn't live to see what the Republicans became.
  
  god damn it, it sucks to be right.
  I’m starting to feel the same way. When I was a teenager (more than 20 years ago) I wrote a short science fiction story. Being awesome with titles I simply named it "USA is the new nazi".
  Well, fuck.

They wrote a nazi manifesto, it got reported on widely, they barely denied it and they won anyway.
Nothing that is happening on their end is the slightest bit unexpected, so I'm just isolating myself from America and Americans as much as I can until I don't get a choice. However, when I see things like ths post by accident I do feel a remarkable urge to grab anybody who expresses disappointment or surprise and shake them by the lapels until they pass out.

Just a lack of Nazi hunters.
- Where is Wonder Woman when you need her?
  
  Turns out she’s a Nazi too. :(
- We need Lieutenant Aldo Raine back on duty (Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds)

When the Hail Hydra comes out a little too early so they call it a speech impediment.

we're in the end stages of a campaign by assholes to overthrow our deomocracy.
It's been getting waged for decades. they've been doing this shit for years, behind closed doors and they now feel comfortable with being nazis in public.

They want people to feel like rebels with a cause.
This is a good symbol to make a lot of people your enemies. Your ingroup can now rally against "the establishment".
It couldn't work before, because it made too many enemies for your small ingroup, but we've reached a tipping point where it is feasible to keep a thing going for a while.

They feel safe, that's why they salute now.

People become less hospitable in economic downturns, remember the original Nazis exploited that in the Versailles hit Weimar.

It wasn't sudden, this shit's been muddying the waters for a decade and the precursors were seeping in for another decade or more before that.

if you think the right wing being filled with nazi is a new phenomenon, I've got a bridge to sell you

It's so weird to me that it's ketamine, incidentally. Like, maybe I'd understand it more if Musk was heavy into cocaine, but the biggest ket users I know basically just drop off the grid, wear the same cardigan for a year straight and boof crystals in their van with their polycule... Not this Nazi shit. It's so weird.

I think, at least for those in their ranks who are not (yet) convinced Nazis anyway, it's a similar principle to the mafia: the newly recruited opportunists have to publicly spout Nazi slogans to prove themselves - just as a soldier in the Cosa Nostra has to have committed a serious crime, many particularly serious ones, if he ever wants to become a "capo".
Like other criminal organizations, MAGA tries to protect itself from potential informants, I think. If you only recruit people who are unscrupulous enough to openly admit to this Nazi bullshit, there's less chance of someone having a conscience and making all their shady dealings public.

They were always Nazis. The more mainstream-seeming "alt-right" guys were just suit Nazis. They feel more comfortable coming out in the open now, even if it's still a bit draped in "doing it for lulz" deniability. I'm skeptical that they're fully aware that it'll hurt their legitimacy. They're dug in like ticks in their echo chamber, are constantly goading each into being more openly extreme, and celebrate the push back there.

it's that first thing you said.

First up, they are not Nazis
Second, the left has been calling the right Nazis for decades. Heck, Bob Dole called George Bush a Nazi, and we all know that wasn't accurate. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-10/bob-dole-george-bush-and-historys-most-brutal-presidential-campaign-attacks
It only seems recent because you're young and not aware of the history of the term.
- It only seems recent because you’re young and not aware of the history of the term.
  Did you miss that moment when Elon Musk did two Nazi salutes, in public, at the inauguration, and no one did anything about it?
  This isn't a "they're calling everyone Nazis" moment. The Nazis are calling themselves Nazis and making it a public-facing symbol of the power they've gained.
  Call it white nationalist, MAGA, or whatever. Giving it a different label does not change what it is, and that's especially true when they start raising their arms Hitler-style on national television.
  
  Honestly, no. I've spent too much of my limited time on this planet checking what lefties claim are Nazis. Not a single Nazi sighting has been real. I've stopped checking, it's a waste of time.
  Let me guess, he waved awkwardly, and now y'all are going to swear up and down it was a Nazi salute when the video shows otherwise?
  Y'all shouldn't cry wolf. Eventually there might actually be a wolf, and no one will believe you.
- Bruh, musk and bannon did nazi salutes.
- Bruh. Whether or not they are Nazi's isn't the crux of the issue. The fact that they are invoking Nazi symbolism and behaviours at all is the issue, and any self-respecting American should take issue with the invocation of something Americans claim they helped destroy (to be clear, fascism and Nazism in WW2).
- I really have to agree with the other replies on this one. While technically no one is a nazi but the og nazis there is nazi fanboys and between musks tweets and his salute its not at all like this person is worse than hitler or this person is a nazi because they are authoritarian you might have had in the past.
- Second, the left has been calling the right Nazis for decades.
  No comment about the word "feminazi"?
  
  Literary Nazis get mention

chatgpt generated
Your confusion is warranted, but the shift toward overt Nazi symbolism among certain far-right elements in the U.S. is not as irrational as it might seem at first glance. It’s a combination of factors: ideological radicalization, the Overton window shifting, strategic provocation, and a loss of the pretense that once kept extremists in check.
The Ideological Throughline
As you pointed out, American white supremacy and fascism have always been intertwined. The U.S. had its own Nazi sympathizers in the 1930s (the German American Bund, America First Committee, Charles Lindbergh’s isolationist faction), and after WWII, many of those ideologies just went underground rather than disappearing. The Republican Party’s rightward shift over the past few decades—accelerated by Trumpism—has created an environment where dog whistles have become bullhorns.
The Radicalization Feedback Loop
Online radicalization has turned the “ironic Nazi” into the genuine article. Far-right spaces like 4chan, Telegram, and Gab have served as breeding grounds where Nazi imagery was initially used as an edgy provocation but ultimately shaped actual ideological beliefs. This was already happening in the early 2010s, but the rise of Trump and subsequent crackdown on these spaces caused a shift: instead of hiding behind irony, they started openly embracing the imagery.
The "Accelerationist" Angle
Many of these groups are deeply influenced by accelerationism—the belief that by making things as extreme and chaotic as possible, they can hasten the collapse of the current system and usher in their fascist ideal. Openly flaunting Nazi symbols is a way to force polarization. Either people reject them, pushing society into a harder crackdown (which they think will fuel more radicalization), or their symbols become normalized. Either way, they win.
Elites Willing to Use It
Groups like the Heritage Foundation aren’t necessarily full of true believers, but they recognize that the white nationalist bloc is a useful tool. They might not openly say “Yes, let’s be Nazis,” but they won’t condemn it either because they see the political utility in stirring up cultural and racial grievance. The Proud Boys, on the other hand, have increasingly absorbed genuine fascists who have no problem crossing that line.
Trump’s Influence (and Possible Foreign Interference)
Trump has emboldened extremists to the point where they don’t feel the need to hide. His rhetoric gives them cover, even when he doesn’t directly endorse them. At the same time, foreign influence—whether from Russia, China, or other actors—could certainly be amplifying these elements. Destabilizing the U.S. by fostering internal division is classic asymmetric warfare.
Why Did They Think This Would Work?
They didn’t expect it to be embraced universally. They’re banking on two things: (1) the media and political establishment being too weak to properly respond, and (2) enough people either looking the other way or outright accepting it that they can normalize it.
What they didn’t anticipate was just how much backlash it would generate, even among right-wing circles. That suggests they either miscalculated public sentiment or, more likely, that the more extreme factions are losing control of their messaging discipline. Either way, it’s dangerous.
This isn’t a sudden emergence—it’s an inevitable consequence of where things were headed. The only question is whether this backlash is enough to force them back underground, or if it’s just another step toward further radicalization.
- Why would you post this trash? If people want to read chatgpt's takes, they can access it themselves.
- can you... not?
- This is one of the best chatgpt analysis I have seen but I have not used it in awhile. I have just been using microsofts and googles figuring they all keep at about the same level. Granted I never really ask it to do some sort of political thing since it has no practical value so that might just be why I don't generally see something like it.

Yeah, nobody told the "Genocide Joe" "From The River To The Sea" folks this when they were marching throwing up Nazis salutes and waiving around Hamas and Hezbollah banners, for months, every night on the News, of an Election year. Young Democrats didn't vote, and we lost the whole world.
Or weren't those the blatant displays of antisemitic Nazism that you were talking about? I get confused.
- Opposition to Israeli genocide was not a problem. Consistently blaming Israeli genocide on the Democrats was an astounding self-own actively encouraged by both Israel and US fascists and it does put at least some of the blame on the dereliction of duty of the US left.