All of this begs the question: Are people associating Musk’s gesture with autism doing so because they believe they know how autism works, or because they want to throw a blanket defense for Musk (and perhaps more specifically, the far right)? After all, some X users posted photos and videos of Democrats with their arms out, appearing to demonstrate the same gesture. But others argue these images are not the same as Musk’s gesture.
After asking Dawson, she said it could be a combination of both. “People often reach for anything in defense,” she said. “The fact that it is being brought up highlights a continued misunderstanding that’s being perpetuated recently.”
Musk is also not the one who credited the salute to autism, which Shashoua said is telling. “We have to hold people accountable for their actions and believe what we’re seeing when people demonstrate their values.”
“With his influence, he has a unique opportunity to normalize and celebrate the contributions of neurodivergent individuals, while also highlighting how such traits can be misinterpreted at times,” Kelley said. “At this point, we have to wait and see if he ‘makes right’ what went wrong.”
Musk originally responded to the controversy with statements like, “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired” with a sleeping emoji.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) put out a statement on Monday saying that Musk’s gesture was “not a Nazi salute.”
“In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead,” the organization wrote.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump’s pick for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended Musk during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday when Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) asked her how she felt about him doing “two heil Hitler salutes” during the televised rally.
“No, Elon Musk did not do those salutes,” Stefanik said. “I was not at the rally, but I can tell you I’ve been at many rallies with Elon Musk, who loves to cheer when President Trump says we need to send our U.S. space program to Mars. Elon Musk is a visionary.”
“That is simply not the case,” Stefanik said later when talking about the comparison.
On Thursday, Musk continued to comment on it, writing on X, “Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations,” seemingly referring to Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy. “Bet you did nazi that coming,” Musk added, with a laughter emoji. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, then responded to Musk’s tweet, saying: “We’ve said it hundreds of times before and we will say it again: the Holocaust was a singularly evil event, and it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it.”
Regardless of any objective, intent does not equal impact. “To imply that a specific person’s harmful behavior — whether intentionally or not — should be excused because of their autism perpetuates a dangerous stereotype that autistic individuals are more prone to harmful behaviors,” Vincent told HuffPost.
When asked how the excuse for Musk made them feel, the people with autism we interviewed used words like “abhorred,” “incredibly angry,” “infuriated” and “saddened.”
“Being autistic does not give people a free pass to insult others and make them feel ashamed of who they are,” Belsky added.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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