It is curious and oddly funny in a way to watch multiple mainstream media outlets sanitise the Nazi salute given by Elon Musk at the post-inauguration ceremony of US President Donald Trump.

No, it was not a Nazi salute, we are assured, but a ‘Roman’ one….no, it was because Musk got overexcited due to autism…..no, he was indicating the height of the trees in his backyard…..no, he was signalling the arrival of his Uber.

Are we supposed to believe that Musk Nazi salute was just a case of an eccentric making a nervous twitch arm movement? Musk’s maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, a Canadian doctor with Nazi sympathies, moved to apartheid South Africa in the 1950s. Becoming active in supporting white supremacy, Haldeman denounced the hordes of coloured people who, controlled by an international cabal of Jewish bankers, intended to overwhelm the white Christian civilisation of South Africa. Statements like these are hardly the product of a nonpolitical arm twitch.

No, we cannot visit the sins of the grandparents onto the grandchildren, but Musk grew up in an environment with unmistakable fascist sympathies. The grandparents made white supremacist rants in the age before social media.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, named after the Polish-born lawyer of Jewish background who first coined the word genocide, issued a red flag warning for the United States, urging all of us to exercise skepticism when it comes to attempts to whitewash or explain away Musk’s supposedly awkward hand gesture.

We cannot lightly dismiss an unmistakable gesture indicating support for, and boosting, an antisemitic genocidal ideology as just an unfortunate accident. This was not the sadly unintended antics of a publicity-seeking egomaniac. Musk is very close to the Trump administration, influencing its economic, technological and civil policies.

When Musk was a rising star of the IT/Silicon Valley complex, touting electric cars as an environmentally friendly replacement for the polluting and outdated internal combustion engine, numerous favourable comparisons were made between him and Henry Ford, founding father of Ford Motor Company.

Henry Ford (1867 – 1943) was an industrialist and car manufacturer famous, not for inventing the petroleum engine itself, but making it affordable to millions of working class and middling Americans. His innovative production techniques, today collectively known as Fordism, revolutionised not only the automotive industry, but also factory production generally. Fordism provided the template for automotive manufacturing, and this impacted production techniques across manufacturing industries in the twentieth century.

The availability and ubiquity of the household car can be attributed to the widespread success of Fordism. However, let’s also remember another vital reason for the general use of the motor car; the deliberate running down of electric-based transportation, including public trams and trains.

Automotive and oil companies, starting in the 1940s, deliberately gained control of public transit systems to run them down. Enforced decrepitude of public transport only encouraged consumers to rely on motor vehicles. Creating a market for your product is just as important as technological innovation in persuading people to purchase your product.

In Sydney and Adelaide, the extensive networks of electric trams were ripped out to make way for the now ubiquitous motor vehicle.

Musk’s purchase of Tesla corporation back in 2008 was greeted with enthusiasm by industry commentators. Just as Henry Ford revolutionised automotive assembly line production in the early twentieth century, it was hoped that Musk’s energetic commitment to electric cars would similarly revolutionise the car market, heralding the move away from the petroleum-based engine.

Comparisons between Ford and Musk were made, and they were usually favourable. However, the similarities between the two industrialists is not what most media commentators would have us believe.

Both men were/are critical agents of industrial and economic change in their respective eras – that much is true. Although we have to add a caveat here; the electric car is gradually superseding the internal combustion engine, but not due to any innovation by Musk, but because of the robust commitment by China to move away from fossil fuel dependence.

Strong government subsidies for electric vehicle production, cheaper prices, and lithium battery support has made China the global leader in EV sales.

Be that as it may, there is a strong similarity between the two car manufacturers – and it is not complimentary. Both entrepreneurs are allowing (in the case of Ford, did allow) antisemitic conspiracy theories, prejudice and support for ultranationalist racist parties to dominate their lives. Ford, a dedicated antisemite and supporter of the Nazi party, used his financial power to circulate anti-Jewish racism, buying space in newspapers to publish articles promoting Nazi-adjacent ideology.

Elon Musk, the preeminent car manufacturer of our era, is walking down the same ultrarightist pathway. Expressing support for the far right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), Musk has platformed attacks against multiculturalism, denouncing what he calls the ‘woke mind virus’. The AfD, a vehemently anti-immigrant organisation, traces its ideological lineage to the Nazi party.

The techbro of Silicon Valley once hailed as an ecologically responsible progressive entrepreneur, has revealed himself to be the purveyor of ultranationalist grievance politics, directing resentment at the gains made by civil rights and migrant organisations for racial and educational equality. In this regard, Musk is adopting the same culturally and politically reactionary role that Ford played in his era.

A star addicted to fame and publicity, fellow MAGA cult follower Kanye West can be considered an appropriate parallel example to Musk. West, about whom I have written before, is obsessed with being in the spotlight. Musk definitely enjoys being the centre of attention, that is for sure. However, Musk has gone further than Kanye, and clearly chosen to align his politics with the inhabitants today’s ultrarightist cesspit.

Musk and Ford demonstrate that billionaires are not only conspiracy peddlers, harmful as that is. They also provide validation and political support for the anti-immigrant and fascist movements. The billionaire class provides a conveyor belt for the neoliberal white supremacist Right. Musk and Ford do not want to abolish government spending, they re-engineer the state’s functions to make the economy conducive to the conduct of big business.