As the German newspaper “Die Zeit” so succinctly put it, a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute. As much as the TikTok warriors of the new Trump administration would like to defend or obfuscate Elon Musk’s salute, there is no denying the nature of his intentions. 

Elon Musk’s tasteless, tactless and profoundly insulting controversy along with his weekend trip to Germany have inspired countless Nazi-Germany comparisons. The fear-mongering on any given social media platform is exorbitant, equating the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 to Jan. 6 or Hitler’s incarceration with President Trump’s felony convictions. But such comparisons stoke anxiety and bludgeon the “history repeats itself” comparison into the ground. This is not to say that the similarities aren’t alarming. Still, an exhaustive list of comparisons negates the different political, historical and social situations in interwar Germany versus the present-day United States.  

However, Musk further stoked conversations about similarities between the U.S. and Germany with a surprise virtual appearance at an Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) event on January 25th. His speech addressed around 4,000 attendees in Halle, claiming that there is “frankly too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that,” clearly about the Second World War. The AfD is Germany’s far-right party that has recently experienced a surge in popularity in recent elections. 

The Anti-Defamation League (an international organization formed to fight anti-Semitism) reiterated after Musk’s appearance at the Halle rally that Holocaust remembrance isn’t about guilt but rather about responsibility and historical recognition. This AfD event also came only two days before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. 

While Musk’s activities are alarming and profoundly disconcerting, many things threaten individual livelihoods more than a debate about Elon Musk’s salute or travel itinerary. Die Zeit called the current US political situation an “Aufmerksamkeitregime,” an attention regime. Honestly, that is the most accurate description of the state of affairs since Jan. 20. 

While Musk has taken up considerable air time recently, Trump has caused no less of a stir. He has been busy signing executive orders that pose a distinctly more significant threat to democracy than Elon Musk’s optics and/or Nazi inclinations. What follows is a brief overview of some of the most noteworthy updates of the last week for those of us who have checked the news as if it were contagious with the flu.

He commuted the sentences of 1,500 people charged in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the capital, claimed that the D.C. collision between a passenger plane and an army helicopter was the result of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hiring policies within the Transportation Security Administration, signed executive order “Schedule F”, which could potentially force tens of thousands of civil servants to serve the president’s political aims rather than public interest, renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase raids and arrests of undocumented migrants and signed no fewer than 21 executive orders in an attempt to overhaul the immigration system, to name a few.

However, executive actions do not guarantee implementation. While federal agencies can neutralize directives by acting slowly on implementation, federal courts can also pursue legal action against directives that are believed to violate various federal regulations and constitutional guarantees. This first week has been marked by, more than anything, several feats of attention-grabbing activities that aim at keeping the American public chasing its tail and overwhelm news outlets. 

We must trust that not all institutional integrity is gone and that legal responses to many of these executive actions will effect change. As college students experiencing this period of political upheaval within the padded foundations of academia, it is easy to feel guilty about not engaging enough with the state of American democracy and feeling deeply overwhelmed by the impossibility of enacting change of any kind. Although often feeling lost within this sea is easy, it is no less important to remember that being educated and engaged are the most important things we can do right now. Engagement can look like whatever you have the bandwidth for right now, but know that there is no dodging the future implications of these tumultuous times and that using the critical thinking skills developed here at Carleton can only serve you well moving forward.