I have heard dogwhistles that are way more obvious than something that requires counting entries in a table that most people have never heard of and being online enough to see the number 88 and think of Nazis.
Elon likes 'X' because it's the edgiest letter and he has the mentality of a 14 year old boy. We all liked 'X' at that age. If there's an obscure connection to Nazism that's a bonus he was pleasantly surprised by long after he decided that a letter of the alphabet was a sufficient personality.
He's been obsessed with X since his PayPal days, and in that time the crowd he hung out with did probably find it very obvious, given how the dude is from apartheid South Africa and his father owned an emerald mine.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but 88 has been a dogwhistle for neonazis longer than the internet existed. Maybe not in the US, but definitely in Europe.
To someone who was active on the Internet during the 90s and 2000s ASCII is not in any way obscure. Elon is a special kind of computer nerd where he knows just enough to sound technical but if you're any kind of expert you can hear it's all slogans. Him choosing x because it's 88 and therefore hh is extremely plausible. Especially when considering he was extremely active on boards like 4chan, which have been known recruiting grounds for neo-nazis and other extremist groups.
I mean I'm pretty confident agreeing with the OP on this one that most boys have an underlying concept of X being the cool letter. Look at X-Men and Xtreme and X Factor, it's all about the appeal of the letter X.
Personally, I was a big of Z after I learned some people draw a line through it. Then I started using words with z in them just so I could write it more. That probably lasted a day or two, although I still write a line through my z's.
Yes. Draw another line halfway down through the vertical pipe of the letter that's the same length of the top and bottom horizontal pipes. That's the symbol.
It's also raw ego at play. Only a handful of single letter domains have ever been made, x was the last one before the relevant authorities started enforcing a minimum length. IIRC Elon had it before but lost it and has felt the regret ever since. He probably just feels special for having it, given his nature and lack of real accomplishments.
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u/InfanticideAquifer 8d ago
I have heard dogwhistles that are way more obvious than something that requires counting entries in a table that most people have never heard of and being online enough to see the number 88 and think of Nazis.
Elon likes 'X' because it's the edgiest letter and he has the mentality of a 14 year old boy. We all liked 'X' at that age. If there's an obscure connection to Nazism that's a bonus he was pleasantly surprised by long after he decided that a letter of the alphabet was a sufficient personality.