I feel like "noo it wasn't a Nazi salute, or uh, it wasn't intentional" is more of a "right of center" response instead of a "center" response, and "Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on live TV" is closer to center, but otherwise this seems accurate.
Maybe the Overton window has shifted so far right that I'm wrong about that, though.
I mean, yes and no.
This is the same logic as "don't do that, Fetterman is very much a real liberal" – like, self-attested membership of a group that is defined by a core set of beliefs while also denying that core set of beliefs is not a reflection on that core set of beliefs.
To pick another example, "don't do that, the DPRK is very much a democratic republic" – and yet...