• Wahots@pawb.social
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    2 days ago

    To some extent, yes. Though the Nazis were so evil and morally warped, sometimes I think it’s best to retire certain symbols permanently. We can always create new ones. Humans have a very bad habit of worshiping the past, sometimes too much, given the current climate. :P

    • dandelion
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      17 hours ago

      I’m not sure I think the Nazis are a special kind of evil, nor that their symbols should receive special status due to that supposed special evil. When you read about Columbus flaying humans alive, or the systematic genocide and concentration camps in the U.S. of indigenous populations (which inspired Hitler’s concentration camps), I do not think the Nazis were somehow special or unique. I think as losers in a world war their evil was especially punished and made known by the other countries. An example was made of them largely because they were losers, not because the other countries have moral superiority. There should be no sympathy for the Nazis, nor for other genocidal states, but admittedly there is less sympathy for Nazis than for other genocidal states, and I think this is for geopolitical reasons.

      Humans do worship the past, which is exactly why it’s good to destroy the past association a symbol has - it would even be nice if someday the swastika went back to its much more legitimate and long-standing associations with Hinduism.

      I think you might be underestimating the power in symbols and how by setting aside a symbol it guarantees a meaning for it will last longer, and in this case it is a symbol of evil, used by evil.

      The only controversy, truly, is whether the workers union intended to associate themselves with Nazis, but since that is so clearly not the case, I think this is a great example of how those Nazi symbols might die out and how their meanings can be destroyed by much better causes.