Swastika: Not a hateful symbol!?!

[Guest Slapnuts00]

Ok, so on the NWA-TNA board there is a thread about Don Harris's shirt from a few weeks ago which had the German SS symbol on it, which led to the discusion of the swastika and it's meaning and some have the audacity to defend it as a misrepresented symbol that should mean peace or some BS. When I tried to set them straight on how whatever it used to mean is irrelevant after the atrocity of the Holocaust, I'm told to "be more open minded". Unbelievable. The thread is here: http://www.thesmartmarks.com/forums/index....t=0#entry380045

 

If any of you want to try to set these morons straight, be my guest...

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I agree with your opinion, and I think you've done a good enough job already. It just doesn't matter what it used to mean. How many people do you know with the first name "Adolf?" Or the last name "Hitler?" You could take the same argument and apply it to that: "Oh, we're just reclaiming the name. It isn't meant to be offensive." Yeah, whatever.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

Unbelievable. You're right, whatever the swastika used to mean (Chinese for immortality if my 9th grade history is correct) is no longer is relevant. For now and possibly forever it will be remembered as the symbol of Hitler and all he did.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Anyone who pulls this kind of crap should be forced to go through the USHMM at gunpoint. I visit regularly and whenever I come out my makeup is a streaky mess. It isn't unusual for people going in for the first time to collapse completely and fall to their knees, sobbing, in front of the exhibit that broke them.

 

The Holocaust wasn't an atrocity. It was the embodiment of evil.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Next I guess you're going to say that it's ill-advised to walk down Crenshaw dressed up as a ghost...

[Guest bob_barron]

I posted this in TNA-

 

I'd like to tell you my grandma, a Holocaust survivor, your thoughts on the swastika.

 

The swastika symbol is a symbol of pure evil and it makes me sick to my stomach seeing anyone wear it.

 

 

The Nazis killed a lot of my family and I don't care what it used to mean, it is the symbol for everything evil.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I think it's easy for us to say it means nothing cause we weren't directly effected by the holocaust, but anything that reminds somene of grave loss or traumatic events is going to make them uneasy.

 

Since the holocaust has it been used in a non threatening way...and take that for what it means...threatening to anyone.

 

Words and symbols change meaning as years go by. Things that were harmless before become harmful through their usage. Gay went from meaning happy-go-lucky to meaning homosexual.

 

There are a lot of words and symbols we don't really realize how harful they are. Take the word Fag for example. Fag used to mean burning log. Hitler then burned gays during his rampage so "burning log" became a joke about gays being burned by Hitler. Thus the word Fag became a word for gays.

[Guest papacita]

Unbelievable. You're right, whatever the swastika used to mean (Chinese for immortality if my 9th grade history is correct) is no longer is relevant. For now and possibly forever it will be remembered as the symbol of Hitler and all he did.

I'm not sure about this, but I remember hearing somewhere that when the Nazis adopted the swastika, it was turned in a clockwise fashion, whereas the original was turned counterclockwise. Can anyone confirm this?

[Guest MrRant]

I remember seeing that on the History Channel. It was more straight up and down.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Yes, the original aryan(as well as Indian symbol) version was straight up and down, but to give it more panache and a more dynamic look the Nazis tilted it 45 degrees.

 

I'm just mad that history's worst people have adopted the coolest symbols and names. When I was really young, I thought names like "Adolf" and "Stalin" and "Pol Pot" were cool, until I found out why I never ran into any on the street. I also thought the hammer and sickle as well as the swastika were neat until I found out what they were.

 

Now that I think about it, the lamest symbol any of history's bad guys have ever come up with is the skull and bones logo for the special SS units. Even the SS logo is simply a pair of Nordic runes.

 

Kotzenjunge

Wishes Cool Logos Could Somehow Distance Themselves from the Deeds of their Bearers

[Guest Cancer Marney]

The Himalayan symbol, incidentally, is supposedly derived from a lake on Kailas. Four rivers emerged from it, circling it seven times before flowing out to the four points of the compass: Sengi, Mapchu, Tamphok, and Lamchen.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I love geographic anomalies. Sicily getting kicked by Italy, India puking out Sri Lanka, Florida being America's penis, lower Michigan looking like a mitten, and so on.

 

Kotzenjunge

Loves Geography

[Guest Cancer Marney]

America's penis?! So are all those 80 year-olds just really, really superstitious or is the symbolism ironic in the face of the largest concentration of Viagra in the nation?

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I don't know, it's a Jon Stewart standup joke he used on MTV's Spring Break once. The Viagra thing does make it work though...

 

Kotzenjunge

Hadn't Thought of Disturbing Parallels

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Wouldn't it be charming if continental drift made Florida sort of rise up and point out into the Atlantic? There's no fault line there to my knowledge, but still...

[Guest MD2020]

It just doesn't matter what it used to mean. How many people do you know with the first name "Adolf?" Or the last name "Hitler?" You could take the same argument and apply it to that: "Oh, we're just reclaiming the name. It isn't meant to be offensive." Yeah, whatever.

 

I think I read in either Maxim or Stuff, in the useless facts section, that in 1940, there were like 20 Adolf Hitlers in the NYC Phone Book. By 1950, there were none. I'm not sure if the dates are totally correct, but the gist is.

 

Also, totally off topic, American physicists have proved that there is no earthly way to open a candy bar wrapper without the crinkling sound.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well i'd think if Florida turned sideways that we'd be having major problems.

[Guest HoffmanHBK]

The Viagra thing does make it work though...

Make it work, that's what Viagra is supposed to do...

[Guest redbaron51]

Well i'd think if Florida turned sideways that we'd be having major problems.

well its harder for Cuban imigrants to get to the states if that ever happens

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

no, Cuba's on the same tectonic plate, IIRC, so they'd still be about the same distance away.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

Yeah...only now Cuba would look like the cup that Florida is emptying in....toooooooo........

 

 

Yeah...

 

Symbols suck. Know how the middle-finger became an offensive gesture? Well, this is how I heard of its history, anyways...

 

During the French/English war (pick one, I believe the 100 Years War...which would be THE war...), French soldiers would capture English archers and cut off their middle-fingers, therefore getting rid of the archers' means of attack (hard to pull back an arrow with only your index finger and your thumb). So, during cavalry attacks, English soldiers would present their middle fingers to French troops as pretty much a "fuck you" to their face.

 

But hey, I heard this all from my friend Eric's band teacher in 8th grade, so don't quote me on that.

 

Speaking of stuff to NOT quote me on...BOOBS.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

Actually Corey, I heard the story, only slightly different.

 

See, in Britain, rather then giving the finger, they'll raise their index and middle fingers together, and move their hand upwards. I don't think it's as offensive to them as the finger is to us, because I've seen it on old British TV shows, but anyway...

 

The bottom line is, the story I heard was essentially the same, except they'd cut off the index and middle finger, making it IMPOSSIBLE to fire arrows, and not just really, really hard.

 

I also heard that it kinda started the other way around. Arrogant Frenchmen would do the two-finger gesture, saying "HAHA! I still got mine!"

 

Though I would not be suprised if the middle-finger came from that - it's not like it's that much of a stretch from one finger to two.

[Guest SupaTaft]

The swastika is the ancient symbol for corn.

 

-Taft

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

As for the whole England middle finger, the English flick off is extending both your middle and index finger, with your palm facing away the person you're in the process of flicking. Like a peace sign, but backwards.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Yes, and it's the one I use the most. Screw the middle finger, people know what that means.

 

Kotzenjunge

Tells People to Piss Off Also