These truckers (and most antivaxxers) somehow think they're as stigmatized as the Jews were during WWII so they often wear yellow stars, compare themselves to Anne Frank, and have signs with the SS moniker / draw swastikas over the flags to demonstrate how oppressed they are.. a few made it on TV while the MP was talking to the news crews. Whenever there's anything remotely anti-government the Gadsen/Confederate battle flags make an appearance too. Just delightful behavior.
Small nit-pick, it is disingenuous to write “Gadsen/Confederate” flag when those are two totally separate things.
The Gadsen flag for most people is a symbol of independence and freedom. Historically it was not associated with slavery, the confederate secession, or the civil war.
99% of the Gadsden flags in my area are flying alongside confederate flags — likewise most of them in the protest pics I’ve seen. I know the flag’s history predates the Civil War and that it once upon a time was devoid of the current undertones, but alas, it’s (IMO) irredeemably tainted.
Counter anecdote. I've never seen a Gadsden flag flown by a confederate flag. It's mainly flown by libertarians and others who respect privacy and freedom.
Either way, confederate flags aren't normally flown in racist intent. Most people fly them to represent their heritage. The Dixie line, Outlaw country, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a libertarian from deep Georgia fly both and not be racist in the slight.
I think you need to leave your bubble and learn about the people you are trying to demonize.
It was literally the secession flag for multiple states during the civil war -- to the point where the most famous battle hymn explicitly frames victory for the Union as crushing the serpent.
That may be an inconvenient truth for those who want to avoid its tainted history but it's definitely not nonsense.
Don't take my word for it -- feel free to peruse the selection at your local confederate flag dealer:
Those first three images seem pretty unequivocally using nazi imagery to critique Canada. So they aren’t Nazis, they are people complaining that Canada is acting like Nazis.
I haven’t followed this but have heard friends saying that Nazis are participating. I would expect that this means some Nazis were participating. But these images don’t show that.
>While Kohlmann contends that Free Saxons is not an extremist group, German authorities say it is clearly so. The co-founder, Stefan Hartung, is a member of the district council for Germany’s National Democratic Party, a neo-Nazi party. Kohlmann professed to seek the return of the Saxon monarchy and independence for the state.
>He said the pandemic is an opportunity to reach more people. A “much broader range” of demonstrators join the weekly walks on Monday than anti-immigrant rallies.
>He doesn’t have to reach out to people, he said. They are coming to him.
>“It’s exploding,” he said of the group’s social media presence. The Free Saxons’ Telegram channel had 48,000 followers in August 2021, it has now grown to more than 140,000.
But “waving swastikas” isn’t very interesting unless it signifies Nazis right? It’s not bad to use swastikas to critique governments if you think they’re acting like Nazis.
The intent of swastikas in that situation isn’t pro-nazi or anti-Semitic.
I’m not sure what real Nazis in Germany being anti-vax has to do with our conversation. RFKJr is anti-vax too, what does that matter about this convoy.
I was trying to figure out if there were Nazis in the convoy. It seems like there aren’t.
It may be offensive to you, but it’s orders of magnitude different from being a nazi or neo nazi or nazi sympathizer.
Nazis were/are violent sociopaths who are a threat to people. They’re scary. People making nazi metaphors and deeply offending you aren’t a threat to people. That’s not newsworthy to me.
It’s like the people who think the Soup Nazi episodes of Seinfeld are deeply offensive. Because they compare delicious soup to Nazis. If TV guide reported that nazi paraphernalia was in those episodes it would be misleading. Seinfeld wasn’t pro nazi and there was no risk of them doing nazi things.
There are many people of different colours at the protests. Do you paint them as nazi because someone had a flag? I saw a flag from Norway, is Norway suddenly behind this?
If you're a member of a group and that group pulls out a Nazi flag, do you leave the group or do you expect random passers-by to think for a moment that maybe you aren't a Nazi sympathizer?
"Oh, everyone knows ipaddr! He hangs out with a bunch of Nazis that protest to entrench "born white" as the de facto ruling class of the country, kill all the gays and trans people, and to have two separate sets of laws, one that only applies to them, and one that applies to everyone else, but he's sweet as can be!"
I wouldn't assume someone carrying a Nazi flag means all of those things. I wouldn't assume everyone was gay or supported gay rights if someone held a rainbow flag. I might assume the person holding the flag has support for the flag but it's not necessarily true.
If the Nazi flag had Justin Trudeau's face on it I would instantly get the message that Trudeau is a Nazi not support for a group from a foreign country in the 1930s.
Lot of people working in overdrive to excuse displays of Nazi symbolism these days. Never would have thought I would see it on y-combinator but here we are.
> If you're a member of a group and that group pulls out a Nazi flag, do you leave the group or do you expect random passers-by to think for a moment that maybe you aren't a Nazi sympathizer?
Does this mean that you should be able to immediately end any protest you don't like just by going to it and then pulling out a Nazi flag when you get there?
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