[DonHopkins]

Which is why he said "waving swastikas", not "being Nazis".

But yes, Nazis are getting involved with the anti-vax protests, on the same side as Trump, not on Science's side.

In Germany’s east, far-right extremists find footholds in escalating anti-vaccine protests:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/30/coronavirus-...

>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.

[prepend]

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.

[mikeyouse]

Comparing a government mandate for international truckers to get a free, safe vaccine during a pandemic to anything nazis did is deeply offensive.

[prepend]

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.