They really are bullying cowards


So this is what happens when you confront nazis. They collapse.

Good grief. It’s just kind of a fun idea, being able to say ‘white power’. I love to be offensive, it’s all. What a pathetic child.

And then there’s this: Joe Love flies a Nazi flag from his home. A woman stopped and politely asked him about it; he starts ranting and insulting her. I guess he’s a big man when it’s a woman talking to him, but he changes his tune when a local newspaper contacted him.

Love says he bought the flag several years ago, but that he doesn’t believe in the symbolism Nazis attached to the swastika, the meaning most have of the flag in the decades since World War II.

That used to be a religious symbol in India until Hitler got ahold of it, Love said. A lot of people don’t know that… I agree with the symbol as it started out as a religious symbol. But as far as backing Hitler and being a white supremacist and Hitler, I’m not into that.

Oh, bullshit. Or should I say, chickenshit.

Comments

  1. remyporter says

    > That used to be a religious symbol in India until Hitler got ahold of it

    Yeah, and the toothbrush mustache was the height of fashion before Hitler got ahold of it.

  2. Saad says

    Of course that is a religious symbol….. when used by South Asians.

    Also, that specific red flag with the swastika in a white circle is definitely not a “religious symbol in India”.

    What a cowardly asshole. At least own it.

  3. says

    “That used to be a religious symbol in India until Hitler got ahold of it,”

    Was his flag red and black and white?
    Because “it used to be a religious symbol” doesn’t apply if he’s specifically using the nazi version. You know, the confederate flag used to be an american flag until they confederated it…

  4. rgmani says

    The swastika didn’t just “use to be” a religious symbol in India, it still is. The swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol which is supposed to signify auspiciousness. Go to India and you will see it on everything. It is drawn somewhat differently, though. The Nazi swastika is rotated 45 degrees.

    – RM

  5. Saganite, a haunter of demons says

    If he’s serious, then he might just be the best example of the so-called “chan-subculture”, people who try to be dumb offensive idiots for the “fun” of it. I’m doubtful, though. I think there’s a lot of overlap between doing it “for teh lulz” and doing it for real. Pretending to be a troll is, in a way, a shield, an attempt to shirk responsibility for one’s actions. I can’t read people’s minds, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a clear majority of these people who genuinely believe at least sizeable parts of the garbage they are spouting.

  6. Siobhan says

    @1 rietplum

    Did you already read this? US government demands details on all visitors to anti-Trump protest website
    How about Nazi websites?

    Well things would get a bit awkward when they start pinging computers in the White House.

  7. says

    @Saganite
    Any questions? I sampled the social flow of 4chan on a semiregular basis for the better part of a decade starting around 2007.It started as “my friend showed me this funny website” and eventually turned into a tool to observe how people do terrible things in groups.

    Like everything it has good and bad elements, but I accept that when trying to change society the bad elements need more emphasis when it comes to changing how people do things. That place really redefined how I think about the use and experience of symbolism. It eventually led to me being sucked into the brony community but that’s a whole different layer.

  8. says

    If you want to celebrate Indian culture, go for it. But don’t celebrate the Nazi appropriation of that particular symbol, because it’s nothing to celebrate.

  9. handsomemrtoad says

    As I recall, the religious symbol (Hindu, I think) was a mirror-image swastika– two letters “Z”, with right angles rather than acute angles between the strokes, one vertical, one horizontal, crossed. The Nazi symbol is squared-off letters “S”..

  10. colinday says

    @Brony
    #9

    I sampled the social flow of 4chan on a semiregular basis for the better part of a decade

    Masochist

  11. Matt G says

    These people never grow up. Their emotional development ceases when their formal education ends (i.e., age 18 or earlier). Their idea of masculinity is that of a teenager (and most teenagers *I* know are better than this).

  12. says

    @colinday
    It’s like a morbid curiosity combined with only enjoying certain kinds of things as I think about how to functionally deal with what I was seeing. Did you know that the random board, so called “asshole of the internet” contained two subcultures that were administratively banned (the furries and the bronies)? People could do degree programs on some if this. Rumor has it that the /mlp/ board was allowed as a brony containment area.

  13. jrkrideau says

    There is a small village in Northern Ontario called Swastika.

    During WWII there was some discussion about changing its name. The inhabitants overall opinion, at the meeting held to discuss the issue, was, “We were here before the Nazis and we will be here after the Nazis”.

    The citizens were correct.

  14. robro says

    That used to be a religious symbol in India until Hitler got ahold of it…

    That’s a common myth that every ancient symbol is religious, and every ancient structure is a temple. Of course, that’s not always clear but archeologists tend to get more attention for discovering signs of religion than signs of mere art. Some of the earliest examples of swastikas are from the Indus Valley Civilization, about 3000 BCE. We know very little about this culture because we haven’t decoded their script. Their use seems to have been decorative, but I suppose the distinction of “decorative” versus “religious” could be difficult to determine.

  15. Mark says

    I lived in South Korea and occasionally saw the Buddhist swastika symbol. Once in the ceiling ornamentation of a hotel restaurant. It wasn’t presented on a big red and white background that screamed “LOOK AT ME.” It was very subtle and easily missed. The angry man from North Carolina couldn’t have found a more lame excuse for his behavior.

  16. archangelospumoni says

    “That used to be a religious symbol in India until Hitler got ahold of it”

    Now it just means “I’m an ignorant asshole cracker.”

  17. archangelospumoni says

    A little good news with respect to chickenshits who get caught.
    http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/white-nationalist-protesters-exposed-on-social-media/

    Head of the college republicans chapter at Washington State University was identified as having attended the you-know-what rally. No longer head of that fine group.
    For the snowflakes still supporting Drumpfh and his base, we remind you that the anti-abortion folks pioneered this sort of stuff. So I guess I’m being a hypocrite here but WGAS?

  18. Holms says

    This reminds me of another fairly common form of cowardice. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “I wasn’t calling him a gay slur, I was calling him a bundle of firewood! That’s what the word originally meant!”

  19. chigau (違う) says

    I finally watched the video.
    I do hope all of his friends and family see it.
    What a putz.

  20. says

    Is this kinda like “liberal” religion, which keeps all the same awful religious texts, but “interprets” them differently, non-literally?

    Or maybe they can’t even admit the truth about themselves to themselves, and that’s what causes these bizarre excuses?

  21. says

    @9, Brony, Social Justice Cenobite

    Any questions?

    Ya, can you give any understanding of these ideologies? You could blog about it, could be a useful resource for a lot of people.

    But I suspect, even if I saw the details of what they were like, I’d still just not understand why these people are the way they are.

  22. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    For the snowflakes still supporting Drumpfh and his base, we remind you that the anti-abortion folks pioneered this sort of stuff. So I guess I’m being a hypocrite here but WGAS?

    You’re not a hypocrite. False equivalency is a bad habit. Just say no.

  23. yaque says

    19. anchor
    Never underestimate an asshole.

    20. kantalope
    If it quacks like a duck…

    Thanks a lot you two. o\_/o
    Now I got an image stuck in my head of an asshole quacking like a duck…

  24. madbull says

    I’m an Indian, I was raise hindu, in a very religious family. The hindu swastika is very easily differentiated from the nazi one. As people said it is not tilted 45 degrees, it is drawn with wavy rather than straight lines, is very often drawn with thinner red lines and with dots inside each of the four arms. The word actually means good luck and the hindi word for health ‘svaasthya’ has the same origin. So when our parents’ visit, they tend to draw it everywhere even outside the home.
    They agreed to remove it upon hearing about the nazi version. We have enough symbols and retaining this one isn’t worth any harm caused even for a minute.
    Plus hinduism itself has a heritage of oppressing the ‘lower’ castes in India, by that alone, the hindu swastika can go to, along with hinduism itself.

  25. Arnie says

    So this is what happens when you confront nazis. They collapse.

    You can’t draw conclusions like that from one single observation.

    Here’s another data point: An acquaintance of mine confronted some nazis, which led to them beating him almost to death.

  26. Dunc says

    An acquaintance of mine confronted some nazis, which led to them beating him almost to death.

    Yeah, that’s difference between actual Nazis and overgrown children cosplaying as Nazis.

  27. cartomancer says

    Not exactly Nazis these ones. More like the shades of Nazis returned to spread their evil on the world once more. Pale, hollow creatures, back from the distant past. Shambling, unthinking, bitter things that hate life in all its vibrancy. Wight supremacists, if you will.

    And, of course, they scatter to the four winds when you break open their barrows and expose them to the light f the sun.

  28. Dunc says

    Wight supremacists, if you will.

    Lol. Where would you like your internet delivered?

    As I’ve just said elsewhere, this incident would have been even funnier if the whiny little shit had run into some actual Nazis coming the other way also looking to beat the shit out of him, but for being a poseur.

  29. Saad says

    VICE’s video on the Charlottesville Nazis is scary, but the part at 5:54 had me in stitches when the Nazi white boy got maced and was pouring milk on his face and going “They maced me! It’s the second time in two fucking days!” :D

  30. Gregory Greenwood says

    rietpluim @ 1;

    That article is quietly terrifying There is no legitimate reason why a government should be trying to abuse the authority of the Supreme Court to garner personal details on people exercising constitutionally protected forms of political expression. This seems to be a clear case of trying to identify political dissidents, and once they have those identities the old dance can start up again, with it being but a small step from dissident to ‘undesirable’, and then but a step more from ‘undesirable’ to ‘disappeared’, assuming Trump doesn’t just instigate an open purge against anyone who pricks his oh so thin skin. I wouldn’t put it past him.

  31. rietpluim says

    Gregory Greenwood Terrifying indeed. Trump and his ilk are much closer to establishing an old fashioned totalitarian regime than seems at first glance. He’ll never be reelected, and they know that, without eradicating their opponents first. Their aggression proves they’re desperate.

  32. says

    I believe the correct response to people playing at Nazis just for laughs, is to get them fired from their jobs. Just for laughs.

  33. Artor says

    @Saganite #6
    “I can’t read people’s minds, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a clear majority of these people who genuinely believe at least sizeable parts of the garbage they are spouting.”
    I don’t particularly care if they believe it or not. They are choosing to be hateful shits at the expense of everyone who wants to live in a civil society. If they party with Nazis, then they are no better than Nazis.

  34. says

    @Brian
    Do you have an example of the format? I want to say yes, but I want to give an accurate answer. I have to think about the experience and sift something else.

    I’m blindly pulling stuff from my time there. The “random board” is where anonymous culture evolved, but humans aren’t that random. No identity. There were some people that used trip codes (an optional naming system, anonymous is the default), but the vast majority of the posts on /b/ had the same name. “Anon” eventually developed a community chosen personification that was used in comics and drawings.

    They celebrated every numbered post with a pattern, mist notably basic 1 million, 2 million. It was like new years. Everyone racing to get the “get”. The contents of the post were incorporated into the board and site culture. Longcat is long was among the more tame and fun. There were bad ones. As the years dragged on an the people who had been there longer started complaining about the board culture changing. /b/ was said to have “cancer” and the new people were causing it. Soon everyone was the “cancer that was killing /b/”. It was a weird place and the concept of ideology is one I am only a little familiar with academically.