Political Memes

I oppose punching Nazis.

You might hurt your hand.

Use an object instead.

They construct an ideology where everything was great way back when foreign powers were jealous of our national heritage and destroyed everything. It's a very easy to grasp and convenient myth, since your nation becomes the main character of history.

Nationalism/patriotism is very succeptible to falling for fascist ideology. Therefore, everyone waving their national flag with pride is sus to me.

Same thing any "in group" feeds on: self esteem. If you feel powerless, or worthless, or rudderless, any group that makes you feel powerful, valuable, and effective is going to be very appealing. Conservatives (read: fascists) prey on this. They make it seem like joining them is brave, and important. And since their followers lack identity and purpose, their self worth becomes entangled with [in group], be it closeted fascism such as the American GOP, or flaming such as Q/proud boys/whatever. And since their identity and value depends on the perpetuation and proliferation of their in group, they willingly accept lies and falsehood. Pretty easy to gaslight someone who's encouraging it.

Then when they wear their symbols of hate, or make shocking claims, or in anyway troll and grief society, up to and including dismantling democracy, they get a reaction. They've exerted their will on the world around them, and as such they feel powerful. The insidious bit is, even if the good guys win, with all their high falutin factual arguments and social programs, it just makes these sad people angier and feel worthless again. So they go right back to their pimps for some more sweet lies and marching orders.

Fascism preys on the ideas of regime change and stagnation. Physically, a government wishing to gather power through voters will promise new public works, a focus on workers, and the general embetterment of society. Ideologically, fascism promises a purging of those in power, those that lead the stagnation and bad working conditions that started the movement. They conveniently pin in on a group of people or a few undesirable groups to appeal to a large number of the population and then make a grab for power. Bad times and stagnation create fascism.

Picture is from 2010 in Knoxville Tennesee. Can't find any other info on the girl:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/swastika-nazi-salute/

Don't think I've seen a bigger oxymoron before... The definition of punk is being anti-authoritarian.

"The authorities are ALWAYS right" - People claiming to be loyal to a country based on idealistic rebellion

Gotta wait for the last people who experienced the horrors first hand to finally retire from power.

America is involved in waaay more than a war every 80yrs.

There was Irak, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Vietnam at the very least.

um... who do we sell them to? if it's someone outside the stadium, aren't they also pro-slavery? wouldn't that mean they'd also be in the stadium? also, wouldn't we, then, end up with a lot of slaves?

this seems like a bad idea for a few reasons, the least of which is the hypocrisy...

The US government under Roosevelt was opposed to the Nazis from the start, before WW2 began, on account of its fascist character.

While America was deeply racist at the time, it was also very unevenly racist, and even prominent Nazi fellow-travelers like Charles Lindbergh expressed revulsion at the level of Nazi racism displayed.

The genocide proper didn't begin until WW2, and by the time we were already, for all practical purposes, 'in the game', so to speak.

That's a complicated question without a clear answer. It's hard to establish the motivations of an individual person, but much harder when you're talking about the entire country. Generally, people were united in the war effort, but for a variety of reasons. The NYT downplayed the Holocaust and specifically tried to avoid focusing on antisemitism, in part because they were worried that people wouldn't like the idea of fighting a war to protect Jewish people, as racism and antisemitism were very much present. On the other hand, you had people like folk singer Woody Guthrie who explicitly connected the war to anti-fascism in his songs. But there were also plenty of people and media who had been praising Hitler, before he started invading everywhere.

Basically there were lots of reasons for lots of people to dislike the Nazis, so it's kind of hard to detangle who was motivated by what and to what degree. Generally though, if they had kept to their own borders, it's unlikely that any other country would have invaded them just for being fascists, and many countries went through great lengths not to go to war with them, because nobody wanted to recreate the devastation of WWI. Even then the US wasn't willing to get directly involved until it was directly attacked.

But not yours to bare my German brother from across the pond.

Germany has learned ( IMO) that while nazi party rose in Germany. Germany isnt the Nazi party. The United States never learned the lessons from this historical past.

Danke