The title’s a bit disingenuous, I know: this didn’t come out of nowhere. White supremacism is as American as Manifest Destiny and has been heavily intertwined with Nazism from its inception. That overlap with the Republican party, and their gradual slip into the extreme far-right, is evident.
But Seig Heils? Even the most dense among them must know that blatant Nazism hurts their legitimacy in the eyes of the public, even among MAGATs (as is evident right now if you peek at their echo chamber on Reddit). Surely they would have a much easier time pushing their rhetoric and establishing their agenda by keeping a purposeful distance from that sort of indefensible imagery and symbolism. How do they expect to keep cohesion in the military when you imply to the soldiers that they are Nazis now, seig heils and all.
Why Nazis?
Any theories as to where this is coming from? Follow the ketamine-fueled leader? A directive for operative Krasnov, from Putin himself, to implode the country? True Nazi beliefs among the Heritage Foundation, Proud Boys, etc? I just don’t understand how they thought this would fly. I don’t understand anything anymore lol.
It has always been there, but until Trump’s first term the Nazis were at least cautious about things. They were afraid to openly and publicly spout their BS, unless they were in large groups. Because they knew that if they held up swastika signs on the street corner, that they’d very quickly get punched in the mouth.
But Trump changed that. Depending on how old you are, you may remember the “he tells it like it is/he’s not afraid to say what’s really on his mind” types of support for Trump during his first term. What a lot of those people were really saying is “he makes me feel empowered to say what’s is on my mind.” And what was on their mind was white supremacy and nazism. When the highest office in the land is tacitly (and sometimes directly) supporting white supremacists, they feel emboldened. And when they feel emboldened, they escalate.
What used to be whispered racist jokes escalated into passive racism. What used to be passive racism escalated into active racism. What used to be active racism escalated into openly hostile racism. And what used to be openly hostile racism escalated into nazism.
And the issue is that Trump/Musk have given Nazis a forum to meet other Nazis. Before, being a Nazi was a fairly lonely hobby. Finding other Nazis carried a lot of risk, because it meant potentially exposing yourself and getting your life ruined. But with Musk buying Xitter, Trump building Truth Social, etc… Yeah, suddenly the Nazis felt empowered to actually start talking to each other. The same way flat earthers used to just be your crazy uncle who smoked too much in his garage. But now that crazy uncle is part of a Flat Earth Society that regularly does large “experiments” to try and prove the earth is flat. By finding a forum to connect with other like-minded individuals, people feel emboldened as their views feel more normalized.
Genuinely, 4chan (Elon uses 4chan terms a lot), then instagram, facebook, discord, and foreign influence campaigns. I barely use social media, seems harmful.
I know people who fall into these rabbit holes. Super sad.
It’s always been there; they just stopped even attempting to hide it (even though they never had it very well to begin with).
It’s always been there. Trump just told them it’s ok to be nazi in public? He’ll protect them. Because he is a damn nazi.
This person has paid attention.
an important historical note is that the Nazis drew a lot of their ideology and argumentation from the American eugenics movement, which has been a major undercurrent in America since the early 1900s and never went away
Suddenly? Where have you been the last 20 years?
They’re looking for yes-men, who will be loyal to them in even the worst possible situations. Heiling is just a test to weed out anyone else.
Also, the heiling gesture came a little too natural to them.
It’s been fairly blatant for a while now. The seig heil is coming out now that they feel they’ve won. The goal is for the US to fall this time.
It begins by realizing that economics is also politics. The US ran out of indigenous peoples and lands to exploit, so it is turning inwards.
There are many books one could recommend. But an easy one to understand is: Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror, this book was published in 2012. Whatever an empire perfects to crush other people, always sooner or later is used internally.
MAGA has always been run by nazis; the blatancy came from winning the last election.
So according to Putin, Nazis in Ukraine is not ok and must be stopped. Nazis in the US government is ok and while we’re at it let’s meet them and make a deal.
Fuck Nazis and fuck Putin.
Oh my, you had me just now realize: As long as US aid is coming into the Ukraine, putin is finally right: he is, technically, fighting against nazis - US.
It’s always been there, it’s just now coming to the surface.
Like shingles
It came from LIBERALS who demanded that we protect the free speech of Nazis while they were building their death camps.
Underrated perspective. Absolutely a big part of the problem.
it’s a combo of trolling and attention seeking. “there’s no such thing as bad press” and all that.
we should point it out, condemn it, but not engage in arguments with them about what is and isn’t a sig heil.
and when they pop up in other places trying to talk about other stuff, just bring up the fact that they threw a Nazi salute from time to time.
the most important thing is to focus on their evil policies and actions. but we can’t forget their performative evil.
Small nit: they didnt just “throw a Nazi salute”; they openly and loudly declared they were Nazis, and they have done so many times in their conventions
“suddenly”
Someone that bought his place at the white house did it and didn’t get shot by a flamethrower, so all the Nazis hiding literally just below the surface feel ok to talk a little louder now.
Honestly, with sufficient evidence it should be legal to kill them in public and receive any inheritance from their wills. I don’t typically enjoy personally hunting people down typically, but these aren’t people.
One comment blatantly in favor of it Goodies any human rights in my opinion. It’s the only way. They may say it too (vermin, poisoning the blood, etc) but they’ve only ever been right about themselves.
I would give a pedo human rights before them. And that’s saying something.
They’re just rabid animals, and I defy anyone to give a reason they deserve a single second of life at all, for any reason, in any context. Maybe with the one exception of using them to find gatherings of others. But that’s it.