Symbolism, Semiotics, and the Swastika

[Anonymous No.1896197]

Recently came across this. Pretty much, the person on the bottom got mad as shit over someone posting an image of a person with a swastika tramp stamp(lol) on some blog, even though they weren't intending to use it to identify with the Nazis. Pretty much, they've been defending the fact that the swastika's true and only inherent meaning is with the Nazis and that even though it was used for thousands of years by almost every culture on every continent(except Antarctica of course), no one else has the right to use it because it's either sympathizing with the Nazis or "cultural misappropriation"(left-facing and right-facing swastikas, regardless). I feel I know how to respond to this, but how can I do so using semiotics as my basis?

[Anonymous No.1896341]

bump

[Anonymous No.1896345]

You can't really argue with someone like that, but if you really want to look like an asshole, try and argue that no one group should be able to appropriate a symbol in perpetuity. That is, Nazis shouldn't always be tied to the Swastika, and victims of the Nazis shouldn't always be allowed to judge those who use the Swastika as people with Nazi sympathies.

In 1000 years, what will the Swastika mean? What if a Christ-figure uses the Swastika for an immense good? Pose these kinds of hypotheticals, and point out that the Holocaust and Nazism are one point on a very large timescale.

[Anonymous No.1896373]

The Nazi swastika was a sun wheel.

If you hate the swastika, you hate all life on earth.

[Anonymous No.1896378]

Nazis "stole" the symbol from early Germanic tribes. You could go with that.

[Anonymous No.1896383]

>>1896197

the swastika turned 45 degrees is the symbol of friendship in the catholic church.

[Anonymous No.1896399]

>>1896197
Yeah, uh, from this it looks like those guys are right. There's nothing there about its 'only' meaning being Nazis or denying that people have 'the right' to do it. They're just saying that having a swastika tattoo makes you look like an unbelievable asshole, which you can't really argue with.

[Anonymous No.1896403]

>>1896383
>catholic church
>friendship

Maybe you mean it's the symbol for "donations"? Or "pedophilia"?

[Anonymous No.1896412]

Unfortunately, it will be extremely difficult to argue with a person like this. Even though it was used by many cultures, even many European cultures long before the Nazis, the general conscious among people today is that it refers to the Nazis. Unfortunate it had to go that way, but that's the say she goes.

[Anonymous No.1896414]

There is a shit-ton of Swastikas and Swastika-like symbols in the Western and Eastern world - the Romans used one version, Buddhism has them as the footprints of Buddha.

I've seen em on the floor of dug-out Roman houses, I've seen em on new graves in Japan. I've seen em on Nazi's uniforms and on Manson's head.

[Anonymous No.1896564]

A given context of a symbol is based entirely on a fluctuating cultural consensus and changes according to time and place.
Their inability to perceive a symbol differently shows historical ignorance, insensitivity towards multiculturalism, and a need to follow societal norms -a need to be told what to believe in-.
Very important as these were the very things the Nazi propaganda was based on to succeed in it's final solution.
Ergo the angry fellow has the mentality that caused the holocaust.
If you use this argument you will get even more hostile reactions, further suggesting a token of truth in it.

[Anonymous No.1897567]

Wow its grade school all over again

[Deep&Edgy !pSkjEcB9sQ No.1897583]

>>1896564
>historical ignorance, insensitivity towards multiculturalism, and a need to follow societal norms

wow it's a miracle we're not having holocausts every weekend

[Anonymous No.1897589]

The nazi swastika was turned on a diagonal.
The regular one is straight.

This is not hard. Point this out to someone, no one will argue with you unless they are idiots, if you continue to argue then guess who just became an idiot for arguing with an idiot.

[Anonymous No.1897619]

That person doesn't sound amenable to logic on the matter. Any evidence you try to be present with will be knee-jerk swatted away unread, and then you'll get called a Nazi apologist for even making the attempt.

[Anonymous No.1897621]

No matter how you argue the point, and how technically correct you may be that the Swastika predates the Nazis, was appropriated by them, and does not exclusively mean Nazism, you aren't going to change anyone's mind.

And even if you wrote an epic essay that *could* change every reader's mind, it's not going to fit on the bitch's back, is it?

The symbol was incontrovertibly associated with Nazism, and will stay so for the foreseeable future, and all the logical rhetoric in the world fighting that perception is just tilting at windmills.

Of course, since you would just be fighting the idea to be controversial and to shit-stir, do as you like