88 isn’t really the same thing, although, like you said, some people perfectly innocently use it, which is why it’s a dog whistle. 88 became a thing when Nazis had to hide they were Nazis. The swastika is not that obviously.
Why they dropped the symbol is likely because people were using it to say the Finnish government were Nazis, like th comment above implied. It’s an easy target for people like Russian apologists to say “we’re denazifying Finland” or whatever, while they do plenty of actual fascist shit.
Symbols are as useful as they’re interpreted. If they’re interpreted wrong then you should probably change them. It doesn’t mean we should allow people like the person above to imply anyone using them is a fascist. They should be countered and shown how stupid their arguments are. I have no idea why you’re defending them.
The swastika was swapped out before Russia invaded Ukraine, before Russia tried to claim the “denazifying” shit, so you’re barking up the wrong tree.
And I am defending them because it was perfectly adequate snark to point out the hypocrisy of “yeah it’s okay, he’s Finn after all” when it comes to ugly xenophobia, when Finns themselves have a shitty track record. They did actually literally ally with Nazis, and if we now want to talk about “historical context” then it’s fair game to look into shit like refusing to drop what is now a nazi symbol by the official organ of the state, for decades.
Or we could stop running defense for any shitty actions somebody from “our side” does towards anybody else, and do some actual self-crit every once in a while. I’ve had Russian friends literally get attacked for simply being Russian (and no, not supportive of the invasion) after 2022, so I am not going to shut up when people give xenophobes a free pass, but push back super hard against what is a mild burn at best.
88 isn’t really the same thing, although, like you said, some people perfectly innocently use it, which is why it’s a dog whistle. 88 became a thing when Nazis had to hide they were Nazis. The swastika is not that obviously.
Why they dropped the symbol is likely because people were using it to say the Finnish government were Nazis, like th comment above implied. It’s an easy target for people like Russian apologists to say “we’re denazifying Finland” or whatever, while they do plenty of actual fascist shit.
Symbols are as useful as they’re interpreted. If they’re interpreted wrong then you should probably change them. It doesn’t mean we should allow people like the person above to imply anyone using them is a fascist. They should be countered and shown how stupid their arguments are. I have no idea why you’re defending them.
The swastika was swapped out before Russia invaded Ukraine, before Russia tried to claim the “denazifying” shit, so you’re barking up the wrong tree.
And I am defending them because it was perfectly adequate snark to point out the hypocrisy of “yeah it’s okay, he’s Finn after all” when it comes to ugly xenophobia, when Finns themselves have a shitty track record. They did actually literally ally with Nazis, and if we now want to talk about “historical context” then it’s fair game to look into shit like refusing to drop what is now a nazi symbol by the official organ of the state, for decades.
Or we could stop running defense for any shitty actions somebody from “our side” does towards anybody else, and do some actual self-crit every once in a while. I’ve had Russian friends literally get attacked for simply being Russian (and no, not supportive of the invasion) after 2022, so I am not going to shut up when people give xenophobes a free pass, but push back super hard against what is a mild burn at best.