That political discussion with occasional humour thread

Maybe this?

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B0F44D3N5B/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.N5lKUXUukt4uGFpmWWBosbiPdr-2ewClln8RYW7XEy7KY9cDWlKGe1M_S9nJEqgMwL1NyFhsZIIjCPU8A8AEO2GcTDeEhuqLDrgcda0vD_hVYmY1ecmLBVKoqs4Tv01vPRnn2jrk-bJ3k3S51zEHqVBF3TpRBT-Jlyl1Hv0DzMrUAOgnoZF7I-zEnD_LJiVLmHAfNzsHo6xM4bmmVYUpRA.9xBFYQsiuxaYTRxKd_JTVJU9hGwHx9TaZBwSkipWsnU&qid=1746818313&sr=8-1

If you really care to go further down the rabbit hole….

Another documentary I just saw on Netflix was from the account of an American journalist who witnessed and reported on the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Berlin during the ‘30s and until US (finally) joined the war in 1941

Harrowing.

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I read , many years ago ( pre internet), that the Nazis had subverted this good luck symbol by reversing the swastika but that seems to be wrong. According to Wikipedia (I know) it seems to be the original that they used.
Wikipedia says:-
The word swastika comes from [Sanskrit]: [स्वस्तिक]svastika, meaning ‘conducive to well-being’.
The right-facing symbol (clockwise) (卐) is called swastika, symbolizing sun prosperity and good luck, while the left-facing symbol (counter-clockwise) (卍) is called sauvastika , symbolising night or [tantric] aspects of [Kali].

The Nazis used this one (卐).

Thank you, nicely confirmed. As an aside I am just a little surprised that you were able to reproduce it here, although I know this site is generally very tolerant I expect there are others who would blank it out. Us rough, tough ‘truckers’ are not aloud to speak of a Tranny van for instance on our own long lived but sadly changed forum. :rofl: :rofl:.

Forgive me, but if a rough tough trucker forum, why would anyone even think of tranny vans :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Pretty sure it’s still not allowed to depict the Hakenkreuz in Germany

Because they get in the way. :rage:

@KarenLot I am pretty sure you are right, and believably so.

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Rightly so. Unfortunately still tattoos and flag waving by right wing fanatics.

Some years ago a popular clothing shop in HK brought out t-shirts emblazoned with the swastika, tilted and black on white in red. There was protest and their defensive declaration that it is an archaic divine symbol, which it is, was entirely brought down because the colour and angle irrefutably evoked the Nazi corporate ID from the mid 20th century. British law at the time ruled no more t-shirts.

Through its long history this symbol has appeared in many cultures with slightly different but almost always positive meaning. It is so unfortunate that it now makes many shudder.

Interestingly, in Chinese this ubiquitous symbol is called 卍字 (wànzì). This translates as ‘ten thousand word’, meaning infinite. For me, the bit that evokes Hitler’s particular idea of ‘aryan’ is the character 字 (zì) that derives from combined ideographs of a baby 子 under a roof 宀, originally meaning “raise; nurture", only later shifting to “educate”, “word”, and “writing”.

There are loads of late 19th/early 20thC editions of Kipling with swastikas as borders embossed in gold leaf all over the covers. In India you could and probably can now get cards with big golden swastikas on them for sending good wishes for various festivals.
Big difference with black ones on a white and red background.

It’s like the Japanese sunray flag, incredibly offensive all over the far east.

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In 1977/8, I bought a heavy winter jacket, with an unusual side fastening from a Tibetan shop at World’s End - then was horrified to discover the tiny brass buttons had swastikas on them.

And of course pre-Intenet, it was much more difficult to research why…

I was, coincidentally, in the Louvre yesterday and saw the reverse swastika depicted (with other symbols) on a piece of gold jewelry circa 2400 BC from I think what is now eastern Iran / western Pakistan

Just discovered a picture I took yesterday that includes a bowl from Suse in Iran that has both the forward and reverse swastika symbols. It’s circa 3500-4000 BC.
Here’s the Louvre link rather than my piccy.

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Rather than banning the swastika, maybe making it ubiquitous in various forms would de-Nazify it…

Nah, never going to happen.

Too late for that unfortunately, its connotations are so vile.

Same as they “retire” names of hurricanes and typhoons if they have been especially destructive.

That’s a real shame though very destructive but in a good cause…
Bandits 100+ Vector 320, Angles over Canterbury Talley ho.

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I’m not fully understanding what the PM meant by this sentence. For decades we have happily accommodated Chinatowns, little Poland and polite families from India living peacefully amongst the Brits.

I truly wonder if the objection, as elsewhere in Europe is to the specific group whose religion and customs stand firmly against total integration. Is this specifically but unmentionably an anti-Islamic reaction?

I worked backstage for a theatre group on a British Army base in Germany and when we performed ‘Allo, ‘Allo we had to get permission from the highest authority. Most of that was to do with public ally displaying swastikas in Germany.

I think it was an unhelpful statement, though it perhaps (intentionally) spoke to the Right.

What I see is a lack of integration anywhere where integration is not at least actively encouraged. So women in the UK originally from Pakistan or India (for example) stay at home, don’t mix with their white neighbours, and remain strangers. Likewise an Australian bloke I met recently, too old to learn French (he believes), so mixes only with Anglophones.

If you don’t understand other people, you’re likely to renain suspicious of them.

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