[commanderkai]

Thanos Thanos:

If it lets me I'll rep point you for doing the right thing. I never quite figured out how the kids in the Che Guevara shirts, for example, didn't understand that they were celebrating a mass murderer. I know a few genuine whackjob right-wingers and rednecks but I haven't seen any of them yet wandering around with a picture of Adolph Eichmann on their clothing. I'll put it down to the cluelessness of youth because no adult with any sort of conscience would ever do such a thing, which in turn should lead to a general questioning of the soundness of character of far too many university professors and political "activists".

Don't you see Thanos? Communism is misunderstood! There was no real attempt made by us stupid, stupid humans, and people like Che were just sticking it to the man!

Yes, that's some of the utterly stupid comments I've heard from fellow university students. The Communism has never been tried/misunderstood bullshit line is the most common one.

[herbie]

And trying to equate Communism with Nazism is pretty foolish too. They may both be 'bad' but Nazi symbols are 6,000,000 times more offensive.

[maldonsfecht]

herbie herbie:

And trying to equate Communism with Nazism is pretty foolish too. They may both be 'bad' but Nazi symbols are 6,000,000 times more offensive.

why is that exactly? compared to the length of time Communism dominated the East the Nazi regime was a flash in the pan... and the 20-million deaths attributed to Stalin and his regime is hardly less offensive...

not to mention the deaths from later regimes thorughout the Soviet Union and The Eastern Bloc...

as I said at the beginning of this thread, they're both horrible symbols of death and destruction, but they are BOTH offensive... choosing one over another is not really anything more than personal bias in my opinion

[Lemmy]

Well, Maldon, I agree with you that Stalin's regime was equally brutal (as were the Japanese). But the Nazis tried to EXTERMINATE an entire people. That's a lot more offensive to me than purging political opposition.

[maldonsfecht]

Lemmy Lemmy:

maldonsfecht maldonsfecht:

tell that to the bleed-over professors at Western Ontario's English Department from the Women's Studies programme... my having that Y-chromosome sure pissed off some of the professors and their somewhat slanted interpretation of classic English Lit

If they're violating their code of conduct, then YOU should tell someone. You'll find the majority of us are strongly behind the importance of ojectivity in the classroom.

I did my Master's thesis (at Western, btw) on Female Labour Force Participation and one of my peer reviewers (a ruralist-feminist sociologist from Utah, of all places) said she liked my research methods and writing style but was concerned that I had chosen a research topic that really should have been undertaken by a female. She basically questioned my objectivity, on the grounds of sexism, solely based on my gender, in front of a room full of people while I was defending to graduate. So, I hear your concerns and hope you'll voice them.

I hear ya! I finished up in 2002, but my few "brothers" in those classes and I were flabbergasted on many occasions... the vast majority of the professors were amazing and I still see them as having been essential to my growth in the field...

In my Modern Poetry (required) course, the prof was mainly in the Women's Studies Faculty and there was only one other man in the course... after a while I began sarcastically turning in papers and works jumping completely on the side of the man-hating majority and made arguments for mandatory male sterilisation and other nonsensical arguments and received praise from the prof in her comments with the added sentiment of "great work, but I am not sure if you mean this to be tongue-in-cheek or not..." hahaha...

But it was when my Old English prof/Dean of English decided that everything in Beowulf was phallic and aggressive towards women as opposed to just being a sword and a Germanic warrior that my friends and I just had to sit back and laugh...

But I loved my years at Western! I'd recommend it to anyone... having survived Saugeen, I can survive anything!

[herbie]

Hopefully one day things will just go "click"... some day.

[maldonsfecht]

Lemmy Lemmy:

Well, Maldon, I agree with you that Stalin's regime was equally brutal (as were the Japanese). But the Nazis tried to EXTERMINATE an entire people. That's a lot more offensive to me than purging political opposition.

I'm not trying to say one is worse than the other, the original point is that they are both terrible and the careless manner in which so many of today's youth adopt communist symbols and display them is disconcerting...

I'd love to smack a kid with a swastika armband just as much as I'd like to smack a kid wearing the hammer and sickle...

[Lemmy]

I'd like to smack plenty of folks. Cheers, to a fellow Western alumnus.

[maldonsfecht]

Lemmy Lemmy:

I'd like to smack plenty of folks. Cheers, to a fellow Western alumnus.

Purple and Proud! Go 'Stangs!

Got me all nostalgic for the UC now...

and yes, many folks need smacks... but so much of that could be circumvented with simple education... ach well...

[Nex]

Whats the big deal? Just because of tiny piece of history, symbols thousands of years old are now considered Nazi symbols? Yes the Nazi's used the symbols, but what if this guy is just a Pagan or follows the faith of Asatru? The swastika historically stands for good luck and the four seasons. The SS symbol was a sign for the Goddess of victory and Odin the god of war.

[Lemmy]

The swastika USED to stand for shit other than Nazis. It doesn't anymore.

[Hyack]

Lemmy Lemmy:

The swastika USED to stand for shit other than Nazis. It doesn't anymore.

Not quite correct:

$1:

In North America, the swastika was a symbol used by the Navajos. The swastika still continues today to be an extensively used sign in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. In Buddhism, a swastika represents resignation. In Jainism, it delineates their seventh saint, and the four arms are also used to remind the worshiper of the four possible places of rebirth; the animal or plant world, in Hell, on Earth, or in the spirit world. To Hindus, the swastika with the arms bent to the left is called the sathio or sauvastika, which symbolizes night, magic, purity, and the destructive goddess Kali. In both Hinduism and Jainism, the swastika or sathio is used to mark the opening pages or their account books, thresholds, doors, and offerings.

Unfortunately, today whenever the ancient symbol is used, it is automatically assumed by most people (**edit: in western society**) that it is a Nazi symbol and that the people who use it are Nazis.

[ShepherdsDog]

Lemmy Lemmy:

The swastika USED to stand for shit other than Nazis. It doesn't anymore.

Sorry buddy, but I see swastikas everyday over here. Here it is used to show which restaurants are vegetarian, which temples are Buddhists and kids will sometimes have it sewn into their clothes as a good luck symbol and to let schools know that they can't eat meat.

[Hyack]

As an aside.....do you think anyone would have noticed anything amiss with this boat if it were anchored off, say..... Wreck beach.....

[Lemmy]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Sorry buddy, but I see swastikas everyday over here. Here it is used to show which restaurants are vegetarian, which temples are Buddhists and kids will sometimes have it sewn into their clothes as a good luck symbol and to let schools know that they can't eat meat.

Then I stand corrected. I saw a lot of Buddists when I lived in Singapore, but I never saw a swastika.