Of course the swastika was actually used for thousands of years before nazis took it for their symbol. It’s been long used in china (and elsewhere) with a positive meaning. Also it’s facing the wrong way for a nazi swastika. Still, it would likely help their sales if they didn’t use it. Many people see it and just think nazi, they know no other use of the symbol. In the west, nazis have largely spoiled any other use.
Perhaps they are American indians, or their dad served in the 45th Infantry Division.
“Before the 1930s, the division’s symbol was a red square with a yellow swastika, a tribute to the large Native American population in the southwestern United States.”
I got a big kick out of your magnetic marketing slogan
On the other hand folks do the heavy lifting involved with changing the associations incrementally it might not be that hard. Really it is just in slight increase in sophistication to understand that a symbol can be used in more then one context.
Svastikas/Swastikas actually occur in lots of benign places going in both directions. But it seems the Nazis used it tilted 45 degrees so it is resting on its point. What we (the peoples of the world who think it proper to “reclaim the swastika”) is to educate folks of these points (like you admirably have done, thank you) and we will (over time) be able to reclaim the proper wholesome use of, and in the process put the icon of the Nazi regime to its place in history and no longer part of the present.
It will happen, will you be a part of the process?
You mean Neodymiums for Neo nazis? I considered using that for the title.
Re: Reclaiming the symbol. I’m actually of two minds on it. I do think it should return to it’s previous positive use. But part of me wonders if it might be too soon to push for it. I know “too soon” might seem odd since hitler has been dead for 70 years. But there may still be negatives. Seeing it, for some people might being back upsetting memories, perhaps a parent or grandparent talking about surviving camps. It is useful that at least the nazi version is rotated on its point.
Even if we don’t make a large effort to reclaim at this time, it will still happen. Some areas never stopped using it. It’s used in Taoism and Buddhism. I’ve seen that in some Asian countries it’s found on maps to mark the site of Buddhist temples.
Nope, didn’t disturb me.
And I knew it wasn’t even meant as a nazi swastika. It’s facing the wrong way to start with.
I was just commenting that it’s not the best picture to use when trying to sell on ebay.com to english speaking countries. Just due to the fact that a lot of people are unfortunately not aware that the symbol has other meanings.
It just that the symbol has always meant something positive in china. The nazi version never pushed aside the original meanings in china. If they realized that it can have a strong negative meaning elsewhere I’d bet they wouldn’t use it.
For the sake of accuracy it seems that strictly speaking the flat vs angled version don’t hold up as both the Nazis’ and the world used both. The generalization still holds but not 100% of the time. Still what needs to happen is to have the more nuanced understanding become tribal knowledge. Like so much, context often is meaning.
I doubt the Ad people knew how it would be taken by some people. Kind of like the way the “Confederate flag*” is viewed where I live in the south. What it means is partially what meaning you give it and partially the meaning it was intended to give by the person displaying it. Some intend offense and in that they are wrong. Some take all display as being offensive in in that they are wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
*What people now call the “Confederate Flag” is actually the Confederate Naval Ensign and was never officially used otherwise. It was adopted by Confederate land forces in battle because the official “Stars and Bars” flag wasn’t always easily distinguishable from the US Flag on a battlefield filled with blackpwoder smoke which led to some confusion at times.
Absence of controversy makes for a better selling situation so I think we will see it changed once these folks begin getting a box-full hateful response to their Ad. And I think that is the correct way to handle it.
I play World of Tanks, I am the commander of a small clan and our avatar has been the Confederate Battle Flag for years. I has been adopted by some as a racist symbol… That could not be further from the truth, it stood for brotherhood and comradery. Our clan has black, asian and hispanic members. We are actually a very inclusive, fairly small tight knit group of guys that have suddenly found ourselves in the forefront of this modern decision that southern = racist.
I hope this country can pull its proverbial head out of it’s collective butt and figure some of this out.
Purely from the perspective of selling items. Most likely the seller does not know about the reclaim the swastika effort or even that the symbol can be mistaken as nazi in English countries. When you primarily care about business you usually stay away from anything that could be interpreted (rightly or wrongly) as negative.
There are businesses with the name ISIS / Isis that have moved to change their names. Isis is an Egyptian goddess and later Roman. But still the businesses are getting hate mail, threats. In the USA the government doesn’t even refer to the terrorist group as ISIS, instead they use ISIL. Just the media has locked onto the name ISIS. They started with ISIS and now don’t want to risk confusing their audience for even one second. It seems a viewer confused for one second or worse forced to learn something would rather just change the channel.
Actualy the swastika represents the ethernal cycling of the Universe, and its a symbol as antient as the world itself - it`s actualy one of our antient national symbols, and its dated from the time when bulgarians start moving from Pamir to Europe, like 2.2k years ago or something
here, an authentic replica of the kings guard outfit dated 200 years b.c
Nope, we are quite antient and the origins of the name is kinda lost but the leading theory is that the name comes from the antient trak work bhleguro or the greek φλεγρός, whitch means : flaming or burning…but who knows, when you live on a crossroad and you had aboue 1000 wars in your history the past blurs at some point
You americans love to simplify things though… bulgur …you made my day its a turkish work btw
Yet the swastica is a positive symbol, even Roman empire used it
I considered using that for the title.
