Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/01/high-school-student-newspaper-exposes-nazi-symbols-in-local-police-training-videos.html
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It’s simultaneously inspiring and discouraging that it was high school students who dug this up. That’s some solid journalism on the part of the Manual RedEye staff. Their calling out of Manual alumnus Mitch McConnell for comment on Senate passage the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act is particularly sweet.
It’s clear that white supremacists and anti-Semites need to be actively cleared out of American law enforcement. It’s equally clear who’s trying to delay that as long as possible.
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It just goes on to show that all cops are indeed bastards. The excuse that it’s only a few bad apples fails the test when not a single person that saw that video spoke up, doesn’t matter if they believed the video or not.
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In the “history rhymes” department, the leadership of the American right-wing establishment – notably McConnell in this case – almost certainly think they’re using the outright fascists.
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I’m not gonna lie, this kinda reads like QAnon “SEE THE CONNECTION!!!” stuff … which is kind of perfect.
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The ADL says
Because sonnenrad imagery is used by many cultures around the world, one should not assume that most sonnenrad-like images necessarily denote racism or white supremacy; rather, they should be analyzed carefully in the context in which they appear.
The context is horrible.
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Some apples are just rotten, some are poisoned.
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Gen Z has taken the throne.
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Only it uses a very complex symbol (so one which you can’t reinvent by accident) which was invented by the Nazis (unlike more ambiguous symbols like the valknut or certain runes, which had existed before). There is absolutely no doubt that every single user of the Sonnenrad uses it to symbolise a connection to the Nazis.
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Because sonnenrad imagery is used by many cultures around the world,
But not in that particular iconography.
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Get every high-school student in America capable of doing this kind of investigative journalism and you’ll teach critical thinking skills that will not only inoculate them against stupidity like this, but get them to expose bullshit arguments in general.
This would make America not insurmountably stupid, as we seem to almost be now.
Bravo kid! If I ever meet you, I’m buying you a beer, when you hit 21!
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I’m a native Manhattanite who relocated at the age of 40 to Los Angeles. I joke that I’m the perfect Coastal Liberal Media Elite, if you define “elite” as not having money or influence (which many do, BTW). And sometimes I wonder what I’m missing, never having lived in other states. Other times, like this, I’m just relieved.
Though the counties just south of me (Orange and San Diego) are rife with vicious white supremacists and their organizations. Did you know the John Birch Society still exists?
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ummm… neither one of those police departments are well known for their even-handed treatment of black and brown americans.
if you missed something, it’s because you’re not the target of police and probably haven’t been looking to see how people around you are being treated.
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i know! what we need is more training! /s
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People have been known to appropriate visually interesting designs without the slightest interest in context. It’s part of what drives things like pinterest. In this case, there’s a certain confluence of evidence that points to something more than being influenced by a album cover, or graffitti, or a comic book.
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I really don’t think it is a reasonable comparison. If the only connection were the renegade stuff, sure that is reaching. Instead it is a production company that works with Nazis, using a highly recognizable Nazi symbol, and blaming the Jews.
This might be a step too far. There are remarkably similar symbols with history going back centuries. We can really only call 20th century and later uses Nazi inspired.
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You’re absolutely right, of course. I was focusing on the nazification and anti-Semitism. Then again, our sheriff…
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Didn’t the report say that the same production company also did a Holocaust denial video? Bing search my ass.
And WTF is up with the several apologist comments? It’s very telling who someone is apt to give the benefit of the doubt to.
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Well done, those pesky kids.
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