Comments on: The hammer and sickle is NOT the swastika

By: “Dual Genocide” condemned in UK paper; paper subsequently condemned

“Dual Genocide” condemned in UK paper; paper subsequently condemned — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:01:01 +0000

[...] Eastern European dogma of “dual genocide,” which argues that (take your pick) the hammer and sickle is equal to the swastika or that red is equal to brown, was denounced in a sympathetic Jonathan Freedland article in The [...]

By: Brown is never equal to Red; Brown is always worse

Brown is never equal to Red; Brown is always worse — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:05:35 +0000

[...] times on this site I’ve returned to an old post, “The Hammer and Sickle is NOT the Swastika,” and I feel prompted by Katz’s article to return to it again. In that article, I laid [...]

By: Moacir P. de Sá Pereira

Moacir P. de Sá Pereira — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:47:10 +0000

Just in case, in this post and throughout, my references to the swastika are metonymic.

By: Jurate

Jurate — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:29:09 +0000

What escapes many westerners (including western Europeans) is that the swastika did not originate with the Nazi party. Until the swastika was stolen and perverted to represent something horrific and unspeakable, it was a spiritual and folk symbol representing peace and protection. Also know as the fylfot, gammadion, and many other names, it was frequently used as a symbol of good luck on commercial advertising “swag” at the turn of the 20th century. Coca-Cola manufactured a key fob in the shape of a large swastika. No relation to the Nazi swastika. The swastika can be found in holy buildings, weavings, pottery, baskets, coats of arms going back thousands of years before the Nazi “fylched” it.

Perhaps a more appropriate ban would be the swastika on a 45 degree angle, facing whichever way the Nazis had faced it.

I am not insensitive to the feelings of anyone who lost as a result of the Nazi Judenfrei / Judenrein. We have lost as a collective race, IMHO. However, when we let our sacred symbols be stolen from us and don’t reclaim them, they become an even MORE powerful symbol of these atrocities.

Let’s reclaim the swastika as what it has meant for thousands of years: positive, lucky, peaceable, and protective.

By: Stalin, Adamkus, and… Picasso?

Stalin, Adamkus, and… Picasso? — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:43:23 +0000

[...] I saw the two articles pop up a few weeks ago in which Valdas Adamkus asserted that someday Soviet and Nazi attrocities will be held at the same level. The occasion for his remarks was his address at an observance of the 75th anniversary of the Holodmor, the Stalin-era famine that killed a large portion of the Ukrainian population. I’m not historian enough to argue (nor am I even particularly interested in answering) whether the famine was a deliberate move to destroy the Ukrainian nation (that is, genocide), or a terrible consequence of both drought and terribly managed collectivization. What I am interested in, however, is how easily Adamkus slides–apropos of what, I’m not sure–into making the case for equivalence between Nazi and Soviet attrocities. Apparently, it’s not enough to simply memorialize the Ukrainian dead. He has to also participate in the right-wing project of fascist recuperation that depends on this equivalence of régimes. But as I’ve explained (leaning heavily on Žižek), the hammer and sickle is not the swastika. [...]

By: Noel

Noel — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:37:28 +0000

Hi there, I read your article with interest and would love to get hold of one of the ‘Kappa CCCP Eroi hoodie’s depicted in it. I’m aware these are no longer manufactured and have made enquiries to a number of websites but so far without luck. Any suggestions? Yours hopefully, Noel.