Hypothetical Scenario

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Isn't the religious swastika arranged so that the arms are at 12, 3, 6 and 9, while the Nazi one is slanted? So you could ban one and not the other.

Better not to disallow either, of course. I hope our government would tell the EU where to go if they proposed a general ban.

[ShadeHonestus]

Try living in the states where Christopher Columbus personally killed millions of natives and the confederate flag itself runs the streets trying to enslave people.

[Strike For The South]

Try living in the states where Christopher Columbus personally killed millions of natives and the confederate flag itself runs the streets trying to enslave people.

Not the dumbest thing I've ever heard but damn close

[ShadeHonestus]

Not the dumbest thing I've ever heard but damn close

What? You've never heard the rhetoric laying the fate of all native americans at CC's doorstep? Even calling for Columbus day to be excommunicated? Don't get me started on the issue of the confederate flag. You can't even talk about it or the south in the Civil War without being held in suspicions of racism.

[Strike For The South]

What? You've never heard the rhetoric laying the fate of all native americans at CC's doorstep? Even calling for Columbus day to be excommunicated? Don't get me started on the issue of the confederate flag. You can't even talk about it or the south in the Civil War without being held in suspicions of racism.

People attack CC and the Confedracy becuase they are small minded and believe everything the history channel tells them. The Indians died en masse due to an immune system that couldnt cope with European diease thats hardly CC fault. The Indians got a raw deal. As for the flag I really dont care I like it its nifty. I would also like to point every flag flying today has blood on it so to pin all the confedrates as teh racists is retarded at best. The stuff you posted is used by bleeding hearts to get into peoples checkbooks and its stupid.

[ShadeHonestus]

The stuff you posted is used by bleeding hearts to get into peoples checkbooks and its stupid.

That was the point of the post...to point out the glaring stupidity in those examples. When you posted you made it sound like those were my views and I was stupid for stating them. Or that you agreed with those examples and thought posting them in that way was stupid. lol

[KukriKhan]

So the question is: when can a symbol, co-opted by some "evil" (read: war-losing) group, be safely used in the general population again, in art, literature, and common display?

10 years?
30 years?
a Generation?
2 generations?

Let's keep the discussion to that, please.

For example, would anyone get offended see ing these:

on their dinner plates?

Out side the UK, definately not. Inside the UK, probably not also. Yet a mere 500 years ago, people died under those banners.

[Strike For The South]

So the question is: when can a symbol, co-opted by some "evil" (read: war-losing) group, be safely used in the general population again, in art, literature, and common display?

10 years?
30 years?
a Generation?
2 generations?

Let's keep the discussion to that, please.

Each suituation is different. However the union jack kept flying when millions of Indians were being sluaghtered the French flag still flew when Algerians were being massacered. The point is history is written by the victors. Socitey decides what is good killing and bad killing the winners decide Kurki. Symbols dont all of sudden cleanse after a certian point becuase thats all they are is symbols. Trying to tag everything with good and evil doesn work.

[KukriKhan]

Symbols dont all of sudden cleanse after a certian point becuase thats all they are is symbols

I disagree there, although I agree with the rest of your post. Eventually, symbols stop being political statements of hatred and intent to kill & dominate, and resume their role as decorations, to be used by artists and craftsmen to make their objects look 'nifty' (to use your word).

The young, ever eager to differentiate themselves from their elders, usually lead that effort, taking up the "evil" idols their fathers learned to hate. As they should - it makes the symbol(s) de-nuded, shown for what they are: marketing devices, dramatic displays used to fire-up the masses behind some vague "us vs. them" language.

[Banquo's Ghost]

For example, would anyone get offended see ing these:

on their dinner plates?

Out side the UK, definately not. Inside the UK, probably not also. Yet a mere 500 years ago, people died under those banners.

Hey, I'm Irish - as shown in the Ulster thread, I can get offended by symbols/people/imagined slights from thousands of years ago. It's a kind of national hobby.

The young, ever eager to differentiate themselves from their elders, usually lead that effort, taking up the "evil" idols their fathers learned to hate. As they should - it makes the symbol(s) de-nuded, shown for what they are: marketing devices, dramatic displays used to fire-up the masses behind some vague "us vs. them" language.

I think the issue with some symbols is their resurrection by the young who don't know, or don't care, about the evil done under that banner. Symbols are incredibly powerful, and time does not necessarily diminish that power. It is dangerous to overlook that power and its hold on the unimaginative. Symbols represent ideas, and ideas are the most powerful things on earth.

Consider how many people have died for scraps of coloured cloth, or those funny little crosses and crescents.

[Cronos Impera]

If you want to fight an ideea, you can't do it by bashing or banning some symbols currently asociated with that particular ideea.You can make a symbol of hatred, racist bull or some pseudo-religious persecution out of everything. You can use sqares, triangles, letters, curves, lines or even smilies for that.
But that doesn't mean symbols can't have multiple meanings, that snakes are still used to symbolise health and that the celtic cross was and still is....just another cross.....we shouldn't blame symbols, we should blame those who use them to represent twisted ideologies. The murder weapon is always innocent..no matter what it was used for.

[Justiciar]

For example, would anyone get offended see ing these:

Acctually, I know a few old Lankies who'd sooner die than have a White rose painted on their pottery.

[SwordsMaster]

Whatever happened to free speech.... Why should I not use the svastika just because some morons used it as their symbol?

Continuing with that train of thought, you could ban the cross because the crusaders that used it killed jews and muslims, which is, of course against the PC multicultural multilateralism.

Or make them things M rated. If you want to use the svastika you must be over 18 or accompanied by an adult. Or something.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

For example, would anyone get offended see ing these:

on their dinner plates?

Out side the UK, definately not. Inside the UK, probably not also. Yet a mere 500 years ago, people died under those banners.

My plates are a murky beige, because I try to keep everyone happy. Recently, I recieved a complaint. It stated that my plates looked like a substance akin to diarrhea.


You can't please anyone these days.