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Explanation: The swastika is an ancient and widespread symbol, often associated with good luck and peace.
Unfortunately, a bunch of fascist shitheads in the 30s and 40s adopted said symbol, and now, in the West, it’s overwhelmingly associated with the fucking Nazis.
Fucking Nazis.
Their leader also ruined Charlie Chaplains mustache… fucking nazis…
And the name “Adolf”.
Naja, so geil klingt der jetzt auch nicht.
Der Bart ist jetzt auch nicht die Höhe der Mode.
Man, I’m really starting to think those Nazis weren’t the nicest of people.
Real jerks.
Are they the baddies?
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit root swasti, which is composed of su ‘good, well’ and asti ‘is; it is; there is’.
With well-being (swasti) we would follow along our path, like the Sun and the Moon. May we meet up with one who gives in return, who does not smite (harm), with one who knows. — The Rigveda V.51.15
Didn’t know that the symbol spread far and wide. That’s some very interesting history (minus the Nazis).
It is quite a simple symbol to draw, so different cultures have probably came up to it independently.
Iirc, their theory was that the Aryan race originates in India and the swastika is an Aryan symbol.
The Swastika may be an Indian symbol but the Indo-Aryans did not originate in India. There is a lot of historical evidence that Indo-Aryans originated as a steppe culture in Central Asia around the neolithic to early bronze period and then spread to Europe and West Asia. This is also why the structure of so many Indo-European languages is similar; they all have a common ancestor in the Proto-Indo-European language.
The theory and methods of the Nazis back then was not really truely scientific and therefore doesn’t match the current state of the art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_migrations
This is why Nazis liked the symbol. They felt it harkened to a time when Aryans were “pure”.
I know I’m not gonna get an answer to the logical basis of Nazi views of history but… They really thought blonde haired, blue eyed people originated in India? Am I hearing that right? Am I missing something?
Strangely enough, it was a popular thought in the 19th century. The thinking was that the ‘warrior’ Aryans were a migratory people who established themselves as ruling castes over ‘inferior’ groups, but ‘degenerated’ by intermarriage with the locals in most places.
They thought that there was a shared ancestry. The generally thinking was that the genes did not get as “diluted” moving westward to Europe but did get mixed with indigenous peoples in India accounting for those differences.
Theoretically, those shared ancestors saw the swastika as an auspicious symbol but it was those that migrated to India that wrote about it first. Which is why its commonly referred to by its Sanskrit name.
Possibly! It may very well predate the Vedas as a symbol of auspiciousness.
The extra context being they were into a bunch of hinky new age shit because they were trying to replace Christianity - even monogamy - for their idea of breeding giant ancient wizard warriors back into existence.
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This is really neat
The same phenomena is happening in modern day with the Star of David. A symbol that once represented peace and religion is now representing bigotry, bloodshed, and genocide.
Seems to me though that the Israelis only have themselves to blaim though.
And the rest of Jewry has only Israel to blame (well, Zionists in general). Sucks for them though
The “rest of Jewry” is maybe 10%. Every poll of Israeli Jews and international Jews have support for genocidal policies around 80-90%.
At least that one is usually only negative when its on the Israeli flag. Change it up and I don’t see a problem.
You mean the Star of Remphan?
Kind of antisemitic the way you frame it.
This is absolutely true.
At the same time, acknowledging that this is true should not be taken as an endorsement for trying to “reclaim” the symbol. The symbol has been irrevocably tarnished by the greatest evil the world has seen to date. There’s no going back from that. Attempts to reclaim the original meaning will inevitably, whether you want it to or not, endorse the great evil… ESPECIALLY in this “worst timeline” of ours, where said great evil is actively attempting, or in the active process of returning.
Uh the symbol is still used today as its original meaning. My family is buddhist and in any buddhist place you can see it in places.
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/wanisnotanazisymbol/
“Ignorant foreign travelers simply don’t understand Buddhist traditions”.
Hell, Japanese maps, up until maybe a few years back, used a similar symbol to denote temples. Pretty sure they might have changed the map symbol because of foreigners, but don’t quote me on that because I could be wrong.
There was even a pokemon card that had to be changed for the international releases because it used the symbol. Cannot remember which, though.
卍 ( manji ) is the symbol in question. Easily accessible through just typing まんじ ( manji ) into my Japanese keyboard on my phone and selecting the first option.
Apple maps still uses the left facing symbol for temples.
Maybe I was wrong then. Fair enough.
It’s literally loss. (See Navajo)
Wasn’t/isn’t it big in India too?
Yes and yes. I grew up Hindu and before we did our math worksheets in 2nd grade, our teacher let us draw on the back. I would draw the Hindu swastika for good luck. I did it all the time, but not until some kid tried to badly copy the design did the teacher notice and pull us both aside. She said not to draw that again because some bad man used it a long time ago. I was utterly confused but didn’t say anything. I wonder if she ever found out about the history of swastikas and thinks back on that moment as often as I do.
Yeah that’s where Hitler got it from I think. “Aryan” is an Indian word weirdly enough. I work with an Indian woman named Arya.
You think we will ever be able to reclaim this symbol from Nazism? A couple centuries, perhaps?
On one hand, symbols with sufficiently strong emotional pull can last a very long time. Hell, the fasces itself was a representation of magisterial authority from the earliest days of Rome until the 19 fucking 20s. That’s some ~2500 years of symbolic endurance. Who’s to say, especially with how widely used the swastika is in the West as indicative of fascism and tyranny, that the swastika won’t endure in the same way?
On the other hand, the swastika, despite widespread Western cultural influence even outside of the West, still enjoys significant usage outside of the West. It may just take time for the swastika to return first as an ‘outside’ symbol, and then be reclaimed fully in the West as an ancient and common symbol of human societies, as it once was.
Or maybe we’ll all be ash in a smoking husk of a planet. The future is unknowable, and all that jazz.
Outside of western countries, you can still see it in reasonably common use even today as a religious symbol. So the first step to reclaiming it is to not automatically denounce anybody you see carrying the symbol (though it’s probably questionable if you’re a snow-white guy)
While I’m sympathetic to the impulse, I can’t avoid feeling that the design space for symbols is so vast that there is no particular need to reclaim things, and the better path forward is to focus on creating new a context and new symbols. History cannot be undone, only recontextualised.
I had to look up the Navajo one because I didn’t see how it could have a common ancestor with the others, but it’s real, they just came up with it themselves (its the “whirling log” and it is used in Navajo healing ceremonies). As far as I can tell people around the world have doodled around, discovered that symbol and decided “this looks really cool”.
