Continued use of the swastika in his military and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge how many Soviets the Finns starved to death in Leningrad while working with the Third Reich, presumably.
Posting a new comment after I looked up the Finnish Air Force, which I’m assuming this is vaguely referencing. It isn’t a Nazi swastika. It is a traditional swastika that has been in use in their culture for a long time. The nazi’s chose the symbol because it’s present in many cultures and they wanted to take it to give them legitimacy. There’s is rotated 45° though. The Finnish Air Force had been using it since 1918, before the Nazis. To imply a negative connection implies it’s a Nazi symbol, which it wasn’t. You’re being purposefully misleading (which isn’t unexpected sadly, and you’ve probably heard this from someone else misleading you), but you aren’t accurate.
Playing the “but they have Nazi supporters in their military” game can be played all day. It’s silly. Every military probably does. It turns out assholes love killing people and Nazis. They’ll probably join the military to get permission to kill people.
I think the comment was about the Finnish Air Force not dropping a literal swastika from their coat of arms until just a few years back. Like you know, the official government sanctioned Air Force, the whole thing and not just a single batallion
Ah, yeah. OK. That isn’t a nazi reference. Nazis chose the swastika because it’s present in many cultures. A key thing is there’s is rotated 45°. If you notice, the one the Finnish Air Force had is the tradition rotation. It’d been in use since 1918, before the Nazis started most of their shit. It had nothing to do with them, and was a prominent symbol in their culture. Calling it a Nazi symbol is a lie, and it’s probably on purpose to be misleading.
Edit: They didn’t say it was a nazi symbol, just a swastika. It was implied to be bad though, which implies it was a Nazi reference.
It is bad enough not to remove it for 70 years after the nazi genocide, but I guess Finns get a free pass on anything due to their extremely unique cultural heritage
It sucks that Nazis get to ruin cultures symbols who had no association with them. However, they prominently used eagles in their imagery, and somehow that isn’t ruined. Should every nation have to stop using eagles or be called Nazis? That’s stupid, right?
Also, they largely did stop using it after WWII, as the article mentions. It was still used it some emblems, flags, and decorations, but not as common. It’s still on the Finnish flag of the president, though it’s got different proportions and you’d look like a complete idiot for implying it’s a nazi symbol there.
The swastika is all over the world. It’s a very basic geometric symbol. It is no surprise it’s appealing. Go play Minecraft or something and make a symmetric design, and odds are you’ll make a swastika. I know playing Factorio I see it appear all the time. Nazis ruined a really cool perfectly innocent shape, and it’s honestly time we should try to recapture it.
Or, hear me out, we don’t recapture it because it has a fucked up context. It might not seem like a big deal for those who haven’t been close to the terror, but not everybody lives on the other side of the world.
And yeah, using nazi-adjacent eagles or fasces (like your government proudly displays in many symbols) is pretty fucked up too.
Continued use of the swastika in his military and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge how many Soviets the Finns starved to death in Leningrad while working with the Third Reich, presumably.
Posting a new comment after I looked up the Finnish Air Force, which I’m assuming this is vaguely referencing. It isn’t a Nazi swastika. It is a traditional swastika that has been in use in their culture for a long time. The nazi’s chose the symbol because it’s present in many cultures and they wanted to take it to give them legitimacy. There’s is rotated 45° though. The Finnish Air Force had been using it since 1918, before the Nazis. To imply a negative connection implies it’s a Nazi symbol, which it wasn’t. You’re being purposefully misleading (which isn’t unexpected sadly, and you’ve probably heard this from someone else misleading you), but you aren’t accurate.
There are plenty of people with swastikas fighting for Russia too. For example Dmitry Valerievich Utkin (Дмитрий Валерьевич Уткин).
Playing the “but they have Nazi supporters in their military” game can be played all day. It’s silly. Every military probably does. It turns out assholes love killing people and Nazis. They’ll probably join the military to get permission to kill people.
I think the comment was about the Finnish Air Force not dropping a literal swastika from their coat of arms until just a few years back. Like you know, the official government sanctioned Air Force, the whole thing and not just a single batallion
Ah, yeah. OK. That isn’t a nazi reference. Nazis chose the swastika because it’s present in many cultures. A key thing is there’s is rotated 45°. If you notice, the one the Finnish Air Force had is the tradition rotation. It’d been in use since 1918, before the Nazis started most of their shit. It had nothing to do with them, and was a prominent symbol in their culture. Calling it a Nazi symbol is a lie, and it’s probably on purpose to be misleading.
Edit: They didn’t say it was a nazi symbol, just a swastika. It was implied to be bad though, which implies it was a Nazi reference.
It is bad enough not to remove it for 70 years after the nazi genocide, but I guess Finns get a free pass on anything due to their extremely unique cultural heritage
It sucks that Nazis get to ruin cultures symbols who had no association with them. However, they prominently used eagles in their imagery, and somehow that isn’t ruined. Should every nation have to stop using eagles or be called Nazis? That’s stupid, right?
Also, they largely did stop using it after WWII, as the article mentions. It was still used it some emblems, flags, and decorations, but not as common. It’s still on the Finnish flag of the president, though it’s got different proportions and you’d look like a complete idiot for implying it’s a nazi symbol there.
The swastika is all over the world. It’s a very basic geometric symbol. It is no surprise it’s appealing. Go play Minecraft or something and make a symmetric design, and odds are you’ll make a swastika. I know playing Factorio I see it appear all the time. Nazis ruined a really cool perfectly innocent shape, and it’s honestly time we should try to recapture it.
Or, hear me out, we don’t recapture it because it has a fucked up context. It might not seem like a big deal for those who haven’t been close to the terror, but not everybody lives on the other side of the world.
And yeah, using nazi-adjacent eagles or fasces (like your government proudly displays in many symbols) is pretty fucked up too.