Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History

The benign ignorance of symbology that comes across in the article aside, the celebration of Stepan Bandera with a national holiday, street names in their capital and elsewhere, monument, etc. is telling.

&gt; &quot;a position that ignores the fact that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish&quot;<p>Bwahah. By that logic there are only old white males in the US, because Biden is old white male. Oh and there is no racism there too, because Biden is not a racist, right?<p>&gt; So far, the imagery has not eroded international support for the war. It has, however, left diplomats, Western journalists and advocacy groups in a difficult position: Calling attention to the iconography risks playing into Russian propaganda<p>So the Ukrainians wearing Nazi symbols are not the problem, the problem is what it can be used by Russian propaganda. <i>By claiming there are Nazis in the Ukraine.</i><p>&gt; A second press officer present said other journalists had asked soldiers to remove the patch before taking photographs.<p>&#x27;if I see no evil, hear no evil, speak no^WW then there is no evil&#x27;<p>&gt; Symbols like the flag associated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Galizien patch have become emblems of anti-Russian resistance and national pride<p><i>National pride</i> in wearing the patch of the unit which &#x27;took part in a massacre of hundreds of Polish civilians in 1944&#x27;.<p>But hey, Zelensky is Jewish, so... no Nazis? Especially in SBU: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;QA5yZnxS2zc?t=82" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;QA5yZnxS2zc?t=82</a>

So wonderful to be sitting in a nice, safe, comfy office in America, as I idly contemplate such distasteful moral dilemmas.<p>The Ukrainians, on the other hand...

The article&#x27;s silence on the Nazi symbolism displayed among those fighting on the Russian side paints a picture of &quot;Ukrainians are not as averse to Nazi symbols as Western sensibilities dictate&quot; rather than the more accurate picture of &quot;soldiers are not as averse to Nazi symbols as Western sensibilities dictate&quot;. The article&#x27;s focus on Ukrainian personnel not satisfying said sensibilities and ostensibly supporting Russia&#x27;s propaganda entirely misses the bigger point: Russia&#x27;s propaganda is hypocritical projection and can be dismissed entirely.

Many people identified themselves with Russia and Russian culture even though they never even set foot in Russia . It happens after having the Russian potrayed as the enemies in basically all American movies.<p>Sure in the end the F-14 blows up the Mig, but it&#x27;s a close battle nonetheless and the Mig looks just as cool as the F14,<p>The point is that if we don&#x27;t want to deal with neo-Nazi or the Nazi symbolism that disturbs us, then it should not be brought up every 5 minutes in schools and movies and culture in general.<p>If 1 billion people watches &quot;inglorious Bastards&quot; or &quot;Valkyrie&quot;, sure 95% will side with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, but there will always be 5% who&#x27;d root for the opposition. 5% of 1bn people is 50 million people.<p>Of the 50 million people who root for Nazi in movies there will be some 50,000 who think that such a powerful movement had to be onto something and decide to become sympathizers.