Tyranny, injustice and oppression were not simply eliminated at the end of WWII. And living today to witness the convenient virtue signalling about a historical artifact of a long-defeated tyrant, juxtaposed with the willingness to tolerate current injustice, is really sad.
But isn't that what made Nazi Germany possible? Our willingness to tolerate injustice, so long as it doesn't happen to us? Our desire to follow authority--to serve in the court of despots? That is the irony here, which calls to light the real meaning of this kind of virtue signalling: If we lived under the reign of any of those other tyrants, in Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, or wherever, would we all suddenly be among activists, not just mere virtue signallers championing the virtues of our leaders?
I don't mean to come down hard on you personally; I just personally wish to see the conversation move away from moral grandstanding to moral responsibility.
1 - https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-...
2 - https://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-re...
3 - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/responsibility-deflect...
4 - https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/health/us-suicide-rate...
5 - https://theintercept.com/2018/04/02/israel-killing-palestine...
You, and your fellow Buddhists, need to realize that Hitler had a far more profound impact on Western civilization (unfortunately) than did the Buddha, and that Westerners who recognize the swastika as a symbol of hate do so because for half the world, and most of a century, it has been a symbol of hate.
Those Westerners are not misinformed, or ignorant, or incorrect in doing so, they're interpreting a symbol in the context with which it was introduced to Western culture. You can tell people that it's a misappropriated symbol of peace, but no one in the West is likely ever going to look at a Nazi swastika and see a manji first, even knowing that, any more than Buddhists likely see a manji and think first about Hitler.
You're assuming that anti-Holocaust people are going to outlast pro-Holocaust people, but based on history this seems like a questionable assumption. E.g. it took less than 50 years for LoTR to go from an anti-war parable inspired by the horrors of WW1, to being an action movie glorifying indiscriminate killing. Similarly, compare the photos of people standing in front of Auschwitz with the photos that come up in GIS of people standing in front of the Colosseum:
https://www.123rf.com/photo_36629433_happy-mother-and-baby-g...
Maybe in a thousand years Westerners will forget about Nazism and the swastika, but it doesn't necessarily follow that they will replace that knowledge with the Buddhist interpretation of the same symbol. Sure, stranger things have happened, it's not impossible, but it seems incredibly unlikely.
It's certainly not going to happen within my lifetime or yours.
Had the Romans been fond of hanging, Christians might be walking around wearing nooses around their necks.
It also doesn’t help that neo-Nazis work today under the same banner.
I don’t know that it makes a difference to say it but I had family members killed by the Nazis so I’m not detached from the history. That said, I think most people from a Western country could say the same thing.
2) I’m not sure it’s so sad when buddhist is less of an expressive culture and more of internal reflection. That is, I don’t see peoples’ religious beliefs trampled by trying to be respectful to those who do view it as a nazi symbol.
If you read the strategies of the White Christian supremacists, they say not to make statements that others find outrageous but to gently push the envelope and slowly normalize their beliefs. Here, as I said, they are trying to rehabilitate Nazi symbology.
EDIT: In response to below, the problem with Nazism is people like me? Wow. I thought the problem was mass murder, brutal oppression, and an ideology that advocates it. But perhaps it's the poor, persecuted Neo-Nazis, who in another by-the-book rhetorical turn, try to look like victims.
EDIT2: dang: Sure, and let's keep the swastikas off HN. That and the hate speech are the real problems with very serious consequences. When you don't do anything about it, it would be irresponsible for me (or anyone) to stand by and quietly acquiesce. I know it's a hard problem, but burying our heads in the sand is what Facebook does. If you think my claims about what's happening are absurd, talk to someone you trust who knows these things: Certainly in 2018, we can't think propaganda in online forums is at all an absurd prospect.
EDIT3: Perhaps I could have found a cooler way to respond, but it's a pretty inflammatory thing and the commenter, supposedly versed in symbology, knew that it would be. Sorry if I caused any extra headache, but I don't regret pointing out the problem.
Of course the problem isn't the symbol. It's people like you. On one hand you claim that I used an excuse to do something very wrong- post the symbol. And call me a hater. On the other hand you say the problem isn't the symbol.
This sort of flamewar is quite off topic here.
You can be detached and still saddened by what you see in the world. Non attachment is not the same as callousness or numbness. If anything, you feel things more deeply.
Edit: the same can be said for Hindus.