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A comment on Anthony Levandowski Pardoned. Parent comment

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by muldvarp on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:43AM (#25845235)
You could use the exact same argument for the swastika. The swastika became the symbol of nazism because the nazis decided it to be. It was a religious symbol for thousands of years at that point.

The key is to use context. A swastika on a temple that's older than nazism? Yeah, not a nazi symbol. A swastika on a flag at a right-wing protest in America in 2020? Probably not a religious symbol.

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Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by levosmetalo on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @08:31AM (#25846181)
> The key is to use context. A swastika on a temple that's older than nazism? Yeah, not a nazi symbol. A swastika on a flag at a right-wing protest in America in 2020? Probably not a religious symbol.

What about an Indian student with a swastika tatoo passing by a right-wing protest? Is it a religious or political symbol then?

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Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by muldvarp on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @08:56AM (#25846464)
It is of course possible to construct fictitious contexts in which it is hard to tell what symbols mean. That doesn't mean that those symbols don't have meaning.
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