God if they think street names are bad I hope they don't visit Asia
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/106986/ff30f94d-6128-4ea4-be88-05cdb489fb68/image.png
I don't know, I feel like it's pretty safe to say that the generally-accepted context of the swastika in Asian cultures where the relevant religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc) have a strong presence, and the context of the swastika in the Western world, are preeeetty different.
I mean, it's a great zinger, never heard it before, but at the end of the day, the "the swastika is originally a symbol of peace and love, and it was perverted by the Nazis!" argument is one that, while absolutely true and should certainly be taught, ultimately has no impact on the actual cultural impact that the symbol has on the Western world in the modern day.
i imagine the signs for the road get stolen on a frequent basis
Just like the Asian ones, the street name is a different swastika so being upset about it is deliberate ignorance of its true meaning
His point was about the known context tho. Not just the "original meaning."
and my point was based around the sign, its a completely different swastika so theres no point in getting offended over it
I'm not saying the Nazi swastika IS the Asian one, i'm saying that people getting offended at everything to do with them to the point of getting triggered over the actual word on a street sign is stupid when if they're going to be that pedantic, they should go after all of them.
It's not like their names are spelled differently. And even if everyone knew the history behind the street name, it would still make people think about Nazis all the time.
It's ridiculous to ignore what a symbol can mean to some people because other people think it means something else. Especially when people are still using it hatefully.
So just bow down to ignorance? Just let this trend continue of people believing that two things are connected when they're clearly not?
Yes, I can understand why someone would look at this sign funny at first glance, and that's as far as it should go.
A community of grown, functioning adults should be able to conjure up a little more thought after those first 0.5 seconds. They should be able to say "Hey, maybe this street sign isn't named after the symbol of a terrible group of people, but rather, came from another, more innocent context that I am not currently aware of"
When I see a swastika or hear the name, I think about the Nazis.
It's deeply engrained in most of us.
I don't personally have any issues with using the symbol for whatever the fuck, but the connection will stay for a very long time to come.
It being a "part of history" is kind of a shitty excuse. It's just a street name. There's way, way too many buildings that are old and not useful anymore that should be torn down and take up land lots that can be use the space more efficiently but are protected under "historical importance". Shit gets destroyed. Not every tiny thing is worth preserving or valuable. We should measure its impact and worth to ourselves on whether its worth preserving or not rather than take up the "EVERY TINY THING MUST BE KEPT THE SAME." It prevents progress from being made.
I value history and I even decided it to be my major for college. That doesn't mean I'm a dumbass who thinks everything holds historical value.
A faggot is just a bundle of sticks, right? So when you're saying you're burning faggots you're just making a bonfire, right?
Given Hitler's fondness for stealing pagan cultural symbolism from Germanic heathens, it more likely originated from the Germanic use as a representation of Thor or lightning.
Still an innocent symbol perverted into a message of hate, though. There's really no reason not to change the street name.
Why would you not keep it just for the comedy, people are no fun these days.
Yeah and the people marching under swastikas are just avant-garde comedians.
I think there's a bit of a difference between a street that just happens to be called swastika street and actual literal nazis.
We shouldn't treat anything remotely related to these things as jokes. Jokes are how racists spread their message without immediately getting tuned out.
I'm not saying they shouldn't keep the name. Just that we need to consider these things seriously, and accept that people have legitimate reasons for wanting it gone.
"It makes me think of the bad thing for 0.1 seconds" is not a legitimate reason.
Symbols are powerful.
Why do you think people tear down statues of overthrown dictators? Would you demand they stay up because of history?
Also, do you have a better reason? If you want to preserve history, you can easily look that stuff up in books.
Symbols only have as much power as people assign to them. Instead of acknowledging the intended meaning, people would rather be in favor of fascism?
I can understand changing it if it was actually related to nazism, but it's not. They've been told that it's not yet they continue to believe it is.
That people can be willfully ignorant of true context just to suit their own need to be mad about something is worrying.
People give symbols power, but it's not something we have much control over. It's hard to erase a meaning of a symbol that is associated with something so horrible.
They aren't being willfully ignorant, they're recognizing that a different meaning is much more powerful in the minds of the western world.
A problem with this is that it's on a street sign, something which is often used to glorify people, with nothing that distinguishes it from something that would actually be used to glorify Nazi ideology.
Surely you can understand how this would make people uncomfortable, even if everyone knew what the intent was?
I'm baffled that people get so riled up about this. Are you guys really still falling for that "libtard snowflake wants to erase history" meme? You think you're the only one in the world who knows the swastika was used by dozens of other cultures before Hitler?
It doesn't matter that it wasn't named after Nazis, you should remember context is important and it shifts all the time. What about all the movies and TV shows that removed jokes about the WTC after 9/11? Are they "historical revisionists" for wanting to distance themselves from a national tragedy?
Living in the Region of Waterloo I haven't even seen that much coverage for this, so I'm kind of surprised it's gotten headlines internationally?
I mean, ultimately it's up to the people living there, which I would say after the vote that the name should stay. However, given this local article: Men ask court to overturn town's decision to keep 'swastika' in ..
Which cites issues with fairly distributing information prior to the vote, perhaps another one should be held
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