posted February 18, 2022 07:15 PM            

You sound like an American. And do you know what that means? It's a mean expression of how Americans should never comment on anything other than their own business (if that). Your words are incorrect and speak of little education on the subject and quite a bit of ignorance. You're not European, so please stop using our history as a weapon for hysteria and dangerous name-calling.

Calling everybody a neonazi (btw, neonazis would be the plural word), a fascist and the like is not helping anybody, but the people who you are supposedly trying to call out. You make these words meaningless by abusing them to single out crude, provocative, uninformed (you should sympathise with that), crazy or even racist behaviour. You don't know what these words mean.

Words have meaning and you cannot assign them new meaning whenever you are scared or outraged. Try and hold more than one thought in your head would do you some good. You see a flag and you react. How about you take a moment and reflect? You're not at war having to rely on your survival instincts in a split second. Or are you?

I once had a student come in, who wore the Swastika on her ear rings. My colleague was disconcerted. It was almost ten years ago, when people still had enough brain power against Pavlovian training and she didn't freak out. My colleague just looked at me with a quizzical look in her eyes. I shook my head 'no' and explained later of my belief that she had to be a buddhist.

Today, this girl would probably be prohibited to study at the university and receive death threats because of her earrings, which meant nothing more than a relation to her culture and religion. There is an argument, that she could have thought about the historical context in the European country where she lived. And I'm sure she did. And I'm sure there are people who would disagree with her. Two thoughts. Two opinions. Deal.with.them.

And for all the dumdums: No, I am not drawing parallels from this very unique encounter to waving flags. But I'd like to caution hysterical people who see something for a second, hear a word and draw their conclusions from one thing to ALL things and people like an algorithm.