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Gov. Evers says ‘Neo-Nazis, antisemitism, and white supremacy have no home in Wisconsin' after demonstration on state Capitol grounds

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/18/neo-nazi-group-marches-on-state-capital/71636061007/

A group wearing red shirts with \

Gov. Evers says ‘Neo-Nazis, antisemitism, and white supremacy have no home in Wisconsin' after demonstration on state Capitol grounds

A group of nearly two dozen people waving swastika flags and chanting antisemitic rhetoric marched on the Wisconsin state Capitol grounds Saturday afternoon, performing a salute originally used by Nazis at political rallies, often called the "Hitler salute."

42 comments

Dkarma

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How did all those cops get off of work?

masquenox

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performing a salute originally used by Nazis at political rallies, often called the “Hitler salute.”

Lol! They say this as if we aren't familiar with it and didn't see thousands of Trump fans doing that just a few years ago...

online

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I think they are starting to write this way, because there's huge numbers of Americans who do not even know what the Holocaust is and that it happened let alone the basic facts about it. It's shocking when you read the recent polls which demonstrate the levels of ignorance we are dealing with around this.

Edit:

I'm surprised that people don't know about the ignorance of the Holocaust. Here is some reading for our collective edification.

Kovac, Adam. "Almost half of Americans don’t know how many Jews died in the Holocaust, AJC survey says." Forward, 2023. https://forward.com/fast-forward/533204/ajc-poll-holocaust-knowledge-americans/
O'Kane, Caitlin. "Survey finds 'shocking and saddening' lack of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z." CBS News, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/holocaust-lack-of-awareness-millennials-gen-z/
"Most Americans lack some basic knowledge about Holocaust — poll." The Times of Israel, 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/most-americans-lack-some-basic-knowledge-about-holocaust-poll/
"What Americans Know About the Holocaust." Pew Research Center, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/01/22/what-americans-know-about-the-holocaust/

It might seem unbelievable to see how ignorant people are of the Holocaust, but what you and I find common sense and basic facts of history which we all know are unfortunately not generally known to be basic facts of history and we do not all know these facts. Less and less of us know these facts.

It's alarming and it's good that publishers are writing to state basic facts for an ignorant readership. Because of this we shouldn't see this style of informative writing as a fault but rather as a boon to ignorant readership.

masquenox

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because there’s huge numbers of Americans who do not even know what the Holocaust

I'm afraid that's not it... it's liberal media doing their normal "enlightened centrist" thing and pretending that the US isn't a fundamentally white supremacist state. They want to pretend that neonazis are some kind of "aberration" in the (supposedly) "democratic" US - when in reality the people filling up the top echelons of the political and economic institutions have always held beliefs that are perfectly compatible with fascism.

Eldritch

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Yes. One only has to point to the business plot. It happened almost 100 years ago now. No one involved ever faced any consequences. They've been regrouping and slowly gaining power ever since then. And have made enough progress that one of, if not the only candidate for their fascist dictator had both his son and grandson achieve the presidency.

Of course during world war II, many wealthy Americans were on the side of Hitler, and their businesses had lots of dealings with him. That's not even mentioning the fact that we turned away. Many many shiploads of Jewish refugees. Because of the open widespread anti-Semitism in the United States at the time. It wasn't just anti-Semitism of course. It and all the other forms of bigotry and racism were some of the very core of early America. Slavery, genocide of native peoples, etc. Etc etc. things that we do not teach about properly in American history and never have. Because a lot of it isn't just history is still current events.

masquenox

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Yep.

I'm glad that !news hasn't been swamped by right-wing propagandists yet - I wonder how long that will last.

Eldritch

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Profits seeking outlets, like reddit naturally lend themselves to that sort of brigading. It's not impossible for something like that to happen on the feddiverse. But it is fortunately drastically less effective. If the moderation of !news We're heavily infiltrated or compromised. The community could realistically just pick up and move wholesale to another instance. Or even just another community on the same instance if it was only about community moderation and not instance moderation. Wealthy fascist could just throw their money into the void endlessly. But they wouldn't get even a fraction of the return. They get on friendly sites like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook etc.

masquenox

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But it is fortunately drastically less effective.

I'm not so sure about that... I had to block !worldnews on here because the comments section is just one big hasbara dogpile - and the mods seem totally fine with it.

Eldritch

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There will be echo chambers still. And there will always be brigading attempts. But if people don't like it they can start an identically named community on a different domain. Something not remotely possible on Reddit Facebook etc. where Nazis can openly threaten others without consequence. But if a leftist doesn't word their disagreement with Nazis just right they get a permanent ban.

I think what you're seeing is highly temporary. And likely will be contained to the current run of Likud sponsored Palestinian genocide. There are a lot of ignorant people being riled up on emotion alone right now. And thankfully most are getting downvoted. There are no good guy in the current scenario. Just dishonest, murderous actors like Hamas. And genocidal right wing government in Israel. My sympathies will always be with the people. Both Palestinian and Israeli. But the Israeli really need to step up to address what their government is doing.

Madison420

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It's not the Hitler salute anyway, it's a ceaserian salute or Bellamy salute. Amusingly it was a common way to take the pledge of allegiance in the United States and many other countries. It only lost is popularity after Germany and later Italy used it in fascist/authoritarian/nationalistic movements.

Iunnrais

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…and the swastika is just a Hindu good luck symbol.

I’m sorry, but sometimes someone horrible takes a neutral or good thing and does something so profoundly evil with it that it forever changes that thing, tainting it by what has been done. Doesn’t matter what the salute was originally. Now it means only one thing.

Madison420

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It is that yes, and in certain context is the symbol of Nazi Germany. It can add is both, and more honestly it's a native American symbol, Chinese symbol etc.

Not at all or every imperial nation would have to strike their flag and salute as well.

PullUpCircuit

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Swastika is very very slowly being reclaimed in some media. Every time I see it though, I have to consider which meaning it was intended.

I thought Bleach, an anime, was using it in the Hindu manner, but many of the newer character designs made me wonder.

Madison420

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It's in the Japanese use.

https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-swastika-in-japan/

PullUpCircuit

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Nice, thanks.

masquenox

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It only lost is popularity

So just like overt white supremacism and antisemitism?

be_excellent_to_each_other

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I was surprised and ready to compliment a Republican governor for coming out against white supremacy and racism. That would have been a brave move.

I'm still happy he did it, but I shouldn't have assumed Wisconsin had a Republican governor, and should have known better than to think one would.

spamfajitas

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Fun fact about Wisconsin: the Republicans were furious that a Democrat was going to be elected after Scott Walker's fascist stint, so they rushed through several legislative changes to limit the powers of the incoming governor as a final middle finger to democracy.

hakase

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Yes, because taking exclusive executive power away from the head of a government and giving it to the legislature to vote on instead is famously anti-democracy.

BossDj

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When it is abused for years by your guy, then explicitly changed ONLY because the opposing party takes over, yes it's absolutely undemocratic

winterayars

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They did that in North Carolina too, but they sure as hell didn't stop there. A couple more years of calvinball politics like this and Wisconsin will join NC in being a non-democracy.

SCB

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The legislature took that power for themselves because they had gerrymandered the everliving fuck out of Wisconsin's electoral districts and held solid majorities with 47% of the vote.

https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2021/02/why-do-republicans-overperform-in-the-wisconsin-state-assembly-partisan-gerrymandering-vs-political-geography/

They made this move specifically to counter the will of the people, so no I don't think it's very democratically-minded of them.

lolcatnip

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It must be hard going through life without understanding context.

hakase

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Not as hard as the basic definitions of words are for lemmy users, it seems.

Rusticus

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You are obviously ignorant as fuck

Jax

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Hey wo/man, I understand being autistic makes it difficult to accept/understand certain things. I recommend seeking help, there are resources out there that you can utilize.

Furedadmins

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Given Wisconsins famously un-representative legislature vs the representative statewide election it is. The most gerimandered legislature in the country completely ignores the will of 60% of the population in literally every thing they do.

Rusticus

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Yes it absolutely is when it’s not your guy. Lmao. Stfu.

crusa187

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Yes, when it erodes supposed checks and balances.

BossDj

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I hate Wisconsin Nazis.

Johnmannesca

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I hate Illinois Nazis.

irreticent

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I hate Nazis.

stopthatgirl7

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Everyone who’s not a Nazi hates Nazis.

marth_21

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What about babies?

interceder270

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Looking forward for when Nazis get the pirate treatment.

Potatos_are_not_friends

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Like Nazis of the Caribbean where its a costume and Johnny Depp makes it cool AF?

captainlezbian

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I think there’s a fundamental difference there. The pirates did a lot of bad shit, but they’re cool because rebels and criminals are cool. Tyrannical governments aren’t. Al Capone is cool, but Jefferson Davis isn’t.

SCB

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The Empire and The Imperium of Man are both extremely cool, and both are fascist dictatorships - the latter is also a theocracy lol.

It's all in the presentation.

winterayars

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He shoulda said something before the demonstration.

BossDj

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Capitol buildings have demonstrations near daily that mostly get zero coverage. He waited to see if it would be a small, no-show situation. Otherwise there is a risk of unintentional spotlighting and advertising the event.

Trainguyrom

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As someone who grew up in Madison and saw the various protests with tens and hundreds of thousands of people at the capital, I find it hilarious how they couldn't even muster 24 people to show up. That's almost as bad as the daily peace protest, which as a daily demonstration that's been going on for years really doesn't attract too many people

ieightpi

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"There are dozens of us, I tell you! Dozens of us!"