• Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
      4·
      22 days ago

      Religion isn’t genocidal, people who intend to commit genocide use religion, they also use science and sophistery and whatever else they can use to manipulate people towards their cause.

      Blaming religion, like blaming any ideas, is idealist nonsense.

    • rainbowbunny@slrpnk.netEnglish
      9·
      23 days ago

      It’s absolutely not owned by Tankies. It’s been used for communism before the USSR. It represents unity in workers.

      • marduk@lemmy.sdf.org
        5·
        23 days ago

        I have no dog in this fight but it raises an interesting thought about certain other symbols that have been tainted by authoritarian governments

      • PineRune@lemmy.world
        3·
        21 days ago

        Devil’s Advocate here: the Swastika also had a different meaning before being taken over by Nazis. I’m not necessarily saying that the hammer and sickle means one thing or another, but after the USSR used it people (mainly non-communists) see it in a very specific light. Once people correlate a symbol with a certain movement or point of view, it will be difficult to change that. A large part of the Pagan community is still fighting to take back smaller and lesser known symbols that have been used by the Nazi party, but the “big one” is lost forever.

        • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
          4·
          21 days ago

          The Buddhist swastika is still used to denote temples across Asia. It depends on the context.

          people (mainly non-communists) see it in a very specific light

          Anticommunists who would label anything left of liberalism communism see it in that light. They label any symbol you use that way, they don’t actually care about any association with the claimed evils, its just a pretense to oppose the left.

          Look at the way the US’s left fell over itself to decry the evils of communism over the last century and even the most tepid social democrat gets labeled communist today.

          • PineRune@lemmy.world
            2·
            21 days ago

            I’m sure that within those regions and communities, the use of that version of the sunwheel has a strong, long-standing association with Buddhism. Unfortunately the rest of the world did not, and most of us will instantly associate it with Nazi history. Some of us know about the Buddhist history of the symbol, but I’m not gonna be the one to wear a swastika and explain how it’s not a Nazi symbol to every person that I see.

            I know that the symbol has a historical meaning, and in Europe it was used as a sunwheel. I know that the Hammer and Sickle is a symbol of the working class. The problem is the propaganda against the Hammer and Sickle as a symbol of the people.

            TLDR: propaganda and history has changed the meaning of these symbols to the view of the average person.

      • MrSmith@lemmy.world
        2·
        21 days ago

        No, it represents oppression, suffering, imperialism, torture, famine, etc.

        Because those are the contexts it’s been proudly sported. For half of the Europe, it’s as bad as a swastika. And it’s use is often forbidden by law outside historical contexts.