Can Reuters go a single day without accidentally revealing Ukraine’s Nazi problem? This time it’s a photo credited to Ivan Alvarado, which they have yet to take down. The description states -“A local resident inspects a damaged van, following a military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a residential area in Kharkiv.” In case you’re image-impaired, I’ll just add that the “local resident” is bending over and has a very large Nazi swastika (hooked cross) tattoo on his arm. It’s almost as if Reuters, the BBC and their ilk simply cannot find an “average” Ukrainian who isn’t flashing Nazi ink, badges or flags these days. Is that an accident or part of the Nazi “new normal” charm offensive? Then again, maybe Reuters just never quite recovered from the paperclip damages of Chrystia Freeland’s reverse Midas touch.
Now, I wish I could say Reuters has never shown a tendency to explain away establishment Nazi ideology in countries like Ukraine but, only weeks ago Reuters performed one of the funniest Nazi apology operas ever sung by a legit news agency. (Though I’ll admit the BBC had attempted it before.) As far as grand rationalizations go, this Reuters “Nazi fact check” was so shamelessly bold that it may have actually qualified as a work of art. It began when Russian critics accused Finland of still sympathizing with Nazis and officially flying Nazi flags and emblems. The Reuters article was entitled “Fact Check-Finnish Air Force swastika not introduced in support of Nazism”. Here’s a little gem from that…
Here’s where I’ll add a little about Eric von Rosen. His wife Mary von Rosen had a younger sister named Carin who married the Nazi Hermann Göring Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and arguably Hitler’s second. Yes, she not only married him, she was herself a Nazi and she toured the world with her husband promoting the Nazi party and Nazi ideology. This “fact check” article actually has the gall to brush off von Rosen as if he was just a wealthy Swedish guy who happened to love swastikas before Nazis became Nazis and gave a swastika emblemed plane to Finland but, that’s obviously a complete lie. He was a Nazi, even before the Nazi party was official, because he and his fellow European wealth class cretins helped create the Nazi party. They’re the exact same kind of ethnocentric nationalists Nietzsche reviled and the same kind of protoNazis who were eating up Wagner’s Nibelung with a silver spoon. There’s great debate about who influenced whom into first adopting the swastika (hooked cross) as the Nazi emblem but what is not in doubt is the role that the Royal and establishment wealth classes played in assembling the golem that was Nazi Germany. Let’s be clear, Finland’s pedantic denial of its cultural Nazi connections is itself an indirect form of holocaust denial.
Personally, you know how I like to make sure I’m not a Nazi? I start by not tattooing my body with Nazi symbols. I forego Nazi salutes, flaming torch rallies and terrorizing Romani women. I refrain from flying Nazi flags or distributing military awards with Nazi emblems. When that doesn’t work, I don’t burn books, I don’t outlaw opposing political parties, I don’t outlaw homosexuality or ethnically cleanse my neighbours and I don’t kill millions upon millions of innocent people all the while pretending like it never actually happened. It’s pretty simple really.
Nazi = bad
Nazi supporter = bad
Nazi enabler = bad
Nazi apologist = bad
Nazi ambivalence = bad
Nazi adjacent = bad
Nazi funder = bad
Nazi blind spot = bad
Nazi platforming = bad
Nazi tolerance = bad
Nazi acceptance = bad
Nazi PR = bad
