Think back to when you were a little kid. The first time I ever saw a swastika I thought it looked sooo cool. Then I learned that it was the nazi's symbol. Then thought ah that sucks, its evil.

I still think the design of that symbol looks cool. I really wish it was not associated with the things it is. I wish instead it was our flag and stood for liberty and justice. I am just complaining. Do other people think it looks cool?

I admit there is something striking about it, but once you learn more about it's usage as you get older, the only effect it can have is to repulse.

Give me a red star or Hammer & Sickle any day

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Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Then there's the Buddhist version where the points are facing in the opposite direction.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Indeed.

It is one of many symbols that has been stolen, taken out of its original contexts and bastardized into something wholely different.

It is truly unfortunate because I agree with the OP, it is a striking symbol and can no longer be used without people reacting negatively to it.

Kinda like the Confederate battle flag. Many people see it as a symbol of evil regardless of it total context and cultural/historical meaning.

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"Yes. That's correct. Making a statement that's 100% true can't be bigoted."

Well, can't you still use the budhist one, since it is pointing the other way?

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

I could've eaten Alphabit soup and crapped out a better post!

For sure. The swastika is super-baller. Unfortunately, it's been coopted by nazism/neonazism for the forseeable future.

Much like the hammer and sickle, in my opinion. It should stand for actual communism, or equality among workers, but instead it stands for the USSR.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

I can't say that I find it to look cool (because that is just not my taste in symbols), but it is a shame that it has become a symbol for something that it didn't orignally stand for.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Somewhat related, does anyone else think that there should be a time-limit on this stuff? How LONG must the swastika be associated with evil? And, about every ten threads, the Hitler Card gets played, as the ultimate symbol of evilness.

I won't ever debate Hitler was a great guy, but WW2 was 60-plus years ago. You'd have to be in your eighties for it to even be culturally relevant.

Perhaps humans are simply predisposed to symbol-obsessiveness, in general? What's the time-frame for when the swastika, or other symbols, can be cleared of baggage and become neutral? Never?

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"Oh, bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round...

When someone decides to use it as their symbol but use it for good and not evil. It's past meaning will be erased and replaced with a current one. That is what the Germans did, they erased the past meaning and added their own to it. It's just that evil meanings are harder to erase.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

I could've eaten Alphabit soup and crapped out a better post!

Well, the eagle eventually stopped being the symbol of Roman Imperialism, but the Cross is still toted by Christians. ;)

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch