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Trump’s Pick to Lead U.S. Military Has Tattoos Linked to White Supremacists and Nazis (www.democracynow.org)

submitted 1 day ago by Five@slrpnk.net to c/usa@midwest.social

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[–] nelly_man@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Were you linking to a specific entry in their database? The link took me to the database as a whole, and I couldn't find any mention of the Jerusalem Cross when searching it.

When searching elsewhere, I see similar results as the above commenter. There's mostly discussions of its Christian meaning and some reddit posts that argue that it's a symbol of hate due to its association with the crusades.

However, there was a different post from somebody who got a tattoo of it and was worried when people said it gave them Nazi-ish vibes. The commenters on the post assured him that it's not a white supremacist symbol, but it was probably reminding people of the Iron Cross.

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hey sorry yeah, there's specific reference to the Jerusalem Cross here. The Adl link is to look up other terms in general

White nationalist rhetoric moves quickly https://www.mccaininstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/white-supremacy-and-anti-government-groups-read-ahead-materials.pdf

Edit: corrected the link

[–] nelly_man@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

White supremacist anti-Muslim narratives generally refer to Islam as an invading force that isn't just incompatible with Western society but is also an active threat to Western society and cultural norms. In this context, white supremacists have used Crusader-themed imagery and rhetoric, like the Jerusalem Cross, the Knights Templar and "Deus Vult," as dog whistles to promote anti-Muslim hate.

Ah yes, there it is. That does seem to correlate with one of the reddit posts that I saw, but they didn't seem to agree that this symbol had been adopted by contemporary hate groups. They merely indicated that it is controversial due to its association with the crusades. However, that lack of understanding outside of hate groups is the point of using these historical symbols as dog-whistles.

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Yes this is how dog-whistles work. If you want more context you can check out what the SPLC and Unicorn Riot have been up to

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/08/19/we-will-fight-soldier-waging-war-against-america-fort-liberty

There's also a network of folk in WP and Nationalist discords and truth social etc. that are collecting and reporting metadata to the authorities. Which is difficult as the FBI often do nothing unless there's CSAM or other pedo shit going on.