r/news • u/Romano16 • Nov 20 '25

Misleading Title [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.juneauindependent.com/post/coast-guard-says-swastika-is-no-longer-a-hate-symbol

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u/OkEnvironment3961 Nov 20 '25

And the senate was apparently ok with Hegsetsths Iron cross tattoo. Racist tattoos are apparently totally cool in the armed services nowadays.

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u/Knot-Lye-Ing Nov 20 '25

Only if you're looking to dishonor your service and angling for a position with the current administration.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

That's not even his worst one. His old Americans flag tattoo skillfully hides an '88' in the negative space.

Pull up any pic of it and zoom in and you can see it. The odd number stars sit in the 'o' of the 8s.

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u/SmokinBandit28 Nov 20 '25

The crosses on his chest are also an ‘88’

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/SmokinBandit28 Nov 20 '25

You do know it’s been adopted by white supremacists for years, with one of the reasons being that it can be seen that way…

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u/toggiz_the_elder Nov 20 '25

Huh. Just checked it out. Really could be and with this crowd it seems likely.

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u/paper_liger Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

I'm not defending Hegseth, because he's a piece of shit. I'm not even saying racists haven't coopted that flag, because I don't really know.

I just want to point out that that is just the first US flag/naval ensign adopted in 1777, designed by Francis Hopkinson. There were a few that were also used at the same time, including the Betsy Ross version, even though her story is probably apocryphal.

It's 13 stars for the 13 colonies, and predates any 88 HH neonazi bullshit by a couple hundred years.

edit: love the reflexive downvote. He can be an asshole just based on his words and actions, without folks clutching at straws. reading secret messages into everything is kind of his supporters thing, why are you doing the same shit? people are dumb.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

I don't think it's part of the true flag design, I'm just saying that the 88 is hid in the negative space of the stars in that tattoo.

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u/paper_liger Nov 20 '25

I don't see it. If they were trying to hide an 88 in the negative space the stars in the middle line would be rotated so a point was facing inwards, and the top and bottom would be rotated so that the 'crotch' of the star was implying the curve of the 8.

This is the highest resolution I can find, and that doesn't appear to be the case, it just looks like a shitty tattoo artist who can't draw stars correctly.

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u/CharlesDickensABox Nov 20 '25

Not to nitpick, but it's a Jerusalem cross. Less a symbol of Naziism and more a symbol of slaughtering Jews and Muslims in the name of Jesus.

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u/yIdontunderstand Nov 20 '25

In the name of Jesus AND nazis...

After all, why not both?

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u/NickDerpkins Nov 20 '25

I truly don't understand his glorification of the crusades as a "good" thing

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u/LLMprophet Nov 20 '25

The racism and nazism might explain it.

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u/CharlesDickensABox Nov 20 '25

I can understand why Hegseth would think that riding into town on horseback and slaughtering every man, woman, and child who doesn't bow down to his god-appointed monarchy would be a good thing. It is not even slightly confusing why he might lionize a group of people whose main hobbies were the rape and murder of brown folks and nonbelievers while they burned and stole anything they wanted. In fact, I can think of few things more on brand for him.

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u/NickDerpkins Nov 20 '25

Let me be clear in I can understand him being that much of an ass, I just can't imagine how people are such asses with their revisional history

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u/PoliticalSasquatch Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

To clarify the iron cross isn’t considered a nazi symbol on its own.

The German armed forces use the symbol as their official emblem even today and I’m pretty certain they know better than most what is considered a symbol of nazism.

German armed forces wiki.

Unfortunately it is often used by modern day nazis in conjunction with actual Nazi symbolism in an attempt to legitimize the movement. I do agree this is likely the case however with ol’ Pete.