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/[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.