The new commander of the Karelia Air Wing said the swastika symbol has put the Finnish Air Force in "awkward situations".
  • z_poster365@lemmygrad.ml
    23·
    18 days ago

    ‘But we had it first! The Nazis were actually copying us, they were jealous of how cool our aircraft looked while fighting on their side against the Soviets’ isn’t the winning argument they think it is.

    • Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      21·
      18 days ago

      fun fact!
      finnish air force use the swastika because of count eric von rosen, brother-in-law to hermann göring and famous swedish nazi
      so while technically true that their use did (barely) predate nazi germany using it, it was the same people adopting it

  • davel@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    17·
    18 days ago

    I’m going to miss pointing this out to Lemmy libfinns.

    Edit to add my post:

    [Swedish] count [Eric von Rosen] used the swastika as a personal good luck charm. When he gifted a plane to the nascent air force of Sweden’s newly independent neighbour in 1918 he had had a blue swastika painted on it. This Thulin Typ D was the first aircraft of the Finnish air force and subsequent planes all had his blue swastika symbol too, until 1945.

    Supporters of a continued use of the symbol point out that there were no Nazis in 1918 so the air force’s use of the swastika has nothing to do with Nazism.

    However, while Eric von Rosen had no Nazi associations at the time of his 1918 gift, he did subsequently become a leading figure in Sweden’s own national socialist movement in the 1930s. He was also a brother-in-law of senior German Nazi Herman Göring, and, according to Prof Teivainen, a personal friend of Hitler.

    So the fascists adopted the swastika by way of a Swedish Count-cum-fascist.

    Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Academy_(Finland)

    • darkernations@lemmygrad.ml
      6·
      16 days ago

      However, while Eric von Rosen had no Nazi associations at the time of his 1918 gift, he did subsequently become a leading figure in Sweden’s own national socialist movement in the 1930s. He was also a brother-in-law of senior German Nazi Herman Göring, and, according to Prof Teivainen, a personal friend of Hitler.

      The mental gymnastics here feel like a western liberal-litmus-test; if the german aesthetics of fascism could be somehow distanced from themselves then they are free to be stalwart apologists for the crimes against humanity that they consider reasonable.

        • darkernations@lemmygrad.ml
          6·
          16 days ago

          This is partly why I don’t believe in “brainwashing”; those links are his license for bigotry. It would take all of one minute to consider that if one made a similar argument for Germany (and people do) then it wouldn’t absolve Germany of its fascism.

        • ☭ Comrade Pup Ivy 🇨🇺@lemmygrad.ml
          4·
          16 days ago

          Remind me agian, Finland was an ally in world war 2? Oh no, they where on the Axis with Germany? And Latvia also used a Swastika? And they where also Axis? I mean this sure feels like its atleast a Nazi adjacent symbol in western usage if not just a Nazi symbol (It is the second)