“The Nazi Totenkopf is one very specific graphic design of a skull and crossbones,” Pitcavage says. “And the monkey skull resembles it in no way except insofar as all skulls resemble each other to a certain degree.”
Pitcavage also points out that the Nazis were by no means the first to adopt the Totenkopf — and, in fact, the version used by the Waffen-SS (the combat branch of the Nazi party’s SS organization) predates the Nazi party entirely. “It dates back to the Prussian military, way before Adolf Hitler was even born,” he says.
Every single ADL article reads like this:
"Here is an undeniable reference to Nazi imagery, if you see this you can know 100% that this guy is a Nazi... but context is important. You can't know for certain if someone using this symbol is a Nazi."