From a post on /r/leftistvexillology/

"Capitalism, fascism, reaction; beat the three and humanity is free!"

.......

"Of course, the three arrows representing the struggle against capitalism, fascism and reaction have quickly found their way into other social democratic parties."

:stalin-stressed: :stalin-stressed: :stalin-stressed:

That election poster that gets thrown around alot is just that. An election poster where the socialdemocrats were trying to position themselves as the preservers of the democratic republic(which should be remembered, had not existed for long). It's not the only way to interpret the symbol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leftistvexillology/comments/dx5jky/three_arrows_without_the_big_lib/

What do you think? What do you associate the arrows with? I always assumed it was 'down with monarchism, Nazism, and capitalism' before reading that thread. It's amazing how fast the meaning of the symbol was co-opted and altered (although notable that not everyone recognizes it as such).

  • MagisterSinister [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The Weimar years are covered extensively in German schools, but it's usually lib shit that tries to explain the failure of the Weimar Republic with "people not yet being democratically minded enough" without giving a materialist answer for why they thought liberal democracy is a fuck.

    All the facts are there, the SPD's role in the violent supression of communism, the catastrophic economic situation, the murderous violence during the later years that came almost entirely from the nazis, the glaring blindness of the courts to said violence, while the same courts where draconically clamping down on the left. And the "conservative revolution", the monarchist revanchism that was necessary to give Hitler a majority instead of a plurality, is also covered. Just from the data presented, it's not a "both sides bad" thing.

    But when the dots are connected, an answer like "a socialist revolution in 1920 would have prevented the nazis" or "conservatives side with fascists because they prefer fascism over socialism" is obviously avoided and things veer deeply into horseshoe theory land.

    • Sushi_Desires
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Do you see a leftward trend with the youth in germany?

      • MagisterSinister [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I'm too old to see any trends with the youth lol. Seriously, though, the kids seem to care a lot about the climate issue. The weekly school strikes have stopped since the Covid shit began, but the youth is a lot greener than previous generations and i'm under the impression that for them, green means a lot more anti-capitalism and a lot less of the new agey stuff that was a hallmark of previous greens here. I think the kids are alright, it's the boomers and the gen x chuds that i worry about.

        • sailorfish [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Maybe I'm also too old to be down with the youth, but for my fellow mid-20s, idk if green means anti-capitalism. Everybody's green, but in more of a personal-consumer way (thrifting, using less plastic, taking the train more). That's not bad obviously, but I don't feel like it relates to leftist thought or action in more than a very vague "corporations bad" way. Maybe it's different for the actual teens!