#hammer and sickle and communism is not a joke the west is on

[dietcodexes]

Friendly reminder or lesson (for Western Leftists especially) that I learned the hard way: For many Eastern European people and others who have suffered under a communist regime, the hammer and sickle image has the same meaning and effect as a swastika. Most of us in the West have enough distance from the reality of implemented communism and socialism that we feel free to joke or have open discourse about it- but it’s a very real and ongoing horror for many. This should be especially clear with the war in Ukraine. If you’re looking to comment or joke about communism, please consider how it would be perceived if you were talking about Nazis. For people living under these ideologies, the results haven’t been so different.

[grannygremlinaudio]

This is my shame right now.

To see our national pride, whichsustained us through multiple eras of technically not existing as a nation and/or domination by foreign influence (i.e. the recent communist era), come to this; twisted into this.  Seeing how the lessons so hard-learned being forgotten.  Not even the bit about some protestors coming in from other parts of Europe makes me feel any better.

The Polish Interior Ministry called it a “beautiful event." I really hope that’s missing some context/was said before news of these details got to the ministry, but knowing the governing party I cannot reasonably make that assumption.

Too be clear, the numbers (60K) are for the independence day parade of which the disrupting nationalists were merely a fraction of (this is being conflated a  bit online) but again, this is of little comfort. Emailed my (non-right wing to put it mildly) cousin in Warsaw to get details - this seems to be a passing soundbite in most reputable western media.

This pic (which I have seen in some reports) is actually from earlier in the year (just after the Paris attacks) in Wroclaw, but apparently the same or similar banners were on display last Saturday in Warsaw.

And sorry for the joke, but I am trying not to break down at my desk here, but if you’re going to go all Nazi imagery with this, maybe don’t take your aesthetic cues from a) Communism (hammer and sickle-y on one and the  AK rifles on the other that are also a Jihadist symbol), which you apparently hate, and b) a parody of Naziism (Pink Floyd’s the wall):

Is it because the movie coincidentally/accidentally (?) used the Polish flag in The Wall?

And because it’s hard to see in the flag pic up there, this is what that red logo is:

Which is the flag of The National Revival of Poland.

Also from that wiki:

Which translates as “Fascism?!? We are worse!!!”

On behalf of the rest of us, sorry world.  Sorry most of all to refugees and muslims, especially those living in Poland. To the west, I would only ask that you don’t judge us all by this; I have seen some things to that effect on social media.