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Comment by ihumanable | Hacker News Reader

"Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol," Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, told CNN Business.

The "banned hate group" here is Nazis. This symbol was used in concentration camps. Don't let the corporate speak whitewash that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge

Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. I'm merely pointing out that the Facebook spokesperson is clearly identifying the violation "a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners." Since the Facebook spokesperson was being vague, I brought context in case anyone was curious, "What banned hate group?" or "which political prisoners?"

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This comment, as well as the other comment in this thread which points out that this was the nazi symbol for political prisoners, are both currently grey due to downvotes.

I would be interested to hear an explanation of why these comments are being downvoted.

Are the downvoters suggesting the information is inaccurate? That this wasn't the nazi symbol for political prisoners?

I downvoted because they complain about downvoting. Initial downvoting happens all the time on every comment imaginable.

But the exact opposite is the case. As usual only the anti-trump posts are visible while the rest is -4'd within seconds. This story is entirely made up. No one even knew that symbol and it was obviously not meant in that constructed sense. And now we take MM as a source, suggesting that they said "heil h....?" This entire story is against the submissions anyways. This is so wrong.

So what sense was the symbol meant in? What’s the alternative, plausible explanation? And no, using a red triangle to mean “antifa” is not plausible given how much more common “flags in a circle” is for the group.

The other icons used in the campaign are very generic. Even my Telegram has such a triangle not too far away from the also used "slow emoji". Another explanation could be that it is used by the antifa. It might not be as prominent as the flags, but it is a first-page hit on an image-search and I have seen that symbol multiple times.

At the very least it is not plausible at all that the trump campaign intentionally and openly uses Nazi iconography to mark them as to be gassed, using an additional 88 (=...) symbol in tandem. That is not plausible. In particular because of the source.

In a day or two this will be officially proven to be a complete lie, but no one will care. And submissions to document this will be ignored like they always are.

>but it is a first-page hit on an image-search

Every single instance of an upside down red triangle on an image search for "antifa symbol" is a screenshot of a post from the Trump campaign. There is no use of the symbol without referring to that campaign post.

I'm getting it on the first page as well, but I think you're missing some chronological logic: at the time they created the ad they couldn't possibly be seeing their own ad as the first results.

> The other icons used in the campaign are very generic.

Like that time he had an image of Hillary Clinton, on a background of money, with a "most corrupt ever" caption written in the middle of a star of David. It's intentional.

I'm confused. Hillary isn't jewish. ...yet his daughter is. ...as is his grandson, and most of his New York friends - and also Jared Kushner.

Frankly, the narrative that he's anti-Semitic is not credible considering his "favorite" daughter converted to Christianity with his support.

> I'm confused. Hillary isn't jewish. ...yet his daughter is. ...as is his grandson, and most of his New York friends - and also Jared Kushner.

You're probably confused because like a normal person you see a contradiction, and you appear to resolve it with the most charitable interpretation. Others may resolve it with the non charitable explanation.

He on the other hand has no problem with the contradiction of using an anti-semitic ad while having Jewish family if the ad resonates with his supporters and serves his interests, which it did.

This is one of his unique abilities: allegiance to nothing but himself, therefore contradictions that arise from loyalty to a principle or person are meaningless.

And you can't be racist if you have a black, asian, &c., partner, right? I grew up in Texas, I know how frequently racists will mark someone as, "one of the good ones."

No like the other icons in that campaign, like I said. Other symbols included stop signs, another red triangle with an exclamation mark etc. It's obvious that they were just generic symbols - all of them similar and benign. They constructed this insane narrative with the triangle, made up some bullshit around it (88 of them) and set the usual machine in motion (MM, ADL, MSM, blue checkmarks). And you all know it.

Some idiot intern posting whatever red icon they could find?

I don't think the concentration camp symbol is very plausible either since no one has seen that symbol since 1945.

Can you point to any white supremacist posts or site that use it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Alamo. particularly the parts about the A/B testing on steroid.

I don't understand the relevance here. A/B testing in political campaign ads is pretty normal.

You're thinking too charitably. HN has its share of actual white supremacists.

Oh please.

The fear mongering that white supremacists are everywhere has got to stop. Disagreement via downvoting does not equate to white supremacy. I wish people would comment more instead of downvoting myself, but I don't agree with your hyperbole.

Hello :-) My interpretation is not that it is that it is everywhere, but rather that it has a depressingly large influence and impact.

oh, come on. Frankly, I think demonizing each other is the real damage being done online and in the media lately.

I'm happy to admit I downvoted the above comment because it's jumping to conclusions and charged with hyperbole.

I think what's more concerning is the decisive language and open calls for conflict I've seen on social media. ...and I think we need to really pause for a moment and remember back, maybe 5-6 years ago to see how we got here...

When Obama was President, the ADL reported that there were, maybe 2000, Nazis and KKK members in the US. Tho THOUSAND. That's it. No one talked about the KKK or Nazis. How did we go from that to people accusing anyone who disagrees with them of being a Nazi?

At first, I was surprised that certain things became more mainstream on Reddit - like the open disdain for the concept of "compromise", the acceptance that their own news sources are biased, and the downward spiral of political posts to simply posting insults - there isn't even an effort to make an argument anymore.

Initially, I chalked it up to the extremist tendency of the two-party system - but I'm starting to think there is something more sinister going on. There are too many new accounts demanding violence. Too many international posters with no skin in the game voting for the worst responses. Too many threads where people refuse to discuss and talk only about punitive, and often violent, actions. This is conveniently exactly what the FBI reported Russian online teams were doing4 years ago. Maybe they're still at it?

I hope you'll join me in not throwing name calling around. Encouraging more intelligent discourse - at least on HN? ...and try to believe me when I say that I honestly believe(d) some idiot intern just posted an upside-down red triangle.

What conclusions does it jump to?

> No one talked about the KKK or Nazis.

You're very much mistaken. You weren't talking about the KKK or Nazis:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-i...

I've lurked on HN for over 10 years including making an unsuccessful YC application. It's remarkable how the general quality of arguments is increasingly aligned along parroting political groupthink on all extremes.

However, as a non-white male the most alarming observation is the blatantly xenophobic, anti-immigrant rationalising of white supremacy. Perhaps the most brazen exampel of this was vitriolic anti-immigrant comments following the mass shooting in New Zealand from a particular software developer I happen to know personally in real life on here. He obviously does not know this but I've kept a screenshot of those comments to remind myself about the true nature of people.

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