Congressional Candidate in Nazi Garb

[Minnow]

I just saw a story on the news about how some people are apparently outraged that some guy plays the part of an SS officer in a local WWII reenactment group, because it's insensitive or something. I'll find the article in a bit.

Anyway, it's really silly, because Mr. Anderson Cooper was going on about how the nazis were bad and how the guy's website emphasizes the protection of east front countries and how it's still not really okay and portrays SS officers positively and blah blah blah.

I really can't fathom how this is an issue, or even on the news at all. It's a re-enactment. If your'e accepting the idea of war reenactments in general, then you can't just pretend the opposing side doesn't exist;it defeats the whole purpose. And you especially shouldn't be targetting this one guy; somebody has to play a nazi, right?

It would be like condemning an actor playing Hitler in a movie.

I just wanted to see what everyone else thought.

EDIT: Article. Okay, this article said he wasn't just some guy, but was a republican congressional candidate for Ohio. That's a little better, but they still blew it way out of proportion.

EDIT2: no one gets mad at confederate guys in civil war reenactments, do they?

EDIT3: Good god, look at the comments on the article.

 

[Phantom]

Re: Ethics of War Re-enactments

I really don't care. They are re enacting history, they are remembering what happened in that era, is it wrong to remember?

 

[Teh Ebil Snorlax]

Re: Ethics of War Re-enactments

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and censoring history will make people forget.

 

[Superbird]

Re: Ethics of War Re-enactments

It's fun for some people, but they should at least make a general announcement that it's going to happen before they do it.

 

[1. Luftballon]

Re: Ethics of War Re-enactments

...there is no point in a public reenactment if people don't know it's happening?

 

[Trump Sword]

Either way, it's terrible. I can't believe people still dress up like that and get away with it. It's actually banned in most countries. Especially Germany.

 

[Flora]

Either way, it's terrible. I can't believe people still dress up like that and get away with it. It's actually banned in most countries. Especially Germany.

It's a war re-enactment; I could understand if he was a Neo-Nazi supporter or something...but it's just a war re-enactment, and I don't get why you feel that representing a particular side in said re-enactment is so terrible.

 

[shy ♡]

Either way, it's terrible. I can't believe people still dress up like that and get away with it. It's actually banned in most countries. Especially Germany.

What? If someone plays a nazi in a movie, will you hold that against them too? Because it's the same thing.

 

[Karkat Vantas]

Question: why is this article like American politics?

Answer: they're both really fucking stupid.

 

[Minnow]

I was thinking a bit more about this and I realized that you could argue that, despite however innocent the reenactment might be, the candidate should have realized that a lot of people, justifiably or no, were probably going to get mad if they saw him participating, especially as a Nazi. It's definitely not wrong, but continuing to do it while you're running for office in a particularly judgemental nation isn't really the smartest political move.

You could even construe it as that the fact that he didn't really realize these implications signifies poor judgement and thus making him a lesser candidate anyway, but that's kind of a stretch.