GoG uses SS runes for "Slavic adventures" promotion

[Alzrius]

And is that what you think is happening here, by using one unambiguous Nazi symbol alongside two additional, slightly more deniable Nazi symbols in a marketing email for a video game?

Insofar as this specific instance goes, I don't know; I was responding to the broader principle of what to do when symbols are co-opted.

 

[Reynard]

The double lightning bolt SS symbol is not a historical Norse rune or symbol. It was invented c. 1908 and adopted by the Nazis in 1929. You might - might - be able to reclaim some of the other symbols, but that one? It's a Nazi symbol through and through, and has never really held any other meaning.

I was responding generally to the subject of symbology co-opted by monsters. I did not know where the SS symbol came from and took the headline at face value that it was a co-opted Slavic symbol. I was just saying that I personally lament that the Nazis co-opted so many Norse symbols.

 

[aramis erak]

Insofar as this specific instance goes, I don't know; I was responding to the broader principle of what to do when symbols are co-opted.

The SS rune is not redeemable because it was a creation coopted so early in its use by a hate group; it has no non-evil associations.

The schwastica was (and still is) used in Native American art, Indian (subcontinental) art, and in traditional greek brocade trim patterns... but the Nazi use has so overshadowed those that its default association is Nazi and Neonazi...
... and the neonazis seem to like it that way.

It makes me wonder if it's a dogwhistle use by someone at GoG.

 

[Reynard]

It makes me wonder if it's a dogwhistle use by someone at GoG.

This possible. There are a-holes everywhere. But we can ask them, right?

 

[Alzrius]

The SS rune is not redeemable because it was a creation coopted so early in its use by a hate group; it has no non-evil associations.

Sure, that much is obvious to anyone who knows how to use Wikipedia. But that wasn't the symbol that was used in the context of the post I initially replied to, regarding whether or not it was possible to reclaim symbols.

EDIT: Honestly, this particular scenario is like a less-funny version of that running gag in Clerks 2, with Randall's "I'm takin' it back!" of a slur that he hadn't known was a slur until being informed early in the film. The joke being that it had always been a slur, and so there was no "back" in what he was doing.

 

[Umbran]

All the more reason for a powerful good to use the symbol, and change it back.

Third parties stepping in to try it are showing too little empathy for the victims to claim they are "powerful good".

Reclaiming tainted symbols typically only works if it is done by the victims of the evil who tainted it.

 

[CandyLaser]

I was responding generally to the subject of symbology co-opted by monsters. I did not know where the SS symbol came from and took the headline at face value that it was a co-opted Slavic symbol. I was just saying that I personally lament that the Nazis co-opted so many Norse symbols.

That's understandable, and for the record I'm not saying that you're trying to whitewash Nazi symbols or anything like that.

In this case, none of the symbols in question are Norse. From what I can find, the SS symbol doesn't actually show up in the game. The symbol used in the game is called the kolovrat; it's not a Norse symbol either, though it does show up in history in a few places in Europe, mostly in Greece, Poland, and the Czech Republic. There's a good academic picture of the symbol's history here. Its modern usage was driven almost entirely by a man named Alexey Dobrovolsky, who was a Nazi - as in, if you look him up on Wikipedia you'll see a picture of him doing a Nazi salute in front of a Nazi flag, and who called his political movement "Russian National Socialism."

 

[gnarlygninja]

A double sig rune is pretty indefensible.

 

[aramis erak]

The Kolovat is one of the schwastica family, and it was used by early Nazis, too.
There are 1930's depictions of the schwastica with curved outer arms and with straight outer arms. There are some with the 8-armed variety, again both straight and round outer arms.

The use by Russian National Socialists was a sign of solidarity with the Nazis. It's use is a bad choice by the designer. And a worse use by GOG.

 

[CandyLaser]

The Kolovat is one of the schwastica family, and it was used by early Nazis, too.
There are 1930's depictions of the schwastica with curved outer arms and with straight outer arms. There are some with the 8-armed variety, again both straight and round outer arms.

The use by Russian National Socialists was a sign of solidarity with the Nazis. It's use is a bad choice by the designer. And a worse use by GOG.

The game designers have claimed that they have no affiliation with Nazis, and it's possible that they don't know the history of the kolovrat - there was a dedicated effort (mostly by Nazis and neo-Nazis within the modern neopagan movement) to make it seem like that symbol has a long history within the pagan community. I'm not sure I believe them, as there are other dog whistles in the game that raise my suspicions, but they might have simply bought into a fairly popular pseudohistorical misconception about the symbol. They don't seem to have had anything to do with the use of the Nazi runes in the marketing email from GOG, though.