Evil Flag

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@Koshee did you tried turning him off and on again?

@CherryCat I think we need to reinstall GermanyOS.

Hmmm... as an USA citizen I feel like we could stand to do with less flag waving right now...

Strangely enough, I just like putting up the Swedish flag on special days (in Sweden) since it just looks nice; yet i would never ever put up a German flag.

I am from Germany, and the images I associate with the German flag are those of narrow-minded "Laubenpieper", drunken soccer fans and ultraconservative nationalists. Not only in Germany: Just look how the extreme right in other countries like Hungary or Poland makes use of their national flags when they are protesting in hate against mankind. Yes I know very well that the German flag is, in fact, shaped as a very positive symbol, but meanings change.

Yet in Sweden, the approach to the flag feels much more relaxed and unbiased, even though there are (few) occasions where idiots from SD or SU wave it around. It feels just like a nice symbol for celebrations and stuff. Just as satw has written. I like it.

@Fagelholk Please stop being so hostile to people on the far right. If you don't like what they stand for, tell them and listen to their response. Throwing insults and labels leads to nothing good.

@Fagelholk flag-shaped accessories seem fine though, from what I've seen

When I visited Texas, the Texas flag was everywhere as an antidote to the American Flag. Unless it was Federal Building (like post office) Texas Flag always was seen alongside USA flag. Texans are very proud that they were a republic before they were an American state, and for this reason gives them the right to fly their state flag at same height as national flag. Many Texans consider they are Texans first and Americans second. Many of them disown George Bush Sr. as a "faux texan" as his family were from New England (North eastern USA) and he simply bought himself a "toy ranch" and called himself a Texan rancher.

@Danelaw It could be worse. I was in GA, TN, SC, and NC on the fourth of July weekend, and I literally saw more confederate flags than American flags. At least the Texan flag has fewer negative connotations. Not none, it got its independence after illegal immigrants to Mexico decided they couldn't assimilate (yes, I'm laying it on thick to highlight the incredible irony, and I know it was more complicated than that, although what I'm saying is completely defensible), but compared to the Confederate flag, it's relatively benign. Yes, for those that try to white wash history, the Confederacy was from the first primarily about slavery. Of course, there were "states rights" issues, but they mostly centered around, you guessed it, slavery.

Not that everyone that displays it now is racist, wants to return to slavery, or anything else. No, most are just ignorant and angry rebels without a clue. Still, if on American Independence day, you can see more flags from the entity that seceded from the US than from the US itself, there clearly is a significant population down there that wants to no longer be a part of the US. Personally, I say we should let them go. I don't know why we expended so many men and money to keep states that have been millstones around our necks in so many areas...

@pn3105 Yepp, totally correct about the first and third stanza of our national anthem.

Problem was that idiot Hitler -eeeerr, no, cut the idiot, that's an insult to all idiots- used the first stanza plus the Horst-Wessel-song so successfully in combination that nobody remembers the original meaning of the first stanza.

The current national anthem was created during a time when there was no real "Germany" per se, rather there were dozens (or even hundreds, depending on the time during the 19th century) of principalities that were split up into the Germanic states, but not a single nation. Dito for the German flag, but in reversed order top-to-bottom.

That's what the "Germany above everything" was supposed to signify - not that they were better than others, nor that they were Bavarians, Swabes, Saxons, Hessians, or one of the many other composite regional principalities. No, they were supposed to see themselves as "Germans" first, and then as whatever state they lived in. Not that they were supposed to be better than anyone else in the world, or above anyone else. No, it was 'first be a German, then worry about the rest of your background later'.

It was a unification call, not a call to rule over the world. Yet that <censored, censored, censored> damn f'ing <censored> Hitler totally royally f'ed it up by slathering in that coat of shhh...- -ameful inferiority-complex he must have had.

Luckily that idiot didn't like the black-red-gold tricolor of the Weimar Republic because he believed it was a slander to Germany. Otherwise we would have had to invent a new flag, too, after WWII.

So, be proud of the great things from Germany's history, and abhor the horrible things that happened.
"Never forget; never repeat." But not as a mantra, only as a reminder. ;-)

@KRyptic Exactly. Good write-up. I would add that there were many other symbols, like the swastika (which had ancient, positive religious meanings before WWII), which were corrupted. We should reclaim them, and strip them of their power to harm, and return the good meanings.

This comic should be referenced here - https://satwcomic.com/not-a-yahtzee

Germany may have PTSD after WW2 - in his defense, Nazi Germany only got the power to rise, because at the end of WW1, the victorious nations demanded completely unfair terms for peace. The German nation was already beaten, and they got purposefully forced on their knees. There was no way away from that, but trying to go up again - and Hitler and his Nazi party knew exactly how to exploit that. It's funny the things that you can make people believe, or stand behind, when it theoretically means a brighter future for your children.

this is heartbreaking. ='(
youre a wonderful country, germany! youre not that psycho freak doppelganger Nazi Germany, youre GERMANY!! it used to be the only thing that came to mind when i thought of 'german history' was the whole stupid nazi thing, but then i realized... that unending list of history-making composers, authors, artists, architects, engineers, psychologists, scientists, researchers, even down to my humble middleschool german teacher, they all have a common thread.. my favorite thing about germany is the absolutely fantastic MINDS born and bred there! look at all the different ways germany has made the world a better, more beautiful, more brilliant place! dont let those psychos make anyone forget about any of that!
as far as im concerned, theres THREE versions of each satw country: brother, sister, and doppelganger. everyone knows Doppelganger Germany already, and i feel like the orange flesh blob is close enough to Doppelganger America ((tho thank goodness he seems to have settled down a little, i hear)), and maybe even Doppelganger North Korea is the only North Korea weve met yet. and id love to see the comic introduce EVERYONES evil doppelganger, even just for a single panel ((and hopefully never again)), so people remember never to mix each of them up with their Brothers and Sisters. XPP

i mean i know this is fictional stereotypes, comedy, fantasy... but i hate that this is how some people think of germany, so i just wanted to be real here for a minute, but i do hate being That Guy so ill stfu now lol XD

@kier No please do not stfu make character concepts for the doppelgangers!

You can be national without being nationalistic. Being national is something you choose to be and not about any of those things you are born into. A muslim guy I knew once turned up to a christmas part wearing a danish "klaphat", sang christmas carols, drank non-alcoholic beer and just pretended he was a drunken idiot likes the rest of us. Claimed he was "drunk on happiness". No amount of fistbump would have enough...

Also... Chin up Germany. We're pals

poor Germany he doesn't know his flag the Black, Red, and Gold flag was BANNED by the Nazis during their reign and was even used as an anti-nazi and anti-communist symbol during the Weimar Republic,

it was Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold it very interesting to read about


Unity and justice and freedom

I want to just go hug Germany right now