Posted on 09/05/2002 5:36:59 PM PDT by GeneD
Zyklon B: Fascist economy.
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I am deeply offended by your use of the term "storm troopers"! (just kidding)
Gradually, even items with no direct Nazi link have been proscribed because neo-Nazis co-opted them. Since the Swastika flag had been outlawed, Skinheads took to waving the old Reichkriegsflagge; it is now illegal to fly THIS publicly. A prominent German businessman was fired for having the audacity to fly an Imperial flag on his property. This is particularly stupid because the Imperial ensign is a monarchist symbol and, as such, had actually been outlawed during the Third Reich.
But, as I suggested, German government and society are heavily involved in a form of anti-Nazi voodoo, and with Teutonic thoroughness will continue to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Frankly, I'm surprised they even retained the eagle as the national symbol.
Perhaps instead of using "cyclone" for a brand name they could use "whirlwind." Oh, but wait. They can't use that either, since the Wirbelwind was a quad-20 mm AA gun used by the Wehrmacht. Bad mojo.
If they wish to outlaw every word that was used by the Nazis, they might as well just start naming their products in Esperanto.
One can lament how words change their meanings over time. It is often the case when they are realted to serious calamities. Witness, for instance, the word "terrorist" being used as a synonym for "bad guy." Do you think that at the end of Napoleonic wars the word "monarchist' designated merely an intellectual preference for a certain national order?
It is from our parents that we learn the language, and if our parents co-opted a certain word, we are stuck with that ingheritance. If the "parents" of the present-day Germans co-opted the swastika and certain German words, this generation is stuck with it. This generation cannot assume that the listeners of their spoken word will of a sudden forget a very, very prominent recent decade when "Zyklon" meant more than just a shape in which water leaves the bathtub.
Here's a fundamental rule of business: The customer is always right. If your customers are offended by the name you give your product, to the point that they choose not to buy it, you go out of business. Whatever nitwit came up with the idea of naming a gas oven "zyklon" ought to have his or her head examined.
What a dumb idea to register that name.
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