Yes, It Is Still A Thing.

7/15/2014

Via Coconuts, click for article on their website.

Fads come and go everywhere and it is possible to look at some of the Nazi chic items in Thailand as a fad. Fads are also short-lived by definition and we can trace back the use of Nazi imagery as 'fun' in Thailand for thirty years, so it is neither a fad nor a trend. Pictured at the right is a Thai World Cup party from last week: Germany vs. Wedonotfollowsports.

The underlying issue in many cases is ignorance of History, however there is antisemitic literature published in Thai as we are researching a book that is currently on sale at Se-Ed bookstore. We will let you know about this book The Truth About The Jews when we know more and please let us know if you have any information on it. We do know that most of this is not malicious, however we support human rights and knowledge over ignorance.

Another issue is that hate speech has only recently been understood as a social problem and mostly in the context of Thai politics and cyber bullying. Thailand is not isolated to the social issues that happen everywhere and many teachers in Thailand have dealt with cyber bulling, as it is also a thing here now. New technology and anonymity can bring out the worst in people at times, and everyone is learning how to deal with changes in the social landscape.

We spend a lot of time pointing out these incidents when they happen and many supporters come to us with breaking news of this type. Thank you to supporters that let us know about news and share photos, we appreciate it greatly. Sadly for some, it still needs to be pointed out, proven to exist and ignoring it will not make it go away. We can only refute the argument against knowing and teaching this part of history with our poster:

tyson-neil-degrasse-history-poster-knowlegde-ignorance

Want it? Click for download link.

Here is our video timeline of the incidents of use of Nazi images in Thailand. Yes, it is a thing, it has been a thing and it still remains a thing.

2 Comments

Moishe Greenberg

7/15/2014 02:18:40 pm

Excellent work! Well conceived.

Amander

7/16/2014 12:06:47 pm

From what I've been able to figure out from living in Chiang Mai and talking with my Thai friends, etc, is that there was a comic book that was a satire of Hitler (I think it was originally a Japanese comic, translated into Thai, I'm not sure of the name but if anyone knows it then please do share!). The comic made Hitler into a humerous cartoon character. So far nothing is out of the ordinary here, but I believe the purpose of the comic was lost in translation.

Something very noticeable about Thai culture is that there isn't any form of "satire" in their culture. As a form of humour, it simply doesn't exist. Mostly, satire is aimed at politicians or figureheads and picks on their weak qualities and magnifies them to humourous extremes. This is done all the time in Western countries and is very prevalent in all forms of media; online, in newspapers, by comedians, on TV and radio talk shows. In Thailand, however, there is a strict cultural code where it is forbidden, indeed against the law, to speak ill of the Monarchy or of anyone in power. There is still a coup happening right at this very moment, but living here you wouldn't know that anything had changed, because they simply do not talk about the political situation, let alone speak negatively about it. So, in regard to this mysterious Japanese comic which satirizes Hitler, the satire was totally lost in translation and Thai people see the character as a joke, but they're not sure why. It would be like watching the satirical movie 'Scary Movie' without having seen, or even heard of, the horror films it spoofs, like 'Scream' or 'Friday the 13th', or 'Nightmare on Elm St'.

Of course, none of this would have been taken-up by Thai culture if there was decent education about world wide history - clearly this is fundamental to the problem.

Yes, It Is Still A Thing.

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