Memes

The US praised the Nazis for killing the communists. They supported their "cause" riiiiight up until they started attacking western Europe AKA the countries that actually matter.

The US also hired tons of Nazi "scientists," including granting them immunity for their roles in the Holocaust. They also granted the head of Unit 731 immunity (specifically from the USSR who rightly wanted him executed) in exchange for the human experimentation data. NATO coincidentally also has a ton of Nazis in its leadership.

The US went as far as installing prominent Nazi figures back into West Germany in the same way they let confederates go back to their lives after the civil war. Whereas the Soviets executed Nazi leaders in East Germany because that's what they fucking deserve. The US then claimed that the executed Nazis were victims of communism and included them in their "communism death toll" numbers.

This isn't an error. The US has always been sympathetic to Nazis, before, during, and after the war. They only begrudgingly pitched in against them because they viewed western Europe as slightly more important.

Finally, the US didn't even fucking do that much. Certainly nowhere near enough to justify their claim that they "saved the world" in WWII. The USSR and UK each did far more yet the US seems to think the USSR was fighting for the Nazis and the UK was a scared poodle hiding in their island until the heroic Americans came to save them, when in reality, the tide had already turned against the Nazis by the time the US joined. They also nuked Japan just because they could, it had nothing to do with the war because they already had intelligence that Japan was about to surrender.

This is a very romanticized version of American intervention in WW2.

The bitter truth is that we had guys with Nazis war trophies back home who were waving Confederate flags the year after their deployment ended. Hell, we had guys like Mark Fuhrman, who were decorated detectives in the LAPD back in the early 90s with a naked well-established fetish for European fascism. And that's before you get into the Ratlines that imported thousands of Nazis into Latin America under cover of the CIA and Opus Dei.

This isn't something that got lost in translation or distorted through history. It's a direct consequence of American fascism reproducing itself in America as an outcropping of American tendencies.

The Stars and Stripes is as much a symbol of fascist oppression in Vietnam and Indonesia and the DRC and the Oklahoma Reservation system as any German flag.

I gotta push back against the criticism that several of my comrades in here are expressing. Y'all are talking about the US collaborating with Nazis after the war, and you're not wrong about that, but that was the US government, while this meme is about a soldier. The soldiers on the ground fought for all sorts of reasons, they might have opposed the Nazis for all sorts of ideological reasons, or they might have just been doing it out of loyalty, or any of the other reasons soldiers fight. But there were people on the ground fighting the Nazis under a US flag who were committed antifascists and even communists. As for the others, whatever their reasons, when the call came to save the world from fascism, they answered, and were willing to sacrifice life and limb to do it. That's pretty heroic if you ask me. And they weren't the ones who made the decision to let Nazis into NATO and stuff afterwards.

I understand the defensiveness against attempts to glorify the US while villifying the USSR and downplay their (more substantial) sacrifice and contribution to the war. But there's nothing in this meme that's doing that, and there were Americans who contributed to the war effort. Is it necessary to kneejerk react to a meme celebrating someone who fought the Nazis by talking about the government that ruled over them? People aren't defined by their nation or their government.

Let's not forget the proud tradition of people like Woody Guthrie, who explicitly tied the war effort to a broader idea of antifascism, nor of the people on the front lines who he inspired.

This really overstates the US opposition to the Nazis and understates the role the US played in cementing former Nazis in key roles around the world, including the US. The US was never anti-fascist just like the US has never been anti-Capitalist, the US's involvement in World War II was late, and for the purpose of profit. Lend-lease was one mechanism, and solidifying its position as the only major allied power not devastated by World War II, it could transfer into the position of unquestioned global Hegemon. It couldn't let the Soviet Union take all of the credit for winning World War II (or the Great Patriotic War, in the former USSR), as that would have challenged US legitimacy in the post-war world.

In reality, fascism and liberalism are both superstructural elements of Capitalism, in different conditions and contexts. When class struggle is heightened, and Capitalism in utter decay with the bourgeoisie in need of violence to retain their hold on society, the mask of liberalism falls to reveal the ugly face of fascism. When Capitalism puts the mask back on, it pretends as its liberal self it is distinct and opposed to its unmasked self.

This is not a meme, it’s reality.

"WW2 was a nice vacation, now back to my home for some lynching, Jim crow, indigenous genocide, and keeping women at home not working!"

Oh shit, is it just the eventual end product of teenage rebelliousness?

This is why you learn to do the Roman salute instead, so people don't look at you wrong