You know In germany you can be imprisoned for simply doing the nazi salute in public
That or you'll get your ass kicked, probably both
Did you just suggest these people should be gased? ("Shower comment")
Also yes, doing the Nazi salut in public in those countries gets you into trouble, because of laws that are in place to prevent certain 'rites' to get traction again.
They/We (as nations) had a bunch of national pride, and resentment suffered attached to those kind of symbols, which after the war where 'shunned' and not publicly spoken about (social shunning, under risk of reprisal), which had a whole generation face what had been done in silence and suppressed anger.
So glorifying those symbols - lands with another sensibility as in 'Nazis are the bad guys - we saw it in Indie 1 and 3). Symbolism was so charged, you couldnt reframe it, so you had to forbid it.
Has nothing to do with the topic on hand. Has nothing to do with the 'german character' (this is the third racist trope that has been used in this thread), had to do with people strongly identifying with that symbolism as 'nationalistic' and 'history', and an atmosphere full of resentment, after they were shunned and had take reprisals for holding those 'believes' (during the war).
With every new generation less so - but, lets face it - another fashist revival out of germany wouldnt go over well internationally OR with people still living.
So while in Japan you have the wierdo outsider brigade of loners import memorabilia to seem 'edgy' (in a society, thats very nationalistic in their own right), in Germany the whole thing - has much more mainstream pull (or had for some years), to be 'edgy' or 'counterculture' - because it was a source of (missplaced) national pride for at least half of the population.
File it as another example of US (?) people being obsessed about this stuff more so than than actual germans (current generations). And giving it more credence and using it as an explanation, where no sane german (current generations) would.
