Bangkok's 'Hitler Chic' Trend Riles Tourists, Israeli Envoy

[ydraw]

Anyone consider the fact this is Thailand and maybe they don't give two craps what the Nazis did or if some Farangs are complaining like it happened yesterday? How many Thais did the Nazi's kill? Last time I checked the guys killing all the Thais were Japanese.

Actually they weren't. In case you missed it, the Thais were on the Japanese side in WWII. They actively assisted in helping the Japanese to take Malaya and Burma, kill millions of Burmese and Malays, not to mention let them build their death Railway through northern Thailand using Chinese and Allied POWs who were mostly murdered and starved to death along the way. Fewer than 5000 military and 2000 Thai civilians died in WWII.

Thailand themselves used the protection of the Japanese to invade Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and pursue their own goals while the rest of the world was tied up.

Thailand declared war on Britain in 1942 and Bangkok was bombed by Allied forces in 1944, but after the war they escaped punishment because the Americans were running the show by then and didn't care about Britain's former colonies.

Stop making excuses for the Thais. They hardly covered themselves in glory during WWII and unlike the Germans and Japanese they have never apologised to anyone.

No one ever cries over the 20 million Chinese that the Japanese killed they do not have a Holocaust remembrance museum because the Japanese used swords

Rubbish, there are plenty of museums dedicated to Chinese losses and Japanese atrocities in WWII. Just because you haven't visited them doesn't mean they aren't there. To those of us who have always lived in the Southern Hemisphere the war in Asia and the Pacific was the main game and Europe was a long way away.

I could debunk more of your nonsense but it's incredibly hard to decipher your verbal diarrhea with your atrocious punctuation skills. Suffice to say that when you don't have the faintest clue what you're talking about, it's best to shut up and listen for a change.

[MAJIC]

What does the international press say about this absurd new fashion trend in Bangkok? There does not seem to be much on the Internet but I found this:

Hitler T-shirts are a Nazi trend for Thai youth

VILE T-shirts featuring cartoons of Nazi monster Adolf Hitler have become the latest fashion must-have in Thailand.

Boutiques in the capital Bangkok have begun selling the garments showing the dictator as a Teletubby, panda or Ronald McDonald.

The tops, costing between £4 and £7.50, have sparked outrage with visitors.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co...Thai-youth.html

The Sun is a scumbag UK tabloid, same as The Daily Mail; they like to print and sensationalise stories like this as they appeal to the dumbarses who read their newspapers. It is pointless using this scab-sheet as representative of the international press.

The Sun is a scumbag UK tabloid?

Really?

Don't you miss page 3?

Why would you miss a rag, that tells the world you have a IQ of below 50 ?

[metisdead]

Off topic posts have been removed.

[MAJIC]

I don't see any T- Shirts with a portrait of Thaksin with a Hitler moustach, and wearing a swastika on his uniform,

I wonder why??? seems like an obvious market there!

[ReeceArnold]

I totally agree with "time traveller", why are there so many people who just have to complain at every thing, I often wonder if they are all here because they can't find a life or happiness back home, bad newz grumblers; you're still boring over here too, and wont be happy here either . . .

A few pictures of hitler, what about all the trucks with communist hero murderers hanging off the back as mudflaps? Shouldn't you just simply leave this country, as you are so unhappy with the place . . . Just go away and let the rest of us enjoy this lovely country of lovely people . . . We don't need all this constant whinging and whining

Please leave it out . . .

[Thaddeus]

Want some satire?

Have to be quick, only available until Sunday 4th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c7ttz/Newsjack_Series_6_Episode_1/

[WhingeingMoaners]

I find the t-shirts quite amusing. However, a lot of foreigners in Thailand seem to have no sense of humour. I thought you guys encourage freedom of expression. Maybe only when it suits you. Talk about hypocrisy. I am thinking of getting my hands on a couple of these t-shirts and am going to wear them around tourist areas where a lot of foreigners like to hang out.

[Stevebkk01]

Usually i do not post but now i feel I need to.

I am half Thai. Grew up in Europe.

Once again Thailand is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Hitting a new low, once again.

Some things are just not acceptable.

As shocking as it sounds, most Thais are ignorant about WW2 and what happened.

And yes, including people with University degrees (trust me, I checked)

How is it possible that they go through the Thai education system without knowing these things? How is this possible??

Internet is everywhere. Information is there. They all have iPhones and iPads, competing for the newest models.

There is no excuse for ignorance.

But you don't learn about world's history from watching stupid soap operas or spending hours and hours on facebook do you

But probably the saddest thing of all is:

Even if they were aware of WW2, and how outrageous their actions are, they still would be selling these items. As long as money can be made.

Anything goes! This is Thailand!

My emotions right now: anger, disgust and shame

[ludditeman]

My emotions right now: anger, disgust and shame

You think too much.

Nobody (much) in Europe really cares about the past, or WWII, or war crimes.

Just a bit of posing by 'haters' who are never satisfied by anything.

Hitler, Che, Fidel, Stalin, etc., just a bit of harmless fun on T-shirts, flags and posters.

Big Smile (Charlie Chaplin), Big bath (Mel Brooks)

[GentlemanJim]

In a different thread, facebook is accused of being the root of all evil.......

Could the two be combined to form facistbook.

Bad jokes.

I hope no more of such shall come from you.

There are Jewish people in TV too.

There are also Muslims on TV, do you abstain from food and water during the hours of sunlight during the Holy Month of Ramadan to make sure you don't offend them?

The comments on this thread voicing some form of pseudo sensitivity are becoming more ridiculous. The irony is in terms of those complaining bitterly is I bet the situation is currently like all those who called for the death of Salman Rushdie for his book Satanic Verses. 99% calling for his death had never seen nor read the book. How many TV members have actually taken the time to peruse the 't-shirts' etc and view them alongside t-shirts of other famous (infamous) Dictators. How many actually looked at the 'merchandise' before they started slinging the outrage around??

I actually think the picture of Adolf as a Telly-Tubby is priceless...genius in fact. What worse slur for the memory of a Dictator and the pitiful few left in the world that still admire him, than to see the all powerful Fuhrer, reduced to being La La off the Telly-Tubies. If you can't laugh at that you need a long holiday.

[animatic]

In a different thread, facebook is accused of being the root of all evil.......

Could the two be combined to form facistbook.

Good mashup actually on several levels.

[lungmi]

The T-Shirts are one side of the coin.

The hidden side is the ultra-nationalism etc.

Clean the country, the religion, the cities, the village (the red shirt villages are fascist in this way) from all what is different.

For this you need symbols, even if you don't understand their meaning and origin.

A Thai friend 10 years ago (architect, international experience) told me seriously that Thailand needed a Hitler.

?

To clean Thailand from the Chinese occupation. (He proclaimed all time that he was an ethnic Thai and the Chinese (Thaksin?)

destroyed the country.

[Shantaram]

Isreal should stop bugging Thailand and Nazi, and terrorism.

Could you try to rewrite that in semi-understandable English?

Grow up, boys, Hitler is old enough to be your grandfather, the world has moved on, we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits. Let sleeping dogs lie, and let Thai kids have fun.

[Shantaram]

The T-Shirts are one side of the coin.

The hidden side is the ultra-nationalism etc.

Clean the country, the religion, the cities, the village (the red shirt villages are fascist in this way) from all what is different.

For this you need symbols, even if you don't understand their meaning and origin.

A Thai friend 10 years ago (architect, international experience) told me seriously that Thailand needed a Hitler.

?

To clean Thailand from the Chinese occupation. (He proclaimed all time that he was an ethnic Thai and the Chinese (Thaksin?)

destroyed the country.

If it wasn't for the Chinese, Thailand would be a nothing country

[Gweiloman]

The T-Shirts are one side of the coin.

The hidden side is the ultra-nationalism etc.

Clean the country, the religion, the cities, the village (the red shirt villages are fascist in this way) from all what is different.

For this you need symbols, even if you don't understand their meaning and origin.

A Thai friend 10 years ago (architect, international experience) told me seriously that Thailand needed a Hitler.

?

To clean Thailand from the Chinese occupation. (He proclaimed all time that he was an ethnic Thai and the Chinese (Thaksin?)

destroyed the country.

I think you think too much. There are no hidden sides to any coin. A smart entrepreneur saw an opportunity to make some quick bucks, that's all.

Also, I don't think that you should judge the sentiments of Thais from the opinion of one ethnic Thai person. Who knows? He could have been a racist.

[Sing_Sling]

we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits.

You're not serious, surely . . .

(I like your next post, however)

[animatic]

My emotions right now: anger, disgust and shame

You think too much.

Nobody (much) in Europe really cares about the past, or WWII, or war crimes.

Just a bit of posing by 'haters' who are never satisfied by anything.

Hitler, Che, Fidel, Stalin, etc., just a bit of harmless fun on T-shirts, flags and posters.

Big Smile (Charlie Chaplin), Big bath (Mel Brooks)

Chaplin was doing his send up as a 'direct insult to Hitler while Hitler was alive and pillaging'.

He did it to wake up the world to what they were ignoring, or not understanding.

40 years later Brooks was waking them up from their complacency 2-3 generations on.

A lest we forget and be doomed to repeat it.

This T-shirt guy thinks he's cute all the way to the bank.

Nothing noble or altruistic in his work. What's his message.

Nothing matters if a makes me a good profit.

If he put Hitlers face on flip flops then he might have a viable message,

if any of his customers could understand it and appreciate the insult.

[lungmi]

The T-Shirts are one side of the coin.

The hidden side is the ultra-nationalism etc.

Clean the country, the religion, the cities, the village (the red shirt villages are fascist in this way) from all what is different.

For this you need symbols, even if you don't understand their meaning and origin.

A Thai friend 10 years ago (architect, international experience) told me seriously that Thailand needed a Hitler.

?

To clean Thailand from the Chinese occupation. (He proclaimed all time that he was an ethnic Thai and the Chinese (Thaksin?)

destroyed the country.

I think you think too much. There are no hidden sides to any coin. A smart entrepreneur saw an opportunity to make some quick bucks, that's all.

Also, I don't think that you should judge the sentiments of Thais from the opinion of one ethnic Thai person. Who knows? He could have been a racist.

No, I don't generalize. It was only an example for the need to look for a strong man to clear your problems,

[partington]

My take on this is that it's very benign.

These images are humourous, and would be hated by genuine neo-Nazis, because they make Hitler into a ridiculous joke figure. To me that's a good thing.

However I do not agree at all with the position that merely making a humourous depiction of Hitler automatically means that you are "making fun of", say, the Holocaust or the millions of deaths the war brought about.

To make fun of the Holocaust, or any other hideous aspects of this war, you would have to mention them specifically, actually make fun of them, and intend to.

By making cartoon pictures of Hitler, you are just making fun of the image or likeness of Hitler.

It seems an obvious point, but still, countless posters here have conflated finding these images harmless with approval of genocide. Not a sensible position to take.

I wouldn't be an apologist for, say, the Chiang Mai school Nazi sports day, or the poster of Hitler advertising the waxworks in Pattaya, as these could be construed as admiring or glorifying Nazism and Hitler, because they treat the images and regalia in a neutral way that might at a stretch be interpreted as respect or even approval.

But if you make a History Channel program about Hitler, containing newsreel depictions of Hitler making speeches, you are not "approving of Nazis". If you buy a book of 2nd World War Propaganda posters with cartoons of Hitler in them, you are not "making fun of" the millions of deaths this war caused.

Images of Hitler are allowable therefore. It is the context that determines their acceptability.

As an example, here's some Hitler cartoons from the UK in the 1940s, when you might expect distress at the war to be at its height:

[Shantaram]

we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits.

You're not serious, surely . . .

(I like your next post, however)

I'd rather be shopping at Wal Mart than locked up in Munchausen singing Deutscheland uber alles or stuck in a cage somewhere near the river Kwai praising the Empire of the Rising Sun, it's easy to forget all that now. It was the Russians, Chinese, USA, Canada, the Brits, Serbs, Indians and Australia who made what we have today possible.

[Shantaram]

we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits.

You're not serious, surely . . .

(I like your next post, however)

I'll take that as a compliment ;>

I'd rather be shopping at Wal Mart than locked up in Munchausen singing Deutscheland uber alles or stuck in a cage somewhere near the river Kwai praising the Empire of the Rising Sun, it's easy to forget all that now. It was the Russians, Chinese, USA, Canada, the Brits, Serbs, Indians and Australia who made the freedom we have today possible.

[Thaddeus]

In a different thread, facebook is accused of being the root of all evil.......

Could the two be combined to form facistbook.

Good mashup actually on several levels.

Which is exactly why I did it, and the response to it was as I expected.

[xray]

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).

[Sing_Sling]

we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits.

You're not serious, surely . . .

(I like your next post, however)

I'd rather be shopping at Wal Mart than locked up in Munchausen singing Deutscheland uber alles or stuck in a cage somewhere near the river Kwai praising the Empire of the Rising Sun, it's easy to forget all that now. It was the Russians, Chinese, USA, Canada, the Brits, Serbs, Indians and Australia who made what we have today possible.

It was meant to be a compliment . . . as to your second one, including Russians, Indians, Canada etc... sounds infinitely better than what you wrote previously, which was a very Anglo-centric statement

[metisdead]

Off topic inflammatory posts and replies have been removed.

[kerryk]

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).

If one goes through the 20 or so swastika topics that have been posted and discussed on Thai Visa over the past few years it is absolutely fascinating to me the number of posters with only 2 or three posts that feel it necessary to discuss the swastika.

What is it about the swastika that brings out posters who never comment on anything else on Thai Visa but feel it necessary to comment on the swastika?

I am not saying there is anything wrong with your comments but why would the swastika be the first thing out of the hundreds of thousands discussed on Thai Visa that you would comment on?

[folium]

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).

If one goes through the 20 or so swastika topics that have been posted and discussed on Thai Visa over the past few years it is absolutely fascinating to me the number of posters with only 2 or three posts that feel it necessary to discuss the swastika.

What is it about the swastika that brings out posters who never comment on anything else on Thai Visa but feel it necessary to comment on the swastika?

I am not saying there is anything wrong with your comments but why would the swastika be the first thing out of the hundreds of thousands discussed on Thai Visa that you would comment on?

Perhaps they are just the "alter-egos" of more regular posters. Heaven forbid.

[Sayonarax]

Feel sad for the moderator that has to dig through all this.

One double McHitler Meal to go thanks.

[thaibeachlovers]

we now have a free world thanks to the USA, the Aussies and the Brits.

You're not serious, surely . . .

(I like your next post, however)

I'll take that as a compliment ;>

I'd rather be shopping at Wal Mart than locked up in Munchausen singing Deutscheland uber alles or stuck in a cage somewhere near the river Kwai praising the Empire of the Rising Sun, it's easy to forget all that now. It was the Russians, Chinese, USA, Canada, the Brits, Serbs, Indians and Australia who made the freedom we have today possible.

Hmmmm. You left out rather a lot of countries that were on the allied side.

Walmart, LOL. The modern version of bread and circuses is shopping and tv. The strongest chains are those that cannot be seen, but are imposed from within!

[thaibeachlovers]

What does the international press say about this absurd new fashion trend in Bangkok? There does not seem to be much on the Internet but I found this:

Hitler T-shirts are a Nazi trend for Thai youth

VILE T-shirts featuring cartoons of Nazi monster Adolf Hitler have become the latest fashion must-have in Thailand.

Boutiques in the capital Bangkok have begun selling the garments showing the dictator as a Teletubby, panda or Ronald McDonald.

The tops, costing between £4 and £7.50, have sparked outrage with visitors.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co...Thai-youth.html

Nothing less than one would expect from the gutter press.

If they were actually believable, there would be demonstrations by tourists outside the so called boutiques ( another instance of erroneous reporting ), which there plainly aren't. In fact, it is probably business as usual for everyone outside the Israeli embassy and some on TV.