Oh those darn Fascist Socialists...

A fellow was handing these flyers out in downtown Calgary the other day. I honestly gave it little attention as usually the things people hand out in the city core are of questionable merit... but this handout in particular irks me due to the amazing ignorance that it tries to mask with sentiment and symbolism.

A cursory glance and it would seem to be a noble cause in stopping the spread of Nazi influenced companies - the swastika is a nice touch. Yet if one reads the pamphlet it becomes obvious the person who organized this .... is a bit off his gourd to say the least.

First off, the title 'Fight Socialism' under which a crossed out swastika would make the uninformed believe that the Nazis were Socialists - nothing could be further from the truth, literally. The Nazi Party was based on Fascism, which is actually on the far-right of the political spectrum.

// A small side note, the terms left and right were believed to be coined in France during the revolution. The aristocracy sat on the right while the commoners sat on the left, so it originally started as a representation of interests of the wealthy elite and the average commoner.//

Socialism is on the far-left of the political spectrum - which naturally is at odds with Fascism and vice versa.

So just with the title and underlying symbol the aforementioned leaflet is already of dubious merit. Of course it then goes on to call for a boycott of companies that were based in the original "Axis of Evil" (except for Japan oddly enough - perhaps too many companies to list). While the rest of the information on the leaflet appears to be based on facts, the information ranges from direct quotations to opinionated drivel.

Calling for a boycott in 2010 for atrocities committed in the 1940's is a bit behind the times, especially considering that most of the companies and countries involved had to perform their mea culpas quite a while ago, for example the Nuremberg Trials which dealt justice to a number of Nazi Political, Military and Economic officials. In any case the author of the leaflet seems to believe that these companies should forever be shunned for their involvement in their countries policies.

Though to practice that ideal one would have to boycott nearly every company in existence, forgo driving (oil companies aren't saints), even give up that soft drink as coca-cola purposely split their company so they could keep doing business in Nazi Germany (Fanta anyone?).

While I have to admire the intentions to an extent, spreading misinformation and ignorance is the wrong way to do it. Instead of calling for 'boycotts' I'd rather call for social responsibility in all things, people should know more about what is happening in the world around them - economically and politically. There should be decisions based on the facts available at the time and a honest realistic view of the products that people purchase, and the politics that people support.

Of course that ideal is quite a bit harder as most people would prefer not to know that Hugo Boss designed the uniforms of the Nazi Schutzstafell or SS - though to be honest, as evil as the Nazis were, they had pretty nifty uniforms.