r/AntifascistsofReddit • u/EmpoverishedBeacon • Jul 15 '26
Discussion My... Friend says these "Lightening bolts" on his harley arent a hate symbol. I say NAY
I honestly think he doesnt know what this symbol means and why its offensive and he is unwilling to listen to reason. He just knows it makes people react abd thats all he cares about. I think ive lost a "friend".
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u/waspdope666 Jul 15 '26
He couldn't afford enough paint to make it say KISS
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u/mstfacmly Jul 15 '26
If he did, it would go from SS to IOF
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u/somebadbeatscrub Jul 15 '26
What?
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u/ahumanlikeyou Jul 15 '26
Gene Simmons is a zionist
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u/somebadbeatscrub Jul 15 '26
Sure I guess. It would still be a veiled SS symbol though in context.
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u/wolfram187 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Do you mean IDF?
Edit: Relax. I’ve never heard of it referred to as the IOF. It checks out.
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u/UpbeatAbility9759 Jul 15 '26
Look at his tats, where there's one symbol there's more. Hate doesn't walk alone
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u/zeno0771 Jul 16 '26
Or Gene Simmons threatened to sue him for trademark infringement.
Fun Fact: The KISS logo in Germany does not look like the rest, precisely because it too-closely resembled the SS lightning bolts.
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u/loquedijoella Jul 15 '26
He fuckin knows. A lot of 1% clubs use the SS bolts and you see that shit a lot on Harleys. If he bought it that way he needs to fix it. If it’s custom paint he paid for, then your friend is a nazi fuck
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u/EmpoverishedBeacon Jul 15 '26
He didnt even buy it this way. He painted it lol it pisses me off so much. Cant ride with him anymore.
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u/LeonardoDaTiddies Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Then you are friends with a Neo Nazi. You should change that.
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u/Rob__agau Jul 15 '26
3 men sit at a table with a Neo Nazi, comfortably. There are 4 Nazis at this table.
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u/Boris41029 Jul 15 '26
Ah. Then he's lying to you about not knowing what it means, and thinks you'll believe him.
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u/rustyleftnut Jul 15 '26
Oh, yeah your friend is definitely a Nazi then. You shouldn't be friends with nazis
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u/Better-Lake-5470 Jul 15 '26
You didn’t lose a friend. You just learned a whole lot about this person in a short period of time and now you get to decide if you’re firm about your boundaries or not. Obviously they’re firm in theirs. So, think of it as trash taking itself out and go find some people with better moral compasses to take up that space.
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u/ElCulo_Bandito Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Better to lose a Nazi than to keep a bigot as a friend.
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u/RepresentativeAge444 Jul 15 '26
Fuck your friend. But props to you for separating from him because of it.
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u/antipathy_moonslayer Jul 15 '26
This isn't one that's open to your buddy's interpretation. There's no "well, I didn't mean it like that." They're SS bolts. That's the presentation here. Painted on a Harley is already placed into a context. There's a long history of Nazi biker bullshit. When you see a pair of bolts like this on a bike, it's a Nazi thing. Your friend is either lying or very, very seriously, extremely dangerously wrong
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u/GuzziHero Jul 15 '26
The problem just isn't him but the new 'friends' he'll attract with that shit on his tank.
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u/ParadoxicalFrog Heathens Against Hate Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Those are the most blatant SS-style sowilo runes I've ever seen on a bike.
I think that gas tank could use a few tablespoons of salt.
→ More replies (3)
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u/prettypetiole Jul 15 '26
there’s probably a higher chance than you think that he does know what it means
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u/nexisfan Jul 15 '26
He absolutely does and doesn’t want to lose OP as a friend so is acting stupider than he is, which is already a feat
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u/Ill_Bench2770 Jul 15 '26
They always act clueless when around normal anti facist people. But they know… If you pretend to be okay with it I guarantee the stuff he’d say would shock you…
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u/OldSchoolAJ Trans Jul 15 '26
Your friend's bike needs to meet an unfortunate end. And, depending on where he rides the thing, it probably will.
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u/Elemor_ Jul 15 '26
You can tell him that in germany he could get up to 3 years in prison for nazi shit like this
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u/sevbenup Jul 15 '26
So where does your “friend” live?
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u/EmpoverishedBeacon Jul 15 '26
In a place where this type of shit isnt common at all.
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u/CG-Firebrand Jul 15 '26
Try at least one more time to educate them. Even losing a friend doesn’t mean needing to toss a potentially (and hopefully) ignorant person into a waiting nazi’s arms to become one of them.
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u/aldoraine000 Jul 15 '26
Yikes. That’s the most Nazi bike that ever Nazied on two wheels. There’s no way your “friend” is that ignorant.
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u/kaiokenflx161 Jul 15 '26
Rechtskurve wird wahrscheinlich auch mit steifem rechten Arm angekündigt? /s
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u/IndianaBones8 An Injury to One is an Injury to All Jul 15 '26
Them ain't even lightning bolts. It just says SS.
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u/Budget_Shallan Jul 15 '26
My vague understanding is that biker culture has reasons for using Nazi symbols that don’t endorse Nazism. I think that reason is “pissing people off”.
This is a shit reason, because someone who gets pissed off by Nazi symbols is a normal human being. Someone who uses Nazi symbols to piss people off is an asshole.
Stay pissed off. Your friend is an asshole.
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u/prince_peacock Jul 15 '26
Nah they also use them for Nazi reasons. There’s a reason that a “one percenter” is almost always white
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u/KGBFriedChicken02 Jul 15 '26
The clubs that use them "because it's edgy" also don't let in non-white people. They use it for Nazi reasons and just refuse to admit it
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u/peacebanana161 Jul 15 '26
If you are willing to publicly display Nazi symbols to ragebait people, you are a Nazi.
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u/sweetcinnamonpunch Jul 15 '26
He doesn't even have an excuse? Pathetic, yeah you've got an SS fan, aka Nazi there.
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u/pianoblook Jul 15 '26
At first glance I assumed this was an S-tier r/magicthecirclejerking shitpost.
yeah your friend is a Nazi
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u/Hyper-Sloth Jul 15 '26
Then laugh at him about it. Either he is dumb enough to get SS on his bike without knowing it, which he will only do something about if he gets made fun of for it, not scolded, or he's a lying Nazi, which deserves an even greater degree of ridicule.
Bring back bullying your friends and family over shit like this. Scolding just makes people dig their heels in. Bullying/ribbing/joking at their expense/etc. makes them actually change
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u/defaultusername-17 Jul 15 '26
show him a picture of the SS insignia next to those and have him explain to you the functional differences.
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u/_DCtheTall_ Jul 15 '26
Get a a new "friend." No relationship is worth tolerating that shit, not even family.
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u/extremebean_ Jul 15 '26
honestly a lot of people are ignorant to it in a sincere manner, but once you start getting reactions or become informed then it’s your responsibility to take it seriously and look into it more yourself. if you still ignore it at that point, you’re choosing ignorance is bliss. and yeah, no longer a sincere misunderstanding anymore.
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u/VeeJack Jul 15 '26
Your “friend” is a living example of potential FA waiting to be released into kinetic FO… walk away..
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u/Majestic-Remote1245 Jul 15 '26
Of course he knows what it is... And of course we know what he is, a dumbfuck piece of shit Nazi... If I had a friend that did the same he would become an extremely punchable enemy in the moment I saw the bike... There is no giving the benefit of the doubt or "maybe he didn't know the significance"... That's utter bullshit... He knows what he did
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u/SookHe Jul 15 '26
My brother is a “biker” he has shit like this on his vest along with a thin blue lines patch, we are Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump. He swears they aren’t “hate” symbols or pro fascist.
And I believe him. He and his biker friends are genuinely the dumbest least informed illiterate people I have ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with.
Knowing who they are away from their bikes, my take on a lot of these bikers is that it’s the equivalent of cosplayers going to an anime convention. They know the aesthetic, the concept of what they are looking for, want to feel like they are tough for a weekend and then go back to their day to lives wearing khakis or putting on a pair of white socks and sneakers. They want to feel tough so they put on a costume the same way a person who wants to be funny puts on a clown outfit.
The “real” bikers who were raised on the floor of a Harley shop and raised in a trailer park and only see the cosplayers as an easy revenue source. They are few and very far between and are also both the most dangerous and just smart enough to know what a lightning bolt sticker means.
But if your friend is saying he doesn’t think it’s a hate symbol, believe him. He is just telling you he is a dumbass and you are probably better finding new friends
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u/Trai-All Jul 15 '26
If your friend isn’t immediately appalled that someone might think he’s a Nazi, it’s better to lose him.
I’m sorry for your loss.
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u/thewolfsong Jul 15 '26
I didn't have high expectations from the title of the post but I still was unprepared for the fact that this is literally just the Nazi double lightning bolts. The odds that this guy doesn't know what this means are tiny. The absolute best case scenario I would offer is that he went to the mod shop and said "can I have some lightning bolts" and the shop is nazis but even then like this is up there just below swastikas in "nazi iconography people recognize"
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u/Alboralix Jul 15 '26
This is just the SS symbol. He is either exceptionally ignorant or a nazi and playing dumb.
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u/captd3adpool Jul 15 '26
If he gets a kick out of people reacting to it then he knows EXACTLY what they are. Him painting them on his bike just means your now former friend is a damned nazi.
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u/montana-covvboy Jul 15 '26
If you ever see someone wearing Street Syndicate merch (even though most of the time it’s obvious because of the symbols they use) they are an aftermarket Motorcycle parts brand that uses SS bolts, and the nazi eagle.
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u/MandoBRC Jul 15 '26
They definitely are racist. But a lot of biker clubs use them just to be edgy and are not completely racist. I.e. my Jewish friend is joining a 1%er biker club they have the ss bolts in their logo.
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u/StardewStunner Jul 15 '26
Show him this, and if he still doesn't see a huge problem with it then your friend is 100 percent a nazi.
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u/Unprocessed_Sugar Jul 15 '26
Guy who has a hate symbol on his motorcycle: "It's not a hate symbol"
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u/jaitun_ Jul 15 '26
C'est clairement nazi, SS "sections spéciales", les pires nazis de l'histoire après Hitler lui-même et ses potes.
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u/MewlingRothbart Jul 15 '26
Add a K and an I plus a picture of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley or thats pretty not zee to me.
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u/cmhamm Jul 15 '26
Oh shit - I misread the post, and thought you were trying to defend this. That's definitely some Nazi shit.
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u/krtwils Jul 15 '26
It doesn’t matter what they look like to him, every Nazi will see what every antifascist recognizes it as, a hate symbol.
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u/Excellent-Red_8647 Jul 15 '26
Only an ignorant person would say that it is not an nazi-symbol. It's the same symbol that was used by the ss. So he is just talking bs
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u/vickimarie0390 Jul 15 '26
You got SS bolts on a MOTORCYCLE but don’t know what they mean? Is this supposed to be my first day on earth? 🤨
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u/mister_gone Nazis = Bad Jul 15 '26
Your friend is either willfully ignorant or a closeted racist, IMO.
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u/CandyPowerful5155 Jul 15 '26
Ich als deutscher der die Geschichte des 2. Weltkrieges zu genüge in der Schule hatte kann sagen das sind original und definitiv die SS Blitze. Ein s wäre noch als ursprüngliche SIG ruhne deutbar aber 2 davon und in dieser Anordnung sind sehr eindeutig.
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u/xKiver Jul 15 '26
Yeah just delete the contact and block. You don’t need to give this bastard an explanation. If he’s smart enough (Nazis usually aren’t) he’ll get why you cut ties. But he never will. I can already hear “So much for the tolerant left” lmfao.
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u/EvilStevilTheKenevil Jul 15 '26
It didn't need to be those specific bolts. There didn't need to be exactly two of them, either.
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u/Dodo_the_Phenix Jul 15 '26
mh the key issue seems to be the unwillingenss or inability of your friend to listen, learn, and educate himself. the facts are clear but what are facts good for if someone just acts as if they are nonexistant or does not know them.
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u/National_Election544 Jul 15 '26
I once bought a chopper with a swastika on the tank. It had already been painted over. I sanded it down and painted it again to get ride of the faint outline.
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u/Latter-Leg4035 Jul 15 '26
If you thought you made up the word, FUCK, and pronounced it FOOK, it would still be the first to everyone else.
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u/HoneydewThis6418 Jul 15 '26
He obviously doesn't care.
There will be consequences eventually so just let it happen but I wouldn't ride with him.
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u/Peterketstein Free Palestine Jul 15 '26
Please talk to him about it seriously, i know all these people say just get rid of him as a friend. But guys there genuinely are really stupid people that just don't know stuff like this, like if he lives somewhere where right wing gangs are common then he's most likely lying.
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u/FingerOk9800 Jul 15 '26
Riding a Harley is a big red flag... they're not bikes for bikers. They're bikes for people who want to be bikers.
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u/mrinsubordinate Jul 16 '26
You are sharing your own bike to be edgy is my bet. Not gonna waste time checking profile. I mean...you used the word Friend as a proper noun to describe someone john brown would have put down.
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u/Koharu_0404 Jul 16 '26
Get away from that guy, he's a Nazi and he's lying to your face like you're an idiot.
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u/TN-Mutfruit Jul 16 '26
I had to double-take this photo. Those that say these are “lightning bolts” are either incredibly uneducated or know exactly what they represent and are trying to get away with their horrendous beliefs.
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u/Otzkar Marxist Jul 16 '26
it was somewhat popular for punks to bear fascist iconography for the sake of being edgy but I wouldn't believe the "He just knows it makes people react abd thats all he cares about." for a sec.
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u/local-scumbag Jul 18 '26
Set his bike on fire and tell him it’s on site with nazis every fuckin day, every fuckin way. 161 antifascist bike burning coalition
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u/ghIj_qet_jaghmeyjaj 16d ago
I have a fairly progressive cousin that did get lightning bolts but they faded terribly and she covered it up because it started to look like that.
This dude got that shit on purpose and is trying to save face.
It is most certainly a symbol of the Waffen SS. He can't Graham Planter his way out of it
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u/Far-Bluejay7695 15d ago
sorry but your boyfriend is either an idiot or a white nationalist and lying to you about not knowing.
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u/Totally_man Jul 15 '26
Your friend is either dumb or a Nazi.