(Jewish Group) So, where does the fascist 'Sieg Heil' salute come from anyway?
Visual language is a major part of the power of fascism — the parades; the films; the salutes. This weekend’s Trump rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where the crowd raised one arm in solidarity and admiration, quickly drew comparisons to the infamous “Heil Hitler” salute, which is also sometimes referred to as the “Roman salute.”
“Mr. Trump delivered a dark address about the decline of America over music that was all but identical to a song called “WWG1WGA” — an abbreviation for the QAnon slogan, ‘Where we go one, we go all,’” The New York Times reported. “As Mr. Trump spoke, scores of people in the crowd raised fingers in the air in an apparent reference to the ‘1’ in what they thought was the song’s title. It was the first time in the memory of some Trump aides that such a display had occurred at one of his rallies.”
Social media responded with scores of side-by-side images, which compared crowds of enthralled Nazis with Trump supporters.
But the salute as a unifier — and as a path to punish those who don’t conform by immediately raising their arms — was present before Hitler came to power.
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