Ku Klux Klan Air Force

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 02/17/2016 at 14:25 • Filed to: planelopnik

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Prior to taking off on a flight to drop leaflets over Washington, DC in 1922. I’m figuring that the guy on the right was left behind.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > ttyymmnn 02/17/2016 at 14:38

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AuthiCooper1300 > ttyymmnn 02/17/2016 at 14:43

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That means the KKK started using the svastika before the Nazis did??

Interestingly, it is a “sauvastika”, turning in the “opposite” direction to the Nazi type (or the Finnish roundel, for that matter).

Or is it just a “lucky charm” (as the svastika sometimes was) and the roundel on the rudder has nothing to do with the KKK?

davedave1111 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 02/17/2016 at 14:51

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They’re dressed as lawn darts.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > davedave1111 02/17/2016 at 14:53

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As much as they were absolutely evil and feared for their actions, it’s hard to look at some chubby dudes in stupid sheets and take them seriously...

davedave1111 > AuthiCooper1300 02/17/2016 at 14:59

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“That means the KKK started using the svastika before the Nazis did??”

a) The Nazis started using it in 1920, so no.

b) In any case, that’s almost certainly a coincidental use of the symbol as a good-luck charm on the tail of the aeroplane. It was common in early aviation.

c) Oddly enough, though, there is some thought that like much of the rest of Nazism, Hitler was inspired to use the swastika by influences from the US via Karl May’s novels. But it’s a bit of a stretch, and I find this a much more likely source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika_…

ttyymmnn > AuthiCooper1300 02/17/2016 at 15:02

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No idea to any of your questions. The photo isn’t reversed, since the KKK wear the patch on the left side.

Looks like there may be some info here:

http://rexcurry.net/karl-may-adolf…

davedave1111 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 02/17/2016 at 15:03

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Well, gratifyingly enough it was ridicule that robbed them of their chance at real power:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ob…

AuthiCooper1300 > davedave1111 02/17/2016 at 15:15

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Thanks, I stand corrected re: use of svastikas by the NSDAP. For some idiotic reason I thought it had appeared a bit later.

I had heard about Hitler’s love for Karl May, but as you say, that is maybe going a bit too far. On the other hand, the fascination of much of late nineteenth/early-twentieth century German society with a rather twisted interpretation of what “Germanic” is or represents is well known.

Lord knows why they chose precisely that symbol.

Fascinating picture, by the way, Mr Ttyymmnn

Sam > ttyymmnn 02/17/2016 at 15:19

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Ah! Spooky ghosts!

AuthiCooper1300 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 02/17/2016 at 15:19

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So true. Unfortunately sartorial taste has no bearing on someone being evil or not.

ttyymmnn > Sam 02/17/2016 at 15:26

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Who you callin’ a spook?

AuthiCooper1300 > ttyymmnn 02/17/2016 at 15:32

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I don’t like Mr Konigsberg that much anymore but this is pure gold...

Sorry to hijack the thread with this, Mr Ttyymmnn...

davedave1111 > AuthiCooper1300 02/17/2016 at 15:38

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Sorry, I completely forgot to add that of course the Nazis had crazy ideas about being ‘Aryan’, and the real Aryans were thought to have used the symbol. Combine that with the proto-Germanic use, and add a dash of wanting to reference the Great War despite the Iron Cross being banned in Germany at the time, and you end up with the symbol of evil that we know today.

ttyymmnn > AuthiCooper1300 02/17/2016 at 15:44

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No worries. It’s thematic.

AuthiCooper1300 > davedave1111 02/17/2016 at 16:19

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Long before GIGO there was an old dictum of classical logic: ex absurdo sequitur quodlibet - from absurd premises you can get anything. All that pseudohistory got them very far and very wrong indeed.

Was the Iron Cross actually banned during the Weimar Republic then? I understand that it did not exist as a decoration - but banned?

Regarding Nazism and the old Germanic/Nordic tradition someone wrily joked during the war about the Nazis trying to “Norwegify” Germany - and “Germanify” Norway.