The most believable excuse I've heard is that they are adopting Nazi aesthetics "ironically" to trigger the Russians that slander all Ukrainian opposition to them as Nazism, so the story goes. Like how leftists act tongue-in-cheek online as the extremist caricatures they're portrayed as.

But instead of posting Slammer memes it's: "Unlimited genocide on the russian [sic] horde" with Bandera or Hitler in place of Qin Shi Huang, with few hints of absurdity or insincerity. Also acting as Nazis IRL in an actual war.

[–] sleeplessone@lemmy.ml 28 points 3 months ago

Ukrainian psychological warfare strategy, colorized.

[+] RedSturgeon@hexbear.net 25 points 3 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] AstroStelar@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

From an outsider's perspective it is nonsensical and self-defeating, the reason I found it most believable is because I can imagine what mental gymnastics are at play:

Believing so hard that you're not a Nazi because of this or that, your peers believe the same, so using Nazi symbols together obviously isn't a symbol of their true beliefs*, it's just to make the Russians go .

Plus, who cares what the Russians think, they lie about you constantly anyways, calling everything an Azov base .

*Platner did this when he downplayed his Totenkopf tattoo by talking about how un-Nazi his beliefs are.

The West voted against Russia's UN resolutions condemning Nazism and racism because they didn't want their support used by "Russian agents" to attack support for Ukraine, so they end up voting against anti-Nazi resolutions which if anything was a bigger propaganda win for Russia than going along.

In both cases it's preaching to the crowd + smug self-righteousness.

[–] Frigg@hexbear.net 13 points 3 months ago

Like how leftists act tongue-in-cheek online as the extremist caricatures they're portrayed as.

I-was-saying

[–] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 11 points 3 months ago

Why would they give the Russian propaganda machine (as they understand it) more ammo to credibly claim they are Nazis? That is a weak excuse.