The only criticism we could make is that they didn't do due diligence and investigated the case before writing their article and interviewing the students. Which to me isn't really a big issue and doesn't count as opportunism on their part.
The problem is that the students might not realize the uniform is not a Nazi one; leading to the reinforcement to the bourgeois conflation of Nazi Germany and Socialist Germany (under the totalitarianism nonsense). I do think they should correct themselves on this matter.
He also performed a salute that wasn't the nazi salute, but also didn't seem to be the GDR salute.
What does the GDR salute look like?
Hitler has also been photographed doing an extended arm salute at 45° (usual one is a bit higher), but with the fingers pointing straight out, and the student kept the angle but closed his fist.
Huh. That's gotta be real irritating to distinguish the regular military salute from the fascist one.
It's a whole lot of "yes that looked like a nazi thing, but actually if you look closely it wasn't!" to defend this student. If I'd been there and seeing this live, I would have first thought he was a fascist who didn't have enough courage to actually wear the right uniform.
I was thinking a similar thought; given that the dude apparently supported Blue Lives Matter. - Comrade Amicchan (talk) 00:54, 18 April 2023 (UTC)