Why a networked world needs bridge builders

Back in 2010 I moved to Latvia, a country I did not know much about, and one I was ready to get to know. Wandering the streets of Riga, the capital, in the early days, I noticed many stalls and shops selling knitwear: bonnets, scarfs, sweaters, gloves. Looking closer, I noticed something that surprised me: many had a swastika integrated in the patterns. It threw me a little. Was this Nazi-merch? Should this not be banned? WTF is wrong with these people?

Then I learned about the culture in this corner of the world. And that this symbol has been a sign of life, of the sun, of holiness for much longer than that it had been a symbol of the evil that people can be capable of. And the Latvians had not fallen into the trap of letting evil win by appropriating symbols. This was not a celebration of the evil in the world, this was an act of defiance: not letting one bad apple taint the entire basket; letting the good prevail over the evil. They were claiming their symbol for what it had always been.

Something similar is going on with a recent video shared here on Farcaster by Kenji. Some see it as a reference to Hitler and his evil doings, trying to figure out who is intended to be the bad guy in the story. And trying to link this video to the evils of the Nazi era. There are three things you are missing when you do so.

First of all, using the Original Bunker Scene from the brilliant movie Der Untergang (The Downfall for those who do not speak German) is absolute OG Meme Culture. This scene has been used widely to comment on anything that people were surprised and angered by. Discounting the use of this scene as referreing to Nazism is a sign that you missed this crucial piece of modern internet history, and I can certainly recommend looking into it. Search for "Original Bunker Scene", "The Downfall meme" or "Der Untergang meme" to learn more.

Secondly, the Original Bunker Scene in the movie plays a key role. (Yes, spoiler alert, but hey: history.) It is not about Hitler ordering the destruction of several categories of humans, it is about Hitler finding out his trusted inner circle had been lying to him about the progress of the Allied and Soviet forces. It is about how a dictator who had built a "yes-men" culture finding out that forcefully limiting what people can say and do, even the people who you should trust the most, will eventually lead to a catastrophic, dare I say it, downfall. As he had severely punished people telling him facts or sharing opinions he did not like, nobody wanted to tell him the truth about the Nazi troops losing the war, and the Allied and Soviet forces closing in on Berlin fast. That is what this scene in the movie is about. And that is why it makes for such great material for meme culture.

Lastly, there is something more personal. When I share a video that has the Original Bunker Scene at its core and you tell me that references to Hitler are too sensitive, you discount anything I have done in the past. You judge me for how this video lands in your frame of reference. For how you interpret it. You assume malicious intent in me, without asking me first what my intentions are. Without being open first to what may be behind it. This is of course your right to do, but it is also not really conducive to finding our way back from a polarised, culture-war-torn Western society. Without going into this conversation, we will never be able to build bridges to cross the divide. And in this day and age, we need bridges more than ever.

The point is that taking offence to something shared based only on its superficial appearance, and then trying to discount it for purity reasons, means you are dividing the world into camps and you stop reaching out to the other to get a better understanding of what is said and why it is said. It also competely misses the fact that in an overly connected world, your cultural frame of reference is less and lees likely to be the same as someone elses. Differences in age, geographical placement, cultural background will make that a shared story is not a given anymore. You always need to ask and listen and stay in the conversation. And please do not silence the voices that make you uncomfortable. Question them. Reach out. Especially when they are people you had good contact with before. That is how we move forward.