# Reverse-swastika on a white supremacist's forehead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834 "2004-02-24T04:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/1 "2004-02-24T04:49:21Z")
I was watching “Pornstar”, the documentary about Ron Jeremy. In it, Ron is on a TV talkshow during his earlier years in the industry (shown by his lack of gut). A white man stands up and starts saying what Ron does is disgusting, blah blah. After calling ron a Kike, Ron says something about having sex with the guy’s mother. The white guy rushes the stage, and tackles Ron from his chair. (Off topic: Mid-air, Ron turns the guy around and lands on top of him in a BEAUTIFUL counter, has Ron ever Taken Brazillian Jiujitsu?!?) Anyways, at first before he started spouting racist expletives, I thought the guy might be a buddhist, because the swastika on his forehead was reversed, like a Japanese manji or Chinese buddhist symbol. Is there a special white supremacist meaning to the swastika if it’s reversed? I’ve only seen asians use the counter-clockwise swastika before. ---
**Author:** ![JBENZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/2 "2004-02-24T04:56:08Z")
It means he did the tattoo himself and was too dumb to realize that the mirror reversed the image. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/3 "2004-02-24T04:59:40Z")
I have noticed in some TV shows, the camera footage tends to get reversed from time to time. You can see it on clock faces, writing on liscence plates/billboards, etc. It must be an editing trick of some kind, but I have no idea why. Is it possible this guy’s “idiot tattoo” got reversed by the same process? Tripler Something also tells me **JBENZ** might also be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/4 "2004-02-24T05:40:36Z")
Yeah same reason as the guy who had FFO KCUF on his forehead ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/5 "2004-02-24T05:47:53Z")
I don’t think racists really care which way a swastika is pointing. ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/6 "2004-02-24T09:12:23Z")
Just IMHO, but I think it’s a bit silly to debate whether neo-nazis should wear clockwise or conter-clockwise swastikas. At least I can’t remember which was the ‘proper’ way without checking from a history book. After all the swastika is an ancient symbol of good, and I don’t think Asians of those times cared that much if someone used an occasional reverse symbol. The only reason that is frowned upon nowadays is that nazis happened to use it, but on the other hand, using an eagle as a symbol of power is still perfectly acceptable then. ---
**Author:** ![AZRob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azrob/32/3003_2.png) [@AZRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZRob)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverse-swastika-on-a-white-supremacists-forehead/230834/7 "2004-02-24T09:29:56Z")
IMHO … backed up by years as a police officer dealing with the socially-challenged, **Eurograff** and **JBENZ** are right on. There’s not a lot of what most people would call rational thought behind supremacist symbols, especially on the part of someone who would get a forehead tattoo. I once arrested a 20-something transient who had the word “Hate” tattoo’d just under one eye. An example of his thought processes was that he wanted “Antidisestablishmentarianism” listed for his occupation on the jail booking paperwork. I tried to explain that a person couldn’t be an “ism” and offered to write down “Antidisestablishmentarian,” but he was pretty sure of himself. Not that he was working or conducting any useful activity anyway. 😉 Also, TV throws another element into the mix since it’s another step removed from reality and most actors have all their teeth and can speak in complete sentences. YMMV Rob