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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1865 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026

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Anyone following the new logo for the Atlanta Falcons saga?

The memes are hilarious.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/oct/22/atlanta-falcons-throwback-logo-nazi-germany-comparisons-memes

If the bird was an eagle, that flag would read as some kind of German state or patriotic heraldry to anyone with the slightest familiarity with German history and culture, and the predominantly-red colour scheme makes it more redolent of Nazi-era German heraldry than Imperial-era or post-war German heraldry.

Apparently it is a falcon. I note that the SCA does not allow a difference between falcons and eagles for the purposes of resolving conflicting heraldry.

I am not going to call it fascist, because I don't think Falcons fans are right-wingers whom I dislike (the actual meaning of the dratted word nowadays). But it definitely falls into the category of "flags I, being neither a German patriot nor a neo-Nazi, would choose not to fly".

I agree that confusion is easy here - both Germany and the US use eagles extensively in their national heraldry, and the fasces (without the axe) was widely used as a symbol of republican authority long before fascism was a thing. I can see why someone would find the United Farmworkers flag Nazi-looking - after looking at a bunch of Nazi and Soviet propaganda to write my other post on this thread I don't because the eagle is drawn in a cubist-looking way, and the Nazis didn't do that. (I suspect this was deliberate on the part of Richard Chavez when he designed the flag). And the US House mace is just a fasces with an eagle on top, neither of which is a fascist symbol per se.

Atlanta Falcons fans, thé braves are a different sport.

Oops - will correct.

Yeah I am puzzled by any puzzlement. The modernist styled falcon whose wings are drawn straight as a ruler in a 90 degree angle together with the black-white-red color scheme (it's not even a German imperial tricolor but black-surrounded-by-white-surrounded-by-red) is quite on the nose. Only part that hints against direct Nazi influence is the derpy open-mouthed look on the falcon's face, they cared about details like that. If I saw this in the wild without context, I'd guess a flag of some random 20th century South American party who liked Nazi aesthetics or a media from an alternate history fiction product.

It's not like it's even difficult to avoid these associations. Germany still uses eagles in state heraldry, they just style them either as ye olde derpy heraldric eagles or round and well-fed together with decidedly non-nazi 1848/Weimar black-red-yellow tricolor. You can evoke Bonapartist masculine sentiments by drawing a golden eagle who didn't skip a leg day flexing his muscles on a blue background. You can evoke decidedly American imperial authority by drawing a bald eagle and/or an drawing the wings raised upwards and curved as in the Great Seal (ie a semi-realistically showing off that you can draw the anatomy of the metacarpal and radius bone). It helps if you put stars and stripes in the vicinity.

I agree there is a contingent of leftists who rejoice in claiming that any designs with imposing birds of prey are a symbol of dangerous authoritarian thought, but that goes without saying. (Coincidentally, the leftist heraldry avoids all prominent animal motifs for some reason, preferring stars, human tools, and wheat). In practice most people don't care as long as you provide sufficient amount of visual cues to other referents (and avoid too many nazisque visual cues like their party colors).

The Falcons didn't really have a choice about colours given the team colours, and it looks like the dieselpunk/totalitariancore styling of the falcon is a team trademark, so it would have been a modicum of effort to come up with a definitely-not-Nazi design. But they seem to have succeeded on an entire merch store worth of stuff to date. On balance, I suspect mistake rather than malice.

U Alabama Crimson Tide also have a red-white-black colour scheme and a hatedom that would love to call them Nazis, but have somehow also managed to avoid this kind of controversy. So it can't be that difficult.

Good point, didn't realize it is an old retro logo. I do say that old designs have just a tiny bit different arrangement, and the wings look curved when painted on a curved helmet. And modernist look and logos were more common in 1960s, whereas by the 1990s they were mostly buried as "dated look" in favor of round and curved lines and gradients.

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