At the national level, Australia has banned the public display of the infamous Nazi salute alongside both the display and trade (selling) of Nazi symbols.
The changes became active Monday. In addition, both “glorifying and praising acts of terrorism are criminal offences under Commonwealth law” under the updates, per a statement from the country’s top law enforcement official. That official, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP, who assumed the role in 2022, praised the developments, saying it’s “clear” that “there is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and terrorist acts. This is the first legislation of its kind and will ensure no one in Australia will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols that celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.”
In the United States, some of those who’ve at times aligned themselves with Donald Trump have espoused support for Nazi ideology.
One particularly infamous participant in the Capitol riot in early 2021 in Washington, D.C., was captured on camera inside of the Capitol building wearing a sweatshirt that displayed apparent support for the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by the Nazis during World War II. Also present was the imagery of what’s known as the Kekistan flag, which is a flag pushed by internet users and assigned to a fictional country with a design that directly mirrors a Nazi flag — though like with some other expressions of evident hate among far-right adherents in the U.S., the connection has been characterized as unserious… which still gives cover to spread it.
On a related note, imagery from the Confederacy — an attempt at seceding from the United States that stood by, to be clear, slavery — remains prominent, including in pro-Trump circles. Confederate flags, expressing support for an attempted nation-state that lasted less than a decade, were present at the Capitol riot, for instance.
