German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” This isn’t just a casual observation by some DWEM; we see this play out daily in politics. It is what drives the whole “cancel culture” movement. People who set out to punish fellow citizens for having wrong thoughts end up being the worst kind of petty, vindictive, deserving-of-a-slow-and-painful-death monsters themselves. An exception to that rule is those people who are continually on the lookout for nazis. Thankfully, nazis are extraordinarily rare and seem to exist almost exclusively in the imaginations of people who need to find them so they can use them for a larger purpose. In that case, their search for monsters turns them into pathetic assclowns.

For instance, remember the case of New Yorker “fact checker” Talia Lavin. She tried to promote the image of ICE as a fascist organization by claiming that a disabled veteran was a nazi because of a Maltese cross tattoo on his elbow?

Justin Gaertner is a combat wounded U.S. Marine who continues to serve his country as an ICE computer forensics analyst, helping solve criminal cases & rescue abused children. The tattoo shown here is the symbol for his platoon while he fought in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/BaOBxaAMHS

— ICE (@ICEgov) June 18, 2018

With a single tweet, the New Yorker‘s professional fact-checker smeared Justin Gaertner, a combat-wounded war veteran and computer forensic analyst for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Lavin, the professional fact-checker, rushed to judgment. She abused her platform. Amid the national media hysteria over President Donald Trump’s border-enforcement policies, Lavin derided a photo of Gaertner shared by ICE, which had spotlighted his work rescuing abused children. Scrutinizing his tattoos, she claimed an image on his left elbow was an Iron Cross — a symbol of valor commonly and erroneously linked to Nazis.

The meme spread like social-media tuberculosis: Look! The jackboots at ICE who hate children and families employ a real-life white supremacist.

Only it wasn’t an Iron Cross. It was a Maltese Cross, the symbol of double amputee Gaertner’s platoon in Afghanistan, Titan 2. He lost both legs during an IED-clearing mission and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat Valor and the Purple Heart before joining ICE to combat online child exploitation.

When actual military veterans, whom Lavin failed to consult before defaming Gaertner so glibly, pointed out that the image looked more like a Maltese Cross, Lavin deleted her original tweet “so as not to spread misinformation.”

Now we have a competitor in the “looking for nazis under my bed” category.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a “virtual” address to Congress (see Zelensky Makes Appeal to Congress While Biden’s Response Is Sorely Lacking). It was well-received, to say the least, and probably went a long way towards mitigating Joey SoftServe’s ability to curb aid to Ukraine because of his inexplicable (except for the existence of kompromat incriminating Hunter Biden and “the Big Guy” in the hands of Putin) subservience to Vladimir Putin.

Into the fray jumped a “journalist” who had previously and thankfully escaped my notice. Dan Cohen runs “MintPress.com.”

What exactly is going on here? pic.twitter.com/Xq6a6H2Bs3

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) March 16, 2022

Cohen’s half-assed defense was that the “Azov” battalion that operates in the Donbas are well-known nazis and therefore a symbol actually not associated with the Nazi party (the use of the Maltese Cross by the German military considerably predates Nazi Germany) is a good reason to assume that Zelensky, a Jew, would be advertising his nazi sympathies to the world.

I’m well aware that the Iron Cross is not exclusive to Nazism, but given the context that Zelensky is begging for the US to send weapons to Ukrainian Nazi battalions, I think it’s totally fair to ask about the resonance of such a symbol.

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) March 16, 2022

(I’m not going to get into an argument over the Azov battalion beyond noting that even if the very worst things said about them are true, they are about 900 men in a 200,000 man military, and now is not the time for Ukraine to start imposing woke-ism on who is defending that country.)

Seriously? The emblem on Zelensky’s t-shirt is the crest of the Ukrainian Army.

It’s the emblem of the Ukrainain armed forces – a fact that can be established in less than 5 minutes on google. pic.twitter.com/W1IbQDLpUl

— Damo (@concretemilk) March 18, 2022

And it isn’t like the Maltese Cross, as a military symbol, is associated with armed forces noted for being either fascist or even vaguely right-wing. For example, it is the official symbol of Germany’s Luftwaffe.

Una pareja de Eurofighter Typhoon pertenecientes a la Luftwaffe (Fuerza Aérea Alemana), este caza polivalente entro en operación en el 2003… pic.twitter.com/HxltxB2cKN

— Cayo Mario (@CayoMarioX) March 11, 2022

It is easy to understand why Vladimir Putin’s allies dislike Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (see We Need to Talk About This ‘Never Zelensky’ Thing.) You have a Russian dictator who has built an image as a virile, masculine leader

Hunting Putin pic.twitter.com/EpRY21uhrL

— Kexity OT (@KexityOT) March 18, 2022

He launches an ill-conceived invasion of a smaller neighboring state, and his army looks about as competent as Mussolini invading Greece. This action not only results in the death of many young Russians for no particular purpose, but it also results in punishing sanctions to his nation, which reveals just how juvenile his plan to avoid sanctions was. To top it off, the opposing leader is a comedian who has danced in high heels to a Beyonce song.

Where is Zelensky?
Must be dancing.#Woke #Ukraine #Russia #UkraineWar #RussiaUkraineWar #Russian #Putin pic.twitter.com/q0pBxKemCt

— GraceAnnRae (@GraceAnn4Truth) March 12, 2022

That leader also happens to be a piano virtuoso as well as a dancer.

Who among us has not played “Hava Nagila” on a piano with their genitals on stage and then gone on to lead their country against a foreign invasion? pic.twitter.com/6IlRgF83he

— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) February 28, 2022

Of course, you’d be feeling put out. Of course, you’d be searching for anything to denigrate him. But if you’re going to do that, you probably shouldn’t be using a convicted pedophile as your subject matter expert on the war in Ukraine.