• AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A babygrow emblazoned with the slogan “I love Htlr” was one of the more egregious items Simon Knittel came across when he started delving into the murky world of Nazi merchandise.

    Found on everything from boxer shorts to beer mugs, T-shirts to cushions, hoodies to spectacle cases, the slogans are part of a booming online industry that anti-fascist campaigners say helps bolster the growing scene’s coffers and identity, as well as emboldening its members.

    It has scored its first success, securing the rights at the European Trademark Office to the abbreviation VTR LND, effectively blocking Nazi online stores from using it.

    Putting the VTR LND trademark in the hands of anti-fascists also means companies using it have to declare how many items they have sold – including historical sales – and pay any revenue earned from it to the initiative or face four-figure fines.

    “We’ve created a self-sufficient system,” Knittel says, sitting in his glass and brick Berlin office as he scrolls through some of the targeted online shops.

    Philip Schlaffer, who ran his shop Werwolf in the northern town of Wismar on the Baltic Sea coast, now gives talks in schools on far-right grooming after a spell in prison gave him access to a neo-Nazi exit programme.


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