Coast Guard enacts policy calling swastikas, nooses 'potentially divisive'

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Washington Post

The U.S. Coast Guard has allowed a new workplace harassment policy to take effect that downgrades the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to “potentially divisive” despite an uproar over the new language that forced the service’s top officer to declare that both would remain prohibited.

The new policy went into effect Monday, according to written correspondence that the Coast Guard provided to Congress this week, a copy of which was reviewed by The Washington Post. The manual is posted online and makes clear that its previous version “is cancelled.”

Spokespeople for the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the military service, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The symbols issue is expected to come up at a House committee hearing Tuesday.

The Post was first to report on the Coast Guard’s plan to revise its workplace harassment policy last month. The Trump administration called the article “false,” but within hours of its publication the service’s acting commandant, Adm. Kevin Lunday, issued a memo forcefully denouncing symbols such as swastikas and nooses, and emphasizing that both remain prohibited......

The Coast Guard’s policy softening the definition of swastikas — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the Nazis’ extermination of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II — comes as antisemitism is on the rise globally. At least 15 people were killed over the weekend at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/12/16/coast-guard-swastikas-nooses/

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Coast Guard enacts policy calling swastikas, nooses ‘potentially divisive’

— Freedom Writers Collaborative (@fwcollaborative.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T20:03:34Z

[artemisia1]

1. Even at the height of the G.W. Bush era, wearing one of these in uniform would have gotten me booted. A picture of

me wearing one in civilian clothes would also have gotten me in serious trouble and likely booted.

What a difference 20 years makes. The "Let the Eagle Soar" guy was Director of DHS.

[Evolve Dammit]

5. John Ashcroft I believe. Not a horrible voice, but a demented Repuke all the same...

[artemisia1]

6. Absolutely. They all were in that Administration. Nevertheless he would personally have literally RIPPED one off of

a member wearing a swastika and facilitated their immediate removal.

[marble falls]

2. "Potentially." It's an infamia with no maybes.

[pfitz59]

3. Include MAGA gear in Fascist symbology

and I'll believe it.

[Evolve Dammit]

4. "potentially"???? That is next to meaningless

[twodogsbarking]

7. They don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Ahhhhhh

[mdbl]

8. Seems all those that died in WW2 died in vain.

The U.S. really sucks now.

[Journeyman]

9. Seems they'd be appropriate if the swastika was hung in the noose . . .

[SunSeeker]

10. "Potentially"?! When is it NOT devisive?

[CTyankee]

11. Ya think???

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. MaddowBlog-Coast Guard reverses its reversal, labels swastikas and nooses as 'potentially divisive'

A backlash is brewing in Congress over the downgrading of hate symbols in the Coast Guard’s workplace harassment policy.

Link to tweet

?s=20

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/coast-guard-labels-swastikas-nooses-potentially-divisive

The evidence suggested otherwise. Indeed, as the public learned of the proposed guidelines and outrage over the change grew, officials did exactly what many predicted they would do: On Nov. 21, less than a full day after the Post’s initial report was published, the Coast Guard reversed course in a move that the newspaper described as “stunning and lightning-fast.” Under the revised policy, swastikas and nooses would be considered “hate symbols.”

That was not, however, the final word on the subject. The Post is now reporting that the reversal has been reversed:

The U.S. Coast Guard has allowed a new workplace harassment policy to take effect that downgrades the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to ‘potentially divisive’ despite an uproar over the new language that forced the service’s top officer to direct that both would remain prohibited.

The new policy went into effect Monday, according to written correspondence that the Coast Guard provided to Congress this week, a copy of which was reviewed by The Washington Post. The manual is posted online and makes clear that its previous version ‘is cancelled.’

The same report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, noted that a DHS spokesperson called the latest reporting “pathetic” and “false,” though her statement did not address “why the language downgrading nooses and swastikas to ‘potentially divisive’ symbols, rather than hate symbols, was allowed to remain in the new policy.”....

Blumenthal added in his correspondence, “Granting hate symbols like swastikas and nooses even an ounce of respectability is absolutely an anathema. This edict besmirches the Coast Guard’s honor, and DHS should be ashamed. At a time when antisemitic and racist violence are at unconscionable levels, it is absolutely appalling that DHS is doubling down on such a hateful, destructive policy.”

Noem has not yet commented publicly. Watch this space.