Does wearing an eagle make a person good or American? Or wearing a swastika make a person bad or Nazi? Symbols are like any other tools, it is not the tool that does good or bad, but how it is used. So if a bunch of punk psycho kids wear black trench coats when they cap a bunch of people, now all kids that wear black trench coats are evil bad people? The swastika had a lot of meanings before Hitler ever tainted it, some of them even with the Christian faith. One man's flagrant misuse of an otherwise neat looking design shouldn't forever render it undisplayable.
I understand there were plenty of people who were emotionally and physically scarred by the events of WWII, and that these people are somewhat traumatized by even the sight of a swastika. However, their numbers are rapidly dwindling. Should their fears and hatred be passed on to another generation? The mistakes of the past should not be forgotten. But if they are never forgiven, you end up with a situation like the Middle East where there will be no peace until either all of the Israelis or all of the Arabs are dead.
There are also quite a few people that aren't too happy when they see a Japanese flag, but no one made Japan change its symbol.
As it is, there are quite a few people in the present world that are offended at the sight of any American markings. But I don't think it is the colors, stars, or bars that really bother them, its the aircraft delivering bombs and the rich companies exploiting their resources that really pisses them off.
If a party in our own country similar to the Nazis were to incorporate our stars and bars, would we change symbols? No, becuase this has already happened. KKK are all "red-blooded, flag-waving" Americans.
Hell, some states still fly the rebel battle flag. To some, it might be a symbol of slavery. To others, a symbol of a proud independent South that had the balls to stand up to the greedy North. Plenty of people were still slaves in the North until after the civil war, but the South got portrayed as the "bad guy". I am certain that even if the South had won, its days of slavery were numbered as all western civilization outgrew it. In the end, the North merely traded one form of slavery for another. How well did all those immigrants working in factories and building railroads live compared to slaves? What did all those freed slaves end up doing for a living and how did their quality of life change?
Symbols are in the eye of the beholder. One arrangement of red, white, and blue makes you a proud American, the other makes you a racist redneck. I say both flags mean the same things depending on who you are. The victor gets to write the history.
A WWII German aircraft with historically correct markings is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in a flight sim. Nobody should even be reacting to it beyond those who actually lost loved ones to the Germans. On the other hand, if I saw modern German MiG-29s sporting swastikas with "SS" for their tail codes, I would advise the French and Russians to look out, the tanks will be rolling any minute... and to hold out long enough for Britain and us to get there so we could all kick their bellybutton again
