What to do when cornered by a WWII buff: Brace yourself and take stock of your surroundings. Your first course of action should be to assess the sort of person you are speaking to. Notice any tattoos or personal decorations they might be displaying—hopefully you are already familiar with common Neo-Nazi symbols. If you see swastikas, the numbers 88, 14, or 18, or the letters SS shapes like lightning bolts, then run and/or fire at will. Be very wary of skulls, eagles, German words, and runes; they may be innocent tattoos, but they may also be red flags. Proceed with caution and listen to how they talk about Hitler. If you can determine that the buff is not an overtly far-right Nazi sympathizer, they may have a weird obsession with the idea of a Just and Noble War and have some fucked up ideas about what is good for humanity and/or the natural order. Make a quick escape if they start referring to Japanese people with a single syllable or talk about how Americans were “better” back then. If none of these, you can probably relax—you may be talking to someone whose family fled the Holocaust or were forced into Japanese internment camps and took an interest in the period out of necessity and frustration and the immediate relevance to their lives. Look for bags under their eyes or corny science joke T-shirts; you might be talking to a physicist interested in nuclear history. Maybe they’re fascinated by modern world politics or planes or weaponry.
Point over their shoulder and say, “Hey, look! A collection of depressing poetry by dead gay soldiers!” and run while they’re distracted. If this doesn’t work, brace yourself for a long, dreary explanation of the mechanics of trench warfare or early planes.
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