Hey guys, I just wanted to say something quickly here at the top before we get into the episode

about the decline of Western civilization. We cover a lot of artists and bands who engage in

questionable and fairly indefensible use of Nazi iconography. We never mean to gloss over that in

these episodes. The truth is the idea that

anyone on earth would support or condone Nazi ideology is always so preposterous to me,

but also I'm aware that that's so naive of me to think that there aren't many people in the

world today who do uphold those abhorrent and hateful beliefs.

My job, you guys, as I see it, is to provide context in every instance that I can.

The context here, specifically in relation to the germs, is that they did prominently use Nazi iconography and imagery, and it is highly visible in the first decline film.

As young punks, the germs obviously were interested in provocation and pushing people's buttons,

like the sex pistols and a lot of other punk bands that came before them.

They used Nazi imagery to that end.

The rest of the context here, for what it's worth, is that Darby Crash and Pat Smir have

both gone on record in interviews saying they do not hate or discriminate against Jewish people.

The early 70s punk scene was, by all accounts, or at least most accounts, quite diverse and

inclusive.

I wasn't there, but this is what I've learned from my research.

50 years out, of course, it's still pretty difficult to reconcile and understand these

things, and it's certainly not our place on this show to defend or uphold any of it.

There is no perfect way to talk about this stuff, but I just wanted to take a minute up top

to address it more directly and more thoughtfully and more seriously, and just, again, to try

to do my job to provide as much context as possible.

...