First of all, I'm sorry if this breaks any rules. I'm just interested in hearing what people have to say. Anyways...
Over the course of my 2+ years as a moderately active reader of this sub, I've come under the impression that questions about Nazi's and related subject matter are asked a disproportionate number of times. I can understand why the Nazi's are more interesting than irrigation techniques in the Mesopotamia, I really do.
But, what worries me in conjunction with the frequency of these questions, is their context. As of writing, there is a rising post that asks about the Nazi equivalent of a USO. To be blunt, its a question with the capacity to humanize the Nazi's, and over the years, I have noticed that many Nazi questions have had this capacity (or even intent) as well.
Given the problems we are seeing in society today (race politics boiling over in America, far-right parties wining major political races in Europe, totalitarianism in the Philippines) and even the large contingent of far-right political groups on reddit itself, I think my observation is at the very least worth discussing as a community. We don't know where the upvotes on these questions are coming from, and frankly, the worst case-scenario is frightening. In a world where people from the aforementioned political affiliations are the ones perpetuating the popularity of these sorts of questions, does /r/AskHistorians have a role to play in the spread of far-right sympathy on Reddit in particular? If so, is there anything AH can or should do?
The sub already has an actively enforced rule against soapboxing, but it appears that your concern is mostly regarding subtle or illicit influences from far right and neofascist groups in the posts.
I believe its been exhausted, among users flaired and non flaired, that the emphasis on World War Two and related (ie Nazis) topics has always been a concern to the fields that subsequently may receive less exposure. Not to diminish the great answers that come from our WW2 flairs, but it's always seemed to be the conclusion that the large amount of WW2 and Nazi Germany questions stem from the Western/American majorities in this sub and throughout Reddit.
Frankly, it's hard to point to far right subterfuge on our sub and make those accusations without hard evidence. It may be that questions with 'the capacity to humanize Nazis' aren't necessarily coming from less than honest angles, but the fact that it will continue to amaze people that humans had the capacity to commit terrible acts, killings, and torture other human beings while still being homo sapien. In that sense, 'humanize' shouldn't necessarily mean to excuse or downplay the core digusting ideals of a Nazi state. Indeed, /u/commiespaceinvader particularly mentions that the comedy of Nazi-sponsored groups would likely have been racist, and the performances under strict control to overall promote a Nazi idea.
Nazis may have laughed, but that does not make Nazism a funny system.
I do agree that the moderators should play active roles in putting down any neofascist comments, insinuation, or preaching. But my experience is that they have been, and will remain, vigilant in taking a hard line to that trash slipping through in our sub. Now, they cannot control the interpretations that some people may get from answers. It wouldn't be surprising that we have lurkers or even subs that take talking points from answers and twist them to promote their own ideologies. But that's a risk that has always applied to History as a whole.
I do understand where you are coming from here. As someone who answers a lot of questions on the topic of the Nazis and the Holocaust, I have in the past, expressed my problem with a lot of questions about Adolf Hitler; with Hitler comparisons in political discourse; have several times criticized people for asking questions that showed a distinct lack of empathy for Nazi victims; turned this experience into a whole Method post on empathy; have used the same platform to teach about the fight against Holocaust Denial and the nature of Fascism (see also my podcast episode on that); and have throughout my whole time posting here made a conscious effort – as has every other regular contributor on this topic in this sub – to highlight the absolute criminal nature of virtually every facet of the Nazi regime.
Furthermore, as you might be aware, as moderators we remove Holocaust Denial, JAQing, and Nazi glorification under our rules against soapboxing and against bigotry in this sub.
Taking all this into account, it is my distinct impression that rather than create a venue for the spread of fascism, bigotry, and dangerous right-wing policy, what we have created here is a space full of material that can be actively used to argue exactly against these things and have educated people on the criminal nature of Nazism and Fascism, these historical regimes, and where these ideologies can lead.
Furthermore, I think it is imperative, especially in such a climate to "humanize" the Nazis, in the sense of showing that the crimes they committed against humanity itself were something that was done by humans against humans with an – albeit ideologically driven – rationale behind it and that even such a thing as entertainment served this agenda. Because only by recognizing that, can we recognize the dangers of fascism lurking today. Because it is not just about people marching with swastika flags, the dangers of fascism also arise from discourse, entertainment, and certain brands of the media. And the willingness to commit murder in service of an ideological cause stems from the belief of people that they are doing a rightful or useful thing – something we need to recognize and understand when it comes to the fight against fascism.