Symbols are like subprime mortgage loans for fascists, they allow bullshit adjacent to actual non-bullshit to be carefully mixed and disguised and hidden by a symbol blazed on the outside that is meant to evoke something the thing represents but does not possess.

The worship of the US constitution as a symbol for violent insurrectionists is a perfect example of why the loss of specificity in symbols is a vital survival mechanism for fascists because their ideas all constantly self conflict and threaten to collapse into a meaningless dung heap of hate if everything is laid bare.

Symbols for normal people are simply shorthand references to their very real and fairly consistent core values, which is why normal people are often confused with the fascist obsession with symbols in particular.