Additional context:
88 is a white supremacist numerical code for “Heil Hitler.” H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so 88 = HH = Heil Hitler. One of the most common white supremacist symbols, 88 is used throughout the entire white supremacist movement, not just neo-Nazis.
It hasn’t lost its effect. It never had an effect to begin with on the people that this cunt was sieg heiling because they are happy to downplay the very real and very obvious fascist elements of the American right. Saying the word Nazi has lost its effect makes this sound like the issue is one of semantics, as though if that word hadn’t (wholly and justifiably) been used so much in recent decades that people would now wake up and go, ‘Oh fuck, this guy is actually really bad’. But they wouldn’t. Because fascists don’t think other fascists are bad.