Comments on: The War On T-Shirts

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:04:36 +0000

“Outrageous! http://www.cafepress.com/esangha/517093“

Um…I was joking…

By: rainlion

rainlion — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:04:35 +0000

“This is like getting worked up about somebody wearing a Whig Party tee-shirt.”

Spot on

By: TomY

TomY — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:04:11 +0000

One time at a county fair in Coshocton, Ohio, I came across a trucker hat with an American flag on it and the words “White Christian American” beneath. Now, removed of all context, there’s nothing objectionable per se about any or all of those things (speaking as a white Christian American). But in the context of other hats like “You’ve got your X, I’ve got mine – under a dixie battle flag” and various other Confederate apparel, I started to feel like I was in Bosnia instead of the rural midwest. Also, why is it that in Nashville or Birmingham I hardly ever see Confederate stuff, but when I’m in Ohio, I see it everywhere?

By: (: Tom :)

(: Tom :) — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:04:16 +0000

Either symbols count for something or they don t. If they do, the hammer and sickle is evil incarnate. Same with the crooked cross.

Okay, so tell me why I should have to constantly deal with the symbol of someone being crucified on a cross? Especially if I consider it offensive?

And the number of those who have been murdered under that symbol is vastly greater then either the sickle and hammer or the swastika.

By: JSA

JSA — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:04:43 +0000

“What line of dialogue from which episode of Law & Order has them up in arms?”

I think it was this (from cnn.com):

The controversy centers around Wednesday’s episode in which a police officer investigating a murder of a federal judge suggested putting out an all points bulletin for “somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt.”

“I can only assume last night’s slur was in response to comments I have made in the past about the need for Congress to closely monitor the federal judiciary, as prescribed in our constitutional system of checks and balances.”

DeLay has been an outspoken critic of what he calls “activist judges,” recently saying Congress must take steps to rein in an “out-of-control judiciary.”

By: buddhist

buddhist — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:04:03 +0000

Before we claim anything as outrageous, you must have a basic understanding of the symbol. The swastika is a holy symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. In Buddhism, the swastika is a symbol of abundance, prosperity and longevity. In that store, its a left facing swastika, a buddhist swastika. Nazis swastika is right facing. For more info on the sybol of swastika in Buddhism: http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/swastika.htm frameone Says: April 18th, 2006 at 7:45 pm Outrageous! http://www.cafepress.com/esangha/517093

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 04:04:00 +0000

Either symbols count for something or they don t.

Context? I don’t see no stinkin’ context!

By: Colorado Dave

Colorado Dave — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:04:49 +0000

Okay someone please fill me in as I do not make a habit of following what offends the clueless right.

What line of dialogue from which episode of Law & Order has them up in arms?

By: mjb

mjb — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:04:41 +0000

Newsbusters is a sham. Their view of liberal bias is to ever show anything non-critical of liberals, especially gay liberals. They posted, as an example of liberal media bias, that HBO showed the Rosie O’Donnell documentary about her cruise for gay families and how the Today show did a segment on it. Even showing that is bias to them. Freaks.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:04:05 +0000

“If they do, the hammer and sickle is evil incarnate. Same with the crooked cross.”

I might add that you are absolutely 100 percent wrong. A symbol only has the power that people give it. Symbols aren’t “evil incarnate,” the people who hold them up to dominate and destroy are. Sort of like guns don’t kill people … Stop feeding the boogeymen in your head, Dugger, then maybe you’ll be able to sleep without a nightlight again.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:04:57 +0000

“Either symbols count for something or they don t.”

No doubt. And the power of every artist, designer, writer, filmmaker, average human being is to seize those meanings and smash them to pieces, recontextualize them, rework them, sap their power, redirect it, comment on and critique it, ignore it or laugh loudly at it. If you want to live your life as slave to ideology and the symbols that give it its power fine. That doesn’t mean the rest of us do.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:04:56 +0000

Bozell looks like the crazy crank that he is. Even for a rightie the man is loony tunes. He's got that Cynthia McKinney quality to his look.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:04:35 +0000

As Bryan points out, Hitler didn’t invent the Swastika. He took a symbol that already existed and perverted its meaning to the point where most people don’t know that it ever had a different meaning. The same thing can happen to the meaning that Hitler gave it inthe right hands. Nothing like satire to take the puff out of power and symbols like the Swastika are the bulls-eye of any good satirist.

By: Dugger

Dugger — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:04:08 +0000

frame,

Either symbols count for something or they don’t. If they do, the hammer and sickle is evil incarnate. Same with the crooked cross.

The man shows his ignorance and should be called on it. How great for the left media if they had first done it instead of leaving it to Brent Bozell. He looks good, they look bad.

Dugger

By: bryan

bryan — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:04:47 +0000

Hindus use the swastika all the time the othe way round. Tim vincent used to present “Blue Peter”, the poshest kids show on TV in the UK.
I have a mate who made a good few pounds flogging soviet memorabilia in Camden Market, London which he used to import over for virtual peanuts. Viva capitalism!

By: Rounds77

Rounds77 — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:04:34 +0000

I wouldn’t be offended if Fox News used the confederate flag as its logo. To me that would represent a private company enjoying its free speech rights in a completely honest manner. To hell with political correctness. Show me who you really are!

As OW said, though, the line is drawn when a representative government uses such a banner.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:04:14 +0000

From the Newsbuster story:

“On Monday, for the second straight weekday, Access Hollywood’s New York correspondent, Tim Vincent, a veteran of the BBC, sported a hammer and sickle T-shirt …”

The second straight weekday? What’s stunning about this is just how lazy Access Hollywood’s wardrobe people are. I’m totally shocked.

By: frameone

frameone — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:04:03 +0000

Outrageous! http://www.cafepress.com/esangha/517093

By: frameone

frameone — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:04:48 +0000

The ever vigilante Dugger refuses to recognize the significant camp/irony value that the hammer and sickle has taken on in recent years. Indeed, most Soviet culture became a parody of itself long before the before the collapse of the Soviet boogeyman. Ever seen an East German musical circa 1968? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061756/ Total kitsch. Now just imagine the horror of a true Stalinist believer at seeing a fashion victim sporting the hammer and sickle on a show that glorifies vouyeuristic consumption of capitalist imagery. Even a sign of commodified rebellion the shirt makes a mockery of everything "the greatest evil to mankind ever" supposedly stood for. The shirt is, in other words, absolute evidence of capitalism's triumph. But because Dugger is also absolutely tone deaf he thinks Access Hollywood is really glorifying gulags. As to the Swastika, well, it's all about context. The Producers? "Spring time for Hitler"? Heil-arious.

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:04:28 +0000

What is this “context” you’re carrying on about, frame? Symbols have fixed meanings, donchaknow?