I’d love to read something by an expert on how this sort of thing happens. Does history show this kind of progression from very subtle to less and less subtle dog whistles? This seems like the most blatant example yet. Very hard to see how this is anything but on purpose.
It’s possible that there is some Steve Miller type behind the scenes being cheeky but I think the most likely explanation still is that the rune resemblance is a coincidence.
cf.
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Lol, writers really bringing their a-game for the sequel.
At first I was like “that star next to the ‘c’ doesn’t like the odal ruin, gtfo.” And then I was like “Holy Shit.”
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Today while discussing religion with my daughter, I told her that different religions have different names for god. Christians call him Jesus, Hindus call him Brahman, Jews call him Yahweh, and Republicans call him Trump.
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It’s absolutely intentional. I’ve been a part of a stage crew. Everything is micromanaged and planned out in advanced.
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There is a difference between planned out and intentionally displaying an obscure rune.
Just because it’s obscure to us, it doesn’t mean it’s obscure to them.
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I think Matty is right. The people who do the design work on these things spend hours and hours staring at their own work, which then gets tons of scrutiny from lots of other people as well. Unintentional references are much less common than you might think.
Considering the relative obscurity of that rune, the audience, and how awkward the layout is for a stage, it was almost certainly intentional. Regarding your library desk picture I’d guess the shape was at least noticed by somebody as well. There probably wasn’t an actual neo-Nazi doing the design, but somewhere along the way somebody probably said, “lol it’s a swastika”.
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But haven’t the last four years shown that no one competent helps the GOP do anything. I mean we could have said that the people who plan press conferences painstakingly go over every detail, but then we got Four Seasons Landscaping.
Above notwithstanding, I’m in the maybe camp.
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What percentage of the population recognizes a swastika? What percentage recognizes an odal rune?
I’d guess the percentage of people who do stage design for CPAC is pretty damn high.
Why else would it be that shape? I done a fair bit of design and layout work in my life. Things don’t happen by accident. Somebody spent a lot of time and effort making sure it looked like that for a reason, but the shape doesn’t make sense for a stage. It’s very awkward and impractical, so it came from somewhere else.
You’re asking me to believe that the person responsible for designing a stage for a far-right conference full of people who openly embrace authoritarian, nationalist and fascist symbolism came up with a very unusual and illogical layout that is pretty awful as a stage but just so happens to be in the exact shape of a rune adopted by the Nazis and that’s purely coincidence? Yeah no, I don’t think so.
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Yeah no, it’s a coincidence. And even if it’s not CPAC is my favorite time of year… I don’t have to go searching for some weird nazi symbolism in the friggin’ stage design to simultaneously be shocked and amused at what goes on there… all I have to do is listen to the speakers, ffs. They ain’t hidden.
!!!
Considering the relative obscurity of that rune, the audience, and how awkward the layout is for a stage, it was almost certainly UNintentional.
Eh, w/e, who the hell knows. Maybe there really IS a secret cabal of Republican nordic SS Nazi porters working at the Tampa Hyatt. I’m just saying that every single speaker, panel, and grift that is part of the annual CPAC convention has already been at least problematic and borderline or straight-up offensive for years. Yes, I understand we can talk about more than one thing at a time, but nazi stage design? Really?
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Yes, really. I have no idea why you wouldn’t want to accept that. How does that detract from your enjoyment(?) of CPAC, and what is your alternative explanation for how it happened?
If your starting point for this is having no idea how things like stages get designed, could you at least take the word of the people who do, and who are telling you it almost certainly was intentional?
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Nazis ruin everything. That actually seems like a sensible design for its purpose.
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If you are going to design a stage, it’s going to look like this. There is a specific reason they didn’t do it.
This exactly
Just a coincidence all these people keep flashing the ok or WP fingers on national tv
If you know. You know.
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Why can’t we come up with a leftist hand signal to troll Republicans?