Damn, though, I have trouble believing there isn’t intent here.
Not to point out the obvious, but just look at the stage without thinking about the symbolism; it doesn’t make any sense. There is no earthly reason why you’d construct a stage to look like that for the perspective of, you know, being a stage; everything is at an uncomfortable angle and the “wing” extensions serve no purpose at all and aren’t even in a path from backstage to the presentation area.
Furthermore, as @Banquet_Bear pointed out, there are significant fall hazards created by the use of this design. Even if I hadn’t known about the symbolism, upon seeing this I would have been appalled by how unsafe it was, and mystified as to why it was done. Fall hazards are a really, really significant part of the checklist for this kind of assembly. When you are putting together an elevated platform people will be moving around on, “are there fall or trip hazards?” is a thing you are asking yourself and getting other people to check. It’s like having live diamondback rattlers on stage and saying “huh, just one of those things, who knew, amirite?” That part can’t be an accident. Quoted for truth:
I can believe the theory that most people at CPAC, and even on stage, aren’t aware of the meaning of the symbol; I don’t think morons like Matt Gaetz or Kim Guilfoyle are smart enough to do something like that. But I just can’t buy that the designer, or the person responsible for working with them, didn’t have something in mind here. It’s just one more little step towards open embracing of fascism.
Come on, man. I’ve been to many of these sort of things with a lot of different stages and haven’t seen one before that looked like the lapel symbol on an Einsatzgruppen uniform.
If this was the stage at the annual convention for the National Association of Some Boring Job or some shit I’d think it was a funny mistake. But let’s all apply a little Bayesian reasoning to this, can we? The National Association of Some Boring Job has no history of fascist sympathy, so the odds-on favorite explanation is that it’s an unfortunate coincidence. The Republican Party has a LOT of recent history of fascist sympathy. It is literally tlooking like a 160-year-old party might schism into fascist and non-fascist parties. The theory that this is entirely unintentional does not seem all that plausible to me.
The hell it is. I can’t remember a single instance of this happening unintentionally when it comes to stage design, so lets see some examples if you don’t mind.
This was a meeting of conservative activists. These guys have spent the last four years (at least) in bed with white nationalists. There’s no way nobody would have noticed that their conference room had a huge white nationalist symbol in the middle of it. It’s there because they wanted it there.
“What? What do you mean the stage layout looks like a modified rune identified with fascist movements? That is so, so ridiculous! You are the one who is a conspiracy theorist! I never heard something so crazy. Now, I’m going to the seminar by Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn about how to subvert elections and undermine democratic institutions by appealing to xenophobic fears and economic insecurity.”
If you do something morally repugnant “just to troll the libs” you are still doing something morally repugnant, so I do not like it when that excuse is made on the behalf of right wing shitheels.
“Ha, ha, look, Grampa Frank wore an SS uniform to the Veterans of Foreign Wars parade just to troll the libs! What a card! Great fun!”
There is a reason that when Indiana Jones says, “Nazis…I hate these guys!” the entire audience nods along in agreement. Because fascism is a hateful ideology that resulted in a destructive world war that tore Europe apart and resulted in the industrial-scale execution of millions of people using an organized system of murder-camps and social engineering to make the rest of the population compliant and accepting of it. Of course everyone with any moral compass hates these guys because they represent incorrigible prejudicial evil.
Even if it is “just trolling the libs”, that in and of itself should be morally and as aesthetically repellant as walking into Thanksgiving dinner with the family, jumping up on the table, and taking a giant shit in the mash potatoes.
I suppose after the last four years, the fact that we’re returning to dog whistles is a sign of progress. If Trump had been re-elected, they would have used swastika banners and burned a cross.
“There are very fine people on both sides; fascists and white nationalists! Now, let’s build that wall and lock ‘her’ up! I’m just joking, ha ha, it’s all locker room talk! Have you seen the body on my daughter? If I weren’t her father…”
Or, if it is, that’s not separate from actually trying to advance fascism. This stuff is done in increments. The fascist doesn’t try it all at once; they inch forward. Even the Nazis didn’t invade Russia and set up the death camps in 1933.
Yes. The CPAC stage shape is not an accident or a coincidence. It is intended both to anger Trumpers’ “enemies,” and to declare solidarity with all white-supremacist, anti-Semitic, and adjacent groups.
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Yep.
As for the ‘it’s hard to build a stage that doesn’t look like a swastika’ argument: that may be the winner of the Dope’s Most Ridiculous Claim trophy for the month, if not the year.
Ok
All of you recreational outrage olympians can just climb the fuck off my back. I never said it wasn’t done on purpose, I merely pointed out how easy it would be to accidentally do it. But if y’all want to believe that some obscure symbol that 3/4 of the world had never even heard of before 2 days ago, was built into a stage, knock yourselves out.
Someone who pretends to be a Nazi because E thinks it’s funny to hurt people who don’t like Nazis is okay with Nazis. And is one step away from being a Nazi.
We have learned this over and over again over the past few decades. Right wingers who “pretend” to be extreme as a joke are not joking. They’re just testing the waters in the pool and turning the heat up on the boiling pot.