# \[What people had their own symbols\] \[Original title:Things Obama copied from Hitler.\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354 "2016-03-09T00:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/41 "2016-03-09T18:05:27Z")
I’ve been using one since high school (though not often these days). ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/42 "2016-03-09T19:46:33Z")
With the exception of the SDMB, most message boards allow the use of avatars, which are personal symbols. On some sites there are a lot of dick pics. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/43 "2016-03-09T19:54:29Z")
> [@SandyHook](#): > > I was just on facebook and saw a post that made the following statement: Only two people in history had their own symbols, Hitler (followed by a swastika) and Obama (followed by a red, white and blue capital O). [Here’s the link](http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2016/02/you-wont-believe-how-many-things-obama-copied-directly-from-hitler-2781074.html?currentSplittedPage=0) to the site referenced by the post. The actual part posted on facebook is found on page two. Stop right there. The swastika was not Hitler’s personal symbol. It’s was the Nazi Party’s symbol. The whole argument is based on a falsehood. You don’t need anything else. OK, you could point out that the “O” symbol actually belongs to Oprah. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/44 "2016-03-09T20:00:55Z")
[Derek Riggs](http://maiden-world.com/articles/riggs_logo.html), artist famous for the Iron Maiden album covers. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/45 "2016-03-09T20:50:03Z")
> [@SandyHook](#): > > I’m going with ‘no’ here. Except for the one’s that had the person’s name in them I would not have known who they referenced. Well, none of them have been elected President twice. If one of them is, you’ll know their election logo a hell of a lot better, won’t you? Your ignorance does not prove Mitt Romney didn’t have a logo. Poker player Phil Hellmuth has a personal logo. So did golfer Arnold Palmer. It’s pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/46 "2016-03-09T20:57:13Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > The pattern of plaid is “house-specific” for them cute lil’ skirts Scotsmen wear. [{Official register}](http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/index.aspx) Just to be a killjoy, that’s kind of a recent invention. the entire “clan pattern” thing was totally made up by a couple of con men. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/47 "2016-03-09T23:28:52Z")
How about Alfred Hitchcock? [https://www.google.com/search?q=alfred+hitchcock&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiB-L-X4LTLAhWlloMKHY-mDmgQ\_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=alfred+hitchcock+logo](https://www.google.com/search?q=alfred+hitchcock&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiB-L-X4LTLAhWlloMKHY-mDmgQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=alfred+hitchcock+logo) ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/48 "2016-03-09T23:48:01Z")
My grandfather had one (he was a commercial artist) and now I use it. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/49 "2016-03-09T23:49:55Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Just to be a killjoy, that’s kind of a recent invention. the entire “clan pattern” thing was totally made up by a couple of con men. Yeah, that doesn’t sound right at all. Who were the con men, and what was the con? I believe clan tartans go back to the early 19th century at least. Is that what you mean by kind of recent? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/50 "2016-03-10T00:38:49Z")
I remember in 2008, a few pundits giving Obama a hard time for corrupting the American flag into his “O” symbol, which you could see behind him in one of his campaign speeches. That lasted until it was pointed out that the Obama was speaking in Ohio, and the flag in question was actually the Ohio state flag. Some discussion [here](http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/10/16/radio-host-bob-grant-asserted-that-obama-create/145712).Note especially the comment that Obama may be hoping to establish an African republic in the U.S. Eight years later and his campaign logo is compared to the swastika. He’s really had to put up with a lot of crap. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/51 "2016-03-10T01:38:20Z")
What the OP totally missed, as has already been pointed out, was that “O” is not Obama’s personal identity icon. It _IS_, however, [_Somebody Else’s_](https://www.google.com/search?q=o+magazine&client=opera&hs=lhr&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtwJPr_LTLAhWMsIMKHUBDAOMQsAQINw) ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/52 "2016-03-10T02:18:10Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > Yeah, that doesn’t sound right at all. Who were the con men, and what was the con? I believe clan tartans go back to the early 19th century at least. Is that what you mean by kind of recent? That is “kind of recent”, since the Scottish clanship system began to disintegrate in the late seventeenth century, and completely collapsed by the mid-eighteenth. The whole clan tartan business was retrofitted not to the clanship system, but to a romantic re-invention of clanship. In any event, it wouldn’t meet the requirements of the OP, since he’s looking for _personal_ symbols. The clan tartans are associated with clans, not individuals. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354/53 "2016-03-10T18:51:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s not just politicians, either. For instance, [Tolkien had his own symbol](https://www.google.com/search?q=tolkien+rune&biw=1270&bih=809&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB3NDvv7LLAhUD7GMKHWkfDocQsAQIMQ&dpr=0.8#imgrc=P-MSOpae4apb7M%3A). > > Heck, I’ve got one for myself, inspired by Tolkien’s, that I use to sign my artistic works. Me [too](http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll268/dutchboy208/tattoo.jpg). It’s a ligature of my initials, one of which you can probably guess. I don’t have any artistic works, though; I just used to doodle it on my school materials when I was seven (and later got it tattooed on my shoulder). > [@RickJay](#): > > Well, none of them have been elected President twice. If one of them is, you’ll know their election logo a hell of a lot better, won’t you? Your ignorance does not prove Mitt Romney didn’t have a logo. Pretty much this. Obama and Hitler’s icons are memorable because they’re really, really famous. I bet you’d recognize GWB’s “W with a flag by it” [logo](http://rlv.zcache.com/george_w_bush_vintage_04_campaign_logo_2_inch_round_button-r35ffba496a23474b9f10641bbbb5e8c5_x7j3i_8byvr_1024.jpg) too. In any event, the _hakenkreutz_ was never Hitler’s personal symbol. It was the symbol of the party, having been adopted from the symbol of the [Thule Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society) which was a sort of forerunner to the Nazi party. Hitler did have his own standard incorporating the swastika but it was [much more elaborate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_standard_of_Adolf_Hitler) than the Nazi flag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-people-had-their-own-symbols-original-title-things-obama-copied-from-hitler/748354.md?page=2)