So The Republican Party Just Openly Used A Nazi Symbol
Okay. So. A few things about the fact that the CPAC stage is clearly a symbol used in WWII on SS collar badges, some Nazi regimental flags, and even recently by certain Neo-Nazi groups (such as on the NSM’s post-2016 flag):
1. There is absolutely no way that isn’t intentional. As many of my friends who work in the various fields that design, build, and run conventions are saying, designs for stages like that begin as a top-down design, and are reviewed by maaaany people along the way. This would have easily clearly been avoided if it were a simple mistake.
(Pictured: an actual Nazi, photo by…idk probably some other fucking Nazi)
2. Even if we’re being generous, and we’re assuming the best of intentions; and say, it were just an accidentally Odal/Othala rune-shaped stage…okay, sure. Yes. Technically, it’s possible someone built a stage shaped like a couple zig-zagging lines crossing and turning into a point totally by coincidence (despite that even the plain rune is still one that hate groups have appropriated).
What’s entirely, impossibly, improbable would be after the last four years of tacit and explicit support from various high profile elements of the Republican Party, and a massive escalation in overt support among their base for Neo-Nazi ideology and imagery (this very symbol was on display on flags and helmets during the Capitol attack), designing a stage by accident that not only has the rune shape, but also has the exact outer stroke/outline and the additional serifs the SS and Neo-Nazis use in several of their designs.
It’s 100% intentional down to the last bit of detail and layout.
(Odal/Othala Rune as used by Nazis, via Wikipedia)
3. So with all that in mind, there are two things to consider:
Either they are saying “yup we the official f’reals mainstream Republican Party are proud, out fascists; and we just don’t care to hide it anymore!”, and sending a rallying cry to the worst parts of their base that yes, they are still their allies and to expect an escalation in support and rhetoric during the Biden presidency…
…oooorrr they’re doing a “let’s trigger the libs and get everyone stirred up; and then just lie, gaslight, and snark at everyone and say “oh come on, it’s not what it looks like, you all just read too much into things”.
Which is, of course, an incredibly well-established, well-documented, specifically encouraged tactic straight out of the playbooks of Neo-Nazi leaders and strategists ranging from the bad old days of George Lincoln Rockwell all the way to today and the people Trump surrounds himself with and eggs on at every opportunity.
(A shitty low-rez version of the post-2016 National Socialist Movement/NSM flag, because Nazis don’t deserve hi-def, and also it was the best I could find without utterly ruining my Google search history forever)
Either way, it’s disgusting, and any Republican who isn’t a Nazi should be embarrassed and furious and calling out their party. This should not have happened, whatever the reason.
If it’s “just” to “trigger” the left, then they need to understand that “do a thing and then utterly deny it’s the thing it clearly is so we can get everyone to think THE JEWS and THE LIBS are just overly sensitive and trying to make a big deal out of nothing so we can discredit them more easily” is (pardon my use of “literally” but) literally spelled out as a tactic in the literal guidebooks printed and distributed by the architects of American Neo-Naziism!
In which case, maybe any non-Nazi Republicans would like to take this opportunity to let their leadership know that they don’t want them cribbing off of 80 or so years of actual Nazis strategy notes because (once again I find myself having to say what shouldn’t have to be said, but here we are) Neo-Naziism is kind of a bad look?
If it’s not “just” to “trigger” the left and it’s…well…*exactly what it says on the goddamn tin*, uhhhh I guess a whole lot of Republicans are gonna have to wrestle with their consciences and abandon their party now right? …Right? Cause you don’t want to actually stand for our country to be taken over by Nazis, right, non-Nazi Republicans? Right?
Either way, regardless of the intention, it happened, and it’s irrefutably one of those two things (or both at once) that I outlined above.
When people show you who they are, you take them at their fucking word. And now clearly, the mainstream core of the Republican Party is admitting that they’d prefer to show us fourteen words in particular.
