Nazis intent on Toyworld domination
Tim Blair’s quite partial to a good conspiracy theory:
By the way, what was Margo’s artist Martin Davies getting at with this image from October, depicting John Howard with a big yellow star on the left side of his chest?
Margo pretended to instantly recognise the theological issues raised by George W. Bush’s use of the word “crusade” in 2001 (”I’d just lifted my head out of my hands after hearing the leader of the free world announce he was leading his allies into ‘a crusade’ - the Christian term for a holy war”) so it’s remarkable that someone so sensitive and aware would allow this image to be published. Surely Margo knows …
A decree, issued on September 1, 1941, issued badges to Jews within Germany as well as occupied and incorporated Poland. This badge was the yellow Star of David with the word “Jude” (”Jew”) and worn on the left side of one’s chest.
OMGOMGOMG!!!! He’s right! This is obviously an antisemitic picture!
Thank heavens Tim warned me — look at some of the other examples I’ve turned up:
That’s right folks — the Nazis are on the move, and they’re taking over toy manufacturers.
Lego appears to have been particularly hard hit. They appear to be using the Duplo range to target youngsters whose minds are easily moulded:
By the time the kids are old enough, they have a wide range of Jewish toys to play with. Here we see the victims of a Mengelesque program of dismemberment:
The Nazis were firm believers in the power of the media to control the masses, and it is not surprising that they would use children’s programs to convey their hateful message. It is well known that Walt Disney was a Nazi sympathiser, and his company has kept up that tradition in its extremely popular Toy Story series:
You might think that these are harmless toys, but the effects of such pervasive propaganda on impressionable young minds is devastating. Here is undeniable proof that this antisemitism is carried into adulthood:
A Jewish stripper is being forced to identify herself with a yellow star! This is surely not the work of children: the Nazi campaign is working.
On the other hand, the Web Diary picture might just be a reference to the “Deputy Sheriff” tag that’s been regularly applied to John Howard… Nah, who am I kidding. The evidence is clear — we must act now to save our children from the new Nazi threat.
N.B. The emphasised text in the quotation was added at Tim Blair’s request.
*chuckles* Nice one, Rob
Tim might be drawing a bit of a long bow but you have to ask the question: Is the artist A) calling John Howard an agent of Zion, or B) too fucking retarded to understand the symbolism.
Or, and this is my preferred option, C) using a gold star to represent a sheriff’s badge.
Should we avoid drawing stars in case it offends people? Because that would be very PC, wouldn’t it?
Not about anti-Semitism. About selective sensitivity to religious terms/images. You miss point, as usual, and edit badly.
(Message simplified to a point where Rob might understand it.)
A sheriff’s badge is religious imagery now? Fair enough, then.
Re: editing. I don’t have a lengthy career in journalism behind me, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to deal with it.
By the way, when you asked “what was Margo’s artist Martin Davies getting at”, I thought you were hinting at possible antisemitism. Otherwise, what’s the problem?
The problem is that I was comparing Margo’s horror at the use of the term “crusade” (oh, the awful religious connotations!) with her acceptance of the star image (which carries, you must agree, some religious weight). Her hypersensitivity is a little random.
And you know that, because otherwise you wouldn’t have cut those lines from this post. They wreck your joke.
Why not find all the people who, just like your star-wearers, have used “crusade” in speech lately? It must mean that they are all out to conquer the planet with Jesus bombs!
How about a little context, Tim? Sure, the word “crusade” has other meanings, but when a committed Christian announces that he is waging war against (militant) Islam, it’s not a stretch to see how the term might be offensive. When you throw people like Lieutenant-General Boykin into the picture, the link is even stronger. Even the rabid lefties at the Cato Institute thought Bush’s turn of phrase was “not reassuring”.
When a picture of a cowboy wearing a sheriff’s badge accompanies an article that has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism (or, for that matter, Israel), why would you immediately assume that the star was supposed to be the Star of David?
Short answer: you wouldn’t. And yet, somehow, you did.
How about a little context? Yes, please! Insert the rest of my paragraph so your readers know that I was making a comparison rather than a stand-alone assertion.
I didn’t assume the star was the Star of David. My point, yet again, was to suggest that someone who on hearing “crusades” buries their head in their hands at the terrible imagery of it all, might also be expected to appreciate the possible implications of that star.
You may disagree. Fine. But by editing my comparison from your post, you’re misrepresenting me.
Okay, the star’s gold, and it’s the same shape as the Star of David. But… the popular representation of a sheriff’s badge is gold, and in the shape of… well, I’m sure you can guess.
Nobody is going to look at that picture and think “it means Howard is a Jew [meant derogatively]!”, unless of course they’ve got a grudge against Margo (now, who do we know who fits that?). Until you pointed it out, how many people even noticed the similarity between a sheriff’s badge and the Star of David?
(And why should Margo object to this picture, but no other popular “sheriff” representations?)
Until Margo pointed it out — or until it was pointed out to Margo — how many people knew of the ancient significance of “crusades”?
YET AGAIN, my point isn’t that this is necessarily something anti-Semitic. It’s that by comparison to her earlier ultra-sensitivity, Margo fails to note anything possibly creepy about the star.
Tim, I bet you play all your Beatles records backwards as well.
Actually, you know what is anti-Semitic, or at least insulting? Spelling “Semitic” — a proper noun — with a lower-case “s”.
Rob gets “Nazi” right, though.
Tim Blair is a paranoid moron.
Rather a lot of people noticed, tim (anecdotal evidence only, admittedly). Some rose up, like Margo, and declared “this is proof that religious nutcase wants to convert the Muslim world!” and other such silliness, others stuck their collective heads in their collective hands and muttered “why, oh, why did he have to use that word? We’ll never hear the end of it from Margo when she found out,” still others argued that… damn, now I’ve forgotten what my point was.
Anyway, you owe me a drink now.
I think the cowboy hat was a bit of a give away folks. Fuck’s sake.
“And for the record, there were a few Jewish cowboys, ladies and gentlemen. Big guys who were great shots and spent money freely.”
Hate to interrupt your smug chortles here, but do you even know what the difference between a Sherrif’s badge and the Star Of David is ?? That’s right loser, COUNT THE POINTS
Thank you - you may now resume childish sniggering
I just had a look a the photo. Given the context, I don’t think there’s any doubt of Margo’s intentions, but I have to admit, despite the cowboy hat, it does look remarkably to me like a Star of David. However, while it looks like that, I think the references in the article make it pretty clear what the intention is. But, though I understand your point, Tim, that for someone quite picky about religious connotations Margo may have been wise to use a symbol that could be less easily misinterpreted, you took the point beyond any of its logical extremes, and as usual were a fair dickhead about it.
*sigh*
Mathematician, for your benefit I’ll repost here a comment I made on Tim’s entry:
Manas, you probably only thought it looked like a Star of David because you saw the picture after reading the complaint. No reasonable person could have misconstrued that picture.
There’s a good point I haven’t seen made here yet, Rob — six-pointed stars are easier to draw…
That’s certainly how I “learned” to draw triangles Way Back When. Draw two trianges (a Star of David, no?), then colour in the gaps with that dirty yellow texta we all pretend is “gold”…