Thirdpower bought himself some surplus hats. I mentioned that the Red Star creeps me out in general. I mean more people died under that star than the Nazi Swastika. But we see the Red star all over the place.
Its such a simple shape and color, but all I see is this:
Of course other symbols have been corrupted.
Why is it some symbols cause us to recoil in horror and others don’t, and am I the only one who gets disgusted when I see Red Stars not used in context with National Socialism?
I can’t say it bothers me. Coming from a different angle, stars and the color red have been used in so many other cultures as power symbols it blanks it out for me. Red in general as a power color associated with many things including birth, and my normal preference to it just doesn’t bring it up as a bad thing. I like pentagrams for many reasons. Prime numbers are great, etc etc. I have strange likings.
I do see your exact point though. I just don’t think of it as communism when it is out of context.
(I used to draw red and black stars on the margins of my notes back in high school. I used duel colors when note taking so red and black worked best for me. Maybe I desensitized myself?)
Indeed the 5-point star is a VERY old symbol. The swastika is a little less prevalent, but it is simply a “Wheel of Life” which is a very common concept.
That being said the swastika is not looked at as a symbol of life and prosperity, but a symbol of totalitarianism and death these days….
On the same level, shouldn’t the cross be bothersome too, due to the hundreds of millions that have died in the name of the Christian God? Cross-trocities anyone?
After doing more research into De Soto and the mass genocides he caused while on his ludicrous search for gold down in Florida some of the Spanish names for things give me the creeps.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
20 years in the Navy, all I see is the USSR symbol…
glad to see I’m not the only one.
Hey to the person with family from Eastern Europe, I you comment got into the spam trap and I accidentally deleted it. Please re-post your comment, and accept my apology.
I personally find the commercialization of communist symbols and objects to be gratifying. I can think of no better rejection and humiliation of the principles and practices of communism that reducing it to novelty knickknacks bought by the social class it tried to exterminate. I think of the stuff I have with communist symbols on it like trophies symbolizing our victory over evil rather than the evil itself, similar to my grandfather’s WW2 trophies but in a more philosophical way.
I can easily understand how people might be offend or disturbed by such symbols, though. And, anyone using those symbols to support communism or national socialism has a lot of evil to answer for.
That IS true, Che Guevara would have gone in a Boy-Raping FIT had he known his face would be cheaply printed on T-Shirts and sold to stupid teenagers who live in wealthy or upper-middle-class suburbs and will likely go to college and pay a fortune for it.
Still the fact that these people are SERIOUSLY wearing them, rather than Ironically, shows we have REALLY far to go.
I all most went in to history lecture mode when I ran into a UAF student wearing one today in the upper dorms.
Silly little students, isn’t it wonderful to go off to school and be different just like everyone else?