I was looking at this real life horror show and thinking about how someday this is going to be part of the familiar aesthetic language of evil https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/us-border-patrol-migrant-camp-from-above-idUSRTS2HV7C
U.S. Border Patrol migrant camp from above | Pictures | Reuters

Migrants are seen outside the U.S. Border Patrol McAllen Station in a makeshift encampment in McAllen, Texas, May 15, 2019. Adults and children slept on the ground and rigged up makeshift awnings with

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/us-border-patrol-migrant-camp-from-above-idUSRTS2HV7C
I made this meme image a while back and used the Auschwitz-Birkenau train gatehouse to help drive the point home because in the wake of WWII we engaged in an elaborate and mostly righteous propaganda campaign to vilify images of Naziism
I know there are people who have a legitimate hesitation to compare our current American concentration camps to the ones the Nazis built, but I made that meme as a result of talking about the way that comparison is appropriate and necessary https://twitter.com/miniver/status/1039994053373263872?s=21
The effort to make Naziism familar and horrific we have inherited enables a smart and chilling artwork like this. This fake LEGO box works BECAUSE it doesn’t say what it depicts, but we recognize it immediately.
The campaign to make Nazi imagery an immediately recognizable metonym for evil has succeeded so well that it produces perverse results like how, as Lindsey Ellis pointedly observes, Disneyland now features cosplay fascism ... for kids
My point is that these things all look like swastikas to me. If we don’t pull out of our tailspin in these United States, the whole kworld will teach a new generation to do the same.
My point is that these things all look like swastikas to me. If we don’t pull out of our tailspin in these United States, the whole kworld will teach a new generation to do the same.
My point is that these things all look like swastikas to me. If we don’t pull out of our tailspin in these United States, the whole kworld will teach a new generation to do the same.
My point is that these things all look like swastikas to me. If we don’t pull out of our tailspin in these United States, the whole kworld will teach a new generation to do the same.
My point is that these things all look like swastikas to me. If we don’t pull out of our tailspin in these United States, the whole kworld will teach a new generation to do the same.
This symbol has a dreadfully mixed valence: “endowed with inalienable rights” standing next to genocide, “of the people, for the people, by the people” beside slavery, defeating Nazis beside imperialism.

We can never shrug off its worst, but we are in danger of losing its best.
And here we see a smart propagandist looking to make other people read MAGA hats the way I do, leveraging other iconography of evil https://link.medium.com/c4C1i0DgSW 
Facebook Bans Artist For Transforming MAGA Hats:

A Cautionary Tale on Art, Censorship & Social Media

https://link.medium.com/c4C1i0DgSW
Again behold what future generations will know as the aesthetic signifiers of evil https://twitter.com/cbp/status/1134251906224857089?s=21
The shade of Jack Kirby is smiling
https://twitter.com/inthefade/status/1149711726117392385
The Thin Blue Line Flag gives me the Cold Spooky; it now reads to me as a symbol of fascist sentiment. Its history is complicated. https://twitter.com/gwensnyderphl/status/1149890693323788288?s=21
This is a good time to bump up this comment on para-fascist aesthetics in the US https://popula.com/2019/02/24/about-face/
About Face

Death and surrender to power in the clothing of men.

https://popula.com/2019/02/24/about-face/
Police displaying their political allegiance to a fascist movement, using a fascist slogan https://www.huffpost.com/entry/san-antonio-police-donald-trump_n_57fea9a7e4b0e8c198a5dfb0
On-Duty Texas Police Officers Wore Pro-Trump Hats

“You cannot take that position while in uniform,” said a San Antonio city councilman.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/san-antonio-police-donald-trump_n_57fea9a7e4b0e8c198a5dfb0
It might just mean that for us again, if we fight for it https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1161061421054078976?s=21
There are days when I wish I were a Christian just so I would have standing for how much things like this disgust me https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1162199739518971906?s=21
The romanticization and fetishization of guns is para-fascist https://twitter.com/longwall26/status/1168539603848110080?s=21
I have been having this thought a lot about the kitschiness of American fascist and para-fascist iconography

https://twitter.com/girlziplocked/status/1178695399038738433?s=21
A sharp look at more context for the Blue Lives Matter flag https://harpers.org/archive/2018/07/a-flag-for-trumps-america/
[Annotation] A Flag for Trump's America | Harper's Magazine

The power of strength

https://harpers.org/archive/2018/07/a-flag-for-trumps-america/
I attempted a thread explaining to an unsympathetic skeptic why the Blue Lives Matter flag is far right iconography https://twitter.com/miniver/status/1174561508837060608?s=21
Fascism is, in part, building a system of threatening symbols https://twitter.com/dgolumbia/status/1186994395586945024?s=21
Understand that Team Trump are not just stumbling into creating and promoting fascist iconography — they are deliberately cultivating it

https://twitter.com/akil_n_awan/status/1214156261924769792?s=21 https://twitter.com/Akil_N_Awan/status/1214156261924769792
Connecting American fascist iconography to their worldview and myths

https://twitter.com/jysexton/status/1214193844797018112?s=21 https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1214193844797018112
Adding this to the American fascist iconography thread; it merits viewing for a host of other reasons as well

https://twitter.com/mattstonephotog/status/1223333771543531522?s=21 https://twitter.com/mattstonephotog/status/1223333771543531522
Fascist iconography

https://twitter.com/jeffsharlet/status/1238496281330360320?s=21 https://twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1238496281330360320
Gerry Conway, creator of the Punisher, on cops using his logo:

“They are embracing an outlaw mentality. [...] He is a criminal. Police should not be embracing a criminal as their symbol.” https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/punisher-creator-gerry-conway-cops-using-the-skull-logo-are-like-people-using-the
Punisher creator Gerry Conway: Cops using the skull logo are like

Boasting dozens of writing credits for both DC and Marvel, Gerry Conway helped shape the Bronze Age of comic books with stories like "The Night Gwen Stacy Died," the original Clone Saga, the creation

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/punisher-creator-gerry-conway-cops-using-the-skull-logo-are-like-people-using-the
The Thin Blue Line masks on these San Francisco cops gave me a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach

https://twitter.com/reclaim_sf/status/1256333158762479616?s=21 https://twitter.com/housethebay/status/1256333158762479616
Note the yellow Gasden Flag in there, which is another “patriot” symbol which now reads to me as a the same as a swastika

https://twitter.com/vicstoddard/status/1256697402700042241?s=21 https://twitter.com/VicStoddard/status/1256697402700042241
Tying some things together, here are some police with troubling tattoos:

A Gasden Flag snake over a US flag, “We The People” paired with the III%er symbol, and most troubling of all, “Fatherland”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Percenters
Tying some things together, here are some police with troubling tattoos:A Gasden Flag snake over a US flag, “We The People” paired with the III%er symbol, and most troubling of all, “Fatherland” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Percenters
Tying some things together, here are some police with troubling tattoos:A Gasden Flag snake over a US flag, “We The People” paired with the III%er symbol, and most troubling of all, “Fatherland” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Percenters
Tying some things together, here are some police with troubling tattoos:A Gasden Flag snake over a US flag, “We The People” paired with the III%er symbol, and most troubling of all, “Fatherland” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Percenters
I have felt a cold chill when I have personally encountered police with the “We The People” tattoo.

It is galling to see this deeply democratic statement at the heart of our national traditions coöpted as an anti-democratic symbol.
Fascism is kitschy, scary, and nihilistic all at once

https://twitter.com/alsweigart/status/1260684034436247553?s=21 https://twitter.com/AlSweigart/status/1260684034436247553
The expanding range of fascist symbols in the US is a system of threats

https://twitter.com/drgonzo123/status/1262074244734701569?s=21 https://twitter.com/drgonzo123/status/1262074244734701569
More American fascist iconography, from a thread explaining why some authoritarian yahoos yearning for a bloody civil war are, paradoxically, piggybacking on movements against racist authoritarian policing

https://twitter.com/wehearttrash/status/1265665779451801600?s=21 https://twitter.com/wehearttrash/status/1265665779451801600
If you put this in a dystopian science fiction movie in 2000 people would have thought it was going cartoonishly over the top

https://twitter.com/p0kes/status/1267230163521191936?s=21 https://twitter.com/P0kes/status/1267230163521191936
Nested threads on the Punisher skull as a fascist symbol used by police

https://twitter.com/caseyexplosion/status/1268250495107416066?s=21 https://twitter.com/CaseyExplosion/status/1268250495107416066
Fascist American aesthetics are not simply an accident.

They have been cultivated by people with fascist politics.

https://twitter.com/nate_powell_art/status/1269293097512558593?s=21 https://twitter.com/Nate_Powell_Art/status/1269293097512558593
Police culture romanticizes the use of violence to purge society of corrupting influences.

There is a name for that. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cop-tshirts-tell-us-_n_3479017
What Cop T-Shirts Tell Us About Police Culture

Earlier this week, an anonymous public defender sent Gothamist this photo of an NYPD warrant squad officer wearing a t-shirt with a pretty disturbing quo...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cop-tshirts-tell-us-_n_3479017
“The [blue line] flag is the centerpiece in a world of merchandise and policing philosophy, all built around the idea that the police are an embattled tribe of warriors, maligned and reviled by a nation that fails to appreciate their unique importance …” https://theintercept.com/2020/06/06/police-brutality-protests-blue-lives-matter/
Police Attacks on Protesters Are Rooted in a Violent Ideology of Reactionary Grievance

A peaceful protest movement confronts a lawless police culture.

https://theintercept.com/2020/06/06/police-brutality-protests-blue-lives-matter/
The Blue Lives Matter flag paired with Nazi iconography on the streets of the US

https://twitter.com/lilsarg/status/1276942692619038722?s=21 https://twitter.com/lilsarg/status/1276942692619038722
Thread on defenses of American fascist symbols

https://twitter.com/jeffsharlet/status/1285269281593331713?s=21 https://twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1285269281593331713
Maybe we don’t need to expand the iconography of political evil. A lot of it is just showing up in a familiar form.
Kitschy, mawkish clumsiness is not a bug in fascist aesthetics, it is a feature — a rejection of the tastes of effete intellectuals

https://twitter.com/nobonzo/status/1290179566485385218?s=21 https://twitter.com/NoBonzo/status/1290179566485385218
It is no longer possible to wear any kind of red ballcap in innocence

https://twitter.com/hareemmannan/status/1290088625355423745?s=21 https://twitter.com/hareemmannan/status/1290088625355423745
Looking at the weird flag at the top of the final E, I count 8 stars and 8 stripes.

Looking at the rest of it I count 14 stars.

14 8 8

https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/1488
We should not pretend that we do not know what this signifies
Reflecting on this symbol of the shame of my nation

https://community.amplifier.org/art/land-of-the-free-2/
RT @workingchris

Death Spade is a reference to the Ace of spades (13th in the suit) and is a biker icon/ tattoo.

Basically he's saying he is down to kill people who don't agree that pigs are special heros etc. https://twitter.com/siddalee_walker/status/1300711467143004160
See upthread for the measure of my disgust https://twitter.com/atomicovermind/status/1301974043717926917
This looks like a fascist rally to me https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1303053425471418369
Sharing this link for the preview image.

In a place where it is illegal to fly a swastika, they use this instead. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/europe/germany-trump-far-right.html
Trump Emerges as Inspiration for Germany’s Far Right

Among German conspiracy theorists, ultranationalists and neo-Nazis, the American president is surfacing as a rallying cry, or even as a potential “liberator.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/europe/germany-trump-far-right.html
Asked about the symbol, a cop offers a demonstration of what it means https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1304093126718615553
My nation’s flag is now a symbol for global fascism https://twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1304871001709215750
Not just textbooks. The American gulag archipelago will be part of of the global popular image of evil for a century to come. https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1305586092477906951
Mix and match fascist symbolism https://twitter.com/JewishWorker/status/1308474588419043338
There is a lesson in how easily I found a bunch of these
There is a lesson in how easily I found a bunch of these
There is a lesson in how easily I found a bunch of these
There is a lesson in how easily I found a bunch of these
There is a lesson in how easily I found a bunch of these
This thread is too credulous of gun nuts’ BS claims about the 2A and citizens’ guns as a bulwark against tyranny. But it spots their self-refuting logic.

If the Thin Blue Line is your flag, you are no defense against the government’s jackbooted thugs. You are their brownshirts. https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/1310955004539408384
In case you were waiting for them to replace the American flag with a modified version worn by jackbooted thugs before you call it “fascism” https://twitter.com/colvinj/status/1315788494296489988
Meme’d for your convenience
The kitschiness of fascist aesthetics is a rejection of “elites” and liberal (both as in “liberal democracy” and as in “not conservative”) cultural values https://twitter.com/idothethinking/status/1315845977098469376
The US is full of swastikas if you know how to look https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/1317881304621355008
In case you were waiting for them to replace the American flag with a modified version worn by jackbooted thugs before you call it “fascism” https://twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1320189238214799360
Many police unions appear to be explicitly fascist

(from last year) https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-police-union-urges-members-to-post-controversial-symbol-on-social-media-pages/article_b7cdfecc-99e2-5927-8166-fdcf640eae41.html
St. Louis police union urges members to post controversial symbol on social media pages

Blue Line Punisher symbol is reason why some officers have been blacklisted by prosecutors, so police union wants its members to post it in solidarity with them

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-police-union-urges-members-to-post-controversial-symbol-on-social-media-pages/article_b7cdfecc-99e2-5927-8166-fdcf640eae41.html
A friend succinctly described what the Thin Blue Line implies
Sinclair Lewis did not actually say that thing about "wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross", but we have arrived at an American fascism which is very plain about its symbols https://twitter.com/IFDrinkLib/status/1321165934149599232
Kitschy, mawkish clumsiness is not a bug in fascist aesthetics, it is a feature — a rejection of the tastes of effete "elites"

via @mugrimm https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1321158320695267328
Voter intimidation by a fascist mob

(audio on) https://twitter.com/ajayrochester/status/1320148950398038016
Brownshirts https://twitter.com/griffinmalone6/status/1321314420371443712
Brownshirt terrorism https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1321476398951911424
https://twitter.com/jeffsharlet/status/1321844577347772416
This excellent point from an excellent thread hits one of the major things I have been trying to get at with this thread of my own https://twitter.com/jeffsharlet/status/1321847925572423681
You can follow @miniver.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled:
There are a lot of misconceptions about the Turkish diaspora in Germany. Since i just finished writing an essay about this topic I thought it's time to give other people
Read more
Las mejores calculadoras online en 2020A thread http://totumat.com/2020/11/26/las-mejores-calculadoras-online-en-2020/ Cuando se estudian asignaturas que requieren de cálculos complicados, nada mejor que contar con una buena calculadora.
Read more
Mitigating #ClimateChange is as much about taking up new techs as about leaving others behindMost studies focus on #coal's global downfall but another #energy tech decline is loomingRead my new
Read more