Posted on 09/13/2009 5:31:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Ever since Glenn Beck took to the Fox television airwaves recently to offer a bizarre reading of the art commissioned 70 years ago for New York's Rockefeller Center, I've been puzzled by the graphic design element of his 9-12 Project. The logo (pictured) for his affiliated groups' rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend derives from century-old communist, socialist and other left-wing designs.
Those were the motifs he railed against in his Rockefeller rant.
For the logo, three raised and clenched red fists are superimposed over the U.S. Capitol. Obviously the bloody fist represents the tea-baggers' themes of unity and resistance.
But do Beck; the corporate-sponsored astro-turf group, FreedomWorks, headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas); the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; the private-property group, the National Assn. of Rural Landowners; and the rest of the march sponsors know the symbol's origins?
Unity and resistance are what the fist represented in 1917, when it was first employed by the Industrial Workers of the World, a union organization founded by socialists. And in the 1940s, when it stood for various nations' communist party organizations.
That's also what it meant when it was revived in the 1960s, appearing as a symbol for the SDS, as well as anti-war and feminist movements. It was the basis for the black-power salute given by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. And today, it's the symbol for the Progressive Labor Party (pictured), a political outfit whose website says it "fights to smash capitalism."
Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous").
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Good Knight Christopher
Is THE Christopher Knight from Brady Bunch fame?
The Obamamessiah’s whole platform is bases on Communism . How come they didn’t print that?
They have never understood parody
There was a helluva lot more than 30,000 people there. I guess Knight has never seen the photos and video.
I have been seeing that logo for months. I always assumed they were mocking the far left. The left doesn’t understand ridicule when they see it.
This is what a liar calls a bust:
geez, I’ve seen those clenched fists during an Olympic award ceremony, too
Bingo!
That, my FRiend is an understatement.
ok....you caught us....Beck is a communist....great investigative journalism, you guys...i see a peebody award in this one for ya...
what a complete idiot.
astro turf
30,000
a bust
now Beck is a commie
then the so called media wonder why no one cares about them now.
The left have completely lost it.
Their Bush derangement was much worse than I first thought
Yegads, this boy is as dumb as a stump.
Other than the colors and presence of a fist the logos aren’t even close.
and chris Wallace TODAY and FOX is still saying “in the tens of thousands’
HUH?
Uh...Is he for real?
They just don’t get it, do they?
Besides, the Beck 9/12 logo is the the Join or Die Flag, from our pre-Revolution times.
I think it’s funnier than heck that they used the fist icon for the event.
It’s like when Beck uses “comrade” to address his listeners and fans sometimes.
It’s called humor...check into it.
Great toilet paper journalism. Not fit for a hampster cage.
Using their symbols against them hehehe.
Besides, if we are crypto-commies, then shouldn’t the lefties be on our side? ;-)
The lying liberal left news media seem to have a contest to see who can write the most outrageous story about the right.
Take note of the 2,000,000 people talking point. These asshats are scared, and with good reason.
Anyone and everyone who uses the term “teabagger” should be ignored. They are admiting in full public view they are an idiot, a racist and a fool.
Why waste our time on a fool’s words?
LOL!!! That would be funny! but I don’t think so...
Christopher Knight
October 1, 2008 | 5:55 pm
Christopher Knight is art critic for the Los Angeles Times. A three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, he also received the 1997 Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism from the College Art Association, the first journalist to win the award in more than 25 years. A former museum curator, he’s written numerous exhibition catalog essays, and he’s the author of two books, “Last Chance for Eden: Selected Art Criticism, 1979-1994” (1995) and “Art of The Sixties and Seventies: The Panza Collection” (1989 and 2003). A Californian by desire and a New Englander by birth, Knight holds a Masters in art history from the State University of New York and an Honorary Doctorate from Atlanta College of Art.
I’m pretty sure that Beck realizes what he is doing. Sort of along the lines of when he was saying that line from the movie “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”. The same attitude that prevailed in the sixties that “the Man” did not care about the little folks, that their voices were not being heard, etc. is sort of what is happening again.
I’m surprised this writer did not look at all of the 9-12 signs and say “these folks are just copying all the things that we REAL protestors have been doing since the sixties”.
Pinging the COMRADES!!!!
This is not your father’s Revolution.
This is what I posted in the comments:
“You have to be totally loco to come up with any of these statements. I guess it’s just a sign of the total desperation that the left has with the uprising that is taking place across conservative America. You have awakened a sleeping giant, and I hate to tell you, but you are going to lose. You are going to lose everything - all the special interest money like Acorn and other leftist front organizations, all the money that is being siphoned to the UN for their one world dream, and everything else that represents the communist values that the left adores. We are taking the country back, and the left will never, ever be in power again. You have really jumped the shark on this one, there’s no turning back.”
The red fist in the logo may look like commie Art but Beck accepting this logo that’s similar to Commie-land art is totally by coincidence and inconsequential.
Was Christopher Knight one of the New Kids on the Block?
Jeff. Thank you for the great photos and some of the other great graphics you share with us.
If the Rats didn’t know these marches were going on, they are stupider than I ever could have imagined.
LA Times art critic Christopher Knight
hahaha beck knows all about symbolism....at least the enemy can understand it.
1968 Mexico City Olympics. Tommy Smith and John Carlos gave Black Power salutes on the award stand. One of them later said that he regrets doing it.
Chistopher Knight, a man obviously very familiar with tea bagging.
It appears that art critic Knight has problems with the concepts of parody and irony.
Except GB didn’t organize the 9/12 march and had nothing to do with the design of the logo. A few moments of honest fact checking would have revealed that. But why let that get in the way of your faux Gotcha! I’m sure the libs will eat it up and spread it as another meme all over the net.
thats like the best visual ever.....no words needed.
Is this the Christopher Knight I’m thinking of, the nutjob of the Van Dakien or Immanuel Velikovsky variety?
I’m surprised he couldn’t find any masonic imagery...
She looks very masculine.
This is another low point for the latimes. I took a screenshot of the entire page. I think they may pull this thing and try to pretend it was never written.
I interpret the symbol as “power to the people” - kind of a populist symbol. FWIW
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