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 ...
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.
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