New York Times faces backlash after crossword puzzle published on Hanukkah shaped like a swastika

NY Times ^

[qwerty1234]

Donald Trump Jr. was among hundreds of New York Times readers who slammed the newspaper for their crossword puzzle on Sunday - which many noticed bore an uncanny resemblance to a Nazi swastika. The puzzle's silhouette has caused a stir on social media, with several prominent Jewish leaders and political figures taking to social media to voice their outrage - especially since it was published on the first night of Hanukkah.

[existentially_kuffer]

vir·tue sig·nal·ing, one picture is worth 1000 expert opinions.

[LuxAerterna]

It came out exactly one day after an editorial blathering about the “far right” government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The Slimes has also run fake news drivel, seething with hatred, about Hasidic schools.

There’s NO WAY would I take for face value that this is mere coincidence.

[hanamizu]

“...the Japanese Meat Ball and Rising Sun flags are still flown high.”

---

People forget, or likely never learned, that we hated the Japanese during WWII much more than Nazis. For the most part, the Nazis treated American & British P.O.W.s correctly, quite unlike the Japanese. And, of course, the American public only learned about the extent of Nazi atrocities in the last month or two of the war.

All that said, unlike Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the flags of Japan were the old, established banners of the nation as opposed to the symbol of the ruling party. Whoever had the franchise for producing Nazi banners got rich—which was a very big part of being a high-ranking Nazi.

[Lurker]

Check out 88 down.

L

[left that other site]

58 Across and
60 Across

YIKES

[Albion Wilde]

>> I’m not sure it was intentional.

Yea right - and I ams sure the references to ‘boxcars’ and the Brandenburg gates was all just another big coincidence.

See 22 Across. That clue's a little shady.

However, as a longtime student of visual perception, I have to say it is not a perfect swastika, because the white squares of the inner cross do not form a straight 90-degree symmetry. I, too, had to study it awhile before the swastika-like image "leapt out"; but once you see a thing amidst a visual maze, it's nearly impossible to unsee it. And everyone on this thread was "directed" to see it immediately by the headline.

Puzzle templates are often recycled. Even though I grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood and school where we got along as close friends and learned about each others' cultures, I lean towards "unintentional", or mayyyybe "unconscious." But it would be more determinative to know if, or how many times, this template has previously been used.

It may not have been the choice of either the puzzle writer or the puzzle editor to run it during a Jewish holiday; but rather a mindless decision made a week to a month ahead by a "section editor" or other millennial recent college grad from the midwest, unfamiliar with Judaism or its history.

Pretty sure we won't see this template recycled again soon, however.

[Fury]

Really?

I don’t see it. Showed it to several people at work. Out of the five that looked at it, none said it looked like a swastika.

[Red Badger]

That was no accident.

It cannot be that symmetrical by random placement of words and phrases.

It was designed very carefully..........................

[Vaduz]

Indeed true colors

[silverleaf]

A German spy in Oahu was instrumental in helping the Japanese select the targets and timing of the PH attack. There were industrial and ideology ties between German and Japanese nationalists for decades …before the Axis became a war alliance. Intellectuals in both cultures were believers in racial and cultural supremacy and destiny. No coincidence Germany and Japan both declared war on us before we declared war on them.

[sauropod]

NYT. Excellence in bad messaging.

[ridesthemiles]

I am not Jewish.

THAT is despicable.

[ridesthemiles]

There are probably 350,000 other layouts that could have been done-—

NOT THIS ONE.

[wardaddy]

Hannukah is a minor Jewish holiday that’s gets spotlight in Christian culture due to its impeccable timing

Some folks have too much time on their hands

[wardaddy]

Hannukah is a minor Jewish holiday that’s gets spotlight in Christian culture due to its impeccable timing

Some folks have too much time on their hands

[SuperLuminal]

For those of us who are old enough to remember WWII & the 1930s, this is just totally in line with the NYSlimes’ long-time support for Adolph Hitler...

The Slimes and Joe Kennedy were America’s principal Hitler-go-to guys...

[Jeff Chandler]

They’re right. Ever since Musk purchased Twitter there’s been an uptick in hate speech.

[Nifster]

Not a good look

[nhbob1]

NYT is a neo-Nazi, white-supremacist organization

[ronnie raygun]

They sat by and said nothing when they knew the jews where being systematically murdered by the millions