Octopus & Propaganda

[WhiteKiboko]

initially i was going to put 'squid fishermen' but in order to not be blamed for advocating violence (in a legally troubling way) i decided to go for the absurd angle of stabbing whales....

 

[bigGdelta]

initially i was going to put 'squid fishermen' but in order to not be blamed for advocating violence (in a legally troubling way) i decided to go for the absurd angle of stabbing whales....

But... but ... then there would be no tasty calimari rings.....

 

[WhiteKiboko]

you can swim right? you got teeth or fingers to grab right?

bingo... calamari rings....

my corruptions aside, you really got love some of the wwi propaganda on both sides....

 

[Donnerboy]

Propaganda Cartoon

Has anyone ever seen this one?

It's an old anti-railroad monopoly editorial cartoon. Thought this is the one site that could really appreciate it.

 

[Phil]

I went up to the aircraft museum at RAF Duxford yesterday and found a poster that reminded me of this thread. It's a poster from the Netherlands, I guess 1944 in date (?) that depicts Japan as a monstrous octopus unsnaring the Pacific in its arms.

 

[Kent Wang]

There are a number of images that were produced under the auspices of Josef Goebbels' propaganda machine that depict international Jewry as some form of bloodthirsty octopus. Taste dictates not posting them here, no matter how relevent. Indeed, one issue of Julius Streicher's ranting Der Sturmer magazine depicted an octopus bearing a Star of David being stabbed with spears labelled 'truth' and 'enlightenment'.

I'd like to see an image of this.

 

[WhiteKiboko]

Was reading through Zombietime and saw this... the tentacle aspect of propaganda regarding the protocols of the elders of zion is noted....

about half to two-thirds the way down...
"U.S. Out of Iraq Now" Anti-War Rally
(numerous pictures arent family friendly)

 

[Michael Blue]

The person who originally posted that "flag-pus-globe" pic made reference to its origin as well...

Very interesting topic guys!

 

[cthulhu77]

Some great new pics...neat stuff, indeed !

 

[Bob the kracken]

Was reading through Zombietime and saw this... the tentacle aspect of propaganda regarding the protocols of the elders of zion is noted....

about half to two-thirds the way down...
"U.S. Out of Iraq Now" Anti-War Rally
(numerous pictures arent family friendly)

I'm conservative, i'm ameracan, i'm a patriot, and i see this kind of stuff so much i'm pretty much numb to it by now.

alo i didn't see that family freindly thing right away and it kinda took me by surprize.

also that this is your brain on cryptozoology thing, i resent that, go to my profile and read my interests then talk to me about it

 

[octobot]

[News]: NRA depicts Bloomberg as octopus, an anti-Semitic symbol - amNewYork

NRA depicts Bloomberg as octopus, an anti-Semitic symbol
amNewYork, New York - 3 hours ago
NRA spokeswoman Ashley Varner said possible parallels between the magazine cover and the historical context of the octopus were accidental.
Gun lobbying group depicts New York Mayor Bloomberg as octopus, an ... [SIZE=-1]International Herald Tribune
NRA Magazine Cover Depicts NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as Octopus ... [SIZE=-1]FOX News

More...

 

[erich orser]

Obviously, the offended have never seen or followed this thread, or else they would know that this is an all-purpose visual metaphor and isn't inherently or specifically anti-Semitic.

WARNING: This next paragraph just struck me due to the NRA being behind the Bloomberg cover. If you're excessively pro-or-anti gun ownership, read no further. This kind of thing is generally not my style, but:

It struck me as odd, in view of recent events, that there is the NRA, which holds to an often outlandish all-or-nothing view on guns and gun control, and the anti-gun people, who obviously want most private gun ownership abolished. Where's the "we're responisble gun owners who think background checks and, just perhaps, purchasing bans on mental patients are a good idea, but we still like to go hunting or target shooting" group?

Where's the pro-gun lobby for rational firearms enthusiasts? I love guns. I love target shooting. I have some Big Liberal chums who love to go hunting, and I know some Conservatives who can't figure out why assault weapons should be everyday household objects, but respect the intent of the Second Amendment. Why are Americans - my countrymen - always so black and white about everything all the time?

Sorry, this question has been gnawing at my brain for a very long time. What if you love firearms but are pretty sick of the NRA?


Anyway, back to Octopus and Propaganda.

 

[pipsquek]

Switzerland. Every house has a gun, by law, and crime is pretty much non existent. Banning guns won't stop bad people from having them; England and Japan struggle with that one all the time.
"What good are yer damn laws? The good people don't need them and the bad people just ignore them." Utah Phillips qouting a friend.

I say open season on the NRA.

 

[WhiteKiboko]

it'd be interesting to hear someone from the JPFO's opinion on all this....

 

[Clem]

I'm glad Octobot caught this story. I was riding on the subway to work early in the morning and saw a brief mention of the NRA Bloomberg cover in today's Daily News.

The New York Times ran a story about this back on April 15th, linked here. It shows the offending illustration and provides necessary context about Mayor Bloomberg's campaign against illegal firearms, but it also mentions what's inside the America's 1st Freedom article. From Times writer Diane Cardwell:

The cover article, which labels Mr. Bloomberg “a billionaire, Boston-grown evangelist for the nanny state,” argues that despite the mayor’s carefully chosen words about keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals, he was actually waging war on legal gun ownership.

“Beholden to nothing except his own ambitions, the mayor has established himself as a kind of national gun-control vigilante,” writes James O. E. Norell, identified as a contributing editor. Calling the national coalition a “cabal,” Mr. Norell adds: “Bloomberg’s tentacles reach throughout the country to foist N.Y.C.-style gun control on you, your friends and neighbors.”

Cabal, eh? Mr. Norell's article hits most of the marks a writer versed in coded messages would want to hit, nailing wealth, conspiracy, ruthless ambition and those two cities where lots of those people live. I'd like to know more about how the article and cover illustration came to be, who painted it, and did they read the article or get a summary for the assignment? The illustration is not particularly grotesque, and if you look closely you can see that the tentacles are a background figures unattached to Bloomberg, who has his own arms and signature suited torso. The association with anti-Jewish propaganda featuring cephalopods can still be made, obviously, but the fumes aren't as strong as what's inside the newsletter. Ms. Cardwell's Times piece does not explicitly engage or acknowledge the appearance of an anti-Jewish theme in either Norell's article or the cover illustration.

Associated Press writer Sara Kugler, who penned what Octobot picked up, frames it quite differently and has done some homework but, as Erich notes, not enough. Per Erich, the octopus is not a specifically, uniquely anti-Jewish symbol, and had a long career as a general-purpose symbol behind it. Hitler's appropriation of it for Mein Kampf and subsequent appearances in Nazi visual propaganda, such as Seppla's ravening Churchill octopus guided by the Star of David, capped a long tradition of depicting the enemy other as a ceph. In examples from Nineteenth Century America, targets included Catholics, Chinese immigrants and railroad monopolies, among others. Kugler also fudged what the NRA cover actually shows; Bloomberg isn't an octopus, he's been placed in close visual and metaphorical association with one. That may seem a small distinction, but it's still worth noting.

Another oddity in Ms. Kugler's piece is the muted response to the painting elicited from representatives of the American Jewish Congress and Anti-defamation League.

David Twersky of the American Jewish Congress said he did not think the NRA was trying to be purposely anti-Semitic, but that it had nonetheless committed a blunder by not being aware of the symbol's hateful past. "For them not to know this is really, really stupid," he said. "You take a powerful Jewish figure, and show him in a way that provokes traditional anti-Semitism, it's really unforgiveable." He said the organization may write a letter to the NRA pointing out the problem.

The Anti-Defamation League said although some may perceive the drawing as offensive, it did not believe the cartoon is inherently anti-Semitic. "While the use of an octopus to connote anti-Semitism has been used by the Nazis and anti-Semites, and is still used today, it usually is accompanied with a very specific symbol" or other indicators that the magazine cover does not have, said ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum.

Shinbaum and Twersky are well-informed and about as measured in tone as I was, that is, before I read about what the Mr. Borell's NRA article actually says, which is a more overt example of anti-Jewish coding. Did the quoted AJC and ADL reps know what was written, or were they asked to respond to the drawing alone? Seems to be some sloppiness afoot.

This story got some steam behind it today, three days after the Times piece and an unknown number of days since the April issue of America's 1st Freedom went out to subscribers. The Virginia Tech massacre re-focused attention here in NY on Mayor Bloomberg's pursuit of illegal firearms, and the fact that at one point 47% of the illegal weapons taken out of circulation were found to have come via Virginia. Journalists casting light on coded bigotry present in the America's 1st Freedom issue doesn't exactly hurt Bloomberg, politically speaking, since it casts his enemies in the NRA in the shadow of bigotry and generalized jack-assedness, but it's also a distraction from the bigger picture. The NRA' s editorial staff may have calculated that dropping anti-Jewish code on receptive members may get that demographic riled-up and ready to buy more guns in Virginia, but the blowback scarcely seems worth it.

Sorry for this over-long post.

Cheers,
Clem