Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor in the August 30 Today’s WorldView newsletter of The Washington Post.
In a recent speech by Biden:
“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”
The GOP goes bonkers. In light of recent posts, it's worth a read. Tharoor notes that scholars disagree as to what fascism is, exactly. It's like we know it when we see it, but given the variety of its expression, it's hard to pin down with a precise definition.
See this one about CPAC using an Odal rune-shaped stage. The Odal rune being a favorite of neo-Nazis. It also mentions a Trump campaign Facebook ad using an inverted red triangle to illustrate an attack on antifa and liberal enemies. Like the yellow Star of David for Jews, the triangle was used to identify political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
The Guardian reports that a recent renovation of Prague's landmark Orloj clock did not turn out as expected. The mechanisms were updated and some other invisible changes made, but it's part of the visible aspect that has led to the controversy.
The 15th-century astronomical clock includes a 19th-century painting by Joseph Manes depicting the months of the year as zodiac signs.
The new painting has many changes: the ages, physical features, even gender of the figures. The changes are so significant there can be no question they're intentional. Some even think the figures represent friends of the artist.
If this were a renovation, it would be understandably an outrage. But as a replacement, I don't see any big deal. I suppose the artist signed a contract, so in that case it is a waste of time and money. But a little "artistic license" doesn't really do any harm.
Why not update things? The spirit is the same, the poses, the colors. Does a new face change much?
After Notre-Dame burned, there was immediately talk about how to renovate it. Recreate the original or make something modern? I'm in the latter camp. Hell, the original spire was a 19th-century addition, not from the same era as the basilica itself (13th century).
Why not let it reflect the times in which it was destroyed and rebuilt? We don't have to be so thoroughly beholden to the past. They weren't when they added the spire to Notre-Dame in the 19th century. These churches took centuries to build, anyway. Normal that their architecture reflects that.
The French, btw, have decided to go with the 1859 design. When the Louvre added I.M. Pei's glass pyramid, critics were apoplectic. Now it's iconic, an immediately recognizable representation of the museum. And the Vietnam War memorial was thoroughly derided. Now it's revered for it's stark beauty and power.
With Notre-Dame, the opportunity to make something daring and potentially as iconic as its massive facade presented itself. But much like a lot of things in French governance, they're sticking with what they know instead of daring to innovate.
The clock isn't exactly the same thing, but why not allow a slight modification? Why pretend it's the original, when it isn't? Maybe the artist should have discussed it. But then again, it went unnoticed for a while. It was unveiled in 2018. I don't know when it was discovered, but the news is only breaking now. It can't be that dissimilar.
The artist, Stanislav Jirčík, is an academic painter and restorer, but some critics of his joke (?) have called his work amateurish. But the artist, for now, isn't talking.
But it's a good thing people are discussing it. Public art matters.
This comes on the heels of a recent incident in which a Russian security guard defaced a painting with ballpoint-pen created googly eyes.
And who can forget the well-meaning Spanish woman who turned a Renaissance-era portrait of Jesus into a kind of monkey?
As far as I can determine, synchromysticism is a term invented by blogger Jake Kotze in 2006: "....synchromystic (my new word for meaningful coincidence with mystical connotation....)"
The movement is rooted in the work of Jim Brandon, Michael Hoffman II, James Shelby Downard, and, to a certain degree, Robert Anton Wilson.
One of the most widely-read examples of synchromysticism is King-Kill 33 (first published in 1988), a collaboration between Hoffman and Downard about the mother of all conspiracy theories....the assassination of JFK. Marilyn Manson even wrote a song with the same title. Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books (i.e. the Da Vinci Code) are arguably based in synchromysticism.
One of the principal concepts in synchromysticism is twilight language. Twilight language: "clues" left by conspirators in a larger process called the Revelation of the Method, which I'll discuss later.
A few years ago there were only a few synchromystic blogs, but now they've proliferated. Even writers who were writing along similar lines before 2006 have adopted the mantle, and there is a thriving online community which exchanges its findings. One of these writers is L.C. (I've thinly disguised the name to avoid having it pop up in web searches, because L.C. is not really the focus of this post, but a point of departure and a thread around which to organize my observations).
L.C. is a social worker, writer, and museum curator. Among other topics, he's written about Cryptozoology and Fortean phenomena, and more recently, "twilight language," e.g. mystical toponymy, numerical symbolism, and the hidden meanings of names. Forteana is a precursor of twilight language. Indeed, many of the movement's first practitioners wrote for Fortean Times at some point.
At some point L.C. added synchromysticism to his Fortean explorations. Wikipedia defines the term as "the practice o nof attributing mystical or esoteric significance to mundane coincidences." Kotze's "meaningful coincidence."
I think it's a good definition; confirmation bias, frequency illusion, and apophenia presented as something with deeper meaning beyond the mind's need to order and organize sensory input and data. "The Truth is out There." More like in There.
Synchronicity + Mysticism. What could go wrong?
To be frank, synchromysticism has always confused me, at times irked me. After years of following the milieu, and dabbling in it, I've become disillusioned with it. I think it's a dead end.
One of L.C's areas of study are mass-shootings, a topic he sadly has occasion to address frequently. He wrote a book on the subject titled The Copycat Effect. L.C. has
"....a master's degree in psychiatric social work and was a consultant for the Maine Youth Suicide Program for nearly a decade. He authored several manuals and trained over 40,000 professionals and paraprofessionals statewide....He has been called on for statements in the aftermath of school shootings and how best to respond to the problem, mostly by the Canadian media."
L.C. has legitimate expertise in the subject and an impressive C.V. can be found on his blog. The blog, which used to be called The Copycat Effect but is now Twilight Language, however, is not the kind of stuff anyone in the court system or mainstream media would solicit.
When he writes about mass-shootings on Twilight Language, he looks at the names of the people involved, toponymy, numerical symbolism, whatever coincidences he finds; he sometimes simply lists facts and recurring images. By grouping all this stuff together, patterns are created by accumulation, patterns implied to mean something beyond the brain imposing order on the phenomenal world (e.g. "perception as an organizing process").
Back in 2012, I queried him about a post on the Aurora, Colorado mass-shooting. He included my comment and response in a follow-up post. Here's my comment and excerpts from his thoughtful and courteous response:
Recently, in comments at Twilight Language, a person using the name Daurade, sent this along:
Mr. C., I have read enough of your posts to believe the Copycat
Effect is totally plausible, very difficult to refute. But I'm not sure
why you go into coincidences so much. Name symbolism, ladies in red
showing up at the Olympics etc.
I do this kind of thing as a poetic exercise. [A few writers] believe
these are indications that a "cryptocracy" is staging events for their
own nefarious agenda. I suppose I could agree that these synchronicities
are in the air and thus play into the copycat effect.
To be honest, I'm not sure what your getting at when you talk about the
meaning of names and show things such as "Aurora" on a building in a
trailer. Are you suggesting a conspiracy or what exactly? Not being
facetious or snarky, just a bit befuddled.
....I'm a Fortean....Charles Fort once wrote of a world sense I share, "My
liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in relations of things. I
have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudo-relations that
are called coincidences. What if some of them should not be
coincidence?
**** **** **** ****
I have enough room in my cosmos to allow research, thoughts, and written
material on synchromysticism, coincidences, no coincidences, name games,
Fortean interventions, and the human factor of the copycat effect....When I wrote The Copycat Effect (2004),
I felt an obvious fact - human behavior contagion is a factor in mass
violence events - was being ignored. The symbols and signs within these
situations, the patterns and plots of these incidents, are mysteries
that continue to be worth my time....
**** **** **** ****
If I'm investigating a shooting, the movie playing at the time, the
location, copycats, and various names' meanings, why should I exclude
"coincidences" that make no sense, at the time....There is
no way I sense this [the Aurora shooting] was planned on a human level to foreshadow the
significance of Aurora in a future event. Such tidbits seem to go beyond
coincidence, over and over again, in terms of some of these
discoveries.
He doesn't claim that his approach reveals planned events, but does say that the "tidbits seem to go beyond coincidence." That perturbs me. One reason is not hisintent, but that his approach is not always clear to his readers. His posts imply intentionality, even if unintentionally. Ha-ha. I'd argue that the blog implies what lies "beyond coincidence" is conspiracy.
Hoffman
My inkling could be due to the name of the blog. "Twilight language" is not L.C.'s coinage. I'm not sure if it was James Shelby Downard or Michael Hoffman II who coined it, but Hoffman has used it for years. In fact, it's the name of his most recent book (2021). Hoffman also coined "the Revelation of the Method." I reproduced an excellent post from Skilluminati (with his blessing) about this subject in 2014.
Twilight language is the key to decrypting the Revelation of the Method (ROTM). ROTM is allegedly used by the "cryptocracy" (deep state) to
plant clues in staged events that the public consciously or
unconsciously picks up on. The goal is to make the public know that the
cryptocracy knows the public knows about their shenanigans. The public
will thus be made to feel impotent and demoralized; despite knowing
mass-shootings, etc. are being staged, and that so much of what occurs
are "false flag operations," they can't do anything about, the masses
will feel powerless and resigned to being controlled.
As Skilluminati puts it, they "rub our noses in it." It's a bit
convoluted.
As L.C. states in his response to my queries, he is not
promoting conspiracy theory. But why use a name of a methodology that is a inseparable from a conspiracy theory many of his readers are aware
of? Especially as it's the exact methodology L.C.
uses
L.C. credits Hoffman for inventing the term, also noting the latter's Holocaust denial. (Hoffman doesn't actually deny the Holocaust; he's explicitly said otherwise, but more on that later). Hoffman, in addition to his own twilight language work, is known for his antisemitic writings. Which may be why L.C. seems reluctant to amplify the origin of his blog's name. But again, many of his readers know it.
One of the foundational texts of synchromysticism
In 2021, L.C.was taken to task by Hayley Stevens and Blake Smith for citing the work of Fortean writer Jim Brandon, aka William Grimstad, without mentioning that Grimstad is also a Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier. As Brandon, he's written two influential books about Fortean phenomena. As Grimstad, he writes books against Zionism, Jews and the veracity of the Holocaust.
Grimstad and Hoffman. Po-tay-toe / Po-tah-toe? Probably. Like many things, there are degrees. In the end, a bigot is still a bigot, but it would simply be inaccurate to paint the two men in exactly the same light.
There's another weird tale to tell about Grimstad. In the early 70's, Grimstad was the managing editor of White Power, a publication of the American Nazi Party (now called the National
Socialist White People's Party). In 1978, about the time he was writing his Fortean books as Jim Brandon, he received $20,000 after he published his book Antizion. He says a check just came in the mail, unsolicited. At first he thought it was from the Saudi government, but later came to think it was actually sent by the ADL as a way to discredit the Saudis. Grimstad had registered as an agent of the Saudi government, but the Saudis denied this was true, and apparently his "registration statement was vague and lacked copies of a contract or letter from the Saudis requesting Grimstad's services." (NYT) He later retracted his declaration. Very odd stuff.
Hoffman isn't a Nazi. He is a Traditionalist Catholic, that is to say, a Catholic who rejects the liberalizing doctrines which came out of The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). One of the more controversial results of "Vatican II" was the document Nostra aetate, in which the Church officially stopped blaming the Jews for Jesus's Crucifixion, placing blame squarely on the shoulders of Rome. The pre-Vatican II doctrine has been blamed for centuries of antisemitism, and, judging from the angry reactions to the new doctrine, that seems to be very much true.
Hoffman, like Grimstad, has his own "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" relationship with Muslims. He was a speaker at the Nation of Islam's "Saviours' Day" [sic] celebration in February, 2019. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has long been criticized for antisemitic statements, and it is on the topic of the Talmud that Hoffman was invited to speak. A strange sight. A middle-aged, white, Traditionalist Catholic who lives in Idaho, addressing the Nation of Islam about how he and the Nation are the "best friends" of the Jewish people. Strange times. If you're interested, here's Hoffman's speech, along with a subsequent panel discussion:
But I digress. As a result of the criticism regarding Grimstad, L.C.wrote a riposte and denied being sympathetic to Grimstad's views. I believe him. I also don't see a problem with citing Grimstad and not mentioning his antisemitism every time. L.C. is clearly not an antisemite. I have no idea about his political beliefs, but my sense is that they don't skew towards either the radical or the right wing.
I really want to emphasize that I don't think L.C. is "wrong" for being interested in the Fortean work of Grimstad and Hoffman. One can admire the poetry of, say, Ezra Pound, and Marinetti, and not be a fascist sympathizer. Just as one can admire the work of the Surrealists and not be a Marxist.
I myself really want to read Brandon's Fortean books. I have wanted to do so since long before I learned the man was also a Nazi named Grimstad. Learning this didn't change my mind. I don't see a problem with that, especially because the books are out of print, and buying them wouldn't put money in his wallet. They are also some of the founding texts of synchromysticism. As a person with an interest in history, I may one day read Mein Kampf. Or not. As a person with an interest in the far right, I skimmed through The Turner Diaries.
When you study fringe politics, conspiracy theory, and fascism, "neo" or otherwise, you have to read the primary sources. Was L.C. wrong to refer to Jim Brandon without adding a caveat each time that Brandon, as Grimstad, wrote some pretty vile stuff? I would say no. I searched L.C.'s blog for "Grimstad," "Brandon" and "Hoffman." He has regularly called them out for their antisemitism. I don't think his critics are being fair to L.C.
In his rebuttal to Hayley, L.C. credits Grimstad for his Fortean contributions while categorically repudiating the latter's antisemitism. What he doesn't mention in his rebuttal is that there's a similar issue going on with Michael Hoffman, even though he has identified Hoffman in other posts as a Holocaust denier and uses his terminology for the name of his blog.
What really puzzled me about his response to his critics is its denouement. In the end, L.C. lays claim to an idea that Grimstad articulated in 1978, yet says because he built upon it, and Grimstad never returned to it, he (L.C.) was claiming "ownership" of the idea for himself. Grimstad's email reply is mocking, smug, and well, in essence correct.
To quote L.C.:
Forteans first became aware of William Grimstad after his appearance in the Spring 1978 issue of Fortean Times magazine. Grimstad wrote an essay on his findings, entitled “Fateful Fayette,” in that issue.
As one commentary
said years later, "Since then, the subject has been expanded upon and
expounded upon by many other researchers, most notably by author L.C. C. suggested that Lafayette visited certain places in America for symbolic and spooky reasons."
L.C. concludes:
So let me try this. Henceforth, since I have built, researched, banked, and booked almost 40 years of effort and thought into the "Fayette Factor" and the "Name Game" via my "Twilight Language" writings, I will take on the full ownership of this "Fayette" concept. It is not a secret, it is not an idea hidden, but it is mine. "Jim Brandon" and "Bill Grimstad" gave it up by being Holocaust denier(s) and not coming forth with apologies, new editions, or reprints of The Rebirth of Pan.
This is L.C. in 2021 taking ownership of Brandon's ideas, first expressed in 1978. Because Brandon never re-printed The Rebirth of Pan, a book in which the "Fayette" ideas weren't even originally expressed? Because Brandon is a Holocaust denier? Holocaust denial is vile shit, but what does it have to do with not re-printing a book totally unrelated to it? L.C.: "It is mine." Hey, what? I don't get it. If the idea is not Grimstad/Brandon's, it doesn't "belong" to anybody, or perhaps it's more accurate to say it belongs to everybody.
Hoffman may be a bigot, but his posts evidence extensive research, developed thoughts, and ideas; some of these ideas are objectionable, but they're eloquently expressed. L.C.'s blog posts present factoids, sometimes without elaboration, and stop at the moment one is expecting some kind of conclusion or analysis.
Absent any analysis or conclusion, conspiracy theories bloom. One only needs to read the comments to see the flowering. Without an "ergo," we get all manner of loopy conclusions.
And I'm just another yahoo with an opinion.
I've pondered posting this for a while and haven't done it, because I don't want to belittle L.C.; that is not my intent here. I respect him. This post is really more about synchromystic thinking as a whole rather than one man and his blog.
Because conspiratorial thinking has become mainstreamed during recent years, and watching the spectacle of elected officials promoting QAnon as if it were something real, of seeing the fruit of that mindset in the form of a mob storming the US Capitol, and listening to people deciding to use bleach, horse pills, and light bulbs to treat a disease for which we have vaccines....To see a guy in Buffalo kill ten people because of a conspiracy theory pushed by a mainstream media figure, Tucker Carlson, I feel a greater urge to try to say my piece against conspiracy theories with shaky foundations.
It boils down to this. I've come to believe the synchromystic approach has become a facile dead-end that may be unhealthy. Unhealthy when it becomes consensus reality among large segments of the agora; it's not twilight language itself, but the conspiracy theory of which it's part and parcel.
I know it's not L.C.'s intent, but when you read the comments on his posts, there's lots of talk of psy-ops, false flags, and crisis actors. I may just be over-reacting emotionally to recent mass-shootings. Maybe I'm just a PMRC schoolmarm wagging a finger at Dungeons & Dragons and Mötley Crüe. But crying "false flag" when a terrorist shoots up a school is not helpful.
"Crisis actors" are a staple trope for people who believe that mass-shootings are elaborate deep-state (cryptocracy) psy-ops (Revelation of the Method), and not carried out by lone, troubled people. How can we resolve the problem when people think complicated conspiracies explain the actions of mentally-ill people who have bought into the very same conspiracy theories? And the false-flag concept is not limited to the fringes. It has become dangerously close the the center of the mainstream.
We're all living in a fiction without an author, a fiction for which some people are ready to kill.
A man shot up a pizzeria in D.C. because he believed there were sex slaves in its basement. But there were no sex slaves. There wasn't even a basement. How many have since been murdered by right-wing "warriors" trying to save the white race from being replaced by deep-state "elites?"
I need to reemphasize that my "critique" here is not really about L.C., but synchromysticism.
And again, the unease I have with his blog arises from the comments by the readers. That said, these comments are there because of the empty spaces L.C. leaves around the skeletal presentation of coincidences in the posts, coincidences which are not remarkable at all. L.C. makes little attempt after these comments to disabuse his readers of their wildest conclusions.
Mass-shooting minutiae are not twilight language; they aren't the Revelation of Method, but the revelation of chaos. Of an inadequate public mental-healthcare system. Of a gun culture so out of proportion that disturbed individuals can walk into a shop and buy firearms more easily than they can buy a six-pack. The revelation of an unhealthy, materialistic culture obsessed with celebrity. The revelation of a culture whose films and video games celebrate violence and shooting as many people as a way to resolve problems. The revelation of a nation built on slavery and genocide. The revelation of a nation at war for almost my entire life.
Mass-shootings are not psychodramas staged by a cryptocracy.
Twilight language is the foundation of the Revelation of the Method, and legitimizing one legitimizes the other. If you call your blog Twilight Language, you endorse the Revelation of the Method.
Robert Anton Wilson used methods similar to twilight language. But it took him at least three dense books (the Cosmic Triggertrilogy)of analytical, ironic, and multidisciplinary essays to wrestle with it. Objective, subjective, mystic, scientific. He doesn't dismiss mysticism or synchronicity, but he doesn't just write stuff down without questioning the degree to which his mind may be creating the coincidences he perceives.
Ordo Ab Chao. Order from Chaos. Synchromysticism puts a hand on the tiller, and having a pilot, even a nefarious one, is better than a rudderless ship. Because if there is a rudder, a new hand, a "good" hand, can take hold of it. Meaning is a reassuring lifeboat to jump into when the terrifying irrationality of the oceanic depths comes to the surface.
The accumulation of coincidence into "meaningful" patterns is often the compulsive process of the paranoid mind. Or the artist. Dalí: "The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad."
Twilight language can be a brilliant starting point. Without the work, or the art, it doesn't go anywhere. Twilight language and The Revelation of the Method are not the exegesis of political and sociological issues, not "conclusions," but brainstorming techniques, spitballing, word play. And once the games are over, the real work can begin.
It occurs to me I may be totally wrong. A cloud of information could lead to a lightning strike: "Eureka!"
I'm open to the possibility that twilight language is a useful way of putting it all out there and seeing what comes of it. I'm also aware that shootings inspired by conspiracy theories, QAnon, anti-vaxxers, and rampant political know-nothingness may have soured me on what is ultimately a harmless endeavor. But I can't shake the feeling that this it's somehow, well, not exactly harmful, but not exactly harmless, either.
In the absence of some hard-hitting conclusion, I'll just end it here and let the chips fall where they may....It occurs to me I should just lighten up. But turning to the news and seeing yet another mass-shooting, it's hard to simply ignore what people are saying it about it.
One thing I'm sure of is that a solution doesn't lie with ruminating on the name of Heath Ledger's dog....
**** **** **** ****
Please see my tentative bibliography of titles directly-related to Synchromysticism or titles I find useful for understanding Twilight Language.
I linked to it in my post, but Skilluminati's take on the Revelation of the Method is an excellent analysis:
It's catching. The most remarkable thing about Conspiracy apophenia, to an amoral free agent like myself, is that it's distinctly contagious. Once infected, we always tend toward greater certainty. This is not lost on Michael Hoffman himself, who proclaims: "Give
me two hours with any group of average intelligence and I'll have them
reading twilight language and decoding occult rituals for the rest of
their lives." I see no reason to doubt him.
I'd forgotten about it, but in a coda to that second post I discussed L.C., Hoffman, and Grimstad quite a bit. I don't have it in for L.C., I just have occasion to read his posts frequently as they pop up in my search results, and it's a logical point of entry to discuss the lineage of synchromysticism and it's Fortean roots.
Somewhere in this prolix mess there's a decent post....
In a recent post we discussed swastikas made from trees, among other arboreal and geoglyphical curiosities, which can only be seen from the air or from afar.
LoS originally wrote about a related topic in 2007, after a minor kerfuffle over a swastika-shaped barracks and the 600K spent to cover it up. A later post addressed a similar controversy about a retirement home in Alabama. A million dollars had already been spent in 2001 to add extensions to hide thatfylfot.
I won't go into details about each of them, but Web Urbanist has compiled a list of 9 swastika-shaped buildings now easily-seen via Google Earth, from a low-flying Cessna, or if you're a perceptive pelican (Crossed Up: 9 Twisted Swastika-Shaped Buildings).
We launch satellites into orbit so we can communicate globally, find our way on unfamiliar roads, predict the weather, see the cosmos, and spot Nazis from the sky.
Some of the "swastikas" in the Web Urbanist list are a bit of a stretch, but some of them really pop right out atcha. As the article says:
The swastika-shaped buildings described above have nothing whatsoever to do with Nazism, they’re merely “unfortunate architectural coincidences"....
Or so they would have you believe.
As Richard Hoagland "proves" in Dark Mission, the Nazis and Freemasons running NASA planned moon missions to correspond with Masonic and Nazi numerological symbolism. You don't think they'd know that one day we'd be able to see those buildings from space?
Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home
Remember that Alabama retirement home mentioned above? Near Huntsville, Alabama, home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center? Where, after WW2, the US repatriated a whole passel of Nazi engineers to help develop America's nascent space program?
A retirement home that some claim housed many of those same Nazi rocket scientists in their dotage?
Coincidence? You can Nazi them from the ground, but from the Iron Sky, Sieg Heil, y'all.
Back in 2010 I published a post called Tea for Two about the Tea Party and affiliated groups such as the Oath Keepers. I ended with a warning that we should be prepared for some "wild and woolly" times akin to Italy's "Years of Lead". The anni di piombo refers to the 1970's, when political violence between left and right-wing extremists was tearing Italy apart.
At the time, people castigated me for being alarmist and completely off-base. I would present the mob violence of January 6th as validation of my prediction. And today, WaPo has two articles/editorials about civil conflict in the USA. One is about a CIA analyst who applied her criteria for countries susceptible to civil war. She, and other NGO's, claim the US is a lot closer to a civil war than many of us would like to believe. Her job is to track and predict these things, so I'd assume her book How Civil Wars Start is probably an alarming read.
In a second editorial, three retired US generals warn that the military must prepare itself for civil war. They are not just referring to dealing with mob violence like we saw in January, but the possibility that Trump-supporting governors might refuse to obey the President; they cite the commander of the Oklahoma civil guard refusing to obey Biden's order that all soldiers must be vaccinated, arguing his Commander in Chief is not the President but the Governor of Oklahoma.
I don't know if he is correct or not, but these generals are genuinely concerned that some military units could choose to support Trump or a Trumpian figure if Trump is defeated in 2024. They evoke not only the possibility of civil insurrection, but of military units obeying different orders and recognizing opposing authorities. Civil war, in other words.
Maybe their fear is unwarranted, but given the number of vets and even active-duty personnel who participated in January 6th, I think we should heed their advice....
II
I've written quite a few posts about the removal of Confederate memorials, changing flags, and even city seals. In The Politics of Removal I mentioned an agency whose job is to review place names and, when appropriate update them. I think we can all agree "N-word Creek" is no longer a viable official name. At the time I learned that the word "squaw" is not a word we should use, either, as the meaning is not merely "wife" or "woman" as the old Westerns have it. It's actually quite vulgar and offensive. So I found this WaPo article interesting. It talks about changing the names and how a replacement isn't always so straightforward. Sometimes a Native American name is considered, but as the article observes, different tribes don't always agree on which word. And of course White people are often reluctant to countenance any change at all.
This process isn't limited to the US. In France a town called La Mort aux Juifswas changed in 2015, now split between the hamlets of Les Croisilles and La Dogetterie. Similar requests were made in 1992 and 2014. The reason is clear. The French translation can be translated as "The death of the Jews" but also "Death to the the Jews".
Similarly, in Spain a place once named Castrillo Motajudíos ("Jew hill camp") in 1035 was changed to Castrillo Matajudíos ("Jew-killer camp") in 1627. In 2015 the town voted to change it again, to Castrillo Mota de Judíos, something like "The hill camp of the Jews" which sounds better than "Jew hill!"
Yet we'll always have Santiago Matamoros: Saint James the Moor Slayer....
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year was held Feb. 25-28 in Orlando, Florida. Social Media users quickly noted that the unusual stage design for the event is essentially the "Odal Rune":
Quoth Wikipedia:
"This symbol was adopted in Nazi Germany as the badge of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office, responsible for maintaining the racial purity of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS), as well as by the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, the 23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Nederland, and many neo-Nazi groups worldwide...The symbol was later used by American white supremacists.
....DC-area
design firm Design Foundry took responsibility for the staging design,
saying that they "had no idea that the design resembled any symbol, nor
was there any intention to create something that did." Design Foundry
had proposed several stage designs to repeat client ACU, based on the
"best use of space", and ACU decided which one to use. Ian Walters of
ACU said they would no longer use Design Foundry for their events."
Pure coincidence? Intentionally used a wink and a dog-whistle to Trump's more radical supporters? Intentionally used by the designer in order to make a statement about Trump's racist rhetoric?
At the very least, it would seem synchronicity is making a comment about the direction the alt-right has been heading under Trump's "leadership".
It's not the first time. We discussed back in 2015 how a Trump campaign ad included an image of WW2 re-enactors dressed as German soldiers. Then in 2020 a re-election campaign ad used an inverted red triangle to illustrate an attack on Antifa and other "far-left" groups. The ad was removed after it was noted the exact same symbol was used by the Nazis in the 1930s to identify Communists, Social
Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and members of other opposition parties.
At the time, one historian noted "It’s hard to imagine it’s done on purpose [not that hard, apparently], because I’m not sure if the
vast majority of Americans know or understand the sign, but it’s very,
very careless, to say the least."
Or do Trump and co. know exactly what they're doing? One would suppose those who carried Confederate, Kekistan, and other far-right flags among the mob which attacked Congress on January 6 wouldn't disapprove....
You have to wonder what the sculptor of the statue pictured above was thinking. Was it really just a case of not thinking things through, a tremendous case of oversight -- or was it a jab at the Catholic Church's pedophilia cover-ups? Or merely a childish joke?
Covered up, eh? As for reality being the metaphor, you can't get much better. When the statue was installed, students at the school immediately saw the humor in it, taking pics and posting them on Instagram. The school wrote a note of apology explaining the situation (above) and then covered it up until a solution can be found. I'm sure the Blackfriars Priory School is loving all the attention.
The cover up.
It's kind of a shame, really, because the Saint depicted, St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639), seems like a pretty decent fellow, known for a genuine commitment to the poor, having established both an orphanage and a children's hospital.
Born in Lima, Peru, he was the illegitimate child of a nobleman and a freed slave. Though an unusually devout child, his mixed race prevented him from fully joining a religious order. But when the Prior ignored the law due to Martin's unflagging dedication to healing the sick and caring for the poor, he was allowed to take vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Unfortunately, not all the monks were as open-minded as the prior, and he suffered insults and harassment from his new "brothers".
There are several anecdotes that attest to his humanity: bringing an old man covered with ulcers to his own bed, saying that "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness" when he was criticized by a dubious brother. Another time he was reprimanded by the Prior for bringing a dying Indian to his room and he responded "Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the
precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity." Zing! St. Martin had certainly learned the true meaning behind Jesus rebuking the Pharisees when they criticized him for healing on the Sabbath. He was thereafter given liberty to do as as wanted when it came to merciful acts.
There are reports he cured the sick merely by giving someone a glass of water, and that during an epidemic he worked tirelessly, even walking through locked doors into quarantined areas. His alms could feed up to 160 people a day. Other miracles have him levitating in ecstasy, light filling rooms as he prayed, a remarkable rapport with animals (he was a vegetarian), miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and my favorite, bilocation.
Because of the miracles that occurred when he was invoked in prayer, his body was exhumed 25 years after his death. His body was said to be incorrupt and to have given off a sweet fragrance. Numerous pleas were sent to Rome for his beatification, and though his works were eventually recognized as heroic, he wasn't beatified until 1837. He was made a saint in 1962. He's often shown carrying a broom to symbolize his belief that all work was holy and he is also sometimes pictured with a dog, cat and mouse drinking from the same bowl, symbolizing peace.
He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and those seeking racial harmony. His feast Day is November 3. In Santeria he is venerated as Papa Candelo.
The Adelaide Blackfriars probably wanted to unveil something nice for Saint Martin's saint day, but unfortunately they, erm, blew it.
Back in January 2016 I wrote about a town in New York whose seal depicted what appeared to be a frontiersman throttling a Native American fellow. Critics called it racist and offensive, defenders said it portrayed an actual historical event, a friendly wrasslin' match between one Hugh White and an unnamed Oneida, a test of strength and manliness.
The seal looked pretty darn dubious, but Whitesboro residents were not phased and didn't want to change it. Well, national media coverage must have had an effect because less than two weeks later it was reported that the town and reps from the Oneida Nation were going to come up with a new seal.
Just a peek at the original:
I don't think one need be a "social justice warrior" to see why this seal is problematic. If I didn't know the story, I'd probably think it was satire. I mean, even the name...Whitesboro!?
Well, I'm a bit late (it was reported back in September) but they've finally come up with something that's basically the same image but a little more even-handed:
I think it's a good compromise. Sign o' the times.
Although now it's "case closed", you can still enjoy this witty bit The Daily Show did back when the kerfuffle was still causing noise....
If you balk at the idea of Confederate memorials, you'd surely be displeased to learn that for over 20 years a small memorial dedicated to six executed Nazi spies sat on Federal land. From WaPo:
“In memory of agents of the German Abwehr,” the engraving began, “executed August 8, 1942.”
Below that were six names, and below those was another cryptic line: “Donated by the N.S.W.P.P.”
The N.S.W.P.P.? That would be the National Socialist White People’s Party, which until the mid-60's had been known as the American Nazi Party.
The granite slab was illegal, and officials debated how best to deal with it. Some argued that the memorial be destroyed and the chunks tossed
into the river, but conservationists won. After determining the site
wasn't a grave, one day in 2010 a forklift came and, under the supervision of a museum curator, lifted it into a
truck and transported it to the storage facility where it still
sits as Item OXCO-475, somewhere in a Maryland suburb of D.C. The Park Service asked the Washington Post to be no more specific than that out of fear the memorial could yet become some kind of shrine. The same kind of fear that drove the Russians to scatter Hitler's remains, for the CIA to dismember Che Guevara and bury the parts in various locations, or the Americans to dump Osama Bin Laden into the sea. Rangers had already noticed the slab had been cleaned and at times had found it adorned with candles and deer bones. And, for all the CIA's efforts, Guevara does have a shrine in Bolivia where he is worshipped like a saint.
I wonder how many other secret shrines dot the American landscape? Swastika-shaped buildings aside, of course. (here | here).
White League propaganda. These are the fellows honored by the Battle monument.... (Wikimedia Commons)
When the Battle of Liberty Place monument, a memorial honoring those who
died in an attempt to overthrow the city government after the Civil
War, came down two weeks ago, contractors did the work in the middle of the night wearing kevlar and face masks.
WaPo: Tensions rise....
8/16: I wrote the following in January. While I think what I originally wrote is more nuanced, honest and well-meaning than what I've heard from various "unite the right" types in Charlottesville, I'm bummed to hear some of the same things I wrote coming out of those hate-twisted mouths (that Vice video for example). Unlike the POTUS, I will not hesitate nor mitigate, I thoroughly repudiate those neo-Nazi über-trolls, and any similar arguments are coming from and heading towards an entirely different place than those dudes'....
It irks me a bit that this article conveys the message that everybody against removing Confederate memorials are either racists and/or apologists for slavery. Camo-clad, pistol-packin', Trump-lovin', flag-wavin' good ole boys sittin' on the porch with a moon-pie in one hand and a Mason jar of RC Cola in the other. That said, take a good look at that cartoon. One would hope that the Liberty Place monument's defenders are ignorant of exactly what it was they are defending when it comes to this particular chicken-fried obelisk. Sadly, I can't escape the fact that many of them know exactly what it means. David Duke certainly did when he tried to hold a rally there. And I'd bet the phoned-in threats that made spiriting it away like thieves in the night a necessity weren't made by kindly old ladies dividing their Golden Years between the Daughters of the Confederacy and the flower-arranging club.
I think that somehow contextualizing these kinds of monuments would be better than just taking them away in the dead of night. Are we eventually going to take down any memorial to the Confederate war dead? If you look at the history behind the Liberty Place monument, and the literal white supremacist messages inscribed upon it, it's hard to lament its removal. But its presence at least reminded people of the events which it honored, and those are events worth remembering. I would suggest a kind of counter monument that incorporated the original, a way to re-interpret both the event itself and the earlier monument that sought to glorify it. Becoming a kind of monument about a monument. A meta-monument. Or shit, just take it down and put it in a museum. But doesn't stealing it away under cover of darkness send a message of fear, or give the impression that there's more support for it than there actually is?
It's like the KKK gravestone in Deland, Florida I've written about. It would be a forgotten bit of local folklore if removed. As it is, the stone radiates a kind of forlorn air, covered as it is with the stains of piss and beer bottles, perhaps other effluvia. It reeks of defeat. At worst, neglected; at best, covered with marks of loathing for what it represents, pooh stains on a white sheet. The dank drapery of a defunct douche-bag. But trying to erase history is always a bad move. That grave inspired a lot of research on my part, edging me me towards investigating many facets of African-American history I might not otherwise have been motivated to learn about. I felt I had to counteract a monument to the despicable.
Some kind of interpretive stelae for the Liberty Place monument may have been more powerful than a midnight removal. Imagine coming across a glorious obelisk and then learning it carried blatant messages of white supremacy and sought to honor a white supremacist army? A good number of people would check it out, learn something about how the end of the Civil War didn't necessarily mean the end of racial bloodshed and armed civil strife. About how the League operated in the open, explicitly agitating for the overthrow of the Reconstructionist government and then trying to make it happen through intimidation, murder and in Liberty Place, armed insurrection. And where they failed in violence, they succeeded through democracy. Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876, two years later.
So now they're preparing the removal of statues to Generals Lee and Beauregard and President Jefferson Davis, and the situation is fraught with tension, primed for some kind of violent reaction. Interesting story. I wrote about the decision to remove the statues back in 2016 and had some more cogent comments. As a historian, I'm simply loathe to cover up the past, no matter how loathsome. Although I'm not really torn up about it, I do think it would be a shame if the next targets are monuments to Confederate war dead. People should be able to honor their ancestors. I know, why would I bother to defend these people? I just don't "get it". I do get it, but this kind of controversy doesn't do nuance very well. Some of those soldiers were despicable men, but many of the grunts were just kids, protecting their lands and their sovereignty. Call me naive, but I've always been in the "better to let ten guilty men go free than convict once innocent man" camp. One of the pitfalls of actually believing in the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Beauregard and Lee I could care less about. History will remember them. But who will remember those poor young dudes they led to the slaughter?
In any event, the people have spoken, the monuments will fall. I really do hope they do something though, to explain the story of Liberty Place. That was pretty messed up. The White League that initiated the insurrection was a nasty bunch. The whole business had started in 1872 over a disputed election and had already led to one conflict, or massacre, at Colfax, where 150 freedmen were killed by a white militia. At least 50 of them had been killed after having been taken prisoner. These were not the gallant warriors of myth, and many of these militiamen were part of the White League that later tried to capture New Orleans, and succeeded, until Federal troops moved in and ousted them. No one was ever prosecuted. The 1891 monument interpreted the ensuing events in order to honor the insurrectionists and in 1932 the city added an inscription stating that the election of 1876 vindicated the insurrectionists, recognizing white supremacy in the South. No tears here to see it go, but mightn't it have served a better role as a kind of elaborate public urinal?
If the vow to set these statues in a museum is honored, I think the public would be better served than placing them in secret warehouse next to the Ark of the Covenant and the alien cadaver. The monument is a powerful shock to our modern sensibilities, which is a good sign that times have changed. That they had to take such extraordinary precautions to remove it shows just how much times haven't.
So I guess this is a contradictory mass of feelings about the issue after all. Many people want them removed and I think I want them to stay for the very same reasons. A question, then, not of the goal, but of the strategy on how to attain it. Or maybe not. I don't want people to forget this stuff. I want them to remember....
