I'd never really looked at the logo of the Southern Poverty Law Center's blog before, but ... Is this self-parody?
The Leninist typeface, the giant angry eyeball ... C'mon ... This has got Ministry of Truth written all over it.
Maybe Morris Dees is trying to hedge his bets. Perhaps he figures come Judgment Day, he can always argue that well, sure, maybe he misled all those senile old people into funding his wife's expensive knicknack collecting mania, but he gave everybody plenty of hints that the SPLC is evil.
By the way, Obama's new AttackWatch site looks like it was designed by interns at the design firm that did HateWatch: similar in intention, but more puerile, more easy Nurembergish black-white-red than the SPLC's Leningradish gray-white-red.
By the way, Obama's new AttackWatch site looks like it was designed by interns at the design firm that did HateWatch: similar in intention, but more puerile, more easy Nurembergish black-white-red than the SPLC's Leningradish gray-white-red.
Is that Morris Dees of the Time? Just asking.
ReplyDeleteI think you're being too hard on this guy. I mean, he comes off as a jerk in Purple Rain, but you have to admit that "Jungle Love" is a great song and the Time are an incredibly tight band.
ReplyDeleteWe are talking about Morris Day, right?
I was struck by how black people always insisted to me that Morris's sidekick Jerome in "Purple Rain" was extremely ugly.
ReplyDeleteThe Stalinist typeface
ReplyDeleteSorry, Steve, but no. The only thing that makes it "Stalinist" is the use of all caps. Other than that, it is quite obviously what is referred to as "humanist sans serif". (Must be a very recent font, judging from quirkiness of shapes - these neo-humanist sans serifs were all the rage in type design in the past decade or so).
The "Stalinist" sans serifs, if there ever was such a thing, would be the ones of "grotesk" variety such as Franklin Gothic (formerly Microsoft/Windows corporate font) and News Gothic - particularly condensed forms, judging from the old posters and banners from the era.
Totally agree on Nuremberg-style choice of colors for AttackWatch. "Join Attack Wire", heh. This is subliminal stuff for sure.
I always thought the SPLC's logo was deliberately invoking Orwell's 1984 - "We *Are* Big Brother - Fear Us!!"
ReplyDeleteThey're better layouts than Vdare. Yes yes Vdare's been revamped but it still looks amateurish.
ReplyDeleteI still wonder why not more people thought it interesting that the guy who designed Obama's famous (and popular) "Hope" poster has such a huge Stalinist, fascist fetish. He even rips off Nazi imagry in his art...
ReplyDeleteI always loved "Jerk Out." Fab video too:
ReplyDeleteLINK
I got real bored on a Friday Night
I couldn't find a damn thing to do
So I pulled on a suit just about the same color
As my BMW.
God, I really enjoy uptempo comic R&B ...
Maybe Steve's readers can figure out something I couldn't.
ReplyDeleteSince Shepard Fairey plagiarized much (or most) of his work, and famously plagiarized an AP photo of Obama for his iconic "HOPE" poster, where did he get the idea for the artistic part from?
It would be really funny if there is some Maoist or Stalinist propaganda poster out there somewhere that looks nearly identical...
Totally agree on Nuremberg-style choice of colors for AttackWatch. "Join Attack Wire", heh. This is subliminal stuff for sure.
ReplyDeleteJoin the Mobile Infantry and save the world!
http://youtu.be/UQGuGOLSwVw
Obama's new AttackWatch site looks like it was designed by interns at the design firm that did HateWatch
Maybe it was, curiously there's a whole slew of liberal websites using the same web design (google page/speakout) to generate "astroturf" emails:
If you type in your zip code, it gives you (an editable) pre-written email to your local newspaper or Members of Congress.
The BBC went over to a very stiking Nazi-style Black/Red/White colour scheme a few years back, probably for similar reasons. The Antifa paramilitary organisation uses the same colours, for instance:
ReplyDeletehttp://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjTqfblHnUO7EhB689S0EDBAQmDV52O3TkGNTrZcW0L2G0Scx-XQ
Lovin' the glare of swastika in the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe Hate Watch eye should be animated so it looks around maniacally, sort of like the disintegrating Inspector Dreyfus's remaining eyeball at the end of the Pink Panther Strikes Again.
ReplyDelete"Since Shepard Fairey plagiarized much (or most) of his work, and famously plagiarized an AP photo of Obama for his iconic "HOPE" poster, where did he get the idea for the artistic part from? "
ReplyDeleteAndy Warhol?
Where is the website for citizen volunteers to sign on as snitches, turning in those overheard saying unkind things about the president? A snitch committee on every block might be the way for them to go.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you look carefully, you'll see that it's an angry white eyeball.
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be. All of the SPLC's top executives are white.
Despite being located LITERALLY in the back yard of Martin Luther King's home church, the SPLC has NEVER hired a person of color to a highly paid position of authority.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-7m
That doesn't stop the suckers from sending in more than $86,000 a day... every single day.
http://wp.me/sCLYZ-657
In a similar vein, Wikipedia's logo for its "Discrimination Portal" is a stylized white male slashed out in red.
ReplyDeletehttp://wp.me/pCLYZ-b1
What's the symbolism there?
the poverty palace = the house that hate built
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the title of this entry has not rated an email from SPLC's main attack dog/lonely girl, Heidi Beirich--or as she refers to herself in her cyber-overtures to Larry Auster, Heidi Beirich, Ph.D.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she thinks you're "too nice" to be a hater.
Spies and saboteurs are everywhere! If you don't report suspicious activity you're just as guilty!
ReplyDeleteI linked Hatewatch on my blog, with the hope they would do me the courtesy of a crosslink, but no dice. But I link other sites that don't link me (hint, hint).
I have not studied the Soviet propanda of the 30's, but I'm pretty sure most of what we think as modern liberalism comes straight from Stalinist disinformation and subversion campaigns.
The Hate Watch eye should be animated so it looks around maniacally, sort of like the disintegrating Inspector Dreyfus's remaining eyeball at the end of the Pink Panther Strikes Again.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of how the late Alan Bock's "Eye on the Empire" column on Antiwar.com used to have a blinking eye peepingthrough a hole in a wall as the background art (back before the site redesign).
As for Shepard Fairey and fascism, wasn't his original famous art Andre the Giant's (stylized) face with the word "OBEY" under it?
They're better layouts than Vdare. Yes yes Vdare's been revamped but it still looks amateurish.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Last time I looked they even had the right hand column straddling its green border, with the (horrid) green typeface disappearing into it.
Are they kidding us? They shut down for a week and put your hard-earned contributions into this?
Somebody tell Brimelow no more poor-mouthing until he proves he can get a better return on your investment.
It would have to be. All of the SPLC's top executives are white
ReplyDeleteA very specific subsection of White.
Maybe the angry white eye is supposed to be what the SPLC is watching? I dunno. They don't seem to be very clear on that.
ReplyDeleteRe Richard Keefe's postings: The $PLC eye needs an arched eyebrow right over it. I can't imagine any source carrying out espionage within the US--whether talented freelancers or agents of a major foreign power--who would not have an intense curiosity about the inner workings $PLC & its massive involvements with
ReplyDeleteintimately personal information
and its lack of public accountability and its corrupting influences upon the media and upon
law enforcement, including some federal agencies.
It is still better than VDare.
ReplyDeleteLovin' the glare of swastika in the eye.
ReplyDeleteOh my god! Indeed, there is a white swastika in the iris of that watchful eye! And it's not a reflection (because rotation is correct, clockwise). OK, so their designer goofed but what was SPLC thinking?
The SPLC logo is stylized to look like a Soviet propaganda poster from the 1920s during the NEP. It is a typical mishmash of photo montage, cartoon images, and commercial messages. Socialist art was allowed to flourish for a brief time before Stalin took control at which point he purged the “arts” of politically incorrect images. Once the 5 year plans were kicked off all competing images or advertisements for commercial items disappeared along with the artists. Very few of the people who created these images survived the 1930s. Stalin’s eye was on everyone, not just those on the right.
ReplyDeleteProf. Woland
I guess the 'Radical Left' can't hate anyone.
ReplyDeleteRichard Keefe said...
ReplyDeleteWikipedia's logo for its "Discrimination Portal" is a stylized white male slashed out in red.
Agreeing. Ridiculous. And look at the list below haha. I'm afraid of Jedi evangelists showing up at my door, what's the bigoted -phobia I suffer from?
Is this tweet hateful? Get over it?! get over it?! The most tragic thing in the silly "Holocaust Drama" (oh, get over it already) "The Debt" is that Sam Worthington turns into Ciaran Hinds. -Bret Easton Ellis
ReplyDelete"The SPLC logo is stylized to look like a Soviet propaganda poster from the 1920s during the NEP."
ReplyDeleteGood point, I'll change my description from "Stalinist" to "Leninist."
I'm a dick. That was my browser.
ReplyDelete"That doesn't stop the suckers from sending in more than $86,000 a day... every single day."
ReplyDeleteSuckers? What makes you think all those jewish supporters are suckers? They're getting exactly what they expect to when they send their money to the SPLC.
The Hate Watch eye should be animated so it looks around maniacally, sort of like the disintegrating Inspector Dreyfus's remaining eyeball at the end of the Pink Panther Strikes Again.
ReplyDeleteOr, how about the Eye of Sauron?
I'm a dick. That was my browser.
ReplyDeleteIf a page requires a very particular browser to display basics correctly, it is not a well-designed page.
Sorry, wren, didn't see you had already posted on the same thing I mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree the VDare site looks horrible. Worst-looking site on the web has to be Mark Steyn's, though. It reminds me of Times Square in the mid-1970s.
ReplyDeleteI think Steve could use a new banner logo to "improve brand awareness," or something.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a competition would work.
Glaivester -- yes, I don't know why people didn't find it more odd that the guy who created Obama's official campaign poster was the same guy who was most famous for his "OBEY" propaganda brand.
Post-modern irony or whatever may explain it away, but I believe there is a better explanation.
It reminds me of the old Barbra Kruger billboards "Surveillance is your busywork"
ReplyDeleteSurveillance
I think my favorite SPLC ploy is the "Stand Strong Agains Hate" map.
Potok's Pinheads
If you send Mark Potok your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, he'll make you a digital pinhead on his map.
He doesn't mention HOW all your personal info will "fight hate," or what will become of it, but at least you'll know you've done your bit.
The pinheads display your first name and last initial, kinda like an AA meeting.
Morris Dees is or would be small potatoes if other Jews didn't give him so much money. So, focusing on SPLC is really to miss the point. The real culprits are those who fund it, and they're the same people who funded Obama and Sierra Club to changing its policy on immigration.
ReplyDeleteOne might say Jews who fund SPLC have been duped by Dees' fear-mongering, but DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT. Jews who fund Dees know precisely what they're doing, just like Hollywood Jews who suppress the reality of black crime and fund stuff like MACHETE know what they're doing. They know neo-nazis and the KKK are't forces to reckon with in America. Rather, all this fear-mongering is 'preventive', to remind middle class white Americans that any rightwing sentiments on their part are 'racist'.
So, pointing to Dees as a particularly devious Jew is bogus. His schtick isn't much different than what goes on at New York Times, Harvard, Hollywood, or Wall Street.
And he's not the ONLY person to have cashed in handsomely from 'anti-racism'. Look at the MLK family, the Kennedy family, the Clintons, and etc. Dees is just more shameless about it. But even there, he's small potatoes.
The eye is very penetrating. From litigation (strategic litigation?) over the last three decades or so,
ReplyDeleteand from nudges from the liability insurance indu$try, many community mental health center staff are, de facto, at liberty to make telephone reports to law enforcement about any client they have a "clinical hunch" may be physically dangerous and to do so without the client's knowledge or permission. This pertains also to remarks made by such a client concerning his inlaws, boss, mistress's brother, etc.----a kind of hate dragnet. Reach out and touch!
AttackWatch and HateWatch are worrisomely similar to the NightWatch from the late 1990s television series "Babylon 5."
ReplyDeleteIn the B5 universe, the NightWatch started out as a volunteer organization that reported "subversive" or "seditious" conduct such as criticizing Earth's president. It later expanded into a paramilitary force similar to the Gestapo or Soviet KGB.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Nightwatch_%28Babylon_5%29
I don't do Twitter, but one website had a link to the "Attack" thing being Twittered, with Twitters galore coming in and they were hilarious. I mean the Twitter age arrived in tandem with Pres. Twit.
ReplyDeleteMade several disastrous B.O. years almost worth it.
Let's get Freudian: The inten$e
ReplyDelete$PLC EYE is obviously a $ymbolic
representation of Mother's genitalia.
And only money can $often her aroused gaze.
The eye may be a little glazed, in a metaphoric sense. $PLC has reportedly "burned" a lot of police departments and perhaps even fed agencies with dossier material that violates investigative principles and more nearly conforms to the shyster prerogatives to "air brush" facts, cherry pick facts, rearrange facts, etc. Police don't thrive on that sort of touch-up artistry and prefer a honest bucket of ALL the slop rather than a misleading
ReplyDeleteclean spoon feeding. Just to seek to dramatize merely from a novelist's imagination: Watchdog reports evidence of one of its racist "targets" being involved in child abuse--then packpedals into reticence when it turns out the Watchdog asset is the one engaging in paedophilia; Watchdog reports target donating racist books to people but omits that the books had inscribed by the donor in the fly leafs, comments about the need to read further,the shortcomings,& that knowledge often comes from "intellectual dumpster dipping" etc. Any federal agency that can see nothing wrong, hear nothing wrong, think nothing wrong about this sort of dossier counterfeiting is creating a future mess for itself---eye now or eye later.