People have asked me lately if I’ve seen news footage of the giant symbol erected haphazardly atop Twitter headquarters in SF. Yes, yes, I tell them. I sometimes watch it getting destroyed by the U.S. Army just to cheer me up.

Oh, they say they did Nazi that coming.

Twitter’s ‘X’ sign is taken down in San Francisco after neighbors filed 24 complaints

Why do I wish they had filed 88 complaints? I mean, have you noticed a certain pattern used in Tesla marketing?

• Charge Plugs: 88
• Model Cost: 88
• Average Speed: 88
• Engine Power: 88
• Voice commands: 88
• Taxi launch date: 8/8

That’s real. Not a joke. Seriously, let’s talk about the “X” for a minute.

Anyone who knows basic Nazi history can attest that the antisemitic use of a swastika started in the late 1800s with an “X” design. Elon Musk saying he is obsessed with such an “X” is very, very similar to a certain group of Swedes, Poles, Romanians, Finns, Germans… saying they used the swastika as an innocent “good luck charm“.

It was only meant as “good luck” to the Aryans who thought it would bring them victory in an existential fight to the death with the “unlucky” (non-swastika) races they hated and wanted to exterminate. That’s what “lucky” meant in swastika terms to those who proudly displayed their “X” affinity.

Perhaps even more to the point, the exploding swastika video at the start of this post is from Nazi party rally grounds. Do you know the peculiar and specific phrase that commonly was associated with it?

Do you?

DO YOU?

…the [new swastika app] tagline reads either like a desperate admission or an embarrassing troll. It references a colloquialism…that valorizes a spectacular but premature death.

The slogan promoted by Twitter today seems quite familiar, given Nazi history of disinformation.

Boom.

Twitter is banging a big Nazi drum, arguably the biggest since ’45. Can you hear it?

…death resulting from choosing to fight back against overwhelming enemy force rather than surrender; to choose to receive unilateral deadly force in conflict rather than end the conflict…

WWII was basically over in 1942.

The extremist and arrogant Germans were toast, yet they used the next three years for mindless self-harm, notably genocide based on racism.

…it was difficult to go to work, knowing [staff working for Elon Musk] would face racist slurs, references to slavery and offensive graffiti for 12 hours at a time. He said he made a verbal complaint to human resources in late 2021, but never heard back and nothing changed.

Hitler never changed.

We’ve talked about the symbol.

We’ve talked about the phrase.

But wait, there’s more when we look at the app.

That sounds like Twitter’s “blaze” strategy, to attract kids with an app they can use to harm others in a mad rush towards the “extreme freedom” of hitting bottom and commiting suicide.

The British soldiers said that God and Chocolate is what melted a Nazi child’s cold coal heart full of false fears and nightmares. Such stupid orientation of kids towards mass suicide was the result of disinformation, the kind of thing Twitter’s app is known for, right?

Speaking of running out of chocolate, consider how the Nazis tried to control all aspects of life through an “everything” synchronization plan.

The Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and quickly began trying to control all aspects of society. This internal consolidation of power to remake Germany as a Nazi state was known as Gleichschaltung. The term is a German word that means “coordination” or “synchronization.” Under Gleichschaltung, German political, social, and cultural life were rearranged to serve Nazi goals.

While Twitter has fashioned an obnoxious “X” symbol different yet similar to Hitler’s adaptations of the same symbolism, they also just invoked the Nazi concept of Gleichschaltung.

New CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted that X would be “centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking,” a step toward Musk’s vision of creating the “everything app”…

A proprietary, centrally planned and controlled app (Gleichschaltung) to control all aspects of life (serving Twitter’s goals) is a terrible, terrible idea from a terrible human who wants to repeat the worst mistakes in history.

Twitter has been rebranded with:

1. Nazi symbol
2. Nazi phrase
3. Nazi Gleichschaltung app

Need I go any further? Do I need 88 more examples, or what?

Let’s be honest and just admit this is all about some very misguided people hoping to bring Nazism back without resistance.

…Twitter has threatened to sue a group of independent researchers whose research documented an increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased last year by Elon Musk.

Another repeat. I guess I did need to continue.

Twitter has been rebranded with:

1. Nazi symbol
2. Nazi phrase
3. Nazi Gleichschaltung app
4. Nazi persecution of critics

Did Hitler refuse to deny claims and instead viciously attack critics for reporting the rise of hate speech?

Yes, Nazis even setup a rushed Kangaroo court to behead anyone who stood against them. After seizing power the Nazis forced over 16,000 critics into regional prisons to be assasinated with hastily deployed guillotines.

At this point I probably don’t have to point out how Nazis really, really hate being called out for being Nazis.

Here, watch this again to cheer yourself up. Works for me.

Update January 2025:

The warning below about keeping Nixon out of office was prophetic. Elon Musk used the unmistakable Hitlergruß “Sieg Heil” (Nazi) salute today at a national political rally. And he has refused to deny his Hitler salute, instead attacking all criticism with traditional anti-semitic slurs such as calling them “dirty tricks“.

This Nazi salute is banned in many countries, including Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic as a criminal offense. The gesture remains inextricably linked to the Holocaust, genocide, and crimes of Nazis. Such illegal use or mimicry of Nazi gestures continues to be a serious matter that can result in criminal charges due to their connection with hate speech and extremist ideologies.

Update November 2023:

Elon Musk boasts to reporters that he thinks some of his best friends are Jewish, after he says he knows that the phrase is antisemtitic.

After this he spread and supported a “deadly” antisemitic comment on his swastika platform.

Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’: The billionaire affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history.

Artists get it.

Update September 2023:

People are writing that the CEO, laying in a bed with Saudi Arabia, is now belting out obnoxious hateful anti-Semitic rants on the platform that he has covered in swastikas. Yeah, so anyone think maybe the Nazi logo, Nazi tagline, Nazi everything app, and Nazi persecution of critics all weren’t enough evidence of the Nazi problem already?

I mean what’s next for the swastika brand, SpaceX makes unhinged claims to be saving the world from war by meddling in and prolonging war?

The latest news has people asking yet again when he will be stopped.

Elon Musk has admitted that his refusal to grant Ukraine permission to use his Starlink satellite network was an attempt to prevent a drone attack on a Russian naval fleet…. Having apparently spoken to the Russian ambassador to the United States – who is reported to have told him that an attack on Crimea would trigger a nuclear response – Musk is then said to have ordered his engineers to turn off Starlink coverage “within 100km of the Crimean coast”.

Elon Musk was actively defending the Russian fleet (likely due to insistence of the Chinese government) with lies about escalation risk.

Meanwhile U.S. policy clearly has been to destroy military equipment used for firing missiles into civilian areas of Ukrainian cities. Remember how in April 2022 “U.S. intel helped Ukraine sink Russian flagship Moskva“?

Destroying Russia’s flagship should have cascaded into sinking far more ships. Instead, SpaceX self-admittedly interfered by helping Russian officials protect their warships in order to keep firing missiles at schools and hospitals. Odessa’s infrastructure used in grain and agricultural exports, for example, were under attack by this Russian fleet and impacting a lot of the world. Musk’s interference to keep the attacks coming, while ignoring every and all other military use of communication, exposes him as having very political intent.

Some see this at Logan Act levels of traitor-ship. It does remind me of the Chennault Affair, when Nixon went to Vietnam to keep the war going longer and kill more Americans.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953) is old and obscure. It was enacted by President Adams in 1799 very soon after George Logan, a doctor from Philadelphia, had setup meetings in Paris to “usurp the Executive authority” intending to influence France and defeat U.S. foreign policy objectives.

To obtain a Logan Act conviction, a prosecutor would need to show that the defendant sought to influence a foreign government with respect to a discrete “dispute” or “controversy” with the United States or would need to identify a “measure of the United States” that the defendant sought to “defeat.” …if the law is ever used, we suspect it will be used against the narrow class of people who are capable of causing serious damage to U.S. foreign policy.

It is almost never enforced but that should probably change now. Just think how it would have kept Nixon out of office.

Related: What Isn’t a Swastika?

In an otherwise fascinating read about changes in Charleston, I found the following paragraph… to be inconsistent and misleading.

But it’s impossible to ignore for both white and Black Americans trying to grapple with the country’s original sin, whether they are descendants of enslaved people or those who enslaved them.

False choice fallacy.

Don’t forget that slavery was banned in Georgia back in the 1730s, as well as banned in Vermont in the 1770s (first state to join the Union). Pennsylvania passed an Abolition Act in 1780.

Americans could be descendants of neither people enslaved, nor people who enslaved others. In fact, as an example that never gets enough attention, why not teach Americans that they could be descendants of people who abolished and fought slavery at every turn?

The idea that a white student should feel shame about being white is perpetuating the mistake of hiding the role of whites in ending slavery. That crucial detail could change everything. Ask a classroom of white kids, which one of you had relatives who fought against slavery?

Why should any white student be condemned to always ignore the contributions of a huge number of whites who were anti-racist, who did the right things?

One of the big mistakes in teaching American history is typically to leave out the John Brown equation, let alone a Robert Gould Shaw, Silas Soule or President Grant.

Who was Robert Carter and what did he do in 1791?

Seriously, ask any American who he was. Or who was Robert Gould Shaw? What did the men of the 54th do that was so important in a Civil War about slavery?

There were many white men who fought and WON the Civil War, yet somehow being white means shutting down all discussion of these heroes instead of celebrating them. President Grant was one of the greatest military and political leaders in history. Tell white kids to look up to him when they read about slavery.

But then again, when you read the SC State House education appropriation language, you can kind of see how screwed up they are.

…no monies shall be used by any school district or school to provide instruction in, to teach, instruct, or train any administrator, teacher, staff member, or employee to adopt or believe, or to approve for use, make use of, or carry out standards, curricula, lesson plans, textbooks, instructional materials, or instructional practices that serve to inculcate any of the following concepts… (7) meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race…

There’s a long and sordid history of racism that calls people lazy. It’s no secret. It’s well known and often getting racists into big trouble.

EEOC alleged that African-American employees were referred to as “lazy”…

The SC government has taken court decisions about being called lazy and cooked up censorship in schools. They seem to want to prevent someone from criticizing “meritocracy” (encoded racism), or to prevent someone from criticizing “hard work ethic” traits (encoded racism).

Their point seems to be if racists aren’t allowed to directly call some race lazy then those racists will write laws that protect the ability to say that racism is a meritocracy, and that racism is just proof of a hard work ethic.

See the problems? It’s basically a gag rule that prohibits calling out racists for being racist.

It reads to me like a page out of the Puritan book saying a hard work ethic is evidence of God choosing someone for salvation.

…racist policies were leading to racist ideas, and racist ideas were leading to ignorance and hate. I realized people were creating racist policies out of economic, political and cultural self-interest. And those racist policies were leading to racial inequalities, disparities and inequities.

Saying someone is superior is an inverse of saying someone is inferior. White supremacists are inherently racist. So if policies are written to protect superiority language, even prohibiting calling it racist… that’s still racist.

Racists play some long and complicated games, you have to admit. But maybe people getting more and more interested in the slavery history of America, let alone the genocide, will help push through the nonsense.

It’s an interesting footnote in history, how a Swedish man involved with extreme-right groups in 1918 set the antisemitic swastika as the Finnish Air Force symbol.

Eric von Rosen had no Nazi associations at the time of his 1918 gift, he did subsequently become a leading figure in Sweden’s own national socialist movement in the 1930s. He was also a brother-in-law of senior German Nazi Herman Göring, and, according to Prof Teivainen, a personal friend of Hitler.

His noble gift, before Nazis and before Hitler, was somehow completely consistent with both him becoming a Nazi and personal friend of Hitler. In other words in 1918 he likely associated with the violent hate groups using swastikas that very soon after became the Nazis, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When he gifted a plane to the nascent air force of Sweden’s newly independent neighbour in 1918 he had had a blue swastika painted on it. This Thulin Typ D was the first aircraft of the Finnish air force and subsequent planes all had his blue swastika symbol too, until 1945.

Of course historians describe how anti-Semitic Polish, Austrians, Germans, and Romanians referenced the swastika before (and after) WWI to symbolize hate. Consider the “volkisch” Runen, for an easy example of what Rosen might have been consorting with or around.

“Before Hitler Came”: Thule Society and Germanen Orden

Who is to say Rosen wasn’t pushing the swastika into Finland because it was anti-Semitic? Hitler brought fringe hate symbolism to the main political stage, yet he wasn’t alone in that putsch by any stretch. A pre-Nazi, pre-Hitler swastika used by Rosen still in fact easily qualifies, especially for a government asset, as intentional hate messaging. “Before Hitler” is basically tone-deaf.

Some suggest non-German antisemitism such as Romanian A.C. Cuza (1857-1947) copied use of the swastika from Heinrich Kraeger (1870-1945), when in fact it might have been copied from the anti-Semitic Swede Eric von Rosen (1879-1948).

Finland had denied citizenship to Jews until 1918 when it finally allowed “applications”, which apparently did not sit well with Rosen. Perhaps it was his offense at the Paris Peace Conference “Minority Treaty” negotiations, which drove a desire to make antisemitism into an official government symbol (Finland wasn’t asked to sign the treaty). Romania was the only slower country among European states to allow Jewish residents to become citizens (1923). And on that note, Romania’s overtly anti-Semitic National Christian Union (formerly the Christian National Democratic Party of 1919) adopted the swastika as its official symbol in 1922, eerily similar to Rosen’s timing and intentions: a “good luck talisman of victory for the endangered Aryan race”, which Hitler also said.

The next time anyone tells you that Rosen naively thought a swastika was “good luck”, remind them that’s exactly what antisemitic propaganda was pushing so he was actually right on message for promoting Nazism (which he then supported). Seems pretty obvious how and why both Rosen/Finland and Cuza/Romania swastikas should be seen as related, which is why it’s so odd that anyone in Finland could be asleep at the wheel on this issue.

In other words, Hitler’s work was a culmination not a beginning. He drew from rage and hate sentiments swirling around him far more than he ever came up with things whole cloth. His Nazi color scheme idea was taken from the Imperial German flag (1871–1918). That’s a notable period because 1871 also was when Germany abruptly became introduced to a sensationalized swastika.

German nationalist groups like the Reichshammerbund (a 1912 anti-Semitic group) and the Bavarian Freikorps (paramilitarists who wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic in Germany) used the swastika to reflect their “newly discovered” identity as the master race.

Even a 1912 Reichshammerbund swastika reference seems late, given it had spun out of a 1902 group (swastikas already being spread as “master race” anti-Semitic symbols by then). By 1916 the Germanenorden hate group published a newsletter with a swastika with a superimposed cross for its cover page, and then in 1918 spun out a violent anti-Semitic anti-revolution Thule-Gesellschaft (TG).

Led by Rudolf von Sebottendorff (1875-1945) TG drove heated political rhetoric and violence after the 1918 fall of the monarchy, a foundation for the National Socialist (Nazi) movement. The TG symbol was the anti-Semitic swastika with the WWI “Dolchstoßlegende” knife, and their greeting was “Sieg und Heil”. Eric von Rosen likely was observing if not involved in Rudolf von Sebottendorff’s extreme-right group, which is the most sensible explanation for why antisemitic swastikas were painted into Finland’s Air Force.

Thus, Hitler’s use of an 1871 color scheme along with an 1871 “racist luck” swastika in his “make Germany great again” propaganda flag, were referencing hateful symbolism that had been in place long before 1918.

It’s similar to how “America First” was a racist, nativist slogan of the late 1800s in America, then became a Presidential campaign in 1916 (to restart the KKK), and then became a Presidential campaign in 2016. Hitler’s swastika was from racist thinking generated from 1871, not some kind of invention or abrupt change. Rosen surely was not far removed from all this context given he would have grown up with the anti-Semitic use of the swastika and knew such prominent connotations just like Hitler.

To put it bluntly, as a Finnish artist explained in 2014, it’s no coincidence by 1918 that Rosen, Hitler and others were all spreading a swastika around as symbolic of hate. Rosen wasn’t really before Hitler at all; they used it at the same time for basically the same reasons, and they knew the swastika was anti-Semitic by 1918 just the same as by 1945.

The meaning of the sign as a symbol of anti-Semitism and therefore the Aryan, has an uninterrupted continuity from the 1880s to the Nazi-swastika. Famous orientalist and anti-Semite Emile Burnouf wrote to Schliemann as early as 1872: “the swastika should be regarded as a sign of the Aryan race. It should also be noted that the Jews have completely rejected it.”

Therefore in 1925 when Hitler wrote that his “good luck” swastika “always has been and always will be anti-Semitic”, he was drawing on at least fifty years before him of that being the case. Rosen knew what was going on in European circles, just like Gallen-Kallela in 1889 probably copied his symbolic swastikas from the antisemitic work of Zmigrodski. After all, Professor Muller of Copenhagen was at that time meeting with Zmigrodski to promote a racist discourse that a “swastika was the emblem of the supreme god of the Aryan race” — symbolized “luck” in selection, exclusion and opposition against “unclean” races.

Fast forward to today and Finland is slowly getting around to noticing they often still use the intentionally symbolic anti-Semitic swastika after long denying its undeniable symbolism.

In related news from 2022, Finland has an antisemitism problem:

On her recent visit to Finland, the EU’s antisemitism watchdog Katharina von Schnurbein pointed out that neither the authorities nor the general public in Finland is fully aware of lingering anti-Semitic sentiments. Her claim was based on a survey according to which one in two Europeans sees antisemitism as a problem in their home country. That number was just 17% among Finns. […] Antisemitism or denying the Holocaust are not listed as criminal acts in Finland.

What swastika? Where? They do Nazi the swastika.

Or maybe they really don’t like Jews in Finland, given their acceptance of widespread antisemitism. In related news from 2023:

Jewish politician in Finland allegedly assaulted and hit with antisemitic slurs.

Allegedly this antisemitic assailant was easily caught and arrested because he was wearing… swastikas. So it kind of makes sense for their air force to stop using them.

For those still trying to argue that a swastika somehow was a generic “luck” symbol of early 1900s instead of racism… I have many reasons why that’s just plain wrong (pun not intended).

Here are two excellent ones. First, by 1920 the ill-fated Latvian Air Force had proven without a doubt the swastika was very bad luck.

Second, show me any other GIANT luck symbol, anything of the kind, being painted on planes in the same manner. There’s no such universally symbolic charm. Paint was expensive and mystical symbols of luck had no need for such expense or even big exposure. Racism, however, does love an expensive and huge symbol. Burning crosses was too obvious and dangerous, and instead the racist late-1800s swastika became “popular” among the early-1900s racists.

Related: Were the WWII RAF Dambusters racist?

Calling it their “Week of Cone”, residents of SF reduced the threat to the city from renegade “driverless” vehicles by gently placing a traffic cone to completely shut them down. It had all the hallmarks of the extremely successful SFMTrA movement of 2016.

As you may recall, Tesla’s “driverless” software back in 2016 murdered two drivers and then in 2018 murdered a pedestrian. That’s right, TESLA MURDERED A PEDESTRIAN. Did you hear about it? Lawyers worked really hard to keep it very quiet. Their unsafe bug-riddled software since then has been implicated in over 30 deaths and appears only to be getting much worse. Lately it has been “veering” dangerously into poles, trees and late at night into houses like an explosive cruise missile to murder people sleeping in their bed.

Who really wants the “hellscape” required for “driverless”?

Density is too low for anything other than driving to work well, every residential street is too wide, the non-residential roads are all multilane arterials with turning lanes, and every destination is surrounded by a vast parking lot. If that’s what you have to create for autonomous vehicles to work, it’s a Pyrrhic victory. It’s not worth it.

Oh, and by the way, Uber also killed a pedestrian in 2018. Unlike Tesla, however, after that they completely cancelled their “driverless” assaults on public safety.

Speaking of Cruise, the “driverless” company by that name seems to be taking the SF “saftey test” of cones way mo’ gracefully than some angry bro at WayMo.

“Not only is this understanding of how AVs operate incorrect, but this is vandalism and encourages unsafe and disrespectful behavior on our roadways,” a Waymo spokesperson told SFGATE in an emailed statement. “We will notify law enforcement of any unwanted or unsafe interference of our vehicles on public roadways.” A spokesperson for Cruise pointed to several charitable initiatives by the company and said that “intentionally obstructing vehicles gets in the way of those efforts” and “risks creating traffic congestion for local residents.”

LOL.

I would say the precise cone placement in fact shows someone has a very clear understanding of how AVs operate. WayMo on the other hand generally doesn’t seem to understand at all how urban society operates.

WayMo’s spokesperson sounds downright unstable and untrustworthy. Vandalism? Wat. Traffic cones are unsafe and disrespectful? Wat. We will notify law enforcement there is a safety cone on our hood? Wat wat wat.

Is WayMo planning to call police for every insect on their windshield, while they’re at it? SFPD surely is fully funded to open an entomology department to investigate all these “driverless” bugs. Taxpayers will love that.

SFPD can’t even keep up with organized crime smashing car windows over 300 times a day, I’m sure they eagerly await robocalls about a traffic cone placed on a hood.

Seriously, do WayMo staff still live in a pot-filled Stanford dorm room?

WayMo seems to have trained their spokesperson in the 1984 Orwell school of techbro agro doublespeak (also known as Stanford bro-talk).

First of all, by definition the very concept of WayMo is far more the act of vandalism.

Gregoire coined the term in reference to incoming Vandals destroying old ways of doing things. He spoke of the destruction of works of art during the French Revolution. While Raphael and Dryden earlier had mentioned Vandals destroying works of art, Gregoire gets credited for calling out generalized social “vandalism”… such as WayMo.

By definition a ruthless and forced introduction of driverless cars into the historic networks and art of pedestrian paths makes WayMo the obvious invading Vandals in this scenario.

Second, traffic cones are safety devices that demand respect. It’s fascinating to see an obviously unsafe and disrespectful product company such as WayMo take aim at traffic cones as a problem.

I mean let’s be honest. WayMo is unsafe because they are notoriously failing at respect for traffic rules.

Will they now dump millions into government lobbying to make traffic cones illegal to cover for their failures? Will WayMo cars have a big sign “sitting macht frei” on their roof?

Being a pedestrian was criminalized by the Nazi-loving American car companies of the 1930s, so probably we shouldn’t be surprised if “driverless” brands see a “solution” here as making all traffic signals illegal. Can’t fail if you embrace permanent improvisation doctrine and destroy law and order, right WayMo Goebbels?

A bright orange reflective traffic cone is making the street “unsafe” for them? Come on. That’s like WayMo arguing that they are angry the rain falling on them is too dangerous because it’s so dry.

Bottom line is this proves yet again the completely nonsensical thinking at “driverless” companies. Let’s look at the doublespeak.

They say they will make roads safer, while causing unnecessary crashes including fatalities.

They say they will make riding in cars more relaxing, while freaking out if anyone dares to relax in their vehicles.

They say traffic will flow better with automation, while causing constant traffic jams and disabling or delaying emergency services.

Failure at every level, more than enough reasons to regularly drop a safety test on them.

And we haven’t even gotten yet to the stupid and simple engineering failures related to a cone placed gently on a hood.

Why does a “driverless” car even have a hood? What a total design failure. Start there!

At some point people will finally realize “driverless” cars are just the bell bottom pants of urban transit. A car? A CAR? Who thought a car(riage) would help with anything, the King of France?

Cars without drivers are a hugely inefficient waste of resources, a failure of basic thought, and more significantly perhaps a giant fashion mistake. You should no more want to be seen in an Orwellian WayMo than in a pair of skin tight shiny silver BeeGee pants dragging through dog poop.

In other words, everyone get way mo’ cones out and stop the Vandals from destroying the historic art of urban transit. If these cones don’t affect human drivers, WayMo has nothing to complain about.