Hatewatch Tweets
Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
Lions and Tigers and Fonts, Oh My! Proving the President is a Commie
In the smoke-and-mirrors world of the deranged political right, there are plenty of reasons to conclude that President Obama is a “communist.” His father wrote about socialism. His mother was white and only Marxists slept with black men in her era — plus, she met Obama’s father in a Russian language class! The future president’s teenage mentor may have been a communist. Former members of the extreme-left Weather Underground held a fundraiser for his Illinois State Senate run.
And then, just revealed to the ignorant masses by the geniuses who run the BuzzFeed website, there is Obama’s new typeface: “Revolution Gothic.”
Yes, courtesy of Zeke Miller, identified as a staffer of BuzzFeed, we now know that the font adopted by the Obama campaign a few weeks ago is “a style inspired by retro Cuban propaganda posters.” Zeke did us the favor of posting a recent picture of the president with the socialist typeface, followed by a collection of images of some of the typeface’s other uses (“Viva la Revolucion,” slogans from Lenin, etc.).
From there, it went viral. The Blaze, the “news” site run by former Fox conspiracy-monger-in-chief Glenn Beck, adopted and expanded the scoop first brought to us by the enterprising Zeke Miller. This time, The Blaze’s Benny Johnson added in some really cool new information, such as the idea that “the typeface origin is seeded in Cuban Communist propaganda.” Benny continued: “Here is a collection of early Commie propaganda from Cuba and later pop-art, can you see the similarity?” Then comes a slew of images of Fidel Castro, Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev, propaganda posters and, for good measure, the cover of The Communist Manifesto.
And from there it went to another Obama-bashing website, American Conservative 2 Conservative, where it was posted by “national director” Laura J. Alcorn under the same scary headline used by The Blaze: “’Viva la Revolucion!’ Obama Campaign Rolls Out New Typeface Inspired By…” And once again, the pictures of Fidel and his collectivist typeface.
Is the Obama campaign’s new font proof of the president’s determination to help the workers of the world cast off their chains? Well, even many of Buzzfeed’s readers didn’t seem to think so. “How bored, obsessed, or gullible are you that you report this?” one asked. “No confirmation, just a similar typeface as a cheap way to somehow tie Obama to communism.” Several others pointed out that the type used by the campaign actually is different than that preferred by Red Typesetters.
But the sharpest reply may have come after Miller E-mailed the Obama campaign for comment on the tip he’d received from a reader. “Your GOP operative should have had the courtesy to stay sober until noon,” Miller says Obama press secretary Ben LaBolt replied, “and BuzzFeed should go back to labeling cat slideshows.”
Hatewatch isn’t so easily fooled, however. It’s perfectly obvious that the typeface used by the Obama campaign proves the president is a Marxist bent on destroying Western civilization and the white man to boot. Just like Zeke Miller, Glenn Beck, Benny Johnson and Laura J. Alcorn are brilliant investigative reporters.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:17 pm
That’s not all. They even use the same alphabet. (Knew it was too quiet. They must have pooped out their Chick-Fil-A sandwiches).
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I’ll go with whatever Ruslan says. If he thinks this dandy new typeface is a gateway to a new era of Agitprop, that’s good enough for me.
So Ruslan, is it so?
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Thank you, HateWatch for finally showing your true colors.
Now would you mind approving those banners for Free Republic and Stormfront I suggested?
(What a bunch of fools an idiots. An Ben LaBolt’s reply was STUPENDOUS.)
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Oh, Dear! Such a stretch on the part of Buzzfeed. I just sent out a newsletter in which I used Georgia (for the Headers) and Perpetua (for the text) fonts. Does this mean that I am perpetually Georgian? What does that mean? Am I condemned to eat peaches forever, or must I install Doric pillars on the front of my modest little ranch house?
These people are nuts — and I’m glad that even some of their readers think so.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Mark, great article, just the right amount of tongue in cheek humor. Wingnuts on the American Right have never given up on the grand socialist conspiracy theory, the one that ties it all together.
Now, when will you take a stand on the left wingnuts (Reynardine and Ruben) who proposed equally preposterous theories seeking to tie in the current crop of Republicans with Nazi like grand plans to execute ethnic cleansing and genocide plans against people of color?
Both are the products of extreme ideology coupled with a psychological need to seek significance in a world where individual significance is hard to find. (short explanation version from a psychology professor friend of mine)
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:34 pm
CoralSea
It means that you must forever make your home in Tbilisi.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Best not to let the GOP see the font called “Obey Revolution”
http://www.dafont.com/obeyrevolution.font
Romney campaign official font? Why it’s, “Load Up On Guns”, obviously:
http://www.dafont.com/load-up-on-guns.font
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Never thought I’d say this, but I like the Gotham typeface better.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:42 pm
CoralSea,
It’s worse than you think. It means you are a Communist just like Obama! Georgia, the country, was part of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were communists. Ergo, your choice of fonts reveals you are a closet communist. ;-)
on August 2nd, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Now that you have displayed the fonts…no. I’ve got half a dozen fonts of similar type, and I can really tell them apart only because Microsoft lists them. Then again, maybe Microsoft’s in on it, too.
Don’t stand on one leg waiting for Ruslan. If he got the right brandy and cigars to go with that most entertaining reading he suggested, he could be a while (hopefully not Armagnac. Jean d’Armagnac, under the influence of his own stuff, is said to have wound up marrying his own sister, but only because, by that time, they had to)
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Deep, you already have your prizes. Go take them and play with them (Ruben, bless his heart, has not been here in months).
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:17 pm
CoralSea you and Stalin are both Georgian. Just sayin’…
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:38 pm
The Obama campaign should also adopt this font just to push the “brilliant investigative reporters” completely over the brink:
http://tinyurl.com/cbhb6f9
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Actually, Coral Sea, to cover all your bases, pour yourself a glass of saperavi, plunk a slice or two of perfectly ripe peach in it, and go drink it on your porticoed veranda.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Deep Ecology,
You are the Bob’s Big Boy of political ideologies, continually spinning them out like hamburgers. Last time I checked nobody here was really down with your strange brand of Aryan neo-malthusianism (or is it neo-malthusian Aryanism?).
Why are you wasting your dwindling quota of first world energy consumption on us?
on August 2nd, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Oh, dear! And I sent the newsletter to my corporate clients!
Funny, how none of them have ever commented on my obviously (and perpetually) commie typeface!
I guess that I was drawn to it because of the years of studying Russian that I had and the fact that I visited Moscow in 1986 when it was still part of the old Soviet Union (although Glasnost was underway).
And here I was, thinking that the “Georgian” the font was named after had to do with English Georgian architecture (basically Federal in the U.S.) and Georgia the state, as in peaches and southern belles.
Oh wait — I think I was, since Georgian in a Russian Language font would be using the Cyrillic alphabet.
Nah, nah — I’m not a communist!!!
on August 2nd, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I like the Gotham better too. That said, Gotham is one of my favorites and a mainstay of an organization I do design work for, among other things.
Of course, following the unhinged wingnut logic, Obama’s use of Gotham proves beyond a doubt that he is, indeed, the Joker. It’s called Gotham after all.
And his use of Neutraface Slab for the ’2012′ is proof that he was trained in the USSR, see I got this 1930 Central Committee edict printed in a font that looks kinda sorta similar.
Clowns.
Seriously though, these people shouldn’t criticize anyone on graphic design. I can always spot something designed by the insane right because they always use base 14 fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Comic *Gag* Sans) for everything, even web banners and printed/pdf matter.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 9:37 pm
Reynardine- Yeah, still working on an idea of what prize we should give to the mega-nutjobs… I’m thinking “Arkhams” being a big comic book geek…. but the idiots who came up with this story should probably win one.
on August 2nd, 2012 at 11:59 pm
After reading the venom and hatred being spewed in this forum, you people are truly intolerant.
You only tolerate those who believe as you do. Everyone else is a “hater.”
The true haters have showed their colors here.
You all sicken me.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 6:11 am
CoralSea, you better watch out with the Georgia font, because it may well reflect a desire to actually eat Chik-Fil-A (even though as a sort of genuine Georgia Peach, I feel obligated in pointing out that there are so many better greasy fast food chicken places available there) :P
Incidentially, if you want to know the answer to the question of just how big of a jerk do you need to be to get booed at the Atlanta Fourth of July Parade – the answer is Newt Gingrich :)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 6:21 am
CoralSea, my real answer on what the Georgia font means is that you wear sundresses and hats on hot days, a sweater when its 70 because its cool, a jacket when its 60 because its cold, and a winter coat when its 50 because it is freezing cold :)
of course, now I have lived in the frozen north of Virginia long enough that its not freezing cold until it reaches 40 :)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 6:49 am
@aadila
I have examined the evidence provided by the conservatives. Based on careful dialectical materialist analysis, and having consulted the major works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and of course, Boleslaw Bierut(because who could forget him, am I right?), I have made the following determination:
Barack Hussein Obama is not a Communist.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 6:54 am
For those who enjoy creating your own wacky, Glenn Beck style conspiracy theories, here are a few tips.
Yes, people from Georgia are indeed Communists, as Georgia WAS in fact an SSR. Not just any SSR, but the birth place of JOSEF STALIN himself! (Don’t tell anybody, but Georgia in Russian is “Gruziya” and “Sakartvelo” in Georgian.)
Moscow was the capital of the USSR; Moscow is a city in Idaho. Draw your own conclusions.
If you look in photos of old Communists, you will notice they are wearing pants. What does this tell you? Look at paintings of Jesus. Is HE wearing pants? Nope.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 8:01 am
The Georgians (Old World variety) also make a mean pomegranate wine. Not only is it tasty and intoxicating, it’s also good for the prostate, if applicable.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 8:36 am
Dean, if you hadn’t shown up at the last minute, there might have been no awards at all, and you’re still not one whit original. Still, I suppose we’ll come up with something.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 8:36 am
….And there’s our first contender for an Arkham or whatever I’m calling it. Well done, Dean.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 8:46 am
Dean, take some Pepto-Bismol and call me in the morning.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 8:58 am
Dean –
Here’s your barf bag — don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
Note to other posters: It’s casual Friday — I don’t have to be pleasant, diplomatic, understanding, or empathetic. Deal with it!
on August 3rd, 2012 at 9:10 am
Supersonic and Reynardine –
In regard to appropriate award figures, I think Identity-H unwittingly provided an excellent suggestion:
Clowns. You can give the “Lead Clown” to crazed right wingers (particularly those with a religious bent, which means most of them now.)
The clown is perfect. They masquerade as “family and child friendly,” when we all know that they actually feed on small children and otherwise engage in deviant behavior, while hiding behind masks of respectability (which most of us see as ludicrous), they are constantly striving to gain the public’s attention through their antics and outrageous statements, they look and sound utterly foolish and have a penchant for slapstick (although much of the time their pratfalls are unintentional), AND — many of them have “Big Hair” — just like their (female) icons, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The manly men of the Right Wing can express their secret desires to cross dress by garbing themselves in clown clothes, clown makeup (especially the lipstick), and that big, flashy, clown hair!
on August 3rd, 2012 at 9:20 am
The Nameless One put in an appearance this morning. Maybe we should give hm an extra glove.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 9:47 am
Oh SNAP! Dean called us out and said WE were the intolerant haters! I did NOT see that coming! What a fool I’ve been! I’m going to sign up on Stormfront now so I can talk about how the Jews conspire with the blacks to ruin my life and prevent me from becoming a millionaire!
on August 3rd, 2012 at 10:11 am
@Ruslan
Thank you for laying this worrisome spectre to rest. I always felt that Obama leaned more toward Liberation Theology than Communism anyway.
My own copy of Gutierrez’s “A Theology of Liberation” is set in New Times Roman. Clearly this suggests to me that newspapers around the world are embracing radical marxism in one of its clever disguises.
Oh wait a minute.
The right wing has been saying that for ages! Egads, man. They must be on to something. It actually IS a conspiracy. Good thing the Republican party is well on its way toward illiteracy and will one day be free from any harmful influence of printed matter.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 10:19 am
CoralSea, if you go with clowns for the trolls, its unfortunate that the name Insane Clown Posse is already taken
on August 3rd, 2012 at 10:45 am
From “aadila:”
For the record, the Times New Roman font was originally commissioned by The Times of London in 1932 to improve readability, and has frequently been updated.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 10:54 am
Aadila — yes – we are on the fast-track to illiteracy in this country thanks to our buddies who prefer funding wars to book learnin’ and fairy stories over science.
Erika — I believe that the clown archetype is sufficiently robust to host the Insane Clown Posse, John Wayne Gacy, Pennywise from “It,” and the many other manifestations of clownishness (including Michele Bachmann’s husband when he is dancing), so that we can still use it. After all, the clown is a readily recognizable symbol for evil beneath the smile. Come to think of it, certain factions of the Republican Party, notably those that listen to Pied Piper Carl Rove, a man whose chubby cheeks are just begging for some grease paint, would be well represented by the evil clown (but they would go out of their way, including spending millions on PR from the Koch brothers and other depraved donors, to convince people that they were good, family-values clowns. Of course, the Tea Party types and many of the rank and file Republicans would believe them — especially when they start in on the pro-clown sermons from the pulpit every Sunday.)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 11:20 am
Thank you, IludiumPhosdex, for illuminating that. I stand..uh…recorded?
on August 3rd, 2012 at 11:53 am
I make Dean sick.
Well, I’ve done my duty for the day. I’m closing up shop early, buying a six pack of cider, and teaching my son how to twist off the cap.
Damn liberals. :)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 1:11 pm
CoralSea,
Magnets. How DO they work?
And Joseph, make sure you get some good English cider. The dry kind. Not that icky, sweet domestic stuff. ;)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Aron, sadly I actually like that song :)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Aron — Huh? I didn’t mention magnets in this thread. Don’t know what you want in the way of a response.
I am aware that I have a magnetic personality, however.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 2:22 pm
“It’s the cyrillic alphabet”
“It’s all the buttons on a calculator you never push.”
on August 3rd, 2012 at 3:38 pm
??????????? < These are letters which Russian Cyrillic shares with the Latin alphabet we use(though both Cyrillic and Latin are based on the Greek alphabet), though they are not all pronounced the same way. If you use these letters frequently, you might be a Communist.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Oops, I guess you can’t use Cyrillic on here. Well the letters were: ABCTEPMHOXY
on August 3rd, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Coral Sea, we don’t have true cider apples here, but Winesap, Baldwin, Wealthy, Northern Spy, and the older kinds of Macintosh all produce a good soft cider, a better hard, and fabulous applejack, especially when blended with the Soulard crab. Applejack was a specialty of upstate New York during Prohibition, because you don’t need a still. You let a keg ferment, then you leave it on the surface of a frozen lake a few days. The alcohol gets driven to the center as the water content freezes, and then you tap it. If the revenooers see the keg- well, damme, a regrettable act of forgetfulness, that’s all.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 4:03 pm
Well, Ruslan, now I don’t feel bad about being able to access kirillitsa on my Android.
on August 3rd, 2012 at 4:03 pm
While E and A are on the list, it appears that I am safe since R I and K are not on the list.
An Erica might be a bit suspect though ;)
on August 3rd, 2012 at 4:10 pm
CoralSea, its a reference to the Insane Clown Posse song “Miracles”
on August 3rd, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Ruslan -
ABCTEPMHOXY –
A = English A
B = English V
C = English S
T = English T (although in writing it looks like a cursive “m”
M = English M
H = English N
0 = English O
X = English khah
Y = English Oo
Pravelna? Bolshoya Spasiba, Tovarish!
on August 3rd, 2012 at 5:04 pm
wow – I guess that the “right” are the only ones who are extreme. You dumbas people at SLPC go after everyone that does not support the “lefts” vision and call them haters. Why not go after WBC, or does that not count
on August 4th, 2012 at 12:00 am
The symbol for Communism is the Hammer and Sicle. I think that’s how you spell it. Anyway, having never worked, neither Oblama or Mittens would have the slightest idea how to use, or even hold, either one. Therefore I’m satisfied that we are currently safe from Communism.
on August 5th, 2012 at 10:21 am
Well, Sam, you mean they never worked with hammers or sickles, though it would be a strange American of either sex who had never picked up a hammer. I also own a sickle, and have used it, though not for a living. No sorghum this year, though.
on August 5th, 2012 at 11:58 am
Oh good grief. What is wrong with these people? Fonts are fonts, and there are thousands upon thousands of them.
While a font design may contribute a certain ambience, the names really don’t have any particular significance, and the previous use of a particular font doesn’t taint it in some way.
on August 5th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Yes Coral Sea, that is basically correct. Don’t forget ‘E’, usually pronounced ‘yeh’. Unfortunately contrary to the claims of many language books, Russian Cyrillic is not actually pronounced as it is written, unlike Serbian Cyrillic.
And since the topic changed, I have been against the continued use of the sickle as a Communist symbol, if only because nobody harvests grain with a sickle anymore(if anyone still does I bet they use a scythe).
@Gerry, Please, give us some examples of left wing extremists and the terrible things they’ve been doing lately.
on August 6th, 2012 at 8:20 am
I have a feeling that to Gerry everyone to the right to Newt Gingrich is an “extreme leftist” and by terrible things it means “criticizing me for holding bigoted views.”
on August 6th, 2012 at 8:21 am
Oopsie, should be everone to the left of “Newt Gingrich” :(
on August 6th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Coral Sea,
‘Miracles’ by the Insane Clown Posse, while otherwise a surprisingly enjoyable song, does profess the ‘band’”s willful ignorance of — among other things — how even the simplest magnets function.
As such, it was picked up by Bill O’Reilly during his ‘Tide goes in, tide goes out. No one knows why’ period of stronger-than-usual anti-intellectualism. ‘Violent J’ and ‘Shaggy 2 Dope’ were actually interviewed on his show, which I personally found highly entertaining.
Definitely worth googling videos of either subject.
on August 6th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Ruslan –
Surely, though, the sickle or scythe is more pleasing from the design perspective than the combine harvester.
Yes — I realized after I made the comment that “E” in Cyrillic is “yeh.” It’s been a while since I did anything in Russian.
on August 6th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Ruslan he might be talking about the vegans. You know always pushing soymilk on the meat eaters.
on August 9th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
@aadila
You are either deliberately being obtuse, or the written English word is a challenge.
NEVER have advocated for Aryan (ie racial) supremacy, Imperialism, or Colonialism. Am a Pan-Nationalist, and advocate for a people and their culture, whatever it might be, to have the right of self-determination and autonomy.
Biology (ie race/ethnicity) CANNOT be the construct upon which a society is based. Culture is however.
My point, made pretty clearly and with telling silence by Mark Potok, is that conspiracy theorists, be they Right or Left, occupy the lunatic fringe of those ideologies. So Mark can mock the wingnuts on the right (and they deserve it, the American Right is veritable intellectual wasteland) but is loathe to call out his friends and supporters who advocate the same wingnut conspiracy theories from the Left in fear of alienating them. Never speak ill of a fellow (leftist or rightist, take your pick).
It’s intellectually dishonest, and radical honesty is lacking in our PC ridden society.
As for other ideologies, other than discussing them with Ruslan and a few others, I am an open advocate for Deep Ecology, favor the authoritarian versus democractic individualism, am a Radical Traditionalist and Orthodox Christian only. I am partial to Heidegger and Nietzsche as opposed to Hegel and Kant.
Will be moving back to Europe and am a second generation German, family from Alsace on my mothers side and very Catholic and Prussia (Very Lutheran) from my father plus one English relative.
I am not leaving the US because of multi-culturalism, and am not a nativist. Leaving because of the lack of High Culture and our pursuit of decultured materialism and individualism.
The US is an experiment in whether or not propositional ideology can successfully sustain and create a society versus culture. I simply prefer culture and believe it builds a more coherent and united people.
on August 9th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Deep,
I think it goes without saying that very few of us will miss you when you repatriate to der Vaterland
on August 10th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Aron, yes, the feeling appears to be mutual.
It was an interesting effort, but in the end the gap between our philosophies is simply too wide.
I caution you though, the near constant animosity generated here in most responses will only further polarize the US, and in the end simply create the very conditions you would like to avoid, ie, a multi-cultural pluralistic society in which many exclusive communities compete with each other versus live in utopian harmony.
The US is becoming a place where the insistence on “equal rights” (whatever that means ultimately) simply results in the least capable and least intelligent, the most marginalized behavior, are given equal consideration. It’s a ludicrous concept, not found anywhere in nature, and not successfully practiced by any nation or people that wish to survive. Everyone wins soccer is not the way the world works.
So, I leave you with one of my favorite passages from the “Anti-Christ”.
“The order of castes, the highest, the dominating law, is merely the ratification of an order of nature, of a natural law of the first rank, over which no arbitrary fiat, no “modern idea,” can exert any influence. In every healthy society there are three physiological types, gravitating toward differentiation but mutually conditioning one another, and each of these has its own hygiene, its own sphere of work, its own special mastery and feeling of perfection. It is not Manu but nature that sets off in one class those who are chiefly intellectual, in another those who are marked by muscular strength and temperament, and in a third those who are distinguished in neither one way or the other, but show only mediocrity — the last-named represents the great majority, and the first two the select. The superior caste — I call it the fewest — has, as the most perfect, the privileges of the few: it stands for happiness, for beauty, for everything good upon earth. Only the most intellectual of men have any right to beauty, to the beautiful; only in them can goodness escape being weakness.”
In all this, I repeat, there is nothing arbitrary, nothing “made up”; whatever is to the contrary is made up — by it nature is brought to shame. . . The order of castes, the order of rank, simply formulates the supreme law of life itself; the separation of the three types is necessary to the maintenance of society, and to the evolution of higher types, and the highest types — the inequality of rights is essential to the existence of any rights at all. A right is a privilege. Everyone enjoys the privileges that accord with his state of existence.
Wrong never lies in unequal rights; it lies in the assertion of ‘equal’ rights.”
Adieu, I graciously bow out before the Untermensch, for with their courts, laws and pitiful handwringing, they will soon rule this country. A tyranny of the weak and least capable.
on August 13th, 2012 at 10:15 am
Good bye, good luck, and good riddance to you, DeepEcology. Please feel free not to pop in from time to time to check on us.
As you have shown some sunlight penetrates the deep abyss of your mind, as a parting gift, I would like to leave you with a profound observation that, as my esteemed collague Joseph so richly expressed, “ghetto rips” your elitist worldview and sense of entitlement.
It is from another German whose name you might recognize:
“The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.” —Karl Marx.