Star spangled no trumps
[ by Charles Cameron — I googled “star shapes clip art” ]
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I’m not a Trump-fancier, but i try not to let my dislikes and likes influence my reading of what others are saying with their words, typefaces, graphics, speeches, video clips, tones of voice, facial gestures, and so forth.
So when the image of H Clinton surrounded by dollar bills and a six-pointed star came up in a Trump tweet, I didn’t immediately think “anti-Semitism”. Today, though, it occurred to me to do a little research. So I popped the phrase “star shapes clip art” into Google’s image stash, expecting to find some six-pointers along with five-pointers, inverse (satanic) five-pointers, eight- and twelve-pointers and various indiscriminate start-bursts.
If I saw any six-pointers in the double-triangle formulation known as the Star of David, I’d have noticed and noted them. What I simply wasn’t expecting was what I got:
At the most basic level of graphic design, six-pointed stars — let alone Stars of David — are just not thought about, not wanted, not present.
Okay, next time I see a six pointed star next to money and the face of a political opponent, J won’t be so keen to allow for the possibility that it’s a sherrif’s badge, or just a good old six-pointed, y’know, star.
July 6th, 2016 at 10:57 pm
I dunno, Charles. A search for Sheriff’s Star gives –
https://www.google.com/search?q=sheriffs+star&num=30&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2x-zP99_NAhXLaD4KHa8ZAiEQ_AUICCgB&biw=1366&bih=643
Lots of six-pointed stars there.
July 6th, 2016 at 11:43 pm
Yes, if he or his graphics team had wanted to show a sheriff’s star one could easily have been found, and if they’d wanted a start of David, likewise. My point is that at a very basic level, when you ask for a star graphic without specifying a kind, you get almost exclusively five-pointers.
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I wasn’t expecting that. I’d been giving team Trump considerable benefit of the doubt about the accusation that that choice was anti-Semitic, but seeing how much, much more pervasive five-pointers are makes me less sure — and learning the image, star and dollars and all, came first from a frequently racist site — 8Chan’s /pol/ politically incorrect channel, which features these among its headers:
makes me think that at the very least, due diligence was lacking.
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Considering that original source, this:
July 7th, 2016 at 12:45 am
FWIW, Haaretz has been running overtime on this issue:
These are not in any particular order, just the order in which I found them.
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Interesting sub-head on that last one:
July 7th, 2016 at 1:38 pm
The MSM will stoop to anything to try and destroy Trump. Trump’s son-in-law is Jewish and his daughter converted to that faith. So does that make him an anti-Semite? Your dislike of Trump is evident as you so readily grasped the MSM’s charge.
July 7th, 2016 at 3:42 pm
Trump made his fortune in the New York City real estate market. If he was antisemitic than he must have hidden it well because he never would have been able to do any business. The truth is that he worked with and partnered with and donated to a lot of business and foundations owned and operated by Jews. If you had asked the question, ‘is Trump an anti-Semite?’, before this campaign started the apparent answer would’ve been, ‘Enough Already!’ OTOH, now that the election season is heating up that answer might be updated to, ‘It could be worse!’
July 7th, 2016 at 6:44 pm
Hi Morgan:
No, but that’s additional evidence and influences my opinion too, and it’s info I hadn’t seen when writing my post, I saw it when I was reading that series of Haaretz articles.
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My views have been zig-zagging here, at first defending Trump against some Jewish friends — basically giving him benefit of the doubt — , then not so sure and checking Google for graphic stars, then seeing the source of the graphic and as I said thinking that using it, particularly given its origins, was not a great idea, and now swinging back to neutral on the issue in light of his family ties.
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FWIW, I’ve been in a similar set of swings or lurches re Brexit and whether it indicates a huge surge of anti-Semitism in the UK. The answer to that depends a lot on whether Brexit should be attributed to Farage, or to Johnson and Gove. The press initially seemed to think Farage was the victor, but now it’s becoming clearer to me — which it might have been all along if I was living there — that Johnson and Gove were the principals, Farage someone who rode on their coat tails. But I still regard my views — on both anti-Semitism in the trump campaign and in the Referendum — as tentative. Because there are some things I know quite a bit about, I’m clear that there’s more going on in UK or US politics than I can track or balance myself. I have other priorities.
He’s certainly stylistically the antithesis of my tastes and interests, but it’s funny, I’m not sure how much of what he does is populist bluster, how much is a presentation of ambiguity so that eg Putin would have a hard time second-guessing him, and how much is a troubling knee-jerk response when he’s criticized. I respect his tendency not to put our troops in harm’s way, eg., but don’t feel great confidence in his ability to stay calm under fire.
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Grurray:
Gotcha. It remains possible that he would like anti-Semitic votes — all votes are valid in an election after all — but I’m clear by now that he personally isn’t anti-Semitic — which wasn’t anything I’d thought about either way before that graphic turned up, and even then I started off thinking, to paraphrase Freud, that there are times when a star is just a star.
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By all means, keep keeping me informed.
July 7th, 2016 at 9:00 pm
I think these episodes are more about gaining free publicity than targeting any specific interest groups.
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I admit I’m a Trump apologist. Not because I like him. I don’t even know if I would vote for him, but all this #NeverTrump stuff annoys me to no end- Enough Already! with the classic shrug and wave.
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Although that now reminds me of an old joke (paraphrasing here):
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One yutz says to the other yutz,
“That Trump is such a lousy good-for-nothing!” kvetches Yutz #1. “He cheats you in business. He’s a terrible husband. And such a lousy golfer.”
“How do you know so much about Trump?” questions Yutz #2.
“Trump?” replies Yutz #1. “Oh, we’ve been best friends for years!”
July 7th, 2016 at 10:15 pm
Since 1897 the Star of David has been, as planned, associated with one thing.
Israel.
So here again to oppose the bandit state, or to at the very least oppose America’s continuing as its satrapy, is “anti-Semitic.”
How does it feel to be robots?
July 8th, 2016 at 12:38 am
Bandit state? Before the modern state of Israel was founded the region was a territory of the British Empire. Before World War I, the region had been divided into sanjuks of the Ottoman Empire.
Both empires went defunct and Jews subsequently refounded the historical state of Israel (although the Brits are now making a go at a possible comeback).
No banditry at all as far as I can see, except from people who deny truth and reality.