29 weeks after Walmart agreed to remove shirts bearing Nazi iconography from its shelves, and 17 weeks after getting a letter from Congress demanding the shirts removal, they’re still there. Adam writes:
So I’m at Wal Mart in Commerce City, CO looking for a gift for a friend and start rummaging through the T Shirt section not looking for anything in particular, just killing some time. Suddenly I notice this familiar looking skull peeking out at me. “Surely it can’t be…” I think to myself. Oh, it is…. I grab it and pull it out; there it is in all its glory. It’s like finding a piece of history. Nazi Wal Mart history.
We keep posting these to show you how some businesses manipulate the by-the-books media. A fracas erupts, the company send out a public statement apologizing and pledging to change their ways, the press publishes it, everyone feels goods, and we turn to a clip of Scrappy the Jet-skiing squirrel. Guess what, the company doesn’t always do what they said they were gonna do. — BEN POPKEN
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It’s clear that some people want to discredit the messenger and then to suppress discussion of this topic, for whatever reason, we can only speculate.
I don’t care a whit who listens to Rammstein. I’m listening to them myself quite a lot lately. I just want people to start looking for and noticing Nazi symbolism when they do it. Whether you want to or not, you probably won’t be able to avoid doing it in the future.
Remember the Nazi colors are Red/White/Black. Kaki brown is also used a lot by Nazis. Any symbols that look out of place or that the camera lingers on may be something they want to highlight. Of course, when Lindemann does something like goose-stepping on stage or displays the artillery of the Nazi warship Bismarck or shows photos of Hitler in a noble pose those are no-brainers.
Mexico supposedly has a Nazi party as self-contradictory as it may seem.
http://www.allstates-flag.com/fotw/flags/mx}pns.html
Can’t imagine that it is very big.
However, the people selling Nazi and KKK banners in Ensenada at the Suhauro Curio shop, I believe it was called, were doing it just for the money, not political ideology, same as Walmart in my opinion. It’s on the main tourist shopping street near the MacDonalds. I suspect they will still sell you something that looks like a Nazi Kriegsmarine flag, or a Totenkopf Ashtray, if anyone is headed down there this weekend.
Just ask for they have any gear for Rammstein or M. Manson fans and they will haul out the Nazi stuff for you.
(a) it’s just a symbol, a color, whatever (do some research on the history of the swastika for example).
(b) just because someone wears a reference to nazis, doesn’t mean they’re pulling out a gun and shooting jews.
(c) i’m not wasting my time looking around at everything and freaking out because a t-shirt is red/white/black or some guy has skull on his shirt.
(d) there is no nazi marketing conspiracy as your alluding. if i write the words “cunt pump” on a t-shirt, someone will buy it and you will be just as offended.
@Tristan921: I don’t think you understand so I will make this as simple as possible…… We do not care. We will never care. We think you have the personality of testicular cancer. Please go away and never come back.
@royal72:
Where can I buy this “cunt pump” t shirt you speak of?
@bedofnails: probably have to have it custom made (too bad i don’t make shirts anymore).
I am not sure why it upsets you so much then that I talk about it. Just ignore it if you don’t care. No one is demanding that you do anything about it. However, it seems that many of you can’t stand that other people even bring the subject up. So, in actuality you try to suppress it with personal attacks, insults, sacasm and irrelevant diversions without discussng the facts. Go read something else, if you really aren’t interested. However, it seems that many of you are just being disingenious and you care very, very deeply that people are critisizing promotion of Nazism.
People should not forget that Nazism was very popular in the US before WWII when there were those wonderbar, grand Nazi party rallies at Madison Square Garden, just like at Nuremberg. By Gott!! Those were the days, weren’t they! Ven people could wear those really smart-looking uniforms and march proudly arm-in-arm with the “Jungs” in the cool leather boots in the middle of Manhattan! Now people are quibling over one little measly Totenkopf t-shirt. How depressing, eh?
I can’t believe I wasted my time reading all that…
Although I think the next Consumerist shirt should say “C*nt Pump”.
@Smashville:
Actually it should read:
“C*NT PUMP” —> Tristan921
…with a Star of David for good measure.
Oh yes, here come the “jewish” comments from people that think I am unfairly discriminating against Nazis, as if only Jews don’t like Nazis.
@Tristan921: Get over yourself… geeze…..
@Tristan921: Oh Lordy, did you just say that Marilyn Manson is a Nazi? Really? Have you ever listened to his music? Or anything not written before 1978?
Cuz that’s just – wow – the most asnine thing I’ve ever read.
And Ben, for the love of god, please create some kind of commentator vote thing for us to be able to temporarily ban trolls, and their comments, until you guys can review. If they’re on topic, great, ditto if they’re funny. If they’re trolling, they’re gone. Perhaps with a warning?
Otherwise all the good commenters are SO going to get tired and leave.
so congress, that currently sends people to kill other people, sends a letter to a store to stop selling a tshirt with a vague reference to people who killed other people 60 years ago. uhh. ok.
@Trai Depp
I said that Marilynn Manson uses Nazi Symbology in there works and that is pretty easy to demonstrate. See this video and remember Black/Red/White are the colors of the Nazi Reich.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47N9XwgaSs
How many times do you see the Totenkopf as well as many other Nazi symbols in the above video?
I also said these groups, Like Marilynn Manson, are in large part what creates the mass market for Nazi gear. The kids think the Nazi symbols are cool after watching these videos.
@Tristan921: Everyone wants you to shut it because your comments/viewpoints/personal crusade have nothing to do with the article.
You have your own blog, so stop trying to play the moral crusader/martyr here.
One should also not miss the despicable racial signals Manson is sending in the video above.
Ben should be glad if he gets some new readers that have a clue what it’s all really about and also have the intellectual capacity and education to be able to discuss it in a reasonable way instead of just making personal attacks and trying to suppress any real discussion of what the bigger picture is and what the causes are of this world-wide mass marketing of Nazi symbols and gear.
All you have to do is stop the personal attacks instead of tyring to discuss in a reasonable way. Previously when I posted here, I only posted one time. What’s different this time is that many people started making personal attacks and even making derogatory remarks about Jews. If you want to stick your head in the sand or the object of this topic is just to attack Walmart, because people think they are “evil”, then fine.
The way I see it the people that want to make personal attacks on me to make me shut up are the ones that are off topic. You people just get angry because I won’t roll over and am making effective replies to your personal attacks.
OMG! I’m wearing red, black and white today…. I’M A NAZI AND I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT!
So, anyway, back on the actual topic, has anyone actually gotten a statement recently from Wal-Mart as to why these things are still on the shelf? Just curious as to what the corporate bigwigs would have to say in their defense for their obvious inability to take recalled items off their shelves.
It’s not just the occasional wearing of red/black/white that makes you believe someone is using Nazi symbolism. It’s when they use other signals in combination, such as Marilynn Manson’s frequent use of the Totenkopf symbol in the above video, the SS sign, photos of Adolf Hitler, etc, etc. As he says it’s a dirty word, “Reich”. Perhaps that is too much for you to process, though?
Is it just that people believe that Walmart is a great World evil, worse than Nazism, that people only want to focuss on Wall mart and not other mass-marketing of Nazi symbols?
Yes indeed. That’s far too much for my feeble nazi brain to process. Just like a joke is far too much for you to process. And if you were keeping up with the times, you’d see that Marilyn Manson has moved on to a “Lolita” motif, so clearly we should be accusing him of mass-marketing pedophilia now, not nazism. But we shouldn’t do that in this thread, because the actual topic of this thread is Wal-Mart’s inability to remove recalled items from their stores, which is why people keep on talking about Wal-Mart here.
I didn’t miss the sarcasm. So much attention is always paid to Walmart’s re-called items? This is just about Walmart and not about the Nazi Symbolism. Or, do you just want to accuse Walmart of pushing Nazisum, but not the actual people that are creating that market that Walmart is responding to. It seems that I am not the only “moral crusader” here. It’s just that you have a different moral crusade against Walmart. Don’t you think that pretty much sums it up for many of the participants here? They are also on a kind of “moral crusade”, it’s just not against mass-marketing of Nazism, but something else.
In a way that seems quite dishonest to me, because you only want to apply your moral standard to Walmart.
@Tristan921: Hurray for rambling, confusing, illogical replies!
You’ve won the Most Amazingly Complicated Logical Fallacy Award for the day. Congratulations.
….anyway, continue with your moral crusade against the Global Nazism Conspiracy, o great one! I’ll done feeding the troll for today.
Let me see if I understand correctly. Most people here don’t care at all about mass-marketing of Nazi symbols. It is just a pretext to try to motivate people against Walmart, the real great Satan. Hahaha!
And you guys have the gall to call me a “moral crusader”. What sleazy hypocrisy. At least I want the same standard applied to everyone. You guys should get a life and forget about Walmart. You’re not even on their radar screen.
@Tristan921:
Do you know what the term “mass marketing ” means?
I’ve heard that shop keepers in Mexico have incredible marketing campaigns.
This just goes to show what I’ve been saying for a while. That walmart isn’t inherently “evil” just that they are… incompetent to the point of negligence. Walmart couldn’t find it’s ass with both hands…with the light on.
That’s what happens when you become a multiheaded hydra of the retail universe: you lose touch.
I say that as someone who is offended that no one bothered to check before ripping off designs that turn out to be Nazi propaganda, and that even after being brought to a stores attention the product wasn’t removed.
Even when many magazines are not carried by walmart, and cds are censored in the name of being family friendly.
And as someone who worked at walmart (i know, i know, but health insurance doesn’t fall from the sky)
On second thought… maybe they are just evil….nah!
@Bedofanails. Your ignornace and prejudices against mexicans are showing. Do you really think a indivuidual shop owner in Mexico manufactures his own textiles? Even they have distributors and the banners/flags I saw were most likely not manufactured in Mexico, but came from an international distributor of some sort. Some of the products you see in Mexico, you can see in other parts of the world. Just because most products are not something you normally see in Podunk, USA, does not mean the mexican store owner manufactured everything himself in a lean-to behind the store. The leather products, silver items and crafts, etc. come via Mexican distributors. Man, some of you really need to get out and experience some other parts of the World. Man, what a bunch of yokels.
Most of the writers here seem to be just Walmart bigots that want to use this SS t-shirt thing to beat Walmart over the head, but don’t really care otherwise or they are Nazi sympathsizers that want to shut the Walmart bigots the f#$k up, because they don’t want too many people to find out about the world-wide, mass-marketing to young people of Nazi ideas that is taking place.
@roche:
Nice simpsons reference!!!!
what, that’s it? no more to say tristan? would you like to comment on bush and the family being a nazi sympathizers.
Looks like Wal-Mart is not being forthright with consumers, again. As if customers would not notice if their usual dog treats were no longer on the shelves. Why is it that this is happening again and again and again and again?