The annual circus of far-right fringe groups at the Conservative Political Action Conference (or more accurately, the Conservative Paranoia and Conspiracy Conference) had all the fascist trappings:
Personality cult built around a morally depraved leader, check.
Fascist propaganda machine promoting the Big Lie, check.
They even built their stage for this circus to resemble the ancient Norse Odal Rune adopted by the Waffen SS unit, commonly used by white supremacists in Europe and North America.
.@Hyatt, the #CPAC stage is designed to be a rune used by the Nazis. Curious if you are okay with Nazi symbols being used on your properties like this? pic.twitter.com/XoZeV9BiLG
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) February 27, 2021
The Huffington Post reported:
Critics on Twitter have been chilled by a major design element of the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference that eerily resembles the insignia of a volunteer unit of Adolf Hitler’s notorious Waffen SS.
A square whose corner juts out from the CPAC stage from connected back-to-back “check marks” bears a striking resemblance to the ancient Norse Odal Rune adopted by the SS unit, which would be particularly apparent from the stage side.
The Anti-Defamation League has noted that after World War II the Odal (or Othala) Rune became commonly used by white supremacists in Europe and North America.
In response to some 100,000 tweets about the issue and climbing, CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp angrily blasted the “stage design conspiracies” as “outrageous and slanderous.” He touted CPAC’s “long standing commitment to the Jewish community.”
This is the same dislogic which asserts that their “Dear Leader” can’t possibly be anti-semitic because he has a Jewish son-in-law. It’s time to acknowledge reality: Donald Trump talks like an anti-Semite; Trump’s niece: I heard him use anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
Matt Schlapp used the opportunity as a call back to the CPAC convention theme this year, “cancel culture,” the only thing that truly motivates the far-right fringe. “You’re trying to silence my right to say batshit crazy things and to be offensive in public!,” i.e.,their right to be a boorish asshole (something Matt Schlapp has excelled at for many years).
It’s no “conspiracy.” It’s an exact replica of a Nazi rune, anyone can see that. It is what it is, deliberate or not. But even though you now KNOW what it is, you’re going to be defiant and refuse to do anything about it, and use Jews to excuse it.
Gotcha.
— Charles Johnson, bona fide (@Green_Footballs) February 27, 2021
The Snopes fact-checking site reported Saturday that it was “unable to verify at the time of this writing whether the allusion to the Nazi symbol was made intentionally or consciously by any CPAC organizers.”
But it did conclude that the stage definitely “resembled a version of the Odal Rune symbol … used by a number of Nazi divisions.”
And by "resembles," I mean "is identical to."
— Ilyse Hogue is @ilyseh everywhere (@ilyseh) February 27, 2021
Neo-Nazis have been using the Odal Rune sign in place of the swastika for several years.
CPAC's stage is the same shape.
The pic on the left is from Charlotteville in 2017. pic.twitter.com/6Ylt2U4U3C
— Kimberley Johnson 🇺🇦 (@AuthorKimberley) February 27, 2021
A short thread on #CPAC2021's unusual stage, which is clearly in the shape of a well known Nazi symbol.
It is also a symbol in use today by American extremists.
Matt Schlapp and the CPAC leadership need to explain how this could have happened. https://t.co/TW9r8JXY9q
— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) February 27, 2021
As low as Conservatives have sunk, I’ll be honest…
I did Nazi this coming! pic.twitter.com/i5OevIJ24A
— Brian O'Sullivan (@osullivanauthor) February 27, 2021
To answer Fred Guttenberg’s question at the top of this post, no the Hyatt Regency was not okay with Nazi symbols being used on its properties like this. Hyatt Hotels says stage resembling Nazi rune is ‘abhorrent’:
The Hyatt Hotels Corporation called symbols of hate “abhorrent” on Sunday after the design of a stage at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at one of its hotels drew comparisons to a Norse rune used by Nazis during the second world war.
A photo of the CPAC stage went viral on social media on Saturday, with thousands of Twitter users sharing posts comparing its distinctive design to an othala rune, also known as an odal rune, one of many ancient European symbols that Nazis adopted to “reconstruct a mythic ‘Aryan’ past”, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The ceiling of the conference room featured a lighting display in the same shape as the stage, according to Reuters photographs.
Hyatt said all aspects of conference logistics, including the stage design, were managed by the American Conservative Union, which organized the conference.
In its statement on Sunday, Hyatt said: “We take the concern raised about the prospect of symbols of hate being included in the stage design at CPAC 2021 very seriously as all such symbols are abhorrent and unequivocally counter to our values as a company.”
I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised by this after the white nationalist seditious insurrection in Washington D.C. on January 6.
And this gets weirder still… AZ you should update this story, it was a design firm with ties to MSNBC that designed the stage.
They claim they didn’t know about the rune, I hope that’s true, but maybe it was a case of reverse trolling.
Well, they may as well use Nazi symbols since CPAC has become just another one of Trump’s Klan rallies. In fact, any event that has Trump for a speaker will be just another Klan rally. The Hyatt Hotels Corporation should have known better.
I thought when the TV actor in Florida was out of office things would get less weird.
But they’re getting weirder.
And that is 100% an Nazi symbol, and it’s 100% intentional, it’s how the racist meme’rs roll, they like to think they’re clever, and then they celebrate owning the libs when they get caught.