irony never sleeps: "Gov Cuomo ordered them removed"

[Steven Koteff]

I feel like most of my Western European friends would likely not have much
of a problem with banning swastikas from public transportation.

I don't know how I feel about it. It makes an intuitive sort of sense to
think of that kind of iconography--used in any spirit--being banned in
Germany, though doubtless there are tons of Americans (and NYCers) with
just as personal and direct a relationship to it.

Recent weeks and months have made me so cynical about the direction of this
country that my first reaction is to think it is not merely an imperfect
compromise made regarding public space but a sign of the apocalypse. But I
think when you really feel the apocalypse is coming, everything seems like
a sign of it, some more covert than others.

It seems strange to be invoking something as capital-lettered as Freedom of
Speech when talking about essentially corporate speech/advertisement, and
that part of us is tempted to deem that voice more important than the
actual individual humans riding the subway (many or most of whom might not
be hurt or offended or traumatized by the imagery, but maybe 1 out of
however many would be...).

What did you guys think about the ads themselves?

I think I am responding that way (i.e. by regretting and fearing the
intrusion on Free Speech) because I think of it not only as advertisement
but actually sort of as public art (even inadvertently so), and I think it
is fascinating and probably important to experience not only a TV show that
is speculative about a world in which fascism has taken over the world, but
also, in some small way, the lived reality of that world. It is easy to
conceive of the horror of living in a world in which your government
commits genocide. It is subtler and more personal, in a way, to conceive of
a world in which your daily life is exposed to fascism in prosaic
ways--propaganda on the subway. And to not just see it on TV but to
experience it. Seems really interesting.

Course it really just defamiliarizes the fact that public space is
dominated with about this much nationalistic propaganda anyway.

On Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 8:44 PM, kelber at mindspring.com <
kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> The MTA is a state, not city agency. In general, the state government has
> a huge amount of control over city policy. Do Blasio sought, but didn't
> get, Cuomo's permission to raise taxes on the wealthiest city residents.
>
> I don't have a problem with not allowing Nazi symbols on the subway. Just
> the other day, a random white guy sitting across from me was ranting about
> Jews. I'm glad there were no swastikas tossed into the mix.
>
> Laura
>
> *Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID*
>
>
> David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Again, how does NY State Gov order NYC MTA to do anything? Simple
> jurisdiction question. Emergency power? Just asking...
>
> On Wednesday, November 25, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> http://www.techinsider.io/amazon-man-in-high-castle-ads-2015-11
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 3:18 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > NYC isn't that stoopid, is it? Swastikas aren't illegal in the US : 2nd
>> > Amendment.
>> >
>> > I love that last line. Governor directing City agency: Top-down
>> authority
>> > which doesn't exist. Has this story been fact-checked?
>> >
>> > David Morris
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wednesday, November 25, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Not me:
>> >> Wow, check out this burying of the lede. Last line is *far and away*
>> >> the most important.
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ads-featuring-nazi-imagery-pulled-york-city-subway-35415404
>> >> …
>> >> -
>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
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