8 Historic Symbols That Mean the Opposite of What You Think

www.cracked.com...

Another good article from Cracked. Props to them for putting out some pretty informative articles on top of all their comedy.

If you want to motivate people, you don't rely on logic and reasoning. No, what people need is a symbol. A slogan, a flag, the face of a hero to stick on a T-shirt.

So what do you do if the real world doesn't provide you with something people can rally around? You just make that # up.

I actually learned quite a bit from this post. Hopefully someone else on ATS will learn something as well.

EDIT: I'd like to add that this article makes fun of both liberal AND conservative misconceptions, so I'm hoping this can be more educational and less of an ideological flame war's casus belli.




[edit on 30/7/10 by Sink the Bismarck!]

[edit on 30/7/10 by Sink the Bismarck!]

S&F OP
An interesting web site .........

Those were pretty funny. Especially the last one about crazy horse. I remember reading something like that a long time ago. Whats sad is some people think native americans will love us after we carve into their sacred land. Like that makes up for genocide?

Originally posted by time91
Those were pretty funny. Especially the last one about crazy horse. I remember reading something like that a long time ago. Whats sad is some people think native americans will love us after we carve into their sacred land. Like that makes up for genocide?

A lot of Native people don't like the idea of having that mountain desecrated. As the article states, Crazy Horse would never let his picture be taken. Really, it's a slap in the face.

That was interesting, though. Thanks to the OP for posting it. The whole article was a great read.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by Skid Mark]

But while origins matter, meanings change over time to the point where the original meaning, well, means nothing. Symbols are powerful things that can move masses of people. It is a bit like PR. In the PR world, good press is best, but any press, unfavorable included, is better than no press at all. That's the general rule. The thinking goes that in the end, people forget the content of the press, but remember the name.

Yes, "Cracked". That's where I get all my news and views and political viewpoints. It's right up there with my Superman comic books.

I wish they had mentioned the pentacle/pentagram. Boy that is one that has been dragged through the mud.

that and the nazi symbol.

reply to post by General.Lee


Normally I agree about the legitimacy of sources.
But there are PLENTY of misconceptions in our society. These sound pretty feasible.

One big one is that peopel jumped off buildings when the stockmarket crashed launching the Great Depression.

There is no proof anyone threw themselves off buildings:

There is no evidence that anyone leapt to their death because of the market crash, although several did shoot themselves. One man decided to end his misery by leaving his gas stove on and then taking a long nap. And then there was the guy who had a heart attack at his broker's office watching the dropping numbers on the ticker tape. The one person reported to jump from an upper floor of the Plaza Hotel in New York City, did so several days before the market tumbled. Will Rogers, the great humorist, picked up on it and included the "jumping out of windows" in his routine for a number of years, and so the legend.

link


The Great Depression was not soley launched by the stockmarket crash. It was assisted by the Dust Bowl. But people forget that part.


Another is that Paul Revere didn't yell: The British are Coming.

There were British soldiers all around, it would of gotten him shot. he also wasn't the only one, 2 men also rode to send the message.

Witches were not burned at the stake during the Salem Witch trials. All were hanged, only one was squashed.

Independance has been thought to be signed on July 4, 1776. While they met quielty with no fan fare and signed it. They actually spent closer to a year getting all representatives to sign it. In fact, there were reps that signed it later months that were not even in office when the DOI was created. On that day, the Americans signed the Definitive Treaty of Peace with the British. The war to Independance lasted another 8 years.

Since there isn't an actual day to celebrate, the 4th is celebrated.


and the big one that everyone knows. George Washington was acutally the 8th president, not the first. He is the first under the Constitution. Before the constitution, 7 others had been declared. Also John Adams was supposed to be the first under the constitution, but was snaked out by John Hancock who is really kind of a shady person. And Adams being humbled, wanted to reward Washington for his service in the military.

I am really sick of people thinking that Texas is some how filled with red necks and cowboy. This guy seems to pick on the state twice in one article. The thing about the Alamo is reaching just a bit and no one here cares about the stupid litter slogan that came out more than a decade ago.

My favorite was the Thomas Paine quotes. I wonder what Mr. Beck would say about those quotes or if he would even acknowledge their existence.

Glenn Beck has recently found a soul mate in Thomas Paine, the Founding Father known for his Revolutionary War tract Common Sense. So much so that he's gone so far as to rewrite Common Sense for the modern era, essentially stuffing words hand over fist into the mouth of a centuries-dead political philosopher for the soul-shriveling disgust Beck knows Paine would feel about Barack Obama.

But Beck and his minions could probably benefit from actually reading some Thomas Paine. The guy whose 17th century ghost waxes emotional about 9/11 and congressional pay raises on the Internet is also responsible for these ideas:

"Pay as a remission of taxes to every poor family, out of the surplus taxes, and in room of poor-rates, four pounds a year for every child under fourteen years of age." Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man.

Huh, that sounds like the child tax credit created under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, signed by Bill Clinton.

"It is painful to see old age working itself to death, in what are called civilised countries, for daily bread... pay to every such person of the age of fifty years ... the sum of six pounds per annum out of the surplus taxes, and ten pounds per annum during life after the age of sixty... This support, as already remarked, is not of the nature of a charity but of a right." Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man.

An entitlement paying old people to support them for not working? That sounds like Social Security, passed by FDR.

"There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it." Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice.

It almost sounds like he's about to say we should all share in the wealth or somethi-

"Create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property." Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice.

Holy #! That sounds a lot like Communism.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by 12GaugePermissionSlip]

Knew this all already.

It's fun to hear conspiracy theorists point out the upside down cross in St Peters and call the pope the anti christ, when that idea behind that image came about 1,950 years after the symbol came about....

Originally posted by Rainspider
I am really sick of people thinking that Texas is some how filled with red necks and cowboy. This guy seems to pick on the state twice in one article. The thing about the Alamo is reaching just a bit and no one here cares about the stupid litter slogan that came out more than a decade ago.

Gonna go out on a limb here and say your from Texas. heh



meh, I feel your pain, I am in Florida...plenty of crazy here I find myself either mindlessly defending, or simply shaking my head over.

Originally posted by General.Lee
Yes, "Cracked". That's where I get all my news and views and political viewpoints. It's right up there with my Superman comic books.

translation: i'm too cool to read the link posted in the OP but i'll comment and discredit nonetheless. btw i like superman, the lamest 1-dimensional super hero of all time. it's reflective of my myopia and boring snobbishness.

it's a very good article.
all of their lists are pure entertainment/informative/jabs at society.
just read it and stop acting like a snob.

Originally posted by Gorman91
Knew this all already.

It's fun to hear conspiracy theorists point out the upside down cross in St Peters and call the pope the anti christ, when that idea behind that image came about 1,950 years after the symbol came about....

That is odd because I have never heard the two put together. I have fundamentalist friends that are more than happy to tell me the Pope is the anti-christ but not one has ever brought up the upside down cross as evidence. The fundamentalists know what it means and that article is still misleading. St. Peter was not crucified upside down as a compliment. From that moment on it became a symbol of being unworthy, unholy, unclean, not good enough.

As a Satanist for over 20 years now, I would say the only people that are confused about the upside down cross are the people that casually consider themselves Christians and go to great lengths to feign offense at the sight of one.

I have never seen the two sides mix to form a conspiracy theory about the pope though. Any threads on ATS you can point to?

Originally posted by Rainspider
I am really sick of people thinking that Texas is some how filled with red necks and cowboy. This guy seems to pick on the state twice in one article. The thing about the Alamo is reaching just a bit and no one here cares about the stupid litter slogan that came out more than a decade ago.

Would you like a tissue?

I thought Texans were tough? You gonne be ok? Hmmmmm? Look, in NY we are all mobsters and thugs who will shoot you for asking for directions. Everyone in California is certifiably insane. Everyong in Ohio has a different unwarranted Southern accent and a pet squirrel. In Utah it takes all day to introduce your underaged wives, vermont is nothing but gay couples pouring maple syrup on their skis, people in Oregon are still looking for civilization without falling off the edge of the Earth, etc. etc. Get a thick skin down there in Texas.

The "article" is one person expressing what they just read and for the most part it is pretty interesting if not a complete picture. If you really only saw it as bashing Texans, then you should probably read it a few more times.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by Adevoc Satanae]

Originally posted by 12GaugePermissionSlip
My favorite was the Thomas Paine quotes. I wonder what Mr. Beck would say about those quotes or if he would even acknowledge their existence.



[edit on 30-7-2010 by 12GaugePermissionSlip]

If you listened to Glenn Beck, you would know the answer to that question already. Like the article taking Paine out of context, you are taking Beck out of context. Anyone can pick and choose a verse here and a sentence there to make a book say whatever they want it too.

Thanks for posting ...and the link. always nice to find these little pearl sites . for some reason crazy horse's thing about not being photographed dosen't seem strange to me at all ...Dont ask me why ,other than I feel the same .strange

Well the thing on Thomas Paine isn't quite accurate.

People hold a misconception about Libertarianism. It isn't one specific political philosophy encompassing only capitalistism and small government. Really in the end, Libertarianism is just about liberty.

Thomas Paine would best be called a Classical Liberal, of the French tradition (ironic because he was British).

And one big misconception about Classical Liberalism was that it strongly opposed the welfare state, which it didn't and in this case we have a clear expression of one Classical Liberal expounding on aspects of the welfare state.

The thing is, it's small. Like, really really small. And anyone who thinks we SHOULDN'T have at the very least SOME safety nets for people is delusional. But as far as economic interference goes, that is a big no no.

To expound farther on the idea that libertarianism isn't a single specific ideology you have social libertarianism, which has more in common with minarchism and anarcho-communism.

Basically as you can see, while the name changes the general idea of libertarianism isn't specifically free market, no welfare state but rather limited government and free market advocacy.

Classical Liberalism is nested right between libertarianism and social libertarianism, so it's a good balance of extremes. And the things that really matter such as limited government, small state and free market advocacy remains.

Thanks OP. Cracked has some great articles! I didn't know about the upside down cross
They should have put the swastika on there since its associated with Nazism but is really a symbol for good things.

Found a great link on the bottom regarding propaganda posters. That made me laugh out loud!

Propaganda Posters

Swastika

The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good uck. It is composed of su- meaning "good, well" and asti "to be" svasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or ntensifies the verbal meaning, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to[ 1]"lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."[ 1] The"lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious." The[ 2] word in this sense is first used in the Harivamsa.[ 2] As noted by Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit- English dictionary, according to Alexander Cunningham, its shape represents a monogram formed by interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su-astí ( svasti) written in[ 3] Ashokan characters.[ 3]

[edit on 7/30/2010 by dbloch7986]

Originally posted by Rainspider
I am really sick of people thinking that Texas is some how filled with red necks and cowboy. This guy seems to pick on the state twice in one article. The thing about the Alamo is reaching just a bit and no one here cares about the stupid litter slogan that came out more than a decade ago.

Hey man, I'm from Connecticut. Everyone thinks that if you're white, and from Connecticut, you're a high class, rich, snob.

That isn't the case unless you live in Greenwich or West Hartford.