AI Image of Hobby Lobby Selling Satanic Crafts Causes Concern

This, friends, is why you ALWAYS go back to first sources on any controversial topics. Here's the source for this post but you might prefer the Vice article with more information and less snark

Now, for those of you who may not want to read George Takei's "Comic Sands" blog (he's gay, he's liberal, he calls out ridiculous Conservative stunts, so reasons why you might not want to read it), here's the summary:

* AI creator Jennifer Vineyard asked AI to create images of what it might look like if Hobby Lobby sold Satanic crafts. AIJourney obliged by making up some realistic images - more than 11 of them which you can see HERE, which is the Facebook public page for AI artists.
* Vineyard then posts them on her own Reddit and Facebook accounts (where she showcases her AI art) with the caption “I think we need to talk about what is going on at Hobby Lobby… won’t somebody please think of the children!?"
* A Christian got ahold of the images and the one-liner and TOOK THEM SERIOUSLY WITHOUT CHECKING (honestly, how hard is it to go to the Hobby Lobby site and search for Satan or Baphomet or Devil Statues
* the post took off as horrified Christians spread the .... news.
* calls for Hobby Lobby boycott ensue (not from everyone, folks, but from a pack who don't bother to read things)
* there was a Twit-storm about this on Twitter.


Anyway, I couldn't put this one in Ludicrous Online Lies (because, man, it's a whopper, isn't it?) but felt it worth posting here so that if you hear something about Hobby Lobby suddenly turning its head 360 degrees and tossing around pea soup, you can point your dear friend to the appropriate articles, smack them with a sushi roll and say, "Check things first before believing something like that."

...and the rest of us can sit and enjoy the popcorn.

If you have a Twitter account you can go twit at them through the links above.

The implications of this are astounding. We are already in a world where it takes such super sleuthing to find the real deal on anything. As it a lot of times you cannot get to the bottom of issues anymore becaise they are so burried away 150000 pages into the google search. Using AI this way can stretch out to anything these days and people will bite and run with the ideas. ..... hummmm... ideas forming... j/k I'm all talk.

a reply to: Byrd

People will believe anything if it agrees with their stance or opposes their stance.

It's not just conservatives or Christians.

I am disappointed it isn't real, some of those statues and stuff look super cool. Damn robot art.

I probably would've believed they were real images at first glance as well. Though I wouldn't be outraged. Just "huh, neat" sorta reaction.

I like this quote from the source:

Aside from the fact that Americans are currently eager to boycott any company that feigns tolerance at marginalized people, there’s one big problem with these Hobby Lobby store pictures: They’re not real.

So those who worship the prince of evil are "marginalized people." LOL. Okay.

Just look in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby. They have wiken, pagen and Nazi symbols commonly available. I saw several when visiting my local store last week.

Even Walmart sells such items. I saw a patch for sale of this Nazi symbol at Walmart yesterday.

www.quartermastersection.com...

People just don't understand that symboles have been used for many different things and meanings throughout history.

a reply to: beyondknowledge2

You are the only person I have seen that has pointed out that before.
I tried telling some of my friends about how that was on tanks rolling through Europe by the NAZIs.
They all chuckled and didn't even look it up.

a reply to: beyondknowledge2

I'm gonna go off on a whim and say that the patch you saw on sale at Walmart was intended not to be the symbol of the 3rd Panzer Division and more the peace/CND symbol.

Very similar (identical even) symbols, totally different meaning. I doubt the 3rd Panzer Division had much to do with the Cold War peace movement.

originally posted by: Ohanka
a reply to: beyondknowledge2

I'm gonna go off on a whim and say that the patch you saw on sale at Walmart was intended not to be the symbol of the 3rd Panzer Division and more the peace/CND symbol.

Very similar (identical even) symbols, totally different meaning. I doubt the 3rd Panzer Division had much to do with the Cold War peace movement.

LMAO - who the hell doesn’t know that’s a peace symbol ?
It’s only been that since the 60’s, for about 60 years.

How embarrassing for anybody crying that Walmart sells Nazi symbols. I was at least expecting a damn swastika or a SS.
We could then have a stimulating discussion of all the pre-WW2 uses of the swastika, all of them pleasant and positive. I’ve actually got a college yearbook from the early 30’s, where the girls’ club has it as their logo, and it lists all of the nice attributes it symbolizes.

a reply to: Ohanka

Which came first? You do realize the peace symbol is upside down? It was printed the wrong way from when it was designed but they just left it that way.

It was to, in one way, represent the tree of life.

a reply to: beyondknowledge2

Which came first? You do realize the peace symbol is upside down? It was printed the wrong way from when it was designed but they just left it that way.

Probably a mistake?

It was to, in one way, represent the tree of life.

Funky, doesn't sound like a bad thing.

I just got back from Hobby Lobby... I did see a scarecrow. : O

a reply to: imitator

I saw some poor, marginalized Satanists looking disappointed and empty-handed.

originally posted by: imitator
I just got back from Hobby Lobby... I did see a scarecrow. : O

NOOOOO!!! SIGN OF THE ANTICHRIST!

I thought Michaels' and Joann's (whose cash registers know me well) had the lock on that!

originally posted by: cre8chaos
The implications of this are astounding. We are already in a world where it takes such super sleuthing to find the real deal on anything. As it a lot of times you cannot get to the bottom of issues anymore becaise they are so burried away 150000 pages into the google search. Using AI this way can stretch out to anything these days and people will bite and run with the ideas. ..... hummmm... ideas forming

... j/k I'm all talk.

But very real concerns and right now we don't have any idea what to do about it.

Making the AI images have some sort of unremovable tag might be a first step, though (as an old-time white hat hacker), I can think of ways around that.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge2
Just look in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby. They have wiken, pagen and Nazi symbols commonly available. I saw several when visiting my local store last week.

Even Walmart sells such items. I saw a patch for sale of this Nazi symbol at Walmart yesterday.

www.quartermastersection.com...

People just don't understand that symboles have been used for many different things and meanings throughout history.

...as the main title said, you need to check sources. That is NOT the symbol of the third Panzer Division. Here's the 3rd Division symbol (not a peace symbol) on Wikipedia

a reply to: Byrd

I have to ask, did you mock the left and democrats for the Steele Dossier?

a reply to: Byrd

That's gold and pic look pretty real. If this was real, it'd be some pretty cool holloween decorations. Have that devilish gargoyle sitting on my roof. You really have to be a shut-in paranoid christian to get upset at this silly stuff

a reply to: DBCowboy

Not nearly as important an issue as Hobby Lobby offending a few Christians!

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Byrd

I have to ask, did you mock the left and democrats for the Steele Dossier?

Oh holey moley

It’s the Christians you have to be worried about for crying out loud.