Bad holiday etiquette, offensive or freedeom of speech?

[sweedetobee]

I just saw this story on Yahoo news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061215/ap_on_fe_st/nazi_display

From the brief article it sounds like this guy does a holiday themed window every year and every year the theme is very "off color" - snowman bashing carolers, kid using newly received present of chemistry set to cook crystal meth... Well this year it was gingerbread men as nazis.

I was totally offended at first and then re-read the story and am now not sure. I think it is in bad taste, but he doesn't sound like an anti-semite. Just someone with a very odd sense of humor. He's not saying nazis are good, just that gingerbread men are so innocent and it's "interesting" to see them dressed as such. I think that is what he's saying...

All the same, if I walked by this display I think I'd be upset. Thoughts?

[Buffy2424]

It doesn't even sound particularly arty.  It's just kind of ... crass.

[kingsrings]

Agree with buffy. It sounds like something you'd find perusing an art gallery. He just has an oddball, tasteless, black sense of humor.

Coincidentally, last year a man in some state I don't remember put up a yard display of Christmas characters having gruesome things done to them. It was done in the theme of how greedy Christmas is becoming and how the real message is being destroyed. A bunch of parents complained that it was going to scare children walking by. Sure it might, but since it's his yard, they don't have much power to stop him unless there is a HOA.

[goblue2539]

A bunch of parents complained that it was going to scare children walking by. Sure it might, but since it's his yard, they don't have much power to stop him unless there is a HOA.

Would it scare the kids as much as the cavorting snowmen???

[Cyndi]

I think it depends on the sense of humor you have.

One of my online friends from back east complained that someone built a snow penis on her college campus. I started laughing because I find that kind of thing funny. Somebody on the kaijuphile board I visit thought the nazi snowmen were hilarious, and he happens to be an anarchist with a dark sense of humor.

[newmomma]

Crass Crass Crass

I'm Jewish, and I don't think that it's that funny, especially since it went up the day before Hanukkah.  He says that the timing wasn't intentional, but who knows?

Personally I don't think PG, PG13, or R rated public displays are very tactful.  If a young child could see them, then it would be THOUGHTFUL to keep that in mind when building a display.  I understand that there may not be a lot that you could do to make him take it down as it's in a storefront, but you could definitely boycott the place of business.  He may connect the sudden decline in customers during the week before Xmas to the the display in his window, and find some place else to display his controversial sense of humor. 

[jfulle5]

Yeah I'm Jewish too and I like my gingerbread men of the non-nazi variety. My stance is that calling/portraying anything as a nazi such as a gingerbread man is trivialing the situation. Are there Jewish snowmen and little Candy concentration camps? I mean it's all the same and it just shouldn't be made fun of. I'm in college for art history (grad studies) and that seems to be the problem with modern art. It's all about the shock value and nothing else. BAH this is my least favorite topic.

[Reika]

I'm not Jewish, but I find that pretty offensive especially with the timing, which may or may not be an accident. And I would've complained about his previous displays as well simply because they were in poor taste and not celebrating the spirit of the season or trying to bring people's attention to problems they feel growing in society today.

[freakyfemme]

I think it depends on the sense of humor you have.

One of my online friends from back east complained that someone built a snow penis on her college campus. I started laughing because I find that kind of thing funny. Somebody on the kaijuphile board I visit thought the nazi snowmen were hilarious, and he happens to be an anarchist with a dark sense of humor.

Just one?  When I was in second year, there were snow penises all over the quad outside my rez. 

[hobish]

I think if i walked by that storefront i would laugh my butt off. I'm glad he found another store where he could put it up. Rampant PC'ism makes me crazy, as does "but what about the children?" I'm guessing most children probably don't even know what a Nazi symbol (or hat or whatever, note the article didn't specify) is.

That said, i can be pretty dense, and would not have put together Nazis & Hanukkah.

[ladiedeathe]

I'm Jewish, and (ho ho) lucky enough to live in the same state as the Nazi display. Tonight I got to see it in its entirety on the news.

I understand it's his right- I understand freedom of speech- I also understand that just looking at the thing as a holiday decoration made me sick.

If the piece had been presented as ART- in a gallery- where parents could choose to have their kids see it or not, and adults could choose to avoid it, I would have found it to be a cynical comment on what America will commercialize. I might have even found it blackly funny, in the right context. Possibly. As is, it seems only to be a happy celebration of the work and beliefs of a group of evil men.

I guess part of the reason it hits me so hard is that a few years ago I spent two years interviewing Holocaust survivors for the novel I was working on. Many of the people I spoke to live in the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati areas; near enough to actually see this mess in person. The thought of even one person, still wearing a tattooed number on his or her arm, walking past this abomination turns my stomach. To survive the death camps of a madman, and then see a COOKIE display like this?

This is not about being PC- this is about refusing to find anything funny about a straightforward portrayal of a group who murdered 6 million people, regardless of the medium.

Sorry for sounding so vehement guys, but we saw that tonight right before we were going to begin our candle lighting and prayers. What a great way to begin the holiday.

[ladiedeathe]

Here it is, for anyone who hasn't seen it.

[Clara Bow]

I have a profoundly sick sense of humor (PROFOUNDLY) and I found that one a little strange...and I laughed heartily at "Springtime for Hitler". I'm not sure what he was driving at there, I got a chuckle out of the absurdity of it (incidentally, I loved the snowman beating carolers) but I think the timing could not have been worse...and don't tell me he was completely unaware. I'm hopelessly gentile, completely, hopelessly gentile, I've only met like three Jews in my life and I know around about when Hanukkah begins...maybe he didn't mean anything by it, but he should have used his head a little....

[Twik]

Freedom of speech means the government can't arrest you for what you say. It doesn't mean that people can't conclude that you're an insensitive jerk, and treat you accordingly. Many people forget this.

[jfulle5]

I think if i walked by that storefront i would laugh my butt off. I'm glad he found another store where he could put it up. Rampant PC'ism makes me crazy, as does "but what about the children?" I'm guessing most children probably don't even know what a Nazi symbol (or hat or whatever, note the article didn't specify) is.

That said, i can be pretty dense, and would not have put together Nazis & Hanukkah.

This has nothing really to do with being PC but has everything to do with respect. If this were A graphic defiling of jesus right before christmas I think people would be singing a different tune. This just shouldnt be seen in a store window out of respect.