© KA Designs/screenshotUS T-shirt company sells swastika design as ‘symbol of love and peace.’.
The US-based clothing design website Teespring is selling T-shirts and sweatshirts branded with swastikas, aiming to make them a "symbol of love and peace".
The designs, created by KA Designs and sold on the site, all display large swastikas in the front. One shows the Nazi-associated symbol in rainbow colors with the word "Peace", another one with the word "Zen", one reading "Love" and a third design, in black, shows a spiral of swastikas. They range in price from $20 to $35.
"Here at KA we explore boundaries. We push them forward." the company wrote as a description for the products. "Let's make the swastika a symbol of Love and Peace. Together, we can succeed."
Before being used by Hitler's German Nazi regime, swastikas were commonly known as an ancient sign used by Hindus and Buddhists carrying positive associations such as auspiciousness and good fortune. KA Designs is attempting to relate the now negative sign to its origins.
© KA Designs/screenshot
The company even made a promotional video claiming that the Nazis "took the swastika, rotated it 45 degrees, and turned it into a symbol of hatred, fear, war, racism, power."
"They stigmatized the swastika, they won, they limited our freedom, or maybe not?" the video continues. "The swastika is coming back."
On some of the tee shirts sold by KA Designs, the swastika remains turned by 45 degrees, similarly to the Nazis' use of the symbol.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, executive director of the Israeli-Jewish Congress and pro-Israel activist Arsen Ostrovsky called the shirts "obscene and disgusting."
"It may have been a symbol of peace," he wrote "That most certainly is not what it is primarily associated with today."
Ostrovsky also pointed a finger at Teespring for seeking "to profit of this in the name of art, trying to turn this irredeemable Nazi symbol of hate and murder, into a symbol of 'love and peace.'"
"They are not unique in this however, with a disturbingly growing pattern in recent years of other clothing companies seeking to do similar," he told
The Jerusalem Post. "This is not only highly naïve, but grossly offensive. What next, using ISIS symbol to promote gender equality?"
"Hopefully management will understand the magnitude of their mistake and offense caused, and discontinue these items immediately," Ostrovsky concluded.
The issue has also been discussed online by the YouTube channel "The Open Debate".
"When I initially saw it, I assumed that it was just a joke," the person in the video said. "There are some things that just aren't going to happen. When some people view this symbol, they don't feel anything and can recognize it as whatever they'd like. For others, this symbol has a very deep history of hate, pain and suffering."
The attempt to rebrand the swastika, he added will "most likely evoke a lot of emotions."
The site Teespring.com has sold several swastika-branded shirts in the past, all referring to the Hindu meaning of the symbol.
Teespring and KA Designs have yet to respond to the
Post's requests for comment.
Reader Comments
Unfortunately it was used by Nazis so people have a knee-jerk reaction to it. Same happened with the hijacking of the word gay, and others. Uninformed idiots.
Jews love money,
I'm not homophobic or anti-Semitic,
But I maybe guilty of stereotyping."
That, along with countless more, are in our family "T-Shirt Slogan" book. We also have a "Great Band Names" book, but the T-shirt slogan thing really took off...we think most of them are hilarious, but we'd probably find ourselves in deep shit if we ever had them printed and walked the High Street!
Nope. The Hindu swastika points the same way as the Nazi swastika, but I imagine that's just the kind of pointless micro-controversy promoters of this T-shirt would like to have people entangled up in for Cash-for-Chaos purposes.
What these T-shirts, and the weak provocateurism that lies behind them, really represents is the total bankruptcy of so-called 'collage', 'détournement', or 'cut-up art' in the 21st Century.
Turning the power of conflict symbols against each other...
SWASTIKA
FULL SPECTRUM DOMINATION LGBT RAINBOW
" PEACE"
= The Process 1-3-2. Life, acting on form, produces matter.
Sometimes this kind of thing can be effective, sometimes not. I guess it all depends on where/why/when and who's driving...
John Heartfield's 'axe swastika' probably didn't do much...
'The Old Motto of the 'New' Reich: Blood and Iron', John Heartfield, 1934...[Link]
Malcolm McLaren/Vivienne Westwood Seditionaries "Destroy" T-shirt. 1977 probably did....[Link]
But let's face it, this kind of thing is all a bit hackneyed now.
In the meantime, everyone can shout and argue with everyone else about it.
In the end, who gives a shit. Don't people have lives to live?
Maybe not.
"T-shirts are difficult to sell these days. How can I get shedloads of free publicity so I can shift some units? Hmmm, let me see... 卐卐卐卐"