I don’t know this couple (and am exceedingly grateful for that), and maybe I’m projecting, but I read their move more as, “well, we CANNOT live without our Walmart fix, and we need to wear masks to go there, so how can we cause the most offense while toeing that line?”
‘Murica.
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Very unlikely the First Amendment applies inside a Walmart. It might apply in a shopping mall in some cases but probably not in individual stores. There’s a 1980 Supreme Court decision called Pruneyard about to what extent the 1A applies to shopping malls (private entities) that function as public spaces. I don’t know how that all applies to dress policies in shopping malls. It seems like shopping malls do have free speech / solicitation areas, and maybe within those areas people could express even the most distasteful opinions.
But not inside a Walmart.
I predict that at some point hate speech is going to lose its first amendment protection and then we can ban all such symbols, like in Europe. But that’s a few years away.
Edit: Pruneyard is an area of active legal fighting and it’s subject to a lot of limitations. Mall owners hate it and have been making progress in limiting its scoope. It certainly isn’t the same full-strength 1A legal protection you would get in a truly public space, at least in principle.
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Of course the guy is wearing a Trump 2020 shirt…
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And punching. Don’t forget that we have punching as well…
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congrats. putting them on this website and writing an article about it is exactly what they want.
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This is the same business that was selling SS branded gear eh?
Methinks we may be waiting a while…
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I can believe that they don’t actually care about masks, but wearing an offensive mask while possibly trying to make some extremely convoluted nonsense statement is still wearing a mask, which is more than a lot of people are doing, so I think the point still stands. As for not actually being Nazis and just doing it to be offensive… wearing an ironic swastika is still wearing a swastika, too. Plus the fact that they happened to have a couple Nazi flags on hand, ready to go, says a lot about them.
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I fully support people who are pro-Trump wearing swastikas. I think it clarifies their position and presents the political platform honestly. It upsets people, yes, but those people should already be upset because the Nazis are already here.
Calling it something else and using dogwhistles is just allowing middle-of-the-road people what they feel is plausible deniability. It should be out there, the logo of the campaign, and there should be a swastika beside the name on the ballot.
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I’m punching Nazis right now!
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Increasingly, putting this knowledge out there results in the racist assholes being identified, publicly shamed and, most importantly, losing their jobs, or losing customers if they run their own business. If their 15 minutes of fame costs them their livelihood, I’m absolutely for it.
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True. I made a grocery run today, first in a while, and I felt really lucky to live where I live. As opposed to about a month ago, masks were well over 90% worn, and worn correctly. I only saw 4 people without, or improperly wearing, masks.
Our governor has done a pretty good job from the beginning, and despite the contrarians, most of my neighbors seem to agree that it’s totally worth it to just buck up and wear a mask so we can get through this.
A month ago, I think masks in this grocery were more like 60-75%, which is still better than what I think a lot of my compatriots are seeing.
All this to say:agreed, wearing a mask and being an asshat is better than not wearing a mask and being an asshat. I’m on an upper tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of asshatery, due to luck and geography.
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Yeah I was referring to the German laws applying to the US. Hell, a business could REQUIRE a swastika here as long as it’s not a “public accomodation”. They’d probably get sued, but it’d be messy.
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I strongly dislike Minnesota Nazis!
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I don’t even understand how this video was made? Where I come, there would be fists flying into those swastikas the second they appeared.
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A few Supreme Court Justices away you mean.
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No, I don’t think that would pass. Stores and restaurants are public accomodations.
" Public accommodations, in US law, are generally defined as facilities, both public and private, used by the public. Examples include retail stores, rental establishments, and service establishments as well as educational institutions, recreational facilities, and service centers."
It is akin to a test of religious belief or ideology to admit people to a public place of business. It would be the same as asking people to wear a KKK hat, or Nazi salute to prevent other races from using a lunch counter.
You can’t say “No Jews” to keep them out of Wal-Mart, and demanding a worn swastika would, I think, equally exclude people of the Jewish faith, if not all other races, religions, and sexual preferences as well.
In addition, it would add that requirement to be employed there, which is also a test of race/religion/political affiliation/sexual orientation.
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Sure, but not every business is a public accomodation. Under current supreme court rulings, businesses have a wide latitude to police the behavior of their employees. I’m not saying you are wrong, I’m saying rationality is not enough to prevent someone from testing the limits of the law if they really wanted to. All it takes is enough funds to keep the case in court. The law favors at-will employment after all.
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Yeah, somehow it’s always the ones with gills, that are all about, “The White race is the superior race!”
Date outside your gene pool, guys, gettin’ lumpy there.
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I don’t think that they had a problem with that during WWII, but we aren’t quite there yet.
It’s hard to do a Google search that finds anything, but I suspect being sent to a prison camp for enemy sympathizers was one of the possibilities.
An interesting fossil:
The Subversive Activities Control Board was abolished by Congress in 1972.[22]
Good, but is it dead dead?
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