Bard spotting on Bluesky 27 October 2024

Glenn Fleishman (@glennf.com):

People are saying Musk was wearing a hat with a Nazi typeface on it. He was not. It was worse.

The Germans (and a few other countries) used a blackletter/Gothic style approach to type called Fraktur for centuries even as the Latin style face dominant now took of.

Glenn Fleishman (@glennf.com):

The Nazis initially embraced Fraktur as deeply Aryan until they realized it was hard to distribute their propaganda in Fraktur in other countries. They then decided Fraktur was a Jewish face and banned it in 1941.

Glenn Fleishman (@glennf.com):

Musk's hat uses a spiky Gothic that is Latinxte, not Fraktur.

So Musk is, as one already knows, a poser. In this case, double.

To be truly Nazi, it shouldn't be regular blackletter. But to be authentically so, it should also not be in Fraktur.

Glenn Fleishman (@glennf.com):

Like so many fascist play actors trying to restore a past that never existed, Musk and others can't even represent that history accurately.

Ms. Penny 🌅🧙♀️ Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I strongly suspect — given what I know of Musk — that he picked it in order to bait "It's a Nazi dogwhistle" reactions, specifically so he can then do the typical Nazi move of saying "Ackshully, it's Olde English Gothic; the libs out here calling [low rider culture or w/ever] Nazi" to his audience

Ms. Penny 🌅🧙♀️ Oaken (@skywitches.net):

The whole "Wink wink nudge nudge" thing.