Mail
FROM: Lucky Dad
SUBJECT: Gulp Them
DATE/TIME: 05/20/2009 02:38:09
The fact that you guys are selling a symbol that represents absolute repression and a government which killed far more innocent people than Hitler did, is pungently rich like a fresh steaming pile of excreta. Enjoy the fruits of your own waste. Gulp them. Permission granted to publish this on your site.
three minutes later, he sent us this:
Hey, any chance you could print some swastika tees for my kids? I just think it represents a slightly-better role model for my kids since Hitler's violence was somewhat less than that of Communist regimes.
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The Swastika is a symbol of a political movement that is based in a large part on racist ideals and violence.
The hammer and sickle is a symbol of Communism, which is a socioeconomic structure.
It's too bad that some Communist leaders went in a fascist direction, but at it's root, the symbol has a very different meaning from the Swastika.
You might as well say that we should stop using the American flag because our leaders have and continue to torture and kill prisoners, used to put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, and blew up Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs killing more than 225,000 human beings. Yeah, yeah, a couple hundred thousand ain't the same as 6 million or more, but it's still pretty heinous, wouldn't you say?
Educate yourself before you wreck yourself.
Meanwhile, enjoy the fruits of your own ignorance. gulp them.
FROM: Leon Trotsky
SUBJECT: Y'all are poseurs
DATE/TIME: 07/07/2008 19:57:55
That mission statement was the weakest thing I've ever read. Go fuck yourselves.
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You seem like an angry little boy. We are very sorry that you don't get it.
FROM: Blackbird
SUBJECT: Idiots
DATE/TIME: 05/18/2006 00:22:41
I study diffrent forms of government in college. And I am sick of those idiots screaming about Nazi and Murdering crap! The hammer and sickle is anly a symbol with nothing to do with nazi. Communisms idea is to work for the greater good of all the people were everyone works for the same benifits. It would have worked but human nature, people always want more. So all those idiots who bring up the hammer and sickle as evil. Fuck you. It is a sign used with diffrent meanings. you guys have the right to do what you want. It dosent make you commie. All those other fucking dumbasses don't know the ideals of comunnism.
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Thank you for your comments. You might want to try proofreading your term papers better than you proof read your political missives.
FROM: Sieg heil
SUBJECT: Communism is for morons.
DATE/TIME: 04/11/2006 16:57:10
Communist ideals defacing Nazi's, you people are the biggest moronic beings there ever was, you don't know a thing about the Nazi's, the Swastika and National Socialism, yet you make a website supporting Communist Jews, I burn red flags on a daily basis (literally), you fucking Commie's are so ignorant that you actuelly believe the shit you spout? Haha. Left-Wing scumbags, Commie's have murdered hundreds of millions of people for no particular reason, you're ignorant.
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Congratulations on thinking we're communists. You must not have mastered the art of reading yet.
FROM: SteelBear
DATE/TIME: 04/10/2006 13:20:15
SUBJECT: RedStar, Sickle&Hammer
Simbols are living for to be a link of a chain between epochs. If a simbol have an objective core like sickle or hammer it can be renaissanced to prosence meanings. As for Sickle&Hammer it means that each of us can rebuild the native sence of these simbols: an agrycultural activity for the sickle and an industrial power for the hammer, together is alloyed to the himn of the liberal labour and work like the basement of the clear and happy future is simbolising with the red star. Else any simbol be implicite in its native meanings and will decode through out the history of usage that it have absorbed.
Due to of the abowe swastica in the west civilisation will have not ever been a positive sign. From the one hand all we remember millions people killed under the Hitler swastica and other hand cant discover in 4 women with fly-away hairs simbolising the tetraunity of the world. So, in the West any usage of that simbol is the peack of immorality. Otherwise the sickle and hummer. Who can spite to me for I belive in the free labour and that the happines of humanity is coming? Those must spite befor to Jefferson and Hamilton had belived in the same things. Oceans of blood not concen to sickle&hammer first of all because the most of million victims of the soviet tyrants terror was dieing beleiving to the happiness of the mankind. For Haven\'s Sake the communism has crashed over the world (even in Cuba and N.C.) and any way the business you are doing to circulate the communism symbols it is
1) the distribution of very fun features
2) the good work for rebuilding the positive meanings of the good symbols.
Thank All Of YOu Very Much! Beast wishes! Let\'s sickle-and-hammer will unite the people over the world in love and respect for each other. Or may be Jesus be the best?
PS If You want to know much more about russian or about me -- just e-mail
PPS Sorry for errors and omitions.
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Thanks for your comments! Nice to have your point of view.
FROM: Justin
SUBJECT: im lovin it
DATE/TIME: 03/07/2006 16:16:38
hey, i sit here and read all these emails about how your supporting communism and how you sould just go all out and sell nazi merch. but i think you guys are doing a good thing. personally i think its a kick ass sign and im not gonna go out and promote killing of millions of people, thats all in the past. i like to wear these shirts to watch how people react about somthing so stupid. america goes out to iraq and kills people every day and if im caught wearing an american flag does that mean im gonna go out and kill a middle eastern? i dont think so
-keep up the site and the good work, all your trying to do is make money right?
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Thanks for the support!
FROM: Andrea Pollett
SUBJECT: thoughts about your business
DATE/TIME: 01/18/2006 21:51:32
When I stumbled over your website, I initially hoped that you were doing all this for the sake of Communist ideals. I realized how overoptimistic I had been when I found your statement saying "As long as you buy our products and support our cause..."
I confess that my first thought was not really positive. If you do not believe in what you sell, you could be making the same money by offering gadgets with the Nazi swastika, or Bush's head, or both (here in Europe they make a common match) ....But luckily you are not!
Nevertheless, your business indeed helps to spread among young people the symbol in which we leftists believe, albeit the purpose you are doing so is mere economic profit.
I do understand the objection raised by 'Bolshevik Comrade'; but in a society entirely raised under capitalism, such as North America (likely, the main commercial target of your products), even a T-shirt or a baseball cap can be a good reminder for the young generations that the ideals which the Hammer and Sickle stand for are NOT dead, eventually making some of them want to learn more.
So, borrowing your own words, my conclusion is that "As long as you spread OUR symbol and support OUR cause (as vague as it may be), you have our permission to sell whatever paraphernalia you wish".
May we both achieve our goals!
Cheers from Rome, Italy.
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Thanks for writing! It's unusual for us to be put on the defense by someone who LIKES what the hammer/sickle stands for. Heh. Remember that there's a difference between not believing in what you sell and thinking that what you sell is wrong. We do not sell swastickas or pro-Bush merch because we are against both.
I guess you could say that we're more pro-counterculture than anything else.
FROM: jungleonvinyl
SUBJECT: My 2¢...
DATE/TIME: 11/14/2005 16:08:08
As a Russian immigrant, I understand where the root of all the outrage about these hammer & sickle products lies. Its very true that this symbol once stood as a beacon of un-imaginable suffering and oppression. However, those days have passed into history and I for one am glad that my homeland can also view this site and buy these products as freely as I can here in the US.
I like that this site can take a symbol of oppression and turn it into an example of working capitalism that can be seen throughout the world via the internet. I don't see any malicious intent in this, do you?
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Thanks for your comments! I think you've managed to say, in two paragraphs, a clearer slant on the subject than we've been able to write over the course of a dozen emails.
FROM: Bolshevik Comrade
SUBJECT: Communism Now A Capitalist product
DATE/TIME: 11/15/2005 20:03:48
You are one of the many people who turn communism into capitalist crap, imperialist merchandise! The majority of people who wear it have no idea of the struggle it symbolizes and the ideology of which it represents. I am a believer of democratic communism and I am ant-stalinist and anti-maoist. You are a capitalist who is using communism as a market product , products which were probably made in a labour factory in China!
www.geocities.com/bolshevikcomrade
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We do not deny selling communist symbols in the name of capitalism. Who cares if the people wearing the shirts know the full histor of communism? It's their right as Americans to wear them and buy them. Our shirts are all printed and embroidered in the sweatshop-free USA.
FROM: Anna
SUBJECT: Question
DATE/TIME: 11/14/2005 04:37:21
Now are these real Russian models that you are using? ;-)
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Nope, but one of 'em is a Mormon.
FROM: rebe
SUBJECT: ...not getting it...
DATE/TIME: 11/01/2005 13:59:58
don't the repeated emails make you stop and think just a little bit that maybe, perhaps, you're the one whose not getting it?
the irony is great; you're right. but i'm not sure you have the "right" to be ironic about this. i really don't understand the distinction you made between the H&S and the swastika... the swastika, at least for the most part, has been regalated to history. communism is still a threat to many parts of the world. maybe the US doesn't lose any sleep over it, but how about colombia or nepal?
(the hammer and sickle is a "symbol," meaning that it carries the connotations of everywhere it's been used, not just where it has been officially commissioned. any 3rd world country today will show you a host of usages where the H&S has nothing to do with the USSR)
but then again, as an american safe and snug under our democratic capitalistic system, it's your prerogative.
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Call us the decline of civilization. Claim that we're feeding the death machine. It's just not true. Maybe the repeated emails would make us stop and think harder if it wasn't for the repeated sales that outweigh the negative comments by a ratio of about 300:1. We'd get more negative email per sale if we were hawking books of Mormon!
Maybe we ARE too safe in our capitalist country, but the fact is, I'd sooner wear a hammer/sickle shirt than a US flag shirt. Every country kills thousands of people. The USSR just happens to have had a better logo than the rest. And I must emphasize it one more time: WE DO NOT CONDONE KILLING IN THE NAME OF COMMUNISM ANY MORE THAN WE CONDONE KILLING IRAQIS IN THE NAME OF DEMOCRACY.
It's the insane leaders that should be demonized, not the flag of the land.
FROM: Boris Kilvakov [yeah right]
SUBJECT: Warning
DATE/TIME: 10/19/2005 18:53:48
Dear Hammer and Sickle Stuff,
I am a born russian, and I have political power, if you wish to sell such appalling products to america, we will force your website down and all assets will be taken, communism is dead, it isnt a teenager's trend to wear, this isn't the country to support communism when it is already dead, this is also not russia, so supporting any form of communism would be ridiculous and insulting to the american goverment, you do not know what communism even is, nor do the teenagers who buy your products; if you do not know who I am, I am the partner of Mikhail Gorbachev, I am asking you nicely, shut down your website, or it will be forced down, this is your only warning.
-Boris Kilvakov
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So the alleged "partner" of Communist Mikhail Gorbachev thinks his government will shut down our site? Interesting that a google search for "Boris Kilvakov" comes up with nothing.
Bring it on "Boris Tooscaredtogiveusyourrealemailaddressovich."
FROM: Peter
SUBJECT: irony question
DATE/TIME: 09/08/2005 17:59:11
just a quick question. while i definitely agree with rabble rousing, free speech, (i had an F*** Bush sign on my car for the last election...etc) is it in not in poor taste (at best) to sell anything with the hammer and sickle? (i emigrated from a communist country by the way) the reason i ask, is that communists invented concentration camps and killed over 20 million in their gulags.
do you think it would be "ironic" to sell stuff with swastikas? how about the confederate flag? maybe the flag of south africa from apartheid days?
i'm just curious, how you justify selling this stuff. i could almost see and agree with the red star, but the hammer sickle of the CCCP?
thanks...
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The hammer/sickle, while definitely not something that everyone loves, is not only a symbol of gulags and concentration camps. It's been co-opted by the punk rock movement, and, in this country anyway, doesn't have the bite that it once did.
Maybe you don't understand irony. The ironic part of selling this stuff is that one meaning is communisim or socialism. We are capitalizing (the opposite of socializing) on the symbol.
We'd never sell swastika shirts or confederate flag shirts under the pretense of irony. Or sell them at all.
The swastika is a symbol of an evil political movement, not the flag of an entire country.
Try looking at the shirts from a lighter point of view, and I think you may be less offended.
FROM: julian
SUBJECT: what!?!?!
DATE/TIME: 09/06/2005 21:58:27
yeah so i guess i'm gonna sound a bit dick but what exactly is ur "cause"? like is it just to make money (nothing wrong with being part of the prolitariate you'll be overthrown some day anyway...) or is there a "cause"...
best wishes for the servival of the "violent uprising"
julian
p.s. i dont really believe that the prolitariate will ever be overthrown seeing as capitalism is so seductive and the fact that people are too gready for communism to ever work..... again much love
julian
pps plz respond
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Yep. Our cause is making money. And promoting irony I guess.
FROM: Soesanto Arp
SUBJECT: new t-shirt
DATE/TIME: 08/10/2005 23:48:23
Hi!
Why don't you also commercialize the Hitler "swastika". It's great to walk around with this, because it says: don't forget the 6 millions gassed Jews, or maybe: hi, I'm a Nazi!
It's a disgrace to walk around with hammer and sickle, for the former soviet union killed 40 million people under this flag. The Chinese 80 million and ongoing. It stands for the religion of comunism, which doesn't allow any human thought and living as an animal. You should inform people of the negative impact of the communist symbol, not make money out of it. It seems you are communists yourself, making money out of hatred, a trait inherrited by communism.
What should be good is to rectify the swastika symbol. Hitler used the sign of peace, the swastika,as a symbol of hate. Do your homework and please help the world be a better place by rectifying this symbol. It is ancient and even more controversial.
Cheers, Soesanto Arp
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The difference between the swastika (which I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole) and the hammer/sickle is that the swastika was the symbol of the group that did the killing. The hammer and sickle is a symbol of the countries that have it on their flag.
The US kills people too. I hope you don't wear an American Flag on any of your apparel. And I hope you get all balled up and pissed off when you see someone else wearing it.
This is the Russian Flag. Yes, it's associated with communism, but it's also associated with the punk rock movement and a sign of the working man and general revolution.
Making money off of a communist/socialist idea is the ultimate slap in the face of the dictators who propagated the crimes you're so worried about. So is taking their strict rules for colors and turning them on their head.
I feel 100% okay selling the hammer and sickle logo on shirts. It doesn't mean what it once did, and even when it WAS something that struck terror into the hearts of every red-blooded American citizen, it was the lunatics behind the system, not the ideals of communism or socialism that killed people.
Cheers indeed.
FROM: Destroy_Capitalism
SUBJECT: HiThere
DATE/TIME: 04/23/2005 17:16:44
you guys rock. Good to see not all americans are "american idiots"... Keep up the good stuff!
CCCP
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Even the nice emails don't get it.
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