Antisemitism and the NYT crossword

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s an unfortunate accident and they should address it and apologize for the accidental offense. (There’s is actually a whole thing about accidentally creating a swastika pattern in quilts and I can imagine the crossword layout presents similar issues. Nevertheless, they shouldn’t ignore it!)

Jewish and agree it's probably an unfortunate accident but how in the heck did no one catch this - it's obvious on first glance.

Not Jewish and agree. I do the crossword most days (but hadn’t done it yesterday) and my husband asked if I’d seen it. So I opened it and saw the issue immediately, but I also can believe the designer was seeing a whirlpool shape and likely had no part in picking when his puzzle would run. Buuuuut, the NYT shouldn’t ignore an unfortunate coincidence and pretend it is NBD. Let’s not normalize swastikas. Not ever, but certainly not in the current climate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're wondering if you should be concerned about this, please note that the TMZ, Fox, and the Daily Mail are the journalistic organizations pushing it as a big deal.

This is 100% a false flag campaign, designed to stir up certain resentments and divisions. Use your brains people. Someone is trying to set up an opportunity for Trump or Desantis or similar to be able to say "the antisemitic NYT" in order to discredit valid reporting in the future.

This is not a thing.

I posted way uptrend that this is almost certainly a really unfortunate coincidence. Thank you for pointing out that mainstream Jewish news outlets (besides London's Jewish Chronicle) are not covering this.

I think the NYT should offer a statement confirming this was unintentional and recognizing that however cool it is to conceive of and solve a swirly crossword, this particular design should be retired for freaking obvious reasons, but that and an apparent absence of editorial review was all that's missing here.
Signed, traditional Jews who thinks there is a major antisemitism problem everywhere except the political center but wants to limit outrage to the places it is actually warranted.

It's being covered pretty much everywhere

https://www.google.com/search?q=ny+times+crossword+swastika&oq=ny+times+crossword+swastika&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.4156j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the constructor’s note: “ Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas. I had originally tried to make it work in a 15x15 grid but then decided to expand the grid out to a Sunday-size puzzle with a fun whirlpool shape. Hope you enjoy!”

I believe him. He saw a whirlpool. Not everyone sees swastikas everywhere.

... which is why diversity matters. because "not everyone" sees it - but every single jewish person does.

"every single jewish (sic) person" who is offended by everything. FTFY.

Go cwy to Jeff a little more because poow Cwistians awe being attacked again and waah why awe people so mean but a literal swastika in the NY Times is just us Jews, who control the weather and those space lasers, being oversensitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s an unfortunate accident and they should address it and apologize for the accidental offense. (There’s is actually a whole thing about accidentally creating a swastika pattern in quilts and I can imagine the crossword layout presents similar issues. Nevertheless, they shouldn’t ignore it!)

Jewish and agree it's probably an unfortunate accident but how in the heck did no one catch this - it's obvious on first glance.

Not Jewish and agree. I do the crossword most days (but hadn’t done it yesterday) and my husband asked if I’d seen it. So I opened it and saw the issue immediately, but I also can believe the designer was seeing a whirlpool shape and likely had no part in picking when his puzzle would run. Buuuuut, the NYT shouldn’t ignore an unfortunate coincidence and pretend it is NBD. Let’s not normalize swastikas. Not ever, but certainly not in the current climate.

But it's not like the designer creates the design, and next thing you know it's in the paper. It goes through multiple levels of editing and approval before going into print.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're wondering if you should be concerned about this, please note that the TMZ, Fox, and the Daily Mail are the journalistic organizations pushing it as a big deal.

This is 100% a false flag campaign, designed to stir up certain resentments and divisions. Use your brains people. Someone is trying to set up an opportunity for Trump or Desantis or similar to be able to say "the antisemitic NYT" in order to discredit valid reporting in the future.

This is not a thing.

A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party.

So who is responsible for the false flag here?

I literally just explained it. Conservative news orgs are jumping on this as an example of "antisemitism a the NYT" as a way to undermine faith in a major news source so that the same news source can be discredited if they, say, run a story about the January 6 commission or the Trump Org. malfeasance. I am guessing the OP of this thread is similarly motivated. The only actual Jews I know who would buy into this as some kind of intentional conspiracy are nut job right-wingers.

Look at how one of the arguments is that the NYT ran an op-ed criticizing Israel, shortly before running this crossword, as evidence of some kind of antisemitic bias. Does that make sense to you? All the Jews I know would tell you that criticism of Israeli policy should not be viewed as a criticism of Jewish people, and also that conversely Jews as a group should not be held responsible or blamed for the things you don't like about Israeli policy. Because these groups are not one and the same. So how does it make sense that running an op-ed critical of Israel is somehow part of an antisemitic campaign? That doesn't even withstand basic scrutiny.

If I were the NYT or this specific puzzle designer, I'd use this incident to be more careful about how the accidental images created by crossword puzzles could be interpreted. I guarantee it will never happen again. But I honestly don't even view this as an "unfortunate mistake." It was so clearly accidental and you have to stretch to take offense. The people trying to find antisemitic clues in the puzzle itself are off the deepend. Just because there is an antisemitic reference involving "boxcar" does not make the word antisemitic. The puzzle doesn't even reference storm troopers it references Siths. And so on.

100% a false flag and not even a well done one.

You are using the term false flag incorrectly.

This is not a false flag.

“Operation Labrador was a false flag operation carried out by the Yugoslav Air Force's Counterintelligence Service (KOS) in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb during the early stages of the Croatian War of Independence. It was devised as a series of terrorist attacks intended to create an image of Croatia as a pro-fascist state. Two bombings were carried out on 19 August 1991, with one at the Jewish Community Centre and a second near Jewish graves at the Mirogoj Cemetery; there were no casualties. Additional attacks targeted the national railway network and were designed to implicate the Croatian President. Operation Labrador was complemented by Operation Opera — a propaganda campaign devised by the KOS to feed disinformation to the media.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:False_flag_operations

above is a link to documented false flags. you will see you are repeatedly calling this incident a “false flag” incorrectly if you read what a false flag actually is.

[Anonymous]

how do we know the puzzle designer isn’t antisemitic?

[Anonymous]

A “whirlpool”? Really? That’s what they’re going to call it?

[Anonymous]

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Approximately 5-6 years ago, The New York Times published a crossword puzzle that people claimed looked like a swastika. (The white parts, ofc.)

I can see how that was a reach.

This one, no. Plus, the Times should be aware they’ve been accused of running a swastika crossword puzzle before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the constructor’s note: “ Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas. I had originally tried to make it work in a 15x15 grid but then decided to expand the grid out to a Sunday-size puzzle with a fun whirlpool shape. Hope you enjoy!”

I believe him. He saw a whirlpool. Not everyone sees swastikas everywhere.

... which is why diversity matters. because "not everyone" sees it - but every single jewish person does.

I mean, does a team of diverse people have to review every crossword puzzle layout? That seems crazy to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s an unfortunate accident and they should address it and apologize for the accidental offense. (There’s is actually a whole thing about accidentally creating a swastika pattern in quilts and I can imagine the crossword layout presents similar issues. Nevertheless, they shouldn’t ignore it!)

They are ignoring it, and other media outlets are ignoring it. Why is that?

Because … it’s not newsworthy

I thought swastikas were bad. Apparently we are cool with them now.

58 - Boxcars

60 - Brandenburg Gate, the entrance to the Reichstag

88 - Group led by Darth Sideous ( the Emperor in Star Wars) — the cross word is too low resolution to see if this fits, but my first answer would be “stormtroopers”.

7 down is a reference to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Their wall concerts were openly antisemitic, with the fascists of the “wall” being adorned with Stars of David and a Hitleresque fascist leader — with Roger Waters being a open antisemite and hater of Israel.

Lots of various references to Islam throughout.

Not a chance any of this was accidental.

This is one of the most idiotic posts that I've read on DCUM. I cannot believe that people are up in arms about this.

And BTW, the mere existence of Islam is not anti-semitic. So tired of the blatant, socially acceptable islamophobia in these posts. You're not making the point that you think you are.

No comment on the rest of it, but 88 down is clearly to short to be stormtroopers, which is easy to see. It's probably Siths.

The Sith are stormtrooper-adjacent. Clearly anti-Semitic.

Holy QAnon, Batman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the constructor’s note: “ Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas. I had originally tried to make it work in a 15x15 grid but then decided to expand the grid out to a Sunday-size puzzle with a fun whirlpool shape. Hope you enjoy!”

I believe him. He saw a whirlpool. Not everyone sees swastikas everywhere.

... which is why diversity matters. because "not everyone" sees it - but every single jewish person does.

I mean, does a team of diverse people have to review every crossword puzzle layout? That seems crazy to me.

What segment of society does not see a swastika as problematic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any crossword can be made to look like a swastika if you try hard enough.

Agree. If you ignore enough spaces, you can make a swastika out of almost all of them.

Like the crossword puzzle in question, really?

Perhaps you could show an example of how every crossword puzzle is a swastika?

No, I'm not going to put swastikas all over images and post them here. I think you should be ashamed of yourself for doing that.

I didn’t do that. It is a picture that shows how the crossword puzzle in question so closely resembles a swastika.

I think the NYT should be ashamed of themselves for publishing the swastika shaped crossword puzzle, apologize, and remove the people who made it from their crossword page, and conduct an investigation into who approved this puzzle and ask why they didn’t see what everyone else sees.

But so far, they are silent, and the people who have asked for answers about this have been accused of being too sensitive.

This is effing ridiculous.

-A Jew

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the constructor’s note: “ Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas. I had originally tried to make it work in a 15x15 grid but then decided to expand the grid out to a Sunday-size puzzle with a fun whirlpool shape. Hope you enjoy!”

I believe him. He saw a whirlpool. Not everyone sees swastikas everywhere.

... which is why diversity matters. because "not everyone" sees it - but every single jewish person does.

I mean, does a team of diverse people have to review every crossword puzzle layout? That seems crazy to me.

What segment of society does not see a swastika as problematic?

A swastika is problematic. A whirlpool isn't. And people who see a swastika in a whirlpool, they have problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the constructor’s note: “ Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas. I had originally tried to make it work in a 15x15 grid but then decided to expand the grid out to a Sunday-size puzzle with a fun whirlpool shape. Hope you enjoy!”

I believe him. He saw a whirlpool. Not everyone sees swastikas everywhere.

... which is why diversity matters. because "not everyone" sees it - but every single jewish person does.

I mean, does a team of diverse people have to review every crossword puzzle layout? That seems crazy to me.

What segment of society does not see a swastika as problematic?

First you have to see the swastika. I don't look for Jesus's face on my toast, and I don't look for swastikas in my crossword puzzles. Because I'm sane.

[Anonymous]

Out of curiosity, what is what is the review process? How many eyes have to see / read / review a crossword puzzle before it goes to print?