“How can she even compare the magnitude of atrocities that occurred under the Third Reich to that of President Trump…”
During an interview with the Associated Press, an artist by the name of Karen Fiorito defended an anti-Trump billboard she created. The billboard, located in Phoenix, Arizona, depicts President Trump’s face flanked by mushroom clouds and dollar signs mimicking Nazi swastikas. According to the Associated Press, Firoto says the mushroom cloud imagery “represents global destruction, warfare and annihilation of the planet.” The dollar swastikas, she said, represent “corporate power and greed and how our society has become all about money and corporatism.”
“To me, it says power, money, and dictatorship,”
Also pictured are nuclear explosions with clowns in the center of them. This is on display in Arizona, a state that President Trump won in November’s general election.
While I fully support the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, this billboard is completely outrageous. It’s a huge slap in the face to not only President Trump, but more so to Holocaust survivors and their families. Of all the insults hurled at President Trump, I find the comparison to Hitler to be the most ludicrous. How can she even compare the magnitude of atrocities that occurred under the Third Reich to that of President Trump? Resorting to comparing a person to Adolf Hitler seems to be the trendy thing to do when one doesn’t agree with an idea or policy. There can be disagreements on politics without insinuating that President Trump is a ruthless dictator. I think Fiorito might need another history lesson and thank her lucky stars that she’s living in the United States of America and not a fascist police state like Nazi Germany.
Fiorito has effectively demonstrated that those who make these outrageous statements are looking for attention. Not only does she not care if the billboard garners negative press, she welcomes it. By claiming that many people feel the same way she does about President Trump, Fiorito fails to realize that not everyone who disagrees with President Trump feels that he’s comparable to the Nazis.
The billboard is featured along the side of a roadway and serves as a reminder that the political climate in the United States is more divided than ever. As much as people didn’t agree with President Barack Obama, I don’t recall such public displays of hatred and discontent. The fact that there are citizens in the United States who feel the need to push their ideologies onto others by putting them on display in a public place shows the hostility that exists. Instead of dialogue, Karen Fiorito sparked outrage by going straight into attack mode. These types of statements do nothing to sway opinions or provoke thought among those with opposing views. This sets an incredibly reckless example of publicly attacking individuals and shaming them. The owner of the billboard has defended its message and has no plans to remove it.
Fiorito claims she’s received death threats over the billboard, and no longer wishes to speak to the media for safety reasons. Theatrical or not, public spectacles such as this are usually only contrived to cause divisiveness and spurn hostilities towards those with opposing views. Shameful.
Angelina Newsom is an OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army Veteran. She has ten years experience in the military, including a deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She studies Criminal Justice and is still active within the military community.
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