Hipster Hitler clothing – an update
May 26, 2011 by J-Wire Staff
Read on for article
J-Wire has learned that representatives of Redbubble the on line marketing company behind the Hipster Hitler clothing range are currently discussing the issue with the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission in Melbourne.
A spokesperson for the ADC told J-Wire: “We are in productive and friendly discussions with Redbubble to work out a solution which balances their right to expression with legitimate concerns about Hipster Hitler.”
He’s finally backed down, thank goodness. There’s a story in the Age today that he’s pulled theses products completely due to pressure from the ADC, after selling 4000 of these t-shirts. Just goes to show how the ADC can succeed where so many others have failed. Hope we never hear of RedBubble and Martin Hosking nor Hipster Hitler in public again.
Ann says:
May 26, 2011 7:52 am at 7:52 am
Did the ADC only get involved after JWire made what RedBubble was doing public on Tuesday? Or was ADC action already underway before JWire reported the story? In any case, well done for getting the ADC moving onto this.
This nonsense has been ongoing for months. Many complaints were made to ADC and other Jewish organizations by members of redbubble after Hosking refused to remove the shirts or even filter them. Firmspy was the first to break this story (“Oh Heil”). Mr. Hosking would NOT have taken any action on this if the ADC had not contacted him about it. He was standing firm. It’s too bad the ADC can’t make him take down the disgusting vile baby-t-shirts he sells there also. (Ass – the New Vagina” on a baby t?????-several screen shots available) Wake up Hosking! Your lack of judgement is akin to…….. well actually – there is no comparison!!
i’m completely unimpressed with both mr hosking and his range of t-shirts
One hand I commend j-Wire for publishing this story about the efforts of the ADC but I also fear that operations like this and products like these thrive on notoriety, so it may just add to the cachet and sales to intended buyers for it to be known that the ADC is objecting.
I’m surprised this story is only on J-Wire so far. It should be picked up by the bigger media publications, many of which including The Age have written glowingly about Hosking before but without mention of the Hitler tees he sells. If Arnold Bloch Leibler only just found out about these tees and dropped him like a hot rock once they knew, maybe the story will spread now that J-Wire have covered it.
I met Martin Hosking in Sydney about four years ago when he was pitching another one of his ventures Aconex – a construction software business. He seemed an affable fellow. No idea he was into selling this sort of thing which, even on the most charitable view of things, is dicey and offensive.
First, well done to J-Wire for bringing this business to public light.
I looked at Redbubble last night with some dinner guests at our home and we discussed the Hipster Hitler t-shirt range on sale. Everybody was disgusted that a Melbourne business would offer such merchandise for sale. There is really no need to sell such products to the market that they serve, much the less so under pretense of being art or satire. They mock the Holocaust and give an approving wink to the Nazis.
I hope the ADC can knock some sense into this guy by “friendly” or if need be unfriendly discussions.
I am glad to see that Mr Hosking is finally being forced to face the issues that so many people have tried to make him see over the last 6 months. Perhaps when presented to him by people he has no “control” over, he will actually take a look at this work in the context in which it is presented on his website. If the ADC force Mr Hoskings to remove just one of the Hipster Hitler range, then the dissent he has been presented with by people who had concerns was correct, and a public apology should be forthcoming to all the Redbubble members who have been ridiculed by his supporters, warned, suspended, banned, or otherwise silenced.
I look forward to this reaching a satisfactory solution.
Looks like the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission were no more successful with Hosking than all the people on Redbubble complaining about his t-shirts. Hosking is still displaying and selling the offensive items on Redbubble this afternoon. It is disappointing because every one of these t-shirts sold is spreading Nazi-sympathetic messages and may be worn for years to come by the buyer.
RedBubble and its Nazi tees. Yabber yabber yabber. That’s all that has been happening on RedBubble since it started selling them. Yabber yabber yabber. Please stop RedBubble, they are offensive and appeal to people who admire Hitler! Yabbber yabber yabber. Now the ADC is talking to RedBubble about the same Nazi tees. It’s more yabber yabbber yabber. Redbubble has heard it all before. Yabbber yabber yabber. Now what?
I am very glad to hear that they are in discussion. I just hope that the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission can make Redbubble see that what they are selling is racists and does promote hatred. (Also that the works are against Redbubbles own guidelines)
Will keep a close eye on this.
I think we need to be careful about whom we’re accusing of what here. Redbubble is an online art gallery carrying the work of hundreds of thousands of artists. The people who run it believe in freedom of expression. Notwithstanding, they have strict policies about not supporting material that is deliberately offensive.
Hipster Hitler is an artist who has a separate website, but sells material on the Redbubble site. ‘He” appears to be a pair of people, probably in art school, or recently graduated. “He” believes “he” is producing satire and does not intend to offend.
My evaluation is that it is poor satire, and that “he” is naive and immature. I personally find the material offensive.
Notwithstanding, I think, it is unreasonable to accuse Hipster Hitler of being racist, or inciting racism, or to accuse Redbubble of “doing” anything, other than being very slow to deal with a very tricky gap between its intentions and what’s actually happening on its site.
They are finally acting on it — possibly because of the J-wire coverage, possibly because of complaints from site users, possibly because of pressure from shareholders, possibly because ABL dumped them. Most likely because of all of the above.
There’s great irony using the phrase “freedom of expression” and RedBubble in the same paragraph.
Since the Hitler range of tees was introduced late last year on RedBubble, comments criticizing it or pointing out the obvious anti-Semitism in many of the t-shirts and their customer base have been deleted and accounts suspended or shut down by RedBubble admin.
On RedBubble, you cannot say “profiting from genocide is evil” but they can sell a t-shirt with a slogan “Back to the Führer”.
Did the ADC only get involved after JWire made what RedBubble was doing public on Tuesday? Or was ADC action already underway before JWire reported the story? In any case, well done for getting the ADC moving onto this.
Glad to hear ADC are taking him on. Clothing that references Nazism but is ambivalent to Hitler or pro-Hitler is not a free speech issue. It’s an evil.
JWire wins an award for most polite way of telling a story. There have been complaints for 6 months against what this guy has been doing and so it finally gets escalated to ADC and now the discussions are “productive and friendly”. Meanwhile he is still selling the same pro Hitler products.
I hope they realize that racist groups, such as Stormfront, are supportive of Hipster Hitler.
In fact, their comments are very telling and should be taken into consideration, as to who these materials are appealing to.
Hipster Hitler creators have targeted the young (several high school students comprise their fans) who may be uneducated regarding history and the holocaust. While other fans appear to be either white supremacists or anti-semitic.
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/search.php?searchid=10888218