Nod or blunder? No CPAC 2021 apology for a stage shaped like a white supremacist symbol

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/02/cpac-2021-stage-design-public-high-five-white-supremacy-column/6883518002/

As difficult as it is to get your head around, the stage at CPAC 2021 last weekend was built in the shape of a rebranded swastika, something called an odal or othala rune. This symbol was incorporated into SS uniforms and is frequently used by white supremacists. Neo-Nazis get tattooed with this thing. It was even on display at the 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville. Here’s a picture of the CPAC stage next to a picture of a Nazi uniform. Judge for yourself.

 And how do I know about this neo-Nazi imagery? Have I been trawling through the disreputable, sordid underbelly of the Internet? Sort of. There was an article about it over four years ago in the New York Times. After Trump’s election, what was then one of the largest neo-Nazi organizations in the country, the National Socialist Movement, decided to do some rebranding and replace the swastika with the odal rune in an effort to make white supremacy more “mainstream.” Since Trump stood in the middle of one at CPAC to declare his return to politics, I guess it worked.