This star on the Warm Welcome hat looks like a communist symbol

Question

I've just earned the "Warm Welcome hat" and the red star on it looks like a communist symbol. I associate this symbol on this particular hat closely with many atrocities against my country: Poland, as well as Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and many others from inside the Iron Curtain.

I hope I don't get banned by this. It's just… I was really shocked to see it this morning.

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Disclaimer: text below was added by a moderator, not me

Can Stack Exchange be more mindful of the symbols used when it's just about fun?

Answer 1

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I was (mainly) responsible for picking hats this year.

When this hat was first introduced in 2014, there was a comment on the Secret Hats post from that year mentioning this concern but it doesn't seem that any action was taken to correct it. When I looked into the past for hats to use, the trigger for this caught my attention but I neither noticed the symbol/nor recognized it. Apparently, in 2014 several hats were designed after real hats and this was one of them.

This is my fault and I apologize for causing hurt. To mitigate this, our wonderful designer, Kalina, has updated the hat to bear an icon that reflects the feeling of welcome it's intended to convey - a heart. This is live now:

I hope you all enjoy this new version of the hat and can continue to have fun with the Winter Bash festivities this year!

Answer 2

I think: you make a good point. Sure, you are upset, and thus your question comes over loaded.

But that is the thing: even simple "icons" (symbols!) can have dramatic effects on certain people. And probably: when you suffered under a dictatorship, then you react pretty much allergic when symbols of that dictatorship are used like this. I kept such a Sowjet army fur cap as tourist souvenir on a cupboard for many years, so when I saw that winter bash hat, I was like "whatever". But I for sure can see that this causes real emotional distress for others!

And for the people who go "it is just hat", maybe: would you say the same if the "hat" was maybe a red "Make America Great Again" cap? Oh, right, that is something that much more people can relate to (in positive, or negative ways). So we would probably agree that we don't want a red MAGA cap hat.

To be precise: most US citizens who don't understand how that fur cap can cause distress, the same people will immediately understand the potential issues from using that MAGA cap. Because that is something very close to them.

So, seriously: maybe there are really other, better hats to pick for welcoming, then one that causes some members of our global community go "are you crazy sending me this communist s..t?"

Finally: avoid interpreting such events as "evil malice". The point of symbols is that they can have (very) different meaning, depending on the context of looking at it. For most US folks, that Sowjet fur cap is just that, a somewhat "funny" relict of past times.

Answer 3

I actually share the frustration with this hat.

This was the first hat I earned this Winter Bash, and before knowing it, I saw my avatar in this hat with a red star right in the middle. I almost hit "I hate hats" button, as I vividly felt "involuntarily joining the glorious Soviet army marching Europe" – not the best feeling, to say the least.

While the red star itself is not an offensive symbol necessarily, its usage on a traditional "Russian-ushanka" hat certainly is for a lot of people, not excluding many Russians.

Moreover, some would be offended by it obviously being a militarized symbol (or, at least, strongly associated with military and war), and I find it confusing, why that was chosen for a hat, especially the one that is supposed to picture "Warm Welcome".

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I would strongly call for and support retiring this hat. Hopefully, this year. At least, for the next Winter Bash.

Answer 4

Stack Exchange is not trying to promote communism. As you can see in the Wikipedia article you linked to, the red star is used (more often than not) to symbolize other things than communism. Heineken isn't promoting communism in Poland either.

Should we expect hats with Swastika next?

No. Unlike the red star, that symbol is (in black on white, when positioned 'diagonally') exclusively used to refer to the Nazi period. It's safe to say that will never happen.

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I do understand why you have negative associations with this hat. The good news is that it's possible to enjoy Winter Bash without being confronted with this particular hat. If you have a customizable ad blocker like uBlock, you can add rules to filter them out:

##div[data-hatid="87464937"]
##div.wb-hatimg-87464937

Those result in no more Warm Welcome:

(Similar results could be obtained with a custom stylesheet or userscript.)

Answer 5

Is this...an overreaction...?

I can't speak as if I'm a native there, but everyone interprets the laws of their country slightly differently. There's also the debate of the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law, and thus, I feel like situations like this need to be taken in context.

Wikipedia's interpretation of the law (which is not the actual law because I can't read Polish) suggests that the law which banned Communist/totalitarian symbols was actually struck down due to being unconstitutional.

In 2009, in Poland[9] § 2 to 4 were added to Article 256, which ban "fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbols" unless used "as part of artistic, educational, collecting or academic activity." On July 19, 2011, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland found this ban unconstitutional due to the violation of freedom of expression.[27] In June 2017, Poland updated its "decommunization" legislation to include Soviet propaganda monuments, prompting negative reactions from the Russian government.[28]

So...your argument isn't really based in law in that this is not allowed in Poland unless you can cite another reference to demonstrate that it is...and if that's the case, I'm perfectly happy to eat crow.

I do see that your argument against the hat is an emotionally charged one, which is a perfectly fine one to have - heck, my group of friends and I get triggered any time we see someone in a red hat. That's going to take eons to get over, honestly.

But I want to draw a line - not liking a symbol is not the same as the symbol being actually illegal to use in Poland. Then again, you're really not under any obligation to wear the hat, either...

But I also want to call attention to this because what seems to be the official word on this is that this hat won't ever appear again. Emotional feedback is easily actioned upon, whereas thoughtful and rational discussion seems to happen after the fact. That is disappointing. I find that unacceptable.

Answer 6

The red star "might" look like a communist symbol - but not necessary is.

Instead of the red star, I would like watch the "Stack Exchange" icon on it - that will look cool, IMHO.

Answer 7

Do we have suggestions for alternative "Warm Welcome" hats? Since it says "Warm" I think a knit ribbed cap (tuque is apparently the official term in the Wikipedia list) -- or perhaps something like a Chullo? The ear-flaps might suggest the "extra warmth" that I think the Russian hat concept was going for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat for more suggestions.

Answer 8

"This star on the warm welcome hat looks like a communist symbol"

This star are always be here not only on the hat but also as a mark symbol for favorite questions. While I hadn't read the question I used this functionality without remembering the USSR but now it is changed. SE should remove it also in such case I guess.

Answer 9

I've just earned the "Warm Welcome hat" and the red star on it looks like a communist symbol

Yes, it does. That was the whole point of it.

It's a joke. The joke is that "communism" and "warm welcomes" are not 2 things you would normally associate with each other. That is why it's funny.

Now I understand that some people might not get the joke, or that some people might not find the joke funny even if they do understand it. But why is that a problem? Not everybody agrees with everyone's views and opinions, that just life. If you don't like it then just move on, why make it such a big problem?

The real problem here is that just because you don't agree (and clearly some others too), you want to spoil the fun for the rest of us. In one of your comments you said something about your family having to suffer to live in a free country - yet here you are trying to force your views onto everyone else. Shouldn't everybody have the same right to freedom? Including freedom of speech?

I mean, the winter bash is just meant to be a bit of fun, so stop taking it so seriously. Otherwise we might as well just scrap the whole thing and get rid of every hat... because apparently fun is too offensive these days.

And nobody is trying to say that the atrocities against your country is funny. It has nothing to do with history. It's a joke about what communism represents, and if anything, the joke is more FOR your beliefs, than against them. Perhaps you would benefit from trying to understand that.

Answer 10

Here's my opinion. This hat - or any other hat means nothing. I mean they could mean something important or unimportant somewhere outside SO, but not here.

StackOverflow should stay aside from any kind of political or semipolitical discussions, so either hates or likes with regard to hat(s)/nick(s) should be subject of deletion or at least kind refuse to discuss them here.

Answer 11

^{I know this issue has been addressed, and the hat has been changed to a non-Communist looking hat. An effort which I support. But I feel the need — based on personal experience — to post this.}

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What you might think is a “joke” can inadvertently hurt someone.

If there is no reason to use iconography and symbolism that might alienate others, then don’t do it. And if you can’t figure out how to make the same point without using such symbolism, try again… Try harder…

For the benefit of those who are not 100% clear as to why the hat is offensive to some — even after reading @emix’s initial question and other comments/answers supporting him — I wanted to share this recent op-ed in The New York Times (“The Long, Strange Tale of California’s Surf Nazis”, Sept. 28, 2019) about surf culture in California and the racist symbols — and straight out racism — it fostered and normalized in many ways.

This quote by Greg Noll — a fairly famous figure in the world of surfing — casually states the following:

“We’d paint a swastika on something for no other reason than to piss people off. Which it did. So next time we’d paint two swastikas, just to piss ’em off more.”

This quote sums it up, in my humble opinion:

“Putting a swastika on something to anger people means you know that it angers them and very likely why. Allied troops liberated Auschwitz 14 years before Noll made his film. Southern California was full of veterans who’d seen death camps with their own eyes, as well as Jewish families who’d lost relatives and families of all kinds whose sons died in the fight. Angering those people for kicks meant that the slaughter of six million Jews didn’t strike you as a big deal.”

That’s that! The reality is anyone saying a clear symbol of oppression to some is “no big deal” is really numb/disconnected from the way others might feel about it.

And for personal background/context, I truly empathetic with @emix’s feelings: I am a first generation American, but my parents — not grandparents, but direct parents — were survivors of World War II and the Holocaust. I word it that way because instead of the typical “clean” Western narrative of “People went to the Concentration Camps and that was that…” my parents were pretty much on the run though Communist Eastern European countries or sent the Gulags in Central Asia. I grew up directly knowing, feeling and understanding “where they came from” and realized that sensitivity towards language and symbolism matters.

So when I saw that “Warm Welcome” hat in it’s initial form, I put it on… Then felt a bit weird about it… And then switched to the “Jester” hat I have now.