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  • 2020-08-20 (xsd:date)
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  • ‘Snow, Rain, Heat, Night, Fascism ... Absolutely Baller Content from... (en)
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  • ‘Snow, Rain, Heat, Night, Fascism ... Absolutely Baller Content from the American Postal Workers Union’ Claim The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) shared a graphic indicating they won't be deterred by snow, rain, heat, night, or fascism amid USPS slowdowns in August 2020. Rating Not True Like this fact check? Reporting Amid the United States Postal Service’s slowdowns on August 13 2020, Twitter user Charlie Bonner shared the following baller content attributed to the American Postal Workers Union: absolutely baller content from the postal workers union pic.twitter.com/GE8DsRzAEc — Charlie Bonner (@CharlieKBonner) August 13, 2020 Against a black background and including a USPS logo, text read: SNOW RAIN HEAT NIGHT FASCISM Nothing stops the mail. apwu.org/savepostoffice Florida is where wokes go to die... Please enable JavaScript Florida is where wokes go to die Historical Context A PDF on USPS.com, Postal Service Mission and Motto, explains the famous postal service’s creed, which was taken from Herodotus: Motto of the Postal Service: Two Postal Tributes Chiseled in Stone Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. While the Postal Service has no official motto, the popular belief that it does is a tribute to America’s postal workers. The words above, thought to be the motto, are chiseled in gray granite over the entrance to the New York City Post Office on 8th Avenue and come from Book 8, Paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by Herodotus. During the wars between the Greeks and Persians (500-449 B.C.), the Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers who served with great fidelity. The firm of McKim, Mead & White designed the New York General Post Office, which opened to the public on Labor Day in 1914. One of the firm’s architects, William Mitchell Kendall, was the son of a classics scholar and read Greek for pleasure. He selected the Neither snow nor rain . . . inscription, which he modified from a translation by Professor George Herbert Palmer of Harvard University, and the Post Office Department approved it. The unofficial motto holding neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds has been associated with USPS workers for more than a century. Context Around USPS Slowdowns in August 2020 In August 2020, social media discourse about USPS delays and the anticipated spike in mail-in voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic reached a fever pitch. On August 13 2020, we examined multiple posts about rumors that USPS services were being slowed down or sabotaged: ‘Don’t Mail Ballots In, Drop at Board of Elections, This is an Inside Tip from a Postal Worker, Can’t Say More than That’ On August 14 2020, we fact-checked a circulating post quoting Trump on funding USPS and voting by mail: Did Trump Say That Without a Deal ‘They Can’t Have Universal Mail-in Voting, They Just Can’t Have It’? Images of locked mailboxes went viral across platforms: ‘Have You Ever Seen a LOCKED Mailbox at the USPS? Now You Have’ And photographs of June 2020 protests were mislabeled as protests demanding mail-in voting: Did Thousands of Seattle Democrats Gather to Demand Mail-In Voting Because Voting in Person Is Too Dangerous? At the same time, variations of the snow, rain, heat, night, fascism graphic circulated. Did the APWU Post the Snow Rain Heat Night Fascism Graphic? Other iterations of the image were attributed to the APWU: Yes! From the APWU pic.twitter.com/hKTA6TLRD3 — Metro NY Labor Comm (@MetroLaborNYC) August 13, 2020 Postal workers are antifa. If you're in the U.S., help them save the postal service: https://t.co/xZlWTxuxlA #apwu , #usps , #SaveTheUSPS , #antifa pic.twitter.com/R6f4fHHDwX — Antifa International (@antifaintl) August 13, 2020 But other posts indicated that the image did not originate with the APWU or USPS: Took the tweet down because as 🔥 as this graphic is, it’s from reddit not the APWU. 😕 pic.twitter.com/sgGP5CabQi — Jeremy Baiman (@jeremybaiman) August 13, 2020 The image was popular on Reddit too, including a popular r/politics post describing the graphic as popular and very unofficial: USPS fans are loving a (very unofficial) poster that adds ‘fascism’ to the challenges that can’t stop the postal service from politics Comment from discussion Sarbat_Khalsa’s comment from discussion USPS fans are loving a (very unofficial) poster that adds ‘fascism’ to the challenges that can’t stop the postal service . Back on August 11 2020, a post to r/PoliticalHumor was shared by an individual claiming they created it: I made a thing for USPS. Share it. from PoliticalHumor And a user on r/USPS built on it for a different graphic (after the first one was shared to that subreddit): Inspired by snow/rain/heat/night/fascism from USPS The first iteration we found was from August 10 2020 on Twitter : I made a meme. Share it. #USPostalService #PostalService #TrumpCrimeFamily pic.twitter.com/A8pKyWRRCT — Robin Winters (@RobinCantDance) August 11, 2020 Finally, news outlet AFP reached out to the APWU via email to ask about the viral image. A spokesperson said that APWU might agree with the message, but that they couldn’t use the USPS logo in that way: Asked if the flyer was real, a spokesman for the postal union confirmed to AFP by email: The answer is: NOPE. While we might agree with the message, our lawyers would have killed us if we stole the USPS logo. And San-Francisco-based graphic designer and small business owner Robin Winters told AFP via Twitter that she created the image on August 10, 2020, saying it was intended as a political cartoon. I made that meme! she said, adding: My company wouldn’t exist without USPS. While it may have been intended as political commentary, many users appear to have reshared it as official content from the postal workers union, including Mike Madrid, co-founder of a group run by dissident Republicans who have targeted Trump with slick TV ads. TL;DR Although the snow/rain/heat/night/fascism image was real and very popular, it was neither created nor shared by USPS nor the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). Graphic designer Robin Winters was the creator and first sharer of the image. Article Sources + Snow Rain Heat Night Fascism APWU United States Postal Service creed Postal Service Mission and Motto ‘Don’t Mail Ballots In, Drop at Board of Elections, This is an Inside Tip from a Postal Worker, Can’t Say More than That’ Did Trump Say That Without a Deal ‘They Can’t Have Universal Mail-in Voting, They Just Can’t Have It’? ‘Have You Ever Seen a LOCKED Mailbox at the USPS? Now You Have’ Did Thousands of Seattle Democrats Gather to Demand Mail-In Voting Because Voting in Person Is Too Dangerous? Snow Rain Heat Night Fascism APWU Snow Rain Heat Night Fascism APWU Postal workers are antifa. If you're in the U.S., help them save the postal service: https://apwu.org/call #apwu, #usps, #SaveTheUSPS, #antifa USPS fans are loving a (very unofficial) poster that adds 'fascism' to the challenges that can't stop the postal service I made a thing for USPS. Share it. Inspired by snow/rain/heat/night/fascism Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. I made a meme. Share it. #USPostalService #PostalService #TrumpCrimeFamily US postal service union did not produce ad saying fascism won’t stop the mail Posted in Fact Checks , Viral Content Tagged apwu , postal workers creed , r/politics , snow rain heat night fascism apwu , trump usps slowdown , usps , usps ballots , usps delays august 2020 , viral reddit posts , viral tweets (en)
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