A Lesson in Anglo-Saxon Irony

Which of the following people is wearing the symbol of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with ironic intent:

1.    Six Dollar Shirts woman:

 

or

2.    Italian factory worker from the Fiat plant in Pomigliano D'Arco:

Hint: The Italian guy's shirt also sports a slogan that, if my functional Italian isn't letting me down, features the words 'ignorance' and 'death'. Plus, he's wearing beads.

If you guessed number one, congratulations!

Your reward is my favorite quotation from the article about the Italian Fiat factory (which is trying to get its staff to work harder, or something like that): "'He wants to impose American-style standards,' Nello Niglio, a factory worker, said of [factory boss] Marchionne’s requirements to work longer hours and cut back on absences. 'But too much work is going to kill our workers.'" Taken literally, he appears to be arguing that if Italians were forced to work as hard as Americans, they would all die. Who knows, maybe he's right. But here's another stumper: What would happen to Americans if they were suddenly free to work as little as Italians? Hmm...

Comments

[Manuel]

@onchyophage: If there had been any known SchülerUnion members at our Gymnasium, we would have beaten them up.

[onchyophage]

In our Gymnasium, the teachers let us take care of this ourselves: one classmate of ours had a giant red star sticker on his schoolbag and talked about the RAF (in one word btw., not the letters pronounced separately) from time to time, after which he got beaten up from the SchülerUnion members ...

[Volker]

White Guilt? Really?

[Till]

As a side note which may offer an insight into the German equivalent of White Guilt: When I was in Gymnasium, a classmate had a t-shirt with a "KGB" print and hammer and sickle. I got a strong reprimand from our teacher for asking whether that shirt was available in "Gestapo"...