Source of quote: Ben Palmer
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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This is the photo in question. You can clearly see it has been annotated with the text MS13.
The problem, however, is twofold:
So what does an actual MS13 tattoo look like?
Prominent and obvious, not this small, subtle, common, symbolic tattoos.
None of that compares to the fact that Trump has denied this person's Constitutionally granted rights and installed himself as judge, jury, and executioner.
Also marijuana wouldn't be a word they use, and they speak Spanish so why would they be coding meanings in English?
I'm curious, what is the Spanish word for Marijuana???
Guys... marijuana is a spanish word.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(word)
It's Canabis with one n.
Also it's Cannabis in English.
"Numerous accounts say that "marijuana" came into popular usage in the U.S. in the early 20th century because anti-cannabis factions wanted to underscore the drug's "Mexican-ness." It was meant to play off of anti-immigrant sentiments."
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana
That is indeed the joke
Marijuana is a Spanish word though. WTH are you guys talking about?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(word)
From your source, wikipedia:
Harry Anslinger popularized a Spanish slang word in the 1930s from a Nahuatl word, while campaigning against Cannabis
So Marihuana existed as a slang word in Mexican Spanish before the 1930s (it's in the song La cucaracha)
But your source also says the word could be of Chinese origin...
The etymology that was in question there in your excerpt was that it came from indigenous word Nahautl mallihuan. But the only suggestion of this is from a biased source. In other words it is unlikely that the word predates Spanish in Mexico. I didn't claim that. I said that the word comes from Mexican Spanish.
If you kept reading, you would see:
Also, btw, I'm not arguing in favor of the supposed translation of the tattoo, I'm just not pretending that Spanish speakers don't call it Marijuana when the word is originally Spanish and they definitely still do call it that. Name me a word in English that isn't borrowed from Spanish that has a J that sounds like an H. Jalapeño, Mojito, Jicama... all Spanish words originally. Same with Marijuana.
Yeah seems like you're right and there is Spanish language origin, or it was adopted into Spanish from another language. But it seems to have been slang and not a commonly used word.
My theory also falls apart because mara Salvatrucha was formed in los Angeles where they would have access to Mexican Spanish. I thought they started in El Salvador
Okay, so it clearly looks annotated to me. So it wasn't that the people criticizing the photo were saying that the MS13 itself was written on his hand ... it was more of the fact that he's superimposing meaning onto his hand tattoos and claiming it means something else. Sorta like his hurricane path.
See, this is the thing. I don't check into each of these stories because there's a lot of garbage. Then I'm watching some news coverage and then some right-wing guy comes on and gives it some "spin" and I'm like, "wait ... do they have a point?". Urgh.
I couldn't agree more.
A key point to make here
Trump himself refused to acknowledge that it was shopped, insisting that was literally written on his hand. His sycophants may being trying to run defence, but the President of the United States refused to acknowledge objective, provable reality.
Video interview of Trump denying reality.
And here's the guy's actual hand:
I no longer give them any benefit of a doubt when it comes to "do they have a point", that has long been gone with all of the lies. I know this for certain, someone who lies habitually will continue to lie. Its like crack to them, they just can't stop. And the only point I see is to be in power, which they don't deserve IMO. YMMV, good luck trying to work out what is true and what's not
That's what right wing media does. They spin facts in such a way that there's a compelling narrative, but only if you're willfully ignorant, know nothing about it and don't bother to look into it. They specifically rely on ignorance of their viewers, and to a lesser extent, the lack of short term memory or being able to follow shifting narratives in reporting. It's why you can see militant "anti-government" people like Jones who now actively cheers on the exact shit he decried a decade ago.
Trump claimed in an interview that the tattoo literally says MS 13 and is not superimposed. Here's an excerpt from that interview:
https://youtu.be/W5r_ehoxTag
Urgh ... I HATE TRUMP
He's so rude (and I get it, it's an intentional power play): "I've never heard of you", "you're not very nice"