This is fascinating on so many levels, but especially the way politics meet fashion in the new neo-Nazi scene, and that hipsterism is a tool for disguising the movement enough that it can slowly seep into the mainstream without anyone noticing. Obviously, fashion has always had close ties to politics, but the use of it here is a bit chilling in its familiarity to us Americans, I mean these kids look EXACTLY like us. I used to be friends with a couple of traditional skinheads (non-racist) and SHARPies (skinheads against racial prejudice) in college, and the fact that they looked just like the racist ones was always interesting to me. It was both part of it, and a thing to struggle against. Like, if you see a black skinhead, like one of my friends was, you might change your mind about what that means, and considering traditional skinheads came first, I can only imagine their frustration in the co-opting of their subculture and style into something evil. The ones who were actively against boneheads, the racist ones, had often fought them, and protested against them at their gatherings. The choice to keep style versus move on to something else is an interesting choice that each subculture must make when faced with co-opting (not that I really think hipsters are a subculture per se, but Nazis are), and the choice is really many many choices made by many people, and its hard to see whats happening until time has passed and you can really zoom out. In this case, the extreme right is listening to twentysomethings in order to save the cause. Are nipsters the death rattle of Germanys Nazi movement? Surely making a Harlem Shake video when you hate black people and do not want them in your country must mean you are the most desperate and will try anything, no matter how laughable, and how much it subverts everything youre trying to do. Or is this just part of the pendulum swing, the way nativism and nationalism always function in society, correlated with economy, immigration rates, etc?
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:22:21 +0000
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