Have You Seen these Tween Neo-Nazis?
We're Here, We're National Socialists.It must be magazine week here at SwD (That's short for Surfeited with Dainties). As soon as I saw an article in G.Q. about Prussian Blue, a white supremacy pop duo featuring two young blonde girls, I thought: this is the most sought after type of article by magazines. It has a mix of quirkiness and familiarity. Marshall Macluhan said that people read the morning news as if they were getting into a bath. C'est vrai! And now I think we read these kinds of magazine articles with the same feeling that comes with an afternoon nap. It is a relaxing escape into unusually strange dreams. The images are scary but they are cartoonish enough - so they aren't too scary.
The article is a vehicle for exploringthe newest wrinkles in extremist ideology. Oh, white separatists want to have the Pacific Northwest for themselves. How interesting! But these cute girls who sing songs about racial warfare like the same music our daughter's like. That's comfortably unsettling. And funny too.
For what it was, it wasn't a terrible article. It ended on an up note with the hope that these girls still have plenty of growing up to do and may reject the ideology that has brought them national press attention. However, I couldn't help but feel that one of the most interesting parts of the story that is ignored is the relative political sophistication of these girls. Of course they say the sort of noxious things that extremists say. But the following quotation regarding Jews contains an incorrect (and noxious) but for a tween sophisticated analysis:
"I mean, they've been kicking out of every country in Europe. The history of the persecution -- or prosecution -- of the Jews didn't start with Adolph Hitler. Now, why do you think that is?"
This could have been a parroted sentence. But it is amazing that at such a young age these girls have internalized the activist style of speech. The provocative question that simultaneously skirts over its own presumptions and puts pressured on the listener. Who hasn't heard "Now, why do you think that is?" from a Black Isrealite, or a member of the Nation of Islam or some other extremist? Also, the emphasis on the legal authority of the state in this quote is similar to other statements they make. They have not only absorbed the animosity towards other groups but have embraced in a pretty thorough way the ideology of National socialism and it's historical view.
Anyway, it's something that surprised me. What also surprised me was finding Prussian Blue in Blender magazine - on the exact same day. Now I find out that Teen People is doing a piece on them.
It should serve as a tip for freelance writers. This work seems to have an edge but it really just wraps up a few generally (and correctly) recognized moral and political values in a neat package. No one actually thinks Prussian Blue will achieve broad success - and so the threatening aspect of their politics is dulled into something precious and cute. The same packaging works in fiction and television too. We see this in Big Love - HBO's look at American polygamists. They are transgressive but often seem just like us. Threatening in their lifestyle but so tiny a minority as to be insignificant.
I said in my predictions that my work would appear in a magazine this year. Anyone have suggestions for cute extremist movements? Maybe some Muslim extremist is also an aspiring hip hop artist? Maybe a nun is running a prostitution ring somewhere. Perhaps some radical communists are helming a hedge fund somehwere. E-mail me if you have a tip.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
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Source: Minor Threat
Reader Comments (10)
I particularly enjoy the radical communists helming a hedge fund. I think you have something there...well, may be it's too close to being real (ie, George Soros). In any event, I'm sure something will come to you.
You may want to investigate the resurrgerence of the "banded" (hehru) shirt collar, possibly tying it to the rise of Jeffersonianism in some form or another. You would do a fine job tying dress to other sensibilities such as the political, philosophical, or aesthetic.
The truth is there views are not that radical. Pre WWII this was normal way of thinking, including for the Jewish community that thought of themselves as a "nation".
We see this continues with Israel is the "Jewish State" and nobody seems too upset about that.
Sure, it's not quite a race, but yet it is more than a religion, so where do you go from there?
Wanting to be separate is not the same as wanting to do harm to someone or some group.
The whole thing about them going to school and being normal and the Jewish girl exposing them was interesting.
I also listened to the samples and they were OK, but not great.
Why not the Catholic angle, those girls are just a variation of the typical American mindset. Change a few words and they’re environmentalists or whatever cause de jure you please to name..
On the other hand, what is more extremist, and counter cultural than Catholicism? It’s a natural every way you look at it, but one. the one that matters.
Don’t expect to be treated with the same ingratiating arms as those cute little Hitler wannabees have received. After all, eugenics is as American as Margaret Sanger and Edward Bellamy. And those little neo-nazis aren’t “threatening in their lifestyle” because they’re simply another variation of the system.
Why do you say Catholicism is extremist?
One you won't see is a story on Zionists, which are probably far more numerous and far more "extreme" than these girls and their mother.
There are plenty of Zionist camps like the one attended by Alan Deshowits and Noam Chomsky (at the same time).
But according to Peter you won't hear that story becuase the Zionist are less likely to be blond.
Zionism is one of those terms that tempts me to hit the "delete comment" button because I don't need the negative attention on my site. Unfortunately it has become one of those words you have to very very carefully define before you comment on it.
But curiosity killed the cat.Can you tell us a little more about the camp Alan and Noam attended?
I actually think that would make an interesting article. The hard part is dealing with questions like: Why in hell are you writing about this?
"Because it is interesting" is an insufficient answer for alot of people.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: It's a great honor for me to be participating in a debate with a man who has been called the world's top public intellectual. My connections to Noam Chomsky go back a long time. In the 1940s, I was a camper, and he a counselor in a Hebrew-speaking Zionist camp in the Pocono Mountains called Camp Massad.
Link: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/23/1450216&mode=thread&tid=25
So it was a Hebrew-speaking Zionist camp.
Here is the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Massad.
I can' only assume that it is detecated to preseving the Jewish homland in Israel and providing support and development therefore.
I agree that Zionism is a word with a whole range of meanings.
But if we are to afford Zionism that range of meanings, shouldn't "white separatism" be afforded a simlar spectrum of meanings? Could there be "reasonable" white separatism and unreasonable white separatism?
[BTW, I don't understand how to format text and links in the comment editor...?]
Because the mean, i.e. virtue, is the extreme to the extremes, i.e. the vices at ether extreme.