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An Incomplete List Of Things Fascists Are Currently Ruining

By Victoria McNally | Miscellaneous | April 14, 2017 |

By Victoria McNally | Miscellaneous | April 14, 2017 |


In hindsight, the cosmic guiding light of the internet tried to warn us that everything would end in fascism. Remember Godwin’s law? About how the longer an online discussion goes on, the more likely it would be that someone would bring up Hitler or the Nazis? Boy, was that more prescient than any of us would currently care to admit.

Obviously, fascism is a much bigger concern in areas of world politics and government leadership than it is in any of these smaller spaces, but we expect it to be a problem there. Here, not so much:

Furry conventions

There’s always been a small contingent of furries who like to wear Nazi regalia, according to people within the community, but when a group of them (led by a guy known as “Foxler” who wears a red armband over his fursona and regularly tweets about the Alt-Right) reserved a large block of rooms for the Rocky Mountain Fur Con in Denver, it set off a series of arguments that led to the con being cancelled. Of course, it also led someone from The Daily Beast to write the phrase “The antifa furry movement coalesced around a rallying cry of ‘Nazi Furs Fuck Off,’” so… silver linings.

My Little Pony

My Little Pony was ruined a long time ago by a certain breed of sexist Brony on the internet, but it should not surprise you that there is some strong overlap between those kinds of Bronies and members of the Stormfront movement. They also like to hang out with the Alt-Right Furries. It’s a whole thing.

Livejournal

It’s not Nazis, per se, who have ruined Livejournal for everyone, but they’re pretty fascist-adjacent. The blogging platform moved its servers to Russia in December last year, and now has changed its terms of service in a way that’s sure to drive most users from the site. Content that is deemed “political solicitation” or “contradictory to the laws of the Russian federation” — which, naturally, includes pro-LGBT messages — will be banned, and blogs with readerships over 3,000 visitors a day will be classified as media outlets and subjected to even further scrutiny. On top of everything else, there are also new concerns that users’ Livejournal data will be accessible to Russian intelligence.

Being Precise About Grammar

“Grammar nazi” used to be a term of endearment for some pedants. In hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been in the first place, but now it’s especially jarring to hear.

YouTube Comment Sections

Obviously.

Pepe

A full decade ago, Pepe the Frog was a sweet little cartoon character by Matt Furie who got high and felt good about it. In 2015, 4chan users would design their own versions of the character to collect and trade, which is where the term “rare Pepes” comes from. However, when the meme became popular, 4chan users figured out that the best way to ensure exclusive access to their Pepes was to make them racist and terrible, which made it easy for actual racist and terrible people to co-opt the character for their own propaganda.

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Captain America

Technically it’s the writer and editorial team at Marvel who are ruining Captain America, but they’re doing it with the use of Nazis, so it counts. Basically, they’ve retooled the Marvel universe such that Captain America has always been a member of Hydra, who won World War II and who now runs the United States. I guess the idea was that they wanted to see what it would be like to recreate The Man In The High Tower but with superheroes, except they did a dumb thing were they put literally the most famous anti-facist hero ever on the wrong side. Hey, speaking of which:

The Man In The High Tower

Ha, ha, ha! What a thought-provoking work of speculative fiction that I never want to see subway ads for ever again!

Punk Rock

Skinheads have been doing this since the late ’70s, once again emboldened by leaders within the community (like Sid Vicious and Rob Asheton) who wore Swastikas and other Nazi symbols to be provocative. Turns out, if you appropriate the language and symbols of evil people without a good reason, they start to think you agree with them! Huh, how about that?

Approximately Half The Haircuts White Men Wear To Look Cool

Buzzcut? Cropped sides with long front? Mohawks? Slicked back? You are not allowed to do any of these things anymore, white guys. As we’ve learned from many a recent thinkpiece, style is for facists. Just grow the hair out of your head and don’t do anything to it, and god help you if it’s naturally blond and straight.

Jane Austen

Hannah’s already written about this far more eloquently than I ever could, but suffice it to say that jerks who think Jane Austen is championing a particular brand of traditional gender roles could probably learn a thing or two about context clues.

The German Language

Most actual Germans would really love nothing to do with you assholes.

Charlie Chaplin’s follicular legacy.

That was his mustache, damn it!

Celtic and Norse Mythology

Most white supremacists in the United States identify as Christian, but lately there’s been a strong contingent online of people who really cream their pants over Odin and Thor and the like, probably because since they come from Norway, they’re even more white than white Jesus is. I hope every single one of them looks at Idris Elba and Tessa Thompson in the new Thor trailer and feels completely inferior to them in every way.

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Feel free to mention anything I’m forgetting in the comments.