Frithcast Episode 87b - Heres Fourteen Words For You

Episode 87b – Here’s 14 words for you - NSFW

Things we talk about in this episode:

Opening Music:

'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]

Closing Music:

'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]

 

Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org

 

Political ideology through symbols and coded words is really difficult to untangle, you can hear Kate and I struggling to define aspects, signals and markers through this episode. What we’re talking about here is the overlap between exclusionary ideologies of far right politics and exclusionary, or folkish, heathenism. A group may choose to take symbolism from mainstream heathenry, adapt promote and use it so that it becomes associated with those loud, vocal ideologies. Sometimes the symbols and code words are more subtle and inverted.

Some symbols are easy to spot, such as those associated with 1940’s Nazi political ideology, like the single or double lightning bolt, the totenkopf or the Aryan Fist. Some come from other political far right ideologies, like the Arrow Cross, from the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party.

Others are more modern, like the use of 14/88, a Thor’s hammer with the initials BFG in the design (from Bound for Glory, a white power music band) or the Identitarian Lambda.

Hate groups will often loudly deny that they are hate groups. Which makes it difficult for a solo inclusive heathen to find a group and become part of a community without knowing for sure that the members aren’t racist, ableist, homophobic, identitarian or any other form of discrimination. Some groups will claim to be inclusive, but act exclusionary in their stance and politics. Some of this can be very subtle, so even harder to detect and draw a line to defend your own principles and values.

You can find a hate group symbols database maintained by the ADL here: https://www.adl.org/hate-symbols?cat_id%5B146%5D=146

And an article on dog whistles here: https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/7/13549154/dog-whistles-campaign-racism

Some symbols can also be used by inclusive heathens, so care needs to be taken as to the context. Groups may use a single rune, such as Tiwaz or Othala. On their own, the use may be just fine, but it may also be indicative of an ideology if it’s seen in connection with other symbols, images and words.

The understanding of ‘sea-lioning’ as an exercise in ‘bad faith’ questions in which the questioner puts the burden of their education onto the other can be found here: http://www.ethicsandculture.com/blog/2016/beware-the-sea-lion

There’s also some good articles here about the overlap of the far-right and modern heathenry:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/asatru-heathenry-racism/543864/

https://www.spiralnature.com/culture/heathens-nazi-problem/

https://bluefaceddruid.blogspot.com/2017/08/stephen-flowers-aka-edred-thorssons.html

https://godsandradicals.org/2016/04/06/rainbow-heathenry-is-a-left-wing-multicultural-asatru-possible/

If the history of our faith is something you want to get into, there’s Norse Revival by Stefanie von Schnurbein (Studies in Critical Research in Religion, Brill Publishing)

And, just as your understanding of Heathenry can shift, so can other people. People whose social media accounts you had linked to may step away from your own understandings, so be mindful of the content they choose to share and create.

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