Maybe Fascists Do Get to Claim Symbols?

Brian Beutler, who you should all be reading because he is one of the two or three smartest political commentators in the business, has a post I have been thinking about the last couple of days. Beutler argues that allowing fascists to claim symbols is bad and that, in his words, “Maybe this is just another way of re-confessing my stubbornness, but I recoil at the thought of allowing them to lay claim to anything in the culture that isn’t already rotten.” I am not sure he is correct, though I am not sure he is incorrect, either.

When I was a kid, skinheads were not universally neo-Nazis. They quickly became associated with neo-Nazis, despite the best of efforts of people to try and keep the look a mere neo-punk aesthetic (and, to be fair, punk has always had far too much comfort with ‘ironic’ fascist symbology. Not something me or my friends where really aware of, but a part of the story nonetheless). Dressing as a skin, in the space of less than a couple years, turned from just another weird in-group aesthetic to a visible threat to a whole range of people. Similarly, I am a huge fan of the Blackhawks. Hockey is the best sport and after the Whalers moved, I picked up my father’s hometown team. But I don’t wear gear with their logo on it. I don’t think the logo, a native American head, is on the same level as Chief Wahoo or the late, unlamented Washington Redskins. But the logo does make people uncomfortable, and there is no point in arguing that they should not be. It is just basic politeness.

On the other hand, neo-Nazis have tried to claim for themselves Norse iconography, even though actual history is not supportive of their use. If you are Scandinavian, do you just give up? And of course, the ultimate argument for not giving in is the partial reclamation of the n-word by African Americans. But the reclamation is only partial, only under some contexts. The word itself is still a slur in many people’s mouths, and there is the argument that trying to reclaim it has made its use more acceptable. I will let the experts argue that point — I am more interested in the difficulty of maintaining symbols and meanings when a hate group makes a concerted effort to appropriate them.

The problem is that hate groups are unique in some fashions. Hate group symbols are not mere symbols — they are threats. A neo-Nazi uses their symbols, in part, to threaten people. I am someone, they say, who does not think you are human being and am thus willing to hurt you. That is a powerful, if evil, message and one that we should not willing force others to endure. The problem, of course, is that if we don’t fight then we lose all our symbols. It is seems silly, but the frog costume protesting the immigration services has, to a certain extent, muted the neo-Nazi use of the Pepe frog meme. Sometimes, then, the fight can matter.

Very wish-washy, I know. This is a hard circumstance, I think. Beutler was called out for dressing in a weighted work out vest that looks very much like the tactical vests that ICE and others have made ubiquitous during their attacks on American cities. Beutler, understandably, does not want to hand over workout vests to neo-fascists. But I think, in this case, he might have already lost. The use of vests that look like his work out vest by ICE is much more common than people who use them to work out. Given their ubiquitousness, it seems to me that is more important to prevent people who are under attack from feeling threatened in even more public spaces.

Or perhaps not. I don’t have the answers, other than you should try. You should try to keep fascists from repurposing the culture. But you should also try to keep in mind that symbols are more than symbols when wielded by violent hate groups. They are very real threats, and their presence can act to keep people away from spaces they should be free to enjoy. At some point, the damage done by fighting is more than the damage down by admitting, even temporarily, that the fight has been lost. It’s not easy, always, to tell when that point has been reached, but the fact that it can be reached should inform your choices.