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[parallax_prose]

WTF, just wtf

It's totally cool for a site that claims to promote tolerance to go off about all our religious symbols being anti-semitic. Nice.

But there's nothing about all the white supremacists who wear crosses instead of Mjölnir, go figure!

Comments

[taiyou_to_tsuki]

Never mind that crosses are symbols for a religion that has successfully motivated people to commit genocide, hate crimes, engage in religious wars, persecution against minorities etc etc for more than a thousand years. Instead, let us talk about a number of Norse symbols with religious significance and how hateful it is to use them because Hitler had a raging hard-on for vikings.

I mean, it's not like anyone cares about that anymore in our Judeo-Christian secularised western society, right?

Fuck you, I'm not ásatrú but the Norse and their faith has been with me since I was a child. They're an important part of my cultural heritage and if I want to wear a Thor's hammer, no one should be upset about that.

[parallax_prose]

No kidding. The fact that the ADL takes symbols from a religion that's already much more persecuted than Judaism in the US and lumps many of them under the heading of "white supremacist" is the most two-faced thing they could possibly do. People in the U.S. lose their jobs for being neo-pagans. This is the last thing anyone needs! Their feeble attempts to point out that some nonracists also use these symbols falls apart when its all under the big heading HATE ON DISPLAY. Not to mention that, like you said, these symbols are also of huge cultural significance to anyone who cares one bit about their Northern European heritage. It's just sick.

You're absolutely right. No one talks about the crusades, or the inquisition, or the countless cases of brutal colonialism done in the name of Christianity. There's no mention here of Abrahamic symbols used by the KKK, the Westboro Baptist church, or every variety of racial gangs in my country. No, it's so much easier to pick on a religious minority who wishes to honor their ancestors' traditions.

[taiyou_to_tsuki]

I don't think some nonracists is enough. Ignoring neo-pagans and people with Scandinavian heritage, pagan symbols are also appreciated in some subcultures (gothic and heavy metal for example) and I daresay that the majority of people who use those symbols don't believe in Aryan superiority. :/

(Not that the runes don't get hijacked by white supremacists here as well, but unless they're printed on signs with brightly coloured backgrounds being carried by skinheads that's not what they're associated with. People generally find it very upsetting when they're used that way.)

Because Christianity is a wide-spread religion, and it is quite unfair to judge such a huge amount of people because of the history of their religion. But in the same way, it's very unfair to judge pagans because their symbols originated in a culture Hitler admired.

The problem, I suppose, is that many people don't really believe that the old pagan religions are still practised.

[parallax_prose]

I agree completely! Many of the power metal and folk metal bands use these symbols here, as well. I highly doubt that most neo-nazis in the US can even read runes at all, and I'm fairly certain I've never seen the Valknut and Mjölnir being used in a antisemitic context.

Yup, that's a problem here, too. But somehow it doesn't stop people from being terrified by it.