Comment by stcredzero
7 years ago
It'd be like being afraid Count Chocula will inspire a generation of cannibals.
Years ago, there were the fundamentalist types who would've thought that the vampire/occult theme was a cutesy backdoor into pulling kids into satanic occult stuff. Same sort of people who tried to stigmatize D&D and video games. Same sort of people who wanted to censor books, music, movies, etc.
In 2019, we have a new kind of fundamentalist running around trying to de-platform wrongthink. I see them as just the 2019 version of the same people.
Oh hey, as someone who's been on the "wrong" side of both the "Right's" 80s/90s family values moral panic (D&D, Marilyn Manson, violent videogames etc.) and the "Left's" progressive moral panic, I also can relate to that connection. The pendulum keeps swinging, yet either way we are being preached to as being immoral and in need of repenting.
Either for sinfulness or privilege, which serve the same purpose in their ideological frameworks.
Oh yeah! Lots of people note that "privilege" is basically "original sin" except there's no chance of forgiveness or redemption. Also, since it seems to be attached to ethnicity, it's more specifically like the fundamentalist variations involving racial arrows of morality. (The idea that inspired the "Children of Hamm" from the Handmaid's Tale.)
In a lot of cases, it's not just "wrongthink", the people are actually genuinely far right extremists.
Take the Asgardsrei festival in Ukraine for instance. It is literally run by neo-nazis, with the far-right Azov Battalion acting as guards, avowed racist/fascist bands on the stage, and a whole day of militia workshops and talks by known neo-nazis.
So yes, it is real. It's a small scene, and most black metallers hate their guts, but it shouldn't be ignored.
So yes, it is real. It's a small scene, and most black metallers hate their guts, but it shouldn't be ignored.
By the same token, this small subset shouldn't be used to tar the entire black metal scene. There are activist pseudo-journalists who have done this in the past, and this is a prevalent pattern in recent years. Look out for this happening, and be sure to speak out when you see it happening.