General News Neo-Nazis in Greece

By their blood running down the street before them, they need to be reminded that this is not the 1930s. The days of Sir Oswold Mosley and his blackshirts are emphatically over.

 

actually far right movements such as this are making worrying gains all across Europe

 

I've heard about them. I just hope history does not repeat itself :/

 

Gaining in popularity = 1. young adults/teenagers, usually male, that are not particularly politically informed and end up believing in the propaganda. It's terrifying to watch. A friend of mine is a big supporter of theirs and didn't even know they are Neonazis before I told him. Unfortunately that did not really change his mind-at all, actually.
2. Old people with even older views who are helped by them-as long as they are Greek, of course.
3. Right-wingers that used to support a party that has now fallen apart.
4. Other propaganda victims.

I can't decide whether this is tragic or laughable but not all of them are passionate about the ideas. Many support it just to support it.
EXAMPLE:
A guy who supports them likes (or used to like?) a friend of mine who is half Iranese. What's funny is that his father and he are supporters and SHOW it. (shaved head etc)
When there was a chance for him to be with her, suddenly the fact that she is not 100% Greek was so minor that he didn't even think twice about it. Hypocrisy much?

And then there are the horribly fanatic ones. They horrify me.

 

This disturbs me. Here in America the thought of anyone in politics having Nazi ties is abhorrent. And you'd think that feeling would be stronger on the continent the Nazis nearly destroyed.

 

The Europeans have been hit harder with austerity measures than the US has. Economic downturn has been one of the driving factors by support for Fascism historically. The limited resources situation is always used to justify increasing the social safety net but making sure that only those who are "ethnically" from the culture get the benefits. As a result, obsession about determining people's race increases, immigration crackdowns are called for, and racist street violence increases. The idea is that the country is in distress and requires a "strong" (more accurately, authoritarian) social movement to make sure that benefits are not "misallocated."

The obsession reached extreme levels in Nazi Germany because they actually started caring about geneology of people. In addition, they argued for the killing of the elderly for the simple reason that they were weak and not able to contribute as much to the Reich (that is, the State) as young Germans.

Fascism has a lot of initial appeal because it's cloaked in "socialist" or at least "social democratic" language that tries to get the working class on board.

Fascists are also extremely unimaginative. Back in the day, Great Britian had its Adolf Hitler. His name was Sir (yes, he was knighted) Oswald Mosley. He pretty much copied everything Hitler did. They had the salute Hitler used. (And every out of the closet fascist uses it now.) Hitler had his brownshirts, and Mosley had has blackshirts. The march/anthem of British Union of Fascists was set to the music of Horst Wessel Lied. Present-day fascists use many of the same symbols, customs, and arguments.

It's extremely important to look at the whole fascist ideology, because as I stated, they appropriate the language of the left at many different times.

Just because being openly a Nazi or fascist is anathema in America doesn't mean that we don't have it. Americans just have to be careful about how they sell it (as fascists always were, even in Mosley's day). We definitely have our share of fascists, and it's important to be able to recognize them and do damage to them.

 

well the republicans are basically just free market crypto-fascists. & the problem is that anti-semitic thought has been replaced by hate of the Roma [in eastern europe] and islamophobia [western europe]. islamophobia is especially apparent because of the horrible stereotype of islam being synonymous w/ terrorism. when bigotry can build like this, parties supporting discrimination against the hated will obviously increase

 

so, in a way, there is an element of hate groups taking advantage of a bad situation, and using it to recruit; which ironicly, is how terrorist groups like al quiada operate: they said we must attack the west for what they considered an occupation by american forces and their allies in islamic holy land... the grotesque part being that they were refering to the afgan/ussr war, in which osama bin laden was working with the US forces and intelligence aparatus against the USSR, then he turned on us when he no longer had a need for our financial and militeristic aide.

We are seeing the same problems with right wing hate groups, and right wing militant groups in america. we saw it when clinton was elected: a sharp rise in anti-goverment militants, leading ultimately to waco, followed by Oklahoma City Bombing. they died down considerably after the supreme court declared Bush the president during the 2000 elections. since Obama has been elected, we have seen an even more dramatic rise in right wing hate groups and militant anti-goverment groups, and the open racisem of these groups (and of numerious elected officals in all levels of american goverment, from municipal all the way to federal) is staggering this time around.

its funny; the right wing is responcible for pushing austerity, which has been proven time and time again to be a destructive failure, and it is the right wing lunatics who get angry when the conequences of austerity predictably rears its ugly head.

 

Nazism is an easy way of life for the stupid. Don't know why bad things are happening? Its the gays, the jews, the muslims, the immigrants!

---------- Post added 10th Mar 2013 at 10:00 AM ----------

Political extremism, or any kind of extremisim, is bad.

 

right wing extremism is bad.
extremism in the name of equality is never a bad thing

 

No, that's emphatically not the case.

 

Hmm, left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism are both similar in that they're rather authoritarian. Think of it as a circle rather than a political spectrum.

People often veer away from the centre when there's a crisis, and Greece's position is the worst in Europe so Golden Dawn's progress isn't too surprising.

I know a Greek who is ridiculously racist towards Turks to the extent that we find it funny, but to him it's very serious.

 

Not all left-wing extremism is the same. Anarchists and Stalinists are worlds different in terms of authoritarianism. Incidentally, anarchists are fighting the Golden Dawn, whereas the Stalinists are not.

The political circle is an attempt to say that fascists and communists are one and the same.

 

Fascism happens everywhere, even in areas that are not economically hard hit. Historical reasons also features heavily into the narrative, particularly if the nation has some sort of "traditional" enemy that provides as a convenient scapegoat.

It's happening right now in Mongolia and Russia, where Asian immigrants are attacked and lynched.

I do agree with Pret Allez though that when looked at closely, the ideology and policies advocated by fascism bears very similar features to communism.

---------- Post added 10th Mar 2013 at 05:07 PM ----------

I disagree. All things in moderation.

 

That's not really what I said. What I said was that fascism appropriates the language of socialism in an attempt to look like a genuine left-wing movement.

 

I did Nazi this coming and this post makes me Fuheurous

 

You have literally no understanding of communism, at all.

 

Golden Dawn want to make lamps of their skin? What a way to garner support... be creepy as BALLS.

I feel so bad for the Greeks for having to suffer this atrocious group.