Thread by @gremisch

Since the mass shooter du jour seems to have made extensive use of identitarian vocabulary in his "manifesto" it is a good idea to have a look at what GI is actually doing /thread

Briefly put they are an attempt to rebrand far right ideology and make it more appealing to a modern mindset. Their methods are run of the mill marketing tools - nothing super innovative but very effective. So how do they do it?

1) New appealing logo. They use the spartan lambda - in it's laconic simplicity it is similar enough to far right symbolism of old and yet offers a link to pop culture (300 is cool innit) and virility. That is important - they need something to put on all their flags.

(the fact that Sparta was a fascist regime that inbred itself into obsolence is peak irony)

2) Changing the vocabulary. "Classic" far right vocabulary has a bad ring to it - even among potential sympathizers. The easiest way to change that is to use new words to express the same sentiments. I will stick to the most prominent one here: "The great exchange"

The myth of the "exchange" of the "proper national" population by a new one. "Austausch" in German. It means literally the same as the naziterm "Umvolkung". But without all the baggage.

(European GI praise Hungary as the champion of preventing the "great exchange" - again peak irony since the Magyars literally performed a "great exchange" in the pannonian lowlands when they arrived in Europe.)

3) The ole "both sides" trick. They propagate ethnostates and try to soften the bad aftertaste the term leaves behind by insisting on how "everyone would profit" from it - "if all the migrants would go back to their states we could all be one happy family of ethnostates"

This again is a way to shoehorn GI in a less destructive narrative.

4) Charity. They often eg give out food to homeless people. That's a storytelling doublewhammy: It both again shoves them into a more positive light and sends a message to possible sympathizers - "we look after OUR people.".

Now look: Charity is good. But this is a marketing move. I wouldn't give them any more credit for it than I would give a corporation for having a Facebook AD budget.

So what are the most effective countermeasures?

1) Limit their airtime. Any exposure beyond citing the hard facts of their ideology is useful exposure to them. German and Austrian media handle this reasonably well - the tune they sing rings uncomfortably familiar to us.

Media in the rest of Europe not so much. And in the US they have a national network spreading their narrative.

That is probably the main reason why GI in Germany and Austria is relatively tiny. A certain Austrian GI YouTuber is eg. little more than a running gag at home.

(The only time i remember seeing a GI member being interviewed in Austrian media was on a small channel and he was literally called a "nazi a**hole" on the air.)

2) Do not use their vocabulary unless you expose its heritage in the same breath. Everytime any semi important person uses GI vocab, they all go full chub because it's free propagation of their ideology.

3) Educate yourself and others. There are excellent databases exposing GI in much more detail and much better than I can - my favourite is the @doew_at that does super important work. Their file on GI (in German mind you) can be found here: doew.at/erkennen/recht…