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Notes -
Formal Satanism is or was symbolic opposition culture. Invoking Satan, wearing all black and a pentagram or whatever, was for Lavey and co a way of scaring off normies. Today, it just doesn't have the same impact. I probably interact with someone with a pentagram tattoo on a pretty regular basis in an ordinary service job, like a barista or a Target cashier, and no one would frighten me by saying they're a satanist.
On the other hand, having a Swastika tattoo pretty much marks you out as a true oppositional figure in society. Even when I was looking for HVAC contractors for my dad, when I saw the guy with a swastika and SIEG HEIL on his knuckles, I felt the need to report that to my father as telling me something about his character and history. It marks someone as a true opposition figure in society.
And in the same way that Satanism has only a tenuous relationship to Satan or anything supernatural beyond using it as a normie-repellent, esoteric hitlerism will often have only a strained relationship to the National Socialist party, beyond using swastikas as a normie repellent. We already see this in use in several places.
Very good point. Worth noting the resulting parallels to 80s Satanic Panic. There definitely seems to be an element of choose the form of your destructor in that the dominant culture defines the form of its opposition.
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Thanks
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