Blink 1488 and other stars in the broad ideological constellation of white nationalism

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year as a fly on the wall in a handful of different online white nationalist communities and have written very little about it. It’s exhausting work, but it’s also work that I — given the highways of identity that flow through the intersectional me — am more well suited to do than most. In other words, this is sort of white people’s work. Below is a teaser, of sorts.

There are an overwhelming number of things to know about white nationalism, including that it is essentially synonymous with Nazism but not synonymous with white supremacy. It is a movement that is driven by intellectuals with PhDs. It is tied up with the Flat Earth Movement, which is deeply entangled with ideas about the globalist cabal and the idea that “Hitler was actually not that bad a guy.”

Active downplay of the significance of the Holocaust is a central historical project. This is why when people like Marjorie Taylor Greene lean into Holocaust denial it functions as a dogwhistle to this wildly resilient way of making sense of history called white nationalism. This is why its important to know about what white nationalism is and what it isn’t — to be able to hear the dogwhistles when they sound.

On the topic of sense-making, there is a Wikipedia alternative called Metapedia that functions as a Wiki for the white nationalist brand of historicizing the past 300 years. The English version is expanding everyday, but the Hungarian and German versions are already gigantic.

White nationalists are pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, which is confusing given the way in which anti-settler colonialism folks in the United States now support Palestine. This is because core to white nationalist belief is that there is a cabal of jewish people (bankers) who are secretly running the world, pulling the strings, sending people of color to the United States and other white countries in order to destabilize their politics. Sound familiar?

For them, the central political drama in the United States is not between white folks and people of color — which is generally the case in our mainstream political drama — but instead between white people and the jews. Between gentiles and jews.

White nationalism is great at producing culture. If you want to read more specific sort of non-profit content about this way of thinking, the National Alliance is the longest lived white nationalist group around. If you want to see the way in which white nationalism spiritualizes this ideology into something that resembles religious culture check out the Cosmotheist Church — where of course you can also buy books and CDs and other cultural items. Or even, if you want like, basically ongoing news and essays and current events, the National Vanguard is your place.

A “good” introduction to white nationalist ideology is probably Blink 1488’s album Put On Your Cloak and Burka. It is a Blink 182 knockoff that’s lyrics are chock fully of meaning and connection within the white nationalist frame of meaning. If you’re not familiar with the number 1488:

The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the “14 Words” slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The second is 88, which stands for “Heil Hitler” (H being the 8th letter of the alphabet).

And so, here we are. I’m going to try to write more about this, but just wanted to get this teaser out there in the public with tons of links so that folks can get acquainted. The moral tension of like, do we address terrible things or do we silence them, I fall very much on the side of addressing. Because these sorts of ways of making sense of the world will proliferate are proliferating, and have proliferated here before.

Exhibit A is this picture below: a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden where George Washington has become a shining symbol of Nazism in a way in which Enlightenment Democratic and white nationalist symbology become one in the same.

Let me know if you want to hear more about this or if you think this shit is terrible and exhausting even to read about.