'Ere we go, again.
The Warhammer Hobby is, and always has been, full of nazis. From the unapologetically Stormboyz fan to the more direct "I've painted my Imperial Guard as Waffen-SS but please don't tell my boss" type of guy.
I've been thinking about this post a lot in the last 10 days. Wasn't even sure if I should publish it or not. But as the tittle said: 'Ere we go, again.
The Warhammer Hobby is, and always has been, full of nazis. From the unapologetically Stormboyz fan to the more direct "I've painted my Imperial Guard as Waffen-SS but please don't tell my boss" type of guy. People that are very serious about Black Templars. Space Wolves' fans with a couple of tattoos too many. Bearded Dwarf collectors who paint iron crosses on their bikes. You know the stuff. Because you know how they look at you at the FLGS.
Oh, but don't worry. This time nobody was seen wearing swastikas on their clothing while playing the biggest Warhammer event in some southern country.
Recently I have had the misfortune of witnessing something on a Discord channel (something I've seen dozens of times since I started painting stupid little orcs 30 years ago). The details are not important, but this basically involves a nazi symbol on a sculpt. The sculptor asked if they should leave it or change it, some of us didn't want it, others were neutral (more on this later) and a particular guy started to be very vocal about keeping that symbol on the model.
The problem with this is that I had that guy on watch for months when this conversation took place, and I knew what he was going to say before he did (and I wasn't the only one). He posted nazi-themed orcs on his instagram account last year, and made inappropriate comments now and then.
Works like this: They something explicit and the minute you respond to them you're being [insert your favourite word for snowflake here]. That's an old tactic, and it works every fucking time (mark 8:01 on the next video) because moderators and authors are usually cowards. Dogwhistles. We know. They Know.
For some reason YT thinks that teaching about spotting nazis isn't appropriate for kids. Click and subscribe.
And at this point, everything followed the old script:
- He's a Buddhist.
- That is performative outrage.
- This is satire.
- People is offended by everything nowadays.
- What abut the communist Grots?
- You don't get the joke.
- And so on.
Some of us left. Others got angry but kept paying their subscription. Others just laughed because Orcs should be offensive.
This is how you turn your community into a nazi bar. And as every Warhammer nazi bar since the 80's, the bad actors stay and a part of the community leaves (and the nazis are counting on that).
Fuck nazis. That's it. That's the post.