While it’s clear from this video that kiwitedferny holds the Nazi Party’s WWII leaders in contempt, methinks he protests the protests too much. kiwitedferny’s collection wanders straight over the borderline from fascination to fetish. Obviously, the Kiwi YouTuber has the right to collect Nazi knives, guns, flags and such. But the idea that a Nazi machine gun is “morally neutral” is nonsense. You can no more strip Nazi weaponry of its scary-ass context than you can burn a Koran or an American flag without expecting a little heat from the Arab and/or American community. I think kiwitedferny needs to think it out again. You?
Robert, I enjoy your blog. You have one the best gun blogs on the web. But you sometimes stray into being judgmental simply for the sake of it.
Maybe for page views in some type of shock jock type strategy, intentionally goading the audience to either lash back himself or to righteously condemn others. I really don't know.
As for this guy, what is the problem as long as he isn't hurting (or advocating hurting)anyone. And inanimate objects are all morally neutral, whether they are a machine gun used by the Nazis or a spoon used to feed the homeless.
Honestly having read this post without knowing the source I would have bet on it being by an anti-gun blog rather than a pro gun blog (based on the emotionality of it).
Thanks for the kind words. I swear to God: I just call 'em like I see 'em.
Swastika flags have nothing to do with shooting or hunting. Neither do 'Blut und Ehre' daggers from the Hitlerjugend. Neither do English translations of Mein Kampf. Outside of a skinhead rally, the only place where you can find all of this revolting Nazi fetish gear is a gun show. Why is this?
Sarah Brady will beg to differ, but guns and hunting are as American as apple pie and baseball. We all agree that Nazism is not. Why, then, the connection between gun shows and Nazis? The simplest explanation is the most troubling one: gun shows are the best place to sell Nazi fetish gear because that's where the most Nazis (or their modern white supremacist equivalents) congregate. I hope there is a better explanation, but if there is it eludes me. In this regard, I am comforted that the vast majority of shooters take one look at these Hitler shrines, shudder slightly, and walk away.
It's no secret that the shooting sports are a predominantly white pastime, but it has always worried me that the shooting community includes an element with such a prurient interest in Nazi memorabilia. It can't be explained by reference to some kind of 'historical interest.' If you want to know about history, READ ABOUT HISTORY. I own literally dozens of books about World War II. A fascination with racist trinkets is not 'historical curiosity.'
This revolting profusion of Nazi fetish gear gives the rest of us a bad odor, even when it represents only a small minority of the shooting community. This Nazi taint discourages others (non-males, non-whites and non-Christians) from taking an interest in firearms, or participating in the shooting sports, or from joining the NRA. My wife will happily join me almost any time I want to go shopping, but she won't join me on my favorite shopping trip (gun shows) because she's disgusted by the Nazi vendors and their demented shrines to Adolf Hitler. Just like the creepy little fellow in this video.
Conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. spent most of his career 'weeding out the kooks' from the conservative movement. Divorcing the John Birch Society, anti-Catholic fanatics and the neo-Nazi fringe from the principled intellectual conservatives was crucial to establishing the legitimacy and viability of the conservative movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The shooting community would do well to follow this successful example.
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