Posted on 07/12/2023 12:10:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
White Supremacists' Latest Scheme to valorize violence and hypermasculinity has gone digital
It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.
Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.
Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In “Mein Kampf,” Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with “fanatical love of the fatherland,” would do more for the German nation than any “mediocre” tactical weapons training.
SNIP
It’s caught the attention of intelligence authorities, especially in Europe, where various reports have noted the role of combat sports and MMA in radicalizing and promoting far-right violence. A series of collaborative efforts between governments, national sports associations, and local gyms in places such as Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom have introduced intervention and prevention programs.
The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition.
The U.S. is comparatively far behind, which will only become more and more problematic, especially since the phenomenon is growing in the country, building on the established fight-club culture of MMA far-right extremists. The leader of a Maryland skinhead group, for example, once ran a gym to “recruit and train white supremacists in mixed martial arts.” Four members or associates of the racist, violent Rise Above Movement (RAM),
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
For the left, martial arts are ok only for women.
Oh no I’ve been too self indulgent and lazy this year I’m becoming a Libtard shoot me now 😳
I thought the left claims that conservatives are fat and overweight and it’s only lefties who work out and take care of themselves.
You think the left can’t have multiple, contradictory thoughts at the same time?
Here we go again, another liberal idiot author saying Hitler was "far right." How can a totalitarian socialist dictator be right wing? He was as far left as you can get. Total control over his nation, dictatorial, tyrant...all left wing.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an author and expert on extremism.
No author but she IS an extremist.
What a load of nonsense and excrement.
These people are insane. I know I keep saying it, but there doesn't seem to be any bottom to their madness.
WTh? I mean really WTH! I’m no fitness buff at all. I lack motivation for one thing for another I default to lazy when faced with the prospect of sweating. Still I know the importance of physical activity for basic health and even more for optimal health.
It is especially important for diabetics like me (I am trying to get in the habit despite what I wrote above) for lowering blood sugars. To put some sort of political spin on taking care of one’s health is just ludicrous.
And a vegetarian, to boot.
Drivel.
Whatttt, you mean they don’t always make sense.
How brainist of you.
Has someone photoshopped Jack LaLanne or Charles Atlas with swastikas on them?
“The leader of a Maryland skinhead group, for example, once ran a gym to “recruit and train white supremacists in mixed martial arts.”
When was that? 1980? They’re reaching really far up their butts for this stuff. Sounds like SPLC crap.
Physical fitness creates self confidence.
The Left does not WANT men they cannot push around.
The left has been absolutely obsessed with body fitness for decades.
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