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I do actually agree that the Nazi witch hunt has got a bit out of hand. To me, not knowing the guy personally and only having screenshots of his Instagram account to go on, Simon's obsession with all of that stuff makes him seem more like a try-hard edge lord that should have grown out of it decades ago than a full blown neo nazi. However, regardless of intent, posting symbols such as The Wolfsangel, which despite having other historical meaning, is almost exclusively neo-Nazi imagery, is fucking gross. It's easy to pass things off by saying "it's meant to be provocative" when you're never likely to be affected by racist violence.
With that in mind, I think concentrating solely on Simon's sketchy online presence has really over-shadowed the issue at hand, which is that Temple Donuts have attempted to co-opt the BLM movement as a publicity exercise, whilst knowing full well that a member of their management staff has been the perpetrator of racist abuse within their workplace. If they were really so concerned about systemic racism surely they would have addressed it when it arose in their establishment first?
Of course, this is all just my take on the subject and I'm no more well informed than anybody else who's got access to Instagram.
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ltc
Gregory
I mean, I can only say as much as I know of the guy directly and through good friends, and that’s that he’s not at all a neo-nazi.
It seems almost beyond parody that this has started over the last few days in response to Temple doing a benefit donut for BLM..! (not their first benefit for good political causes too)
Absolutely agree that the racist bullying from another member of staff is wholly unacceptable and that definitely could have dealt with that waaaay better. Their apology posted seemed to get that (social media pages now deleted - but quoted in a local Leeds paper).
But ultimately this seems to be a wilful conflation of taste in imagery/interests with someone’s political stance - and I can’t get behind that, especially when none of these people know the person they’re accusing. And double especially because there’s some really spurious connections going on (e.g. Black Sabbath logos using the pointy S’s) - reminds me of the satanic panic in the 80s!
It’s one thing to constructively criticise a small business’ HR practices or someone’s personal bad taste; but another to embark on a character assassination that leaves their doors plastered with ‘nazi scum’ graffiti, whole online presence brigaded with 1 star reviews, and their survival up in the air.
I think a lot of my strong feelings on this come from seeing myself hypothetically liable for the same accusations by way of a (now covered) Burzum tattoo, shirts, a load of other BM records of questionable taste, and ’edgy’ humour as a younger person - all the while having been a total lefty. Might have been a dick/fool, but certainly wasn’t a nazi.