Every period has its fads. The frug. The Pet Rock. Fainting.
Go back about five years to 2017. What was the hot, hip, happening thing then? Apparently, Nazi Punching
There was an obvious problem here. While punching Nazis had historical precedent, at least in four-color comics, America didn't and doesn't have a large enough population of Nazis to make this really sporting. We had Milo Yiannopoulis, a gay guy with a jackboot fetish. Also Richard Spencer, an even gayer guy with a jackboot fetish, and one who got a highly publicized sock in the jaw.
But serious, hard-core, unambiguous fascists? It's one of those areas where demand outstripped supply. And apparently still does. A large, clearly-marked enemy exists in the Twitter-Facebook fever dream, but not so much in real life.
2 comments:
The first fad I ever recall, not that it was the first ever, was the one for hula hoops some time in the mid 50s. I think every kid in North America had one and some people owned several - there were contests for who could twirl the most of them at once.
I remember the frug and the pet rock craze, although I had no idea about how the latter began until I read your link. I knew too about fainting being associated with the corsets women wore* in the 19th century, but I never considered exactly how much clothing they wore or that arsenic was in so many products. One is left to assume people have always been somewhat too receptive to bizarre ideas. How about tattoos these days?
The weirder aspacts of faddish behavior can be a lot more serious simply because they actually have real effects on our lives. Doctors go through periods when they favor particular diagnoses** or treatments; corrections departments allow men in women's prisons; educators adopt unconventional teaching modes; the military accepts each next new thing in weapons technology.
I must say I haven't really kept up with the whole Nazi scenario - at least not since the history of ww2. The link you posted from Mother Jones was informative about disturbances caused by bigots but it's true they aren't very prevalent in the real world. The serious, hard-core, unambiguous fascists are now those guys in the Ukraine who are supported by the American gov't. Maybe the local yobbos should try their luck with the Russian military.
* Portrait painters often used greenish shades in their images of women, not because it made them look more attractive, but because their livers were folded in half.
** You know which one has been popular recently.
"You know...for kids!" The basic hula hoop activity probably goes back a lot further than that. Wagon wheels that had lost their spokes, or the like. The challenge of the toy industry was to reinvent it in a way that didn't scream rural poverty.
Corsetry had something to do with the fainting, I'm sure. It's very easy to fasten them too tight and compromise your breathing and/or digestion. (Weird to think that the green wasn't just an expressionist choice. Well, Munch painting people as green with sort of melty faces was. I hope.) Tattoos as a fashion statement have passed from sailors to carnies to punk musicians to everyone. I wonder if the next generation will consider them passe because of that. A book I read, A Visit from the Goon Squad suggested as much.
That doctors can be arrogant and superior towards their patients has been common knowledge from the beginning of time. The last few years have been revealing in just how much they can fall into public manias, or going along with the crowd. It does make one think. Part of it is that having professional credentials, being smart, and being wise are three different things. You might think someone's education has brought them all three, when it's maybe gotten them one.
That's the thing. You meet a lot of people who have abrasive opinions, maybe some unacceptable prejudices. There aren't that many all-out bigots of the violent type. A lot of people treat these things as interchangeable, which gives them a chance to feel important. And of course the presence of actual Nazis or something close to them in Ukraine is something no one here wants to talk about. But every aspect of the Ukrainian war is drenched in wishful thinking.
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