FIRST SOCCER, NOW CAGE FIGHTING : HOW NAZI ARE INFILTRATING POPULAR SPORTS TO RECRUIT FOLLOWERS

 

Neo nazis in Europe have taken to sports like ducks to water.  But it is not for any good of healthy reasons.  

First the German government warned junior soccer leagues to be on the lookout for Neo-nazi elders that hovered around the leagues to recruit young boys and generally to spout off their propaganda in the hope of appealing to some of the young children.  

Now, they are courting young men in an arena that is much closer in ideology to their own.  Although cage fighting has become an immensely popular sport, its violence does appeal to those who have extremist ideals.  

Many might howl and protest at this fact, denying the connection between its extreme violence and certain ideological tendencies, but the incredible violence of the sport, which is in all effect a gladiator sports that mines those very base instincts that were supposed to be left behind a couple of millennia ago, is not a very edifying discipline.  In Germany it is banned from television altogether. 

At some of these rallies, the participants chant what sounds like 'hooray' but in fact is a Neo nazi chant that right wing extremists use to spur on the fighters.  

The government of Germany has already taken notice of this new trend and are worried, because unlike soccer, the spectators of the bloody sport are much more closely aligned with the right wing extremists' credo. 

And the Neo-nazi know very well in what arena they are playing.  They are using cage and free fighting to further their propaganda.

The free fighting entire message and aura is that the weak must succumb, and in a violent way.  This draws people in that can easily be inflamed by right wing rhetoric, because it closely matches it.

In some cases the Neo-nazis are using sham companies to act as 'organizers' of the fights and then set up illegal fighting venues where their own recruits fight to impress the spectators.

There is a dual purpose in this.  In learning how to fight in such a brutal way, the right wing 'organizers' are also priming themselves physically and mentally for street combat.  In fact they have spelled out just such intentions in a video released recently in which they talk of a "A fight as a physical showdown represents more than just an athletic contest between young men. It is the expression of an inner urge, a perception that sets us apart from other people."

The government believes that these free fighting events are a panacea for neo nazi recruiters because the 'mixture of rituals of masculinity, caramaraderie and violence is extremely appealing." 

The separation between the right wing's glorification of violence and martial arts that are not connected with any political current is not always discernible.  But watchdog groups and government officials know all too well the lessons of the Hitler propaganda machine to be fooled in thinking otherwise.

Partial Source: Spiegel 4.12.13