Thinking about how the Nazis made it basically impossible to reclaim the symbology they appropriated or indeed their own Hugo Boss uniform contributions to fashion.

When I'm done feeling sad about that there might be something to explore there.

I've talked before about how fascism is all rhetoric and no philosophy. Another way to phrase that might be that it's all aesthetic and no substance.

Can't help but feel like the importance of aesthetic to fascism is precisely why we can't reclaim its aesthetic trappings.

Paradoxically the Swastika is so tightly bound to Nazism not because of what it represents but because, under the Nazis, it doesn't really represent anything. A symbol for symbol's sake.

We can't divorce the aesthetic from what's underneath because there *is* nothing underneath.

Those of us who aren't old enough to remember (most of us) saw it in real time with Pepe.

Did Nazis take to Pepe because of what it represented or because they just really wanted a symbol for the sake of having a symbol?

I mean, the answer is obvious.

It's also what's going on with this. You cannot reclaim fascist aesthetics because fascism is, by its nature, only aesthetic. https://twitter.com/chrizmillr/status/1198360081152143360

That's a key part of why "ironic" fascism tends to unironic fascism very quickly. Because when ironic fascism apes the aesthetics of fascism, it is not leaving anything behind. At that point it is just fascist propaganda.

And it's also all tied into fascism's syncretistic populism. When the symbols don't represent anything, you can project your own representation onto them and trick yourself into thinking the people using those symbols are speaking for you.

The corollary to this is that fascism being "all rhetoric, no philosophy" amply demonstrates how rhetoric can be and is harmful, and to say you're being targeted "just for having an opinion" or "just disagreeing" is merely to pretend otherwise.

I should probably point out that I might be feeding a common misconception here.

Hugo Boss *manufactured* SS uniforms (using POW slave labour) but did not, in fact, design them. https://twitter.com/CatisinSpace/status/1198586924501544960

This is an exceptionally good case study on what I'm talking about here. https://twitter.com/COSAntiFascists/status/1307534242457489410