With growing alarm, I've watched armed white men protesting around the US. But, as a Hawai'i resident, I've wondered specifically about the reoccurring presence of aloha shirts. Here is a THREAD explaining the odd and concerning story behind it 1/13

The aloha prints are not just in shirts, but also in far right iconography, like this. What does the aloha spirit of the islands (along with igloos?) have to do with right wing militias? Read on... 2/13

It all starts with 1984 film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Wait, what? Don't worry, it will kind of make sense... 3/13

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo was a flop but became a cult film because of how bad it was. Fast forward to the 2010s and the rise of online message boards like reddit, 4chan, and 8chan where the film became a meme 4/13

On these message boards, the far right has found a place to joke around with each other, create memes, but also to make plans. One reoccurring theme is the idea that the government is coming for their guns 5/13

The fear that guns could be taken away has led to talk of a second civil war, fueled by conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones at infowars 6/13 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/07/03/a-short-history-of-alex-jones-claiming-that-the-left-is-about-to-start-a-second-civil-war/

As can only happen on the internet, the talk of the second civil war merged with the Breakin' 2 memes, spawning Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo. Eventually, "the Boogaloo" became the term for the second civil war 7/13 https://www.adl.org/blog/the-boogaloo-extremists-new-slang-term-for-a-coming-civil-war

As memes are wont to do, Boogaloo evolved further into other cognate phrases, like Big igloo 8/13

Another cognate for Boogaloo is Big Luau 9/13

Sometimes Big Igloo and Big Luau merge, but they always mean boogaloo, which means civil war 2 10/13

So when you see people at far right protests with igloos and aloha attire, they are saying they are ready to fight the second civil war 11/13

In the second civil war, they will trade muskets for for aloha print AK-47s 12/13

I know this all seems like a joke and easy to dismiss, but that is part of their strategy to lure in young men and downplay what they are talking about. It is deadly serious. These men are preparing for a civil war. end/13

Thanks to @wehearttrash for explaining this to me