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I'm careful about "You're not a true goth if you're racist." I've been going to goth clubs and shows my entire adult life and have met folks who have shockingly backwards and ignorant views, some of whom have been in the scene for decades. Goth isn't the fast lane to wokeness 1/?
Please also consider that a not insignificant amount of bands have used extremely questionable imagery and lyrics in their music, from Rozz saying the N words to Death in June's fascination with facism, to Funker Vogt recruiting a new singer with white nationalist ties 2/
I mean, look at what happened recently. And One, who have been a scene darling since the 90s, outed himself as a Nazi sympathizer on social media. He tried to deny it, but it was a bullshit denial, and many folks in the know said they weren't shocked when the truth came out 3/
Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist walks around with a "Kiss my rebel ass" path on his jacket. They hired Joe Letz to play drums for them live, all while wearing black face. Combichrist are no outsiders. They were the "it" band in this scene for an extremely long time. 4/
Thomas Rainer of L'ame Immortelle and Nachtmahr was outed years back for being a neo-Nazi sympathizer (as if that wasn't obvious from the imagery Nachtmahr uses), in addition to being virulently misogynistic. No one really seemed to notice at the time. 5/
Anyway my point is that many beloved and celebrated figures in this scene have held and still hold views that aren't exactly progressive. Being goth doesn't insulate you from prejudice. Acknowledging how goth has sometimes been used to push backwards beliefs is important. 6/end
