I’m sure a lot of people have been googling that group this morning. All I really knew about them was that they were a far-right, quasi-militant, white nationalist organization that is balls-out for trump, and of course even more so now that their defacto Commander-in-Chief gave them instructions to ‘stand by’ on national TV.
I read their wikipedia page, but I don’t want to go too far down the Google rabbit hole and start seeing website ads for “White Pride” t-shirts and such (hopefully it’s not already too late for that). So their history is very intertwined with events associated with trump and trump followers such as the Portland protests and the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville which trump said had ‘very fine people on both sides’. Roger Stone apparently wanted to hire them as bodyguards for an appearance at one point.
Anyway, got a couple questions from the wikipedia article:
According to the article, there are 4 levels of initiation, one of which is to “get a tattoo and agree not to masturbate”. That was apparently amended eventually to the slightly more reasonable “no masturbating more than one time in any calendar month”. What’s the deal with that? Is it something about staying frustrated and angry for the cause instead of being happy and relaxed, or is it considered more ‘manly’ to have intercourse with a real live female instead of masturbate? ( I should mention that the group is all-male, if the "Boys’ part didn’t give that away).
Another prohibition is “no cargo shorts, opioids or crystal meth”. Ok, those last two seem sensible to ban. But cargo shorts, WTF? Do far-right nationalist white supremacists just consider cargo shorts a fashion faux pas, or is there some practical reason for that?
It’s not unusual for cults to regulate the sorts of clothes that members can and can’t wear as a means of marking them out from the common run of people. Sikh males wear turbans, males in various Jewish sects wear kippahs, women in various Islamic sects wear burkas, and so on and so forth.
As to the masturbation restriction … I got nothing. Unless it’s supposed to instill some sort of discipline? If you can control a natural human activity that much, you can instill and expand your control of the person obeying you?
I did the same thing today. I was trying to see if we had an estimate on the number of members, but I didn’t see one. I hope we can outnumber them after Trump loses because I fear we may need to.
I’ve posed this scenario before but can now be a bit more specific: what do y’all think would happen (or will happen) if Trump sends out a tweet at 3am EST sometime in early December that just says “go boys”?
If history repeats, the brownshirts are in for nasty surprise, specially their leader.
But after the SA came the SS, so the rest of us is also in for a nasty surprise, only a different one.
Wanting this mob as bodyguards for an appearance sounds like about as good an idea as contracting the Hells Angels as security guards for a Rock’n’Roll concert.
OK, I was curious about the ‘no masturbation’ thing-- inquiring minds want to know, and all that. So I started up Opera with VPN, opened a private browser window, went to duckduckgo.com and searched the question.
According to the group, it is meant as a way for members to get off the couch or away from the computer and interact with members of the opposite sex. Or the same sex, as the case may be-- surprisingly they’re pro-gay.
But I also read the real reason is that masturbation bans are popular among organizations that seek to enhance group loyalty- “Masturbation is, on a fundamental level, a radical act of individuality”. Not good when group-think is being encouraged.
I read the same Wikipedia article as well, and I at least got the impression that somewhat like BLM, there isn’t really a single specific organization with a clear structure, and that as such, the details of beliefs can vary (like whether white supremacism is an up front thing or whether it takes a back seat to other aspects of their belief system). Maybe I got the wrong impression?
How much more American (and manly) can you get than naming yourself after a showtune from a Broadway musical based on a Disney movie? I mean, really, this accusation of un-Americaness is truly outrageous!