Comeback of the Hitler Youth haircut worries Jewish and progressive groups fearing intolerance

[Democrats Ramshield]

My Daily Kos diary:

(Written by an American expat living in the European Union)

I understand the Daily Kos is a serious online community where important progressive issues of the day are discussed. So why am I writing a diary about (yes you guessed it!) hairstyles! Well, quietly some would say insidiously a Nazi haircut known as the Hitler Youth haircut has made a comeback (with 74,000 hits in Google) according to urban legend from German speaking rural Switzerland to becoming a global presence. This has alarmed Jewish groups around the world to the point where they have began voicing concern at the rise of intolerance and anti-semitism that is coming back to haunt Europe in this 100th anniversary year of world war 1, which is 75 years from the end of world war 2. Now recently just last week these fears were realized by the populist Swiss SVP party in an anti-European immigration referendum passed by a majority of Swiss voters.

(Please click on the link below to read the full article. Thank you.)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/18/1278477/-Comeback-of-the-Hitler-Youth-haircut-worries-Jewish-and-progressive-groups-fearing-intolerance?showAll=yes

[ismnotwasm]

1. I don't blame them

Anti-Semitism is the most insidious of bigotries there is. HOW I wonder, did this get popular?

[leeroysphitz]

2. It could be worse...

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Yeah, those little moustaches aren't coming back, ever.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Sparks are still around.

.

[KatyMan]

3. Man, one of the links on the page

took me to a Daily Mail (I know what the Mail is) article talking about the time Russell Brand mentioned Hugo Boss and Nazis in a Boss sponsored event, and holy cow did the Mail whitewash Nazism. I couldn't believe what I was reading! And the comments...jeebus. Sad sad world we live in.

[El_Johns]

25. Really.... "Hugo Boss wasn't evil, he just didn't do enough to stop evil happening...sure, he used

forced labor, like other manufacturers -- but is that evil????"

[Lizzie Poppet]

5. That haircut's been fairly popular for at least two decades.

You see it all the time in goth/industrial circles, and probably not one in a hundred intend any association with Nazis whatsoever. It's kind of like skinheads: only some are actually racist assholes, and there are skins who are explicitly anti-fascist.

[1000words]

7. Yup ... a bunch of us had it in high school, in the 80s

Back when I was listening to The Smiths, The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen. I've seen it ever since.

[AgingAmerican]

11. I remember skate punks with that haircut

Back in the mid 80s. Shock value, most likely.

[malaise]

6. What haircut should worry the Palestinians? n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

9. How is that relevant given the topic is about Jews, not Israel? n/t

[Scootaloo]

17. The topic is about a haircut, actually

No Jewish or progressive groups seem to be involved, despite the promises of the thread title.

[Behind the Aegis]

20. So the conflating doesn't bother you here? If it is just about a haircut, how is Israel relevant?

[Scootaloo]

22. The conflation of the haircut with antisemitism does bother me, since it's bullshit

[Behind the Aegis]

23. But the other one is cool. Yeah, thought so. n/t

[Scootaloo]

26. Gosh, you're so smart

I don't even have to say something, or anything remotely like something, for you to grab it and run with it!

It's like we're connected somehow, you and I!

[rug]

8. I'm still pissed off at the short hair that came back in with Reagan.

I think this case might be overstated.

“We usually refer to this cut as the ‘undercut,’ and there are gazillions of variations, for boys and girls,” Ms. von Taube said. “We are aware that non-Germans refer to it as the ‘jugend’ ” — German for “youth” — “or the ‘Hitler’ even. Maybe it’s a case of selective perception.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/fashion/a-haircut-returns-from-the-1930s.html?_r=0

[MADem]

27. That hairstyle was popular in the twenties and thirties, though it wasn't quite as long on top.

I think it was cut short on the sides and back so a lad could go a bit longer without having to see the barber.

However, if people are seeing it as a problem, and youth are wearing it to emulate what the perceive are a "cool" group of kids, then some education is in order.

This won't be the first time someone has misappropriated a style or symbol and used it without knowing the history. Hell, the Germans managed to destroy the swastika, which had a benign connotation before they besmirched it.

[dipsydoodle]

10. I never did like Morrissey anyway.

.

[Scootaloo]

15. Could be worse

[dipsydoodle]

16. I thought Jimmy Darmody in Boardwalk Empire was pretty cool though.

In general this is the most absurd subject I've ever come across on DU.

[Scootaloo]

18. ...I actually kinda like Skrillex' videos

Can't stand the music without them, but gimme some visual aids to punctuate, and it's not bad!

[dipsydoodle]

28. Believe it or not I'd never heard of him

but I just flicked through some of his stuff on Youtube and yes the videos are good.

[MADem]

29. Poor thing--he was certainly standing behind the door when the looks were handed out...

and he's not helping the situation any with his fashion choices, either, I don't think.

I hope he's musically talented, can sustain his career, or has saved what he's made to this point, because he's not going to earn a living modeling!

[Jesus Malverde]

31. It is worse....I read he gets 450K a gig to play vegas clubs...

[dipsydoodle]

13. or Justin Bieber

.

[Scootaloo]

14. Pointed out on the other thread about this that this is rather far-fetched

The sole source for Democrats Ramshield's piece is Arutz Sheva. Now right off the bat, Arutz Sheva isn't especially known for not being a shitty rag - to the point where its use as a source was generally frowned upon on DU2.

Reading the article, we find that it's just a haircut. The author of the Arutz Sheva article is the one calling it "the jugend" (which just means "the boy" in German, which is why they call it this in Germany, hurp durp) and accuses the barber in the piece of "refusing to say it." The article then quotes an unnamed "jewish activist" - who given the standards at Arutz Sheva could be the author of the article himself - who links the haircut to some antisemitic car vandalism in Brooklyn. No evidence that the vandals were wearing it. No evidence that people getting the cut do that shit. Just the assertion that because both exist they MUST be connected! By this logic, neckbeards are causing global warming. Shave your throats, hipsters, you're killing us!

First, the notion itself is ridiculous. The haircut is popular because this dink is popular;

Or perhaps because people think Ragnar Lothbrok looks cool:


Secondly, the end result is that this basically becomes an Israeli version of World Net Daily once again trying to scare Jews, on hte basis of absolutely nothing.

[backscatter712]

19. I smell unsubstantiated panic.

I suspect that most of the guys out there with curtained hair (that's the hairstylist's name for that doo) haven't ever heard of the term "Hitler Youth Haircut".

[dipsydoodle]

32. I doubt that Lawrence of Arabia had heard of them either.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

21. OMG, I HAD THAT HAIRCUT!!!

At two different times in my life! When the wearers start espousing the Nazi line instead of just trying to have fun with a hairstyle I'll start to worry.

[JI7]

24. not sure if there is anything to the haircut but it does seem like there is a rise of hate against

various minority groups around the world and including in europe.

[MADem]

30. There is this (false) impression that floats around (and is prevalent here) that "Europe" is this

liberal, socialist, progressive haven. It isn't. They often do better on "social safety net" issues, but that, in and of itself, doesn't translate to other issues near and dear to those with a liberal heart. There's a shitload of xenophobia in Europe, there are a lot of immigrant-haters, "throw-'em-out" advocates, the whole "Keep Britain British" crowd, for example, and the Le Pen bunch in France....it's pretty ugly. Culture bigots, religious bigots...and they can get violent as well.

[HangOnKids]

33. Hey Welcome Back!

It is just so cool when a poster who joined YEARS ago decides to come back, especially with a heated post like this. GROOVY BABY!