Yeah, ambiguity seems to be a finely cultivated tactical pose within the milieu in question. No doubt we shouldn’t fall into scaremongering about supposedly politically-incorrect views, and no-guilt-by-association will always be a defense that gets levied against criticism - but a pretty strong pattern of associated stances and interests does start to appear the closer that we look into the various names mentioned. Mattias Gardell’s 2003 work Gods of the Blood gets into it in depth. @maledictus also mentions Robert Taylor, a cohort of Moynihan’s - who is basically a missing link between the John Birch society, (not to mention 60’s reactionary organizing in the context of anti-civil rights violence), the militia movement of the 80’s/90’s, and more recently, certain corners of industrial music subculture.
I think it’s aimed at reinforcing their own sense of elitism. This is where he seems to fall, generally speaking. Probably read Oswald Spengler too much for his own good.
Not all industrial music, of course! 
I’ve not read Gardell’s book, I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the link.
Indeed! Agree that seems to be a defining component in contemporary edgelord-ism.
Oh - for sure, (and if it wasn’t near-and-dear I’m sure I’d care less for the whole topic). To me it’s more about pointing out a certain cynical set of cultural forces that seeks to gain influence/adherents from a culturally energetic and often (mainstream-wise) socially disenchanted population of (largely) younger people, i.e. music fans.
You’re welcome, glad to share interesting historical puzzle bits.
Yeah, this is a very interesting phenomenon to me, too. Going over the intro to Gardell’s book, it gets at some of the stuff I’ve been ruminating on vis-a-vis the nation-state, consumerism, globalization, and the various and sundry ways that people have been attempting to build up alternatives to what Thatcher believed there was no alternative to.
Have you read Jon Savages Teenage? It gets into some of the same weeds, giving us a good pre-history to the concept of a teenager…
My whole professional life is the historical puzzle bits!
Or (and this applies to books, too) obtain it used. Thrift stores and used bookstores do not forward money to the author/artist, nor do they show up in sales figures, but it can let you direct that money to a good cause or just a local business. Maybe you can even end up supporting something or someone the artist would hate.
You can’t do anything about the person who bought it in the first place, but it still means you don’t add to the sales numbers.
No, I’ll have to check that out - looks interesting. Am definitely keen to see more UK perspectives, esp. going back through the interwar era.
Cool! Yeah, it’s been at least a decade since I read it, so a lot of points are fuzzy - might have to go back myself, and the current accelerating crisis(s) should certainly present an interesting lens.
Resistance Through Rituals is another great one (ed. by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson), then if you are interested in postwar youth/subcultures in GB.
I think it probably makes it even more critical to address… answers that “so what” question I was asked through my grad school career!
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