This Must Stop

[Content Note: White supremacy.]

Here is a thing that Dianna E. Anderson, Alison R. Parker, and I all worked on together, and it's a really important piece to me, and I hope you will read and share it: "Nazis were 'stylish,' too: The dangerous hipsterization of white supremacy."

One of the methods by which authoritarian power asserts itself is through appearance — a clean-cut young gentleman in handsome attire is less likely to be a red flag, as humans often expect people who hold extreme views to look extreme.

The Nazis had a very specific style guide aimed at normalizing their appearance and reducing any sense of fear around members of the Nazi guard. Fashionable, well-designed clothing was specifically chosen to reassure the citizenry: The Nazis looked like the guy next door, not like a degenerate or a monster. Their outer appearance belied their inner depravity, which allowed the latter to metastasize that much more easily.

...There is a demonstrable history of oppressive movements using fashion-forwardness as a means by which to insinuate themselves, and media replicate this history at our collective peril.

There is much, much more at the link.