What’s with all the swastikas around?
I’ve seen multiple swastikas in New Zealand this week, and I feel like I need to talk about it. Swastikas like the Nazi logo, not like the Buddhist peace sign. Is this normal? In New Zealand? It’s kind of scary! Is that what they want me to feel, scared? It’s kind of stupid, too.
The thing I love most about New Zealand is we’re a fairly laid-back country whose biggest issues seem to be freedom campers and the rugby team. Swastikas are not laid-back, they’re the opposite.
The first swastika I saw this week was in the South Island. I hope this isn’t a common thing in the deep south, but on my last two trips down I’ve seen two swastikas and that’s a 100 per cent swastika strike rate, which is too high in anyone’s books.
Admittedly, this is a small sample size, and I loathe columnists and talkback hosts who constantly base arguments on a very limited experience, and the next thing you know there are five years’ worth of articles about how window washers are ruining our communities.
Both the swastikas I saw were on people, both were potentially Nazis or white supremacists, and it kind of made me sad to think these sorts of people exist in New Zealand.
But obviously they do. Who else is voting for the National Party! (That was a joke, Dad, and other National Party members, chill out . . .)
I’ve been in Gore this week, we don’t need to discuss why. I actually always enjoy Gore, and I was enjoying it again until a guy in town, who had a massive swastika tattooed on the side on his shaved head, walked past me.
I didn’t take the time to ask too many questions, he looked like the kind of guy who didn’t want to be bothered. If tattoos can be used for intimidation, rebellion and personal freedom, then this one ticked ‘‘all of the above’’.
The trip before that, I was in a bar in Haast, and I interviewed a hardcase motorcyclist who I thought was very funny in a crass sort of way. About an hour after the interview I saw him again and he’d put on his motorcycle jacket and it was adorned with a large swastika on the front. In a moment of absolute stupidity, I decided to call him out on it: ‘‘Bro, what is that!’’ I pointed! ‘‘Don’t worry man . . . I’m calm.’’
There’s no stronger argument against white supremacy than meeting a white supremacist. They don’t often seem very ‘‘supreme’’.
The second swastika I’ve seen this week (that’s right this is a very confusing way of writing, I set this column up to be about a rare double swastika sighting, then I told you about another, bonus, swastika that I confusingly didn’t mention wasn’t one of the two promised swastika stories. You’re welcome.)
The second swastika I’ve seen this week (those last brackets were so long even I forgot where I was up to, I had to start again) was on a Mongrel Mob member on Facebook.
I know almost nothing about the Mongrel Mob. I grew up in Nelson and thought ‘‘grey power’’ was a gang but, based on the name, didn’t sound like my kind of guys.
To put it lightly, this Mongrel Mob member had two massive swastikas tattooed on his face. Two! Surely one would have done the trick. Maybe it’s a status symbol, a way of saying ‘‘Hey, I’m never going to get a job!’’
Call me naive but I never realised the Mob was associated with Nazi culture.
It should have been obvious – the colours and the helmets – but it’s weird to see a person of colour who’s into being a Nazi?
I don’t want to sound like a white supremacist here but I assumed being a Nazi was a white thing… for obvious reasons.
My point is, I don’t think anyone should be getting a Nazi tattoo.
What if you decide to stop being a Nazi?
I hope my recent experiences are not a growing trend.