(Also, for context, here is the full video I reference in this. )
ok but what does the rune mean?
because ok, nazis use it, that’s pretty bad, but it’s like saying “hey, nazis started wearing blankets thrown over their shoulders so everyone who covers themselves with a blanket is actually a nazi or supports them”.
nazis have stolen a lot of symbolism over time, even swastika was stolen so you see it embroidered in old photos of table cloths and shirts and coats etc etc long before 19th century even started. and frankly why should we give our symbols away just because some assholes use it?
that rune also reminds me of one of our symbols which means a birch tree or a gate. a ‘door’ so to speak.
so when i listened to three minutes of some rando whining about “but nazis” with literally NO other argument except that 'nazis use this’, all I can think of is:
“nazis use doors! if you use doors, you’re a nazi too and evil! that’s… (*fake wince) Not Great!”
So okay, let’s address your points here.
What does the Othala/Odal rune mean? It means heritage, family.
Now if you know anything about neo-Nazi and white supremacists in Heathen spaces, your red flags all just went up. Because, y'know, dog whistles.
Let’s look at the history of the usage of the rune. Now yes, there are two versions of this rune. A version with serifs and a version without serifs. Now, if you see the serifed version – it’s 100% Nazis. Literally that version has only been used by Nazis. The version without serifs, which can be found in the Elder Futhark (but interestingly not the Younger Futhark), can be used in context without association with white supremacists.
But we’re not talking about it in context of just using runes.
We’re talking about its use as a symbol on its – something that almost exclusively has been done by white supremacists.
Dog whistles like the Othala/Odal rune because folks like you try to make excuses for their use. That’s what lets Nazis in the door.
And you just told me you are not a safe person.
I’m a Norse pagan who regularly uses/ reads the Elder Futhark runes.
I would love to reclaim Othala from the Nazis.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to go out wearing an Othala necklace, or get an Othala tattoo. Anyone who sees me with the symbol will immediately assume I’m an unsafe person, unless they’re a Nazi assuming I agree with them.
No one will know I wear it as an act of reclamation, no one will assume I’m taking it back. They’ll assume I’m unsafe and avoid me, just as I will actively avoid anyone I see with the rune.
Reclaiming something doesn’t come from wearing a symbol and saying you’re taking it back, it comes from conversation and education like Trae’s video. (Provided people actually want to be educated, but that’s a whole other issue)
Reclaimation of appropriated symbols from nazis generally has four parts:
- Severance – You stop using the symbol.
- Disappropriation – You educating your community about the symbol’s original meaning and its use as a nazi dog whistle.
- Banishment – Your community uses the symbol to identify and banish nazis. The Nazis learn that normal people can hear the dog whistle, so it’s no longer useful to them. They change strategies and stop using it.
- Reclaimation – Once the nazis are gone, and I mean good and gone, with some heads on spikes as examples for the other nazi fuckwits, and only once the nazis are gone, can your commuity start the hard work of maintaining vigilance in your community to keep nazis out while slowly reintroducing the symbol used under its original context.
I’m not a part of this particular community, but the vibe I get from the guy in the video is that this community has been stuck struggling with the disapprapriation-banishment stage for several decades now, and starting reclaimation efforts before getting rid of the nazis properly opens the door for nazis to come back in because one of the tricks nazis use to keep themselves in communities is the 'respectable nazis’ will lurk in the background, let the banishment happen and “start the reclaimation” process early to be a rallying point for previously banished and new nazis to get a fresh foothold back in the community.
It’s an imparative to the process of getting rid of nazis in a community that any and each early reclaimation attempt is shunned by the community, because early reclaimation attempts are often not authentic attempts to reclaim the symbol: THEY ARE THE DOGWHISTLE WORKING, and it’s imparative in getting rid of Nazis that we not let their dogwhistles work.
