ATOMWAFFEN DIVISION’S DIVISION: THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT SATANISM ISN’T

On the most recent episode of Black Mass Appeal we unfortunately ended up talking a bit about Atomwaffen and the Order of Nine Angles.

Nobody particularly likes talking about these things. But it was an episode about ideology, and current events are stirring up bad histories.

Right now, Atomwaffen assholes are hot to tell everyone they aren’t Satanists. And in their ire I see an opportunity.

Because, just in time for VE Day on Tuesday, we also want everyone to know that Nazis are not Satanists. It’s annoying even having to say this, but thanks to a few bad actors the point requires articulation.

 

In case you didn’t know (lucky bastard), “Atomwaffen Division” is a Texas-based Nazi terrorist group. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls them:

“A cadre of men hellbent on leaderless cell-oriented terrorism. Members believe that violence, depravity, and degeneracy are the only way to establish their dystopian vision of the world.”

So, the sort of people big rigs run over in every Mad Max movie. Except unfortunately real, and yet uncrushed.

In January, ProPublica implicated Atomwaffen in an Orange County murder, and there have been other killings. In short, they’re a bunch of real shit waffles, as Tabitha termed them on Black Mass Appeal.

So what does any of this have to do with Satanism? Well, according to the Daily Beast, some shit waffles are also members of the Order of Nine Angles. And other shit waffles don’t appreciate that shit.

ONA is a UK-based Satanist group of indeterminate age/indeterminate everything. Whereas most Satanists spend half our lives disavowing stereotypes about violence, ONA’s kampf is to cultivate a super evil image, Nazi imagery included.

The apparent ONA website (which I’m intentionally not linking to) explains, “the Order of Nine Angles advocate culling [murder] under the guise of ‘satanic sacrifice’, and every new initiate is required to undertake a culling.”

Quoting that graph essentially guarantees some FBI agent will eventually read this. That in mind, I’d just like to idly advertise my interest in Robert Mueller’s autograph before we continue.

ONA and Atomwaffen would seem to go hand in glove, or maybe hand in latrine in this case. But the Daily Beast says some nutsy Nazis are actually quitting the shit waffles to protest ONA involvement:

“Higher-profile Nazis started posting Satanism allegations, driving a rift between Atomwaffen and others on the extreme right.”

 

Reading the infighting material—which I’m also not linking to—gets weird. It’s hard to tell what the falling out is even about, except it appears some Nazis just find the idea of Satanism offensive at face value.

And you know, I’m very okay with that. In fact, it’s quite gratifying that, sans prompting, actual Nazis now identify Satan as antithetical to Nazism.

This is as it should be. But some people, largely those motivated by ignorance or fear, will reflexively associate the myth of the devil with the worst human elements anyway.

And to be honest, certain idiots RE: the Church of Satan previously thought it was funny to chase after fascist imagery, evidently because they were bored with mere devils. Or were closet fascists all along, hard to say.

Even today, careless Google searches lead curiosity seekers to Joy of Satan, a fringe group of Nazi Satanist conspiracy assholes who believe aliens created white people. (I don’t even know.)

They’re a tiny group and, like ONA, even other Nazis hate them. But they’re weirdly adept at snagging the unsuspecting.

Neopagans have an even harder time with attempted Nazi infiltration. “I am so sick of those questions,” an exasperated Norse pagan told the New York Times in March, after having to deny Nazi associations once again.

Batting down prejudices and assumptions over and over gets tiring. Satanic principles like compassion, wisdom, and justice are highly allergic to creeping fascism, but many people are primed to make the most of just the assholes.

This time, though, life handed us an easy one. Actual Nazis do all the work for us and just disavow the devil. When a chance like that comes along, I say strike while the iron cross is hot.

That leaves the ONA out in the cold as far as we’re concerned. But as history teaches us, the cold tends to take care of such characters sooner or later.