Lexicon

Friend, good luck. What follows is going to be much in the way of frequently-seen neo-Nazi & white supremacist lingo and logos, in generalized and local terms. As this is meant as a component to a field guide intended to familiarize readers with the language and symbols contained within, this means we’re presenting a lot of awfulness without redactions. Be advised that there will be a presentation of at least one antisemitic caricature in the form of the “Happy Merchant”.

We’ll frequently be referring to neo-Nazis, neo-fascists, white nationalists, et cetera as “chuds,” taken from 1984 sci-fi horror film Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. We’re cribbing a lot from the GPAHE Global Extremist Symbols Database and Wikipedia (to which we’ll link out to for their more robust entries on the same topics) as well. Bolded terms are defined elsewhere in the document, or synonymous with other terms.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive lexicon; rather, it is a good deal of symbols that I’ve encountered as a researcher in New England. I also use this as an index of the weirder terms I’ve coined to describe types of people, ideas, et cetera.

Contents

1. Our definitions
2. Language & typography
3. Conspiracy theories
4. Handsigns
5. Literature & other media
6. Symbols
   1. generic Nazism
   2. generic contemporary neo-Nazism
   3. generic fascism
   4. co-opted neo-pagan symbols, runes, & other religious symbols
   5. co-opted flags & other symbols
   6. fictional flags from Hearts of Iron IV mods

Our definitions

• Nazis: members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the Nazi Party for short, active from 1920 to 1945, and their contemporaneous collaborators worldwide.
• Neo-Nazis: people looking to revive Nazi ideology after the fall of the Nazi Party following Hitler’s suicide and the end of World War II.
• Fascists: Palingenetic ultra-nationalists, i.e. people who believe that their country was great at one time, but that it’s being undermined or poisoned by an invasive force within it, and that it is necessary to burn everything down to expel the invasive force, purify the country, and make it great again. There is no logical endpoint to fascism that doesn’t end in genocide; fascist movements can also operate like death cults, whittling down their own populations in the name of an ever-narrowing definition of purity. In the United States, the prevailing fascist myth is white cis-gendered right-wingers versus everyone else (black & Hispanic Americans, non-white immigrants, non-heteros & the gender non-conforming, Muslims, and “globalists,” generally recognized as a euphemism for Jewish folks). All neo-Nazis are fascists, but not all fascists are neo-Nazis. If it hasn’t crossed your mind yet, “Make America Great Again,” in the context of deporting immigrants to regions where they may be killed or enslaved, ending DEI initiatives, and restoring Confederate monuments, is inherently a fascist slogan by this definition.
• Neo-fascists: Generally “neo-fascism” just means political theory akin to Italian fascism that’s expressed post-WWII. It’s worthwhile to point out that a unique feature of neo-fascism in the United States is a tendency to recognize that relying on only white, cis-male right-wingers for their membership pool tends to limit recruitment numbers, and a willingness to loosen racial, gender, or other purity standards to get more bodies as a result.
• Alt-right: A far-right movement attempting to launder white nationalist and neo-Nazi thought into the mainstream as an alternative to modern conservatism, active from the late ‘00s to the late ‘10s. Might have served its purpose.
• A12: Shorthand for the first Unite the Right, a protest rally of the alt-right in Charlottesville VA during August 11th-12th, 2017. Several people, largely antifascists and counter-protesters, were hurt in widespread street violence. More counter-protesters were injured in the vehicular attack that killed Heather Heyer.
• J6: Shorthand for the January 6th 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, which evolved from a “Stop the Steal/Save America” rally following Trump’s election loss in 2020 into a failed coup against the federal government.
• Accelerationism: For our purposes, accelerationism is a reactionary right-wing ideology that calls for the intensification of racist terror attacks, assassinations, and sabotage (particularly of electrical grid networks) for the purpose of inciting a race war intended to result in a white ethnostate. This is the mode of operation espoused by neo-Nazi thought leader and convicted ephebophile James Mason in his Siege essays.
• gooberwaffen: I mean this to describe a specific strain of neo-Nazi slacktivist poster/keyboard warrior who doesn’t much show their face in public but is constantly, extremely online. I coined it to specifically describe types like Ian Langille and Jake Colwell.
• post-irony: In our context, post-irony is a bad-faith/insincere/ironic presentation of ideas that one holds in good faith and sincerity, frequently accompanied by expressions of insincerity (or what passes for irony among right-wing Twitter) in order to obfuscate which parts of the expression are sincere and which parts are not. Post-irony is the front through which chuds can speak openly of their politics among folks with poor boundaries and judgement, and normalize those same politics in their social circles. These motherfuckers think they’re slick, but ultimately a chud’s post-irony amounts to little beyond a shitty remake of your bigoted uncle backtracking with “can’t you take a joke?” after saying something noxious. This one is a matter of personal opinion more than anything, given that true post-irony sometimes moves past meaning itself and what we’re talking about more resembles gaslighting, but it’s my opinion.

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Language & typography

• the 14 Words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Coined by neo-Nazi David Lane, a Klansman and member of the Aryan Nations, before he was sentenced for his role in the assassination of Jewish talk show host Alan Berg. Sometimes represented in Roman numerals as XIV.
• 88: Alphanumeric code for “HH”, generally meaning “Heil Hitler.” Be on the lookout for anyone using a pair of 8s to replace letters in a screenname or a word, like NSBM band “M8l8ch” does to the name “Moloch”.
• 1488 or 14/88: a combination of the two above concepts.
• 6 gorillion: This is a Holocaust denial meme, implying that the amount of Jews murdered by the Nazis is a made-up number. There are a few versions of this one, including folks who try to dissect the “implausibility” of the Holocaust by trying to math out the logistical difficulties of baking 6 million cookies. [1]
• 6MWE: This one goes right in the opposite direction of Holocaust denial by declaring “6 million wasn’t enough”. [1]
• Anti-antifa: Opposition to antifascism, which is just pro-fascism after survey testing. Folks against antifascists are sorta kinda maybe definitely on the same side as the neo-Nazis by default! The chuds sell anti-antifa stuff on their merch, right alongside swastikas and antisemitic caricatures. Comes in a few specific flavors, including “Good Night Left Side,” a poor imitation of “Good Night White Pride”. [1] [2]
• Blood & soil: a Nazi slogan that espouses how an ethnic body politic should be united in their settlements; that is, white land to white blood. Popular among the alt-right and neo-Nazis, and one of the chants at Unite the Right.
• The Boogaloo, the Boog, the Big Igloo, so forth: A hypothetical second American Civil War, envisioned as a race war by certain far-right, anti-government, militia movement extremists. Some of these people are also accelerationists, looking to make this happen. The term has been co-opted from the “electric boogaloo” slang, which is generally meant to represent sequels, itself derived from 1984 breakdance musical sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
• The Day of the Rope: A hypothetical mass execution of “race traitors” who would stand between American neo-Nazis and their genocide of non-white people. A reference to neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce’s The Turner Diaries, a fictional and boring account of a race war in the United States. In the book, this massacre occurs on August 1st, 1993. [1]
• DNB: A dogwhistle used in low-effort racist trolling. Most people recognize it as the “drum & bass” musical genre. Trolls in the orbit of the 4chan Extended Universe, however, mean it as “dead n█████ babies”. The goal is to get people to say they like DNB, unaware that they’re talking to a racist who doesn’t mean music. Popular with the Soyjak.party set. Not apparently referenced on either Wikipedia or GPAHE, but the most relevant citation to be made is directly at the Soyjak.party wiki; let’s not.
• dysgenic: This is a eugenics term, relating to the degradation of future generations via introduction of undesirable traits and poor adaptability. A neo-Nazis’ idea of dysgenic qualities (particularly sloping foreheads and recessed chins) will almost always be closely aligned with their racist idea of Jewish physicality, best represented by the Happy Merchant. Using the word itself during a frank discussion on eugenics is meh; its use as an insult appears to be a chud thing.
• Hyperborea: An idyllic land in Greek myth that has become Atlantis for chuds, in part thanks to the Thule Society and Julius Evola.
• the JQ: the “Jewish question,” wherein an antisemite erroneously concludes that Jewish people maintain power over media, finance, and politics in a stranglehold after asking themselves what the people who hold that kind of power worldwide have in common. Also an overt reference to the Holocaust, intended as the Nazis’ Final Solution to the “Jewish Question”.
• NS: National Socialist, used by folks who prefer to not refer to themselves as neo-Nazis.
• NSBM: National Socialist Black Metal, a neo-Nazi subgenre of the black metal musical genre.
• Noticer: This has a couple of contexts. One version: someone who believes in race science, that social outcomes related to race are mostly due to biology, and that white people are naturally superior (which is horseshit). This is as coy and cowardly as every other chud dog-whistle, given how socially unacceptable it is to call oneself a race scientist nowadays. Another version: implicitly, someone who has asked themselves the JQ, after “noticing” that many figures in media, academia, criticism, etc. have Jewish surnames.
• Promat: “Propaganda materials,” the euphemism used by a number of chuds to refer to their slaptags, posters, graffiti stenciling, and other real-world vandalization efforts. Used most commonly by Patriot Front, who may have coined the term. Essentially chud agitprop.
• Red-pilled: The choice of choosing an “unsettling truth” over the bliss of ignorance, inspired by the red-pill/blue-pill dilemma presented by 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix. For chuds, this means succumbing to antisemitic paranoia and blaming Jewish folks for everything! Can also refer to misogynists succumbing to antifeminist paranoia and blaming women for their romantic failures. Comes in hopeful “change is possible, we can make the world better” white-pill and nihilistic “we are inevitably doomed no matter what we do” black-pill variants, the former of which has extra connotations in white nationalist parlance. Also comes in a siege-pill variant; see the entry on Siege under the “Literature & other media” section for more detail.
• “Ride the Kali Yuga“: a phrase that essentially means “embrace being the bad guy, here at the end times.” Occasionally juxtaposed with the Nazi totenkopf in online spaces. There’s an extensive backstory to the phrase involving Savitri Devi’s contributions to esoteric Nazism and how she posited that Jewish folks were responsible for the end times. I’ve written a brief essay on the topic elsewhere.
• Skinhead or skin: Co-opted terms that neo-Nazis into hardcore music use to describe themselves. Originally a multiracial subculture composed of working-class youth in 1960s London. Anti-racist skinheads recognize neo-Nazi skinheads as “boneheads“.
• TND: “total n█████ death”. Comes in TKD and TZD variants, meaning “total k███ death” and “total ZOG death” respectively. [1]
• The (((triple parentheses))) a/k/a the “echoes”: Placed around the names of people believed to be Jewish. Coined by fans of neo-Nazi podcast network The Right Stuff. Hosts of TRS podcast The Daily Shoah, stating that the historic actions of certain Jewish families would make their names “echo throughout history,” would use a soundboard to apply an echo effect whenever speaking the name of someone Jewish on air. Fans created the typographical version in order to express the idea on social media.
• WWG1WGA: “Where we go one, we go all.” This is a QAnon slogan, intended as a rallying cry.

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Conspiracy theories

• Anti-white: In our terms, a conspiracy theory that imagines anti-white racism in predominantly white countries. While white people can certainly experience racial prejudice, racism is top-down and structural, and can only occur to white folks in predominantly non-white countries or, interestingly, if the Jews are in fact in control of everything (which is of course an asinine claim to make, and how this conspiracy theory is emblematic of the standard chud’s persecutionist outlook). As such, white people cannot experience actual, fully-enforced-by-the-apparatus-of-the-state racism in the United States. May or may not have some proximity to the idea of “reverse racism,” a thing people used to talk about that also doesn’t exist.
• Blood libel: A centuries-old antisemitic canard that accuses Jewish folks of using the blood of murdered Christians, particularly children, in occult rituals and the baking of matzoh bread.
• Cultural Marxism: A conspiracy theory that lays the blame for modern progressive movements (like feminism, alternative sexualities and gender identities, political correctness, and identity politics) at the feet of “Western Marxism” as taught at the Frankfurt School. Has its roots in cultural Bolshevism, which was the Nazis’ version and itself barely removed from the conspiracy theory that blamed the Jews for the Russian Revolution of 1917. Also has shockingly modern equivalents in the fabricated canard/perjorative versions of critical race theory, wokeness, and diversity, equity, inclusion. Alleged sophist Jordan Peterson calls it “postmodern neo-Marxism”.
• QAnon: An interconnected series of conspiracy theories and a community that, overall, accuses the Democratic Party of being Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles, and that claims convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump may be the only person in power able to stop them. Given that the part of QAnon that accuses participants in the murder of children specifies that blood is harvested from children to produce adrenochrome, and there is significant amounts of overlap between QAnon and the Zionist-occupied government conspiracy theory, this is simply blood libel for the terminally online, a new generation of braindead thought termination poorly xeroxed from old antisemitic canards. Be cautious of anyone who tells you to “trust the plan,” “do your own research,” or “enjoy the show”; depending on the context, they might be a QAnon person. Accusing people in power of “adrenochrome harvesting” and/or using the WWG1WGA slogan is generally a dead giveaway that the person you’re talking to is a QAnon nut.
• White genocide and the Great Replacement: Two highly similar xenophobic & anti-immigration conspiracy theories that both more or less claim that demographic shifts toward non-white populations are intentional efforts by local governments for the ultimate goal of ???. Just as likely to spill from the mouth of Tucker Carlson as it is to show up in a chud terrorist’s manifesto following their murder of several innocent people. Crybully bullshit.
• ZOG: Standing for “Zionist occupied government,” another braindead conspiracy theory concerning Jewish folks secretly controlling world governments.

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Handsigns

• America First handsign: Best represented by the ☝️ emoji: index finger pointed upward, fingers otherwise curled into a fist, palm of the hand facing outward. Originally coined by Woodrow Wilson to express a desire to keep the U.S. out of WWI, “America First” is currently an expression of general policies of American protectionism and nationalism. Neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes’s show and political action conference are named this, and no small number of chuds flash this handsign to signal affinity with his fandom.
• Okay sign: Yeah, this one.👌 Generally performed in this specific context with the three fingers flared. Back in 2017, 4channers tried to run a psyop (read as: extended braindead prank) to convince the Internet that said handsign had been long co-opted by the white power movement. This resulted in the white power movement co-opting the handsign. If someone flashes it during conversation or uses it as a gesture, that’s whatever. If a fleet of people who are largely white flash it during a photo, they’re assholes.
• The Roman salute, a/k/a the seig heil: Everyone knows this one. Right arm fully extended forward and raised upward at an angle, with palm down and fingers touching. Occasionally will be accompanied by the right hand being placed over the heart before extending the arm. Sometimes rendered as \o or o/ in text, which is shit because that’s a perfectly good greeting wave from a little ASCII guy.

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Literature & other media

• Hearts of Iron IV: Ugh. HOI4 is a World-War-II-centric grand strategy video game, not unlike a really granular version of the Risk tabletop game. Players can choose to play as any country during WWII, including Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. This has attracted a lot of chuds into the player base. Dedicated members of the fanbase have created their own modded versions of HOI4, including Kaiserreich (set in a post-WWI era where the Central Powers won) and The New Order (set in a post-WWII era where the Axis Powers won) that involved designing a lot of fictional nations. These nations have flags: see the “fictional flags from Hearts of Iron IV mods” subsection below for examples.
• The International Jew: Soooooo American car manufacturing magnate Henry Ford was an enthusiastic antisemite, and populated his Dearborn Independent newspaper publishing office with the same. Ford would dictate his antisemitic ideas to some of his employees, and those employees would be responsible for expanding his diatribes into publishable articles and sourcing support material. The International Jew is a four-volume collection of essays published in this manner. It was eventually translated into various languages, including German in 1922. Hitler cited Ford as an inspiration in Mein Kampf, kept copies of The International Jew in his personal office, and awarded Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle (the most prestigious medal that Germany could grant to a foreigner at the time) in 1938. A biographer of Ford’s claimed that news footage of Nazi concentration camps, and Ford’s horror of understanding his contributions to it, gave Ford the stroke that killed him in 1947.
• The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: A fabricated text central to WWII-era and modern antisemitism, which purports to be an actual document outlining a meeting where worldwide Jewish leaders plot to take over the world.
• Revolt Against the Modern World: The most popular work of Julius Evola, an occultist & fascist philosopher favored amongst modern chuds. Evola described himself as a “superfascist,” was clearly racist, and hinted that he worked with the Nazis in his writing. Evola viewed “tradition” as a supernatural and external knowledge base, and also believed that the Kali Yuga of Hindu cosmology was upon us. Be wary of anyone discussing Evola with anything akin to glowing reverence.
• Siege: a collection of essays by man who keeps catching charges for dating underage teens & neo-Nazi James Mason, a favorite of modern neo-Nazi accelerationists. Tactics espoused within include lone wolf terrorism and resiliency targeting (especially of the power grid) with the aim of plunging the U.S. into a race war in the “ensuing chaos” (quotes because people generally help other folks during disasters, no matter what the chuds think). Fans of Siege popularized skullmasks, depicted later in this missive, and picked up his admiration for the murders of Charles Manson (neo-Nazis who make a big deal of Manson’s “Helter Skelter” are likely fans of Mason’s). Mason’s writing heavily influenced several groups of militant accelerationists, including Atomwaffen.
• The Turner Diaries: William Luther Pierce’s poorly written book about a fictional and boring account, of a race war in the United States leading to the genocide of non-white people worldwide following the white power movement conquering the planet, that has yet somehow managed to capture the limited imaginations of chuds everywhere. Kinda feels like having bad taste is a requirement of modern neo-Nazism?

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Symbols

Remember: unless it’s an overt Nazi/fascist symbol or in combination with several other symbols depicted here, offer someone wearing one of these symbols some grace. The reactionary right co-opts symbols all the time, and some folks are either just not aware until they’re told or defiantly obstinate about not conceding symbols to the chuds.

generic Nazism

The regrettable classics. Modern neo-Nazis frequently incorporate these symbols into their designs, overtly or covertly. Wikipedia’s pages on Nazi symbolism, SS runes, and the List of Waffen-SS divisions are required reading, and more complete than the truncated versions found here.

	Nazi swastika		SS bolts, the symbol of the Nazi paramilitary Schutzstaffel; often replicated online using the ⚡ emoji
	SS totenkopf		Iron Cross
	sonnenrad, a/k/a the “black sun”; this version appears to be the one more favored by modern neo-Nazis		Nazi version of the Reichsadler, the German heraldic eagle
	sonnenrad variant		winged version of the Odal/Othal rune
	sonnenrad variant		broken sun cross / circular swastika, used as part of the sigil for the Thule Society
	SS Waffen insignia shield, blank. Notched shields like this as patches or tattoos are generally a dead giveaway that someone is a neo-Nazi, no matter what kind of symbol is inside of it. Multiple neo-Nazi groups use their own variants, including Atomwaffen Division, Injekt Division, NSC-131, subgroups within the Tempel ov Blood, and others.
	insignia of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, “Totenkopf”		insignia of the 12th SS Panzer Division, “Hitlerjugend”
	Insignia of the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division, a/k/a the “Dirlewanger Brigade“. The 36th was the unit commanded by war criminal & SS officer Oskar Dirlewanger. It was known for its brutality; thousands of civilians were killed in their atrocities. Dirlewanger was also a child rapist and sadistic torturer. Today, this patch is worn by neo-Nazis who think they’re hot shit!

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generic contemporary neo-Nazism

Symbols and characters popular with modern chuds.

	the white nationalist version of the Celtic Cross, formerly a symbol used by Nazis in Hungary		Straight laces, white or red, on black leather boots (usually Doc Martens) are a common apparel identifier amongst neo-Nazis. Another style lift from the 1960s skinhead subculture, some anti-racist skinheads refuse to cede it to the boneheads and continue wearing it.
	the insignia for Siege, the collection of James Mason’s brain drippings on decentralized terrorism		the skullmask half-face gaiter, popularized on the Iron March forums by folks fond of James Mason’s work, not always a neo-Nazi terror thing, but when paired with other symbols here is almost definitely a neo-Nazi terror thing
	The “Happy Merchant“ is a derogatory antisemitic caricature designed by white supremacist Nick Bougas, under his “A. Wyatt Mann” pseudonym, circa 2001. It sees a lot of play and variations online; some version of it is featured in no small amount of neo-Nazi propaganda. The GDL have their own version of an “I Did That” sticker featuring a version of this caricature. Side note: if you’ve ever seen antifascist researchers give Patton Oswalt side-eye, it’s because he’s pals with Bougas as well as Jim Goad, a favored writer among the alt-right. Beware conspiracy theorists who rub their hands together specifically to punctuate insults about specific people, in a way reminiscent of the Merchant’s hand posture: sometimes they’re making an attempt to invoke this specific image, and thus signal to other chuds their opinions of the other side.
	The “Smug Frog” Pepe. Pepe the Frog is a 2005 webtoon character created by Matt Furie for his Boy’s Club webcomic. Pepe was co-opted by the far right in 2015; this is the meme neo-Nazi influencer Richard Spencer was trying to explain when he took an elbow to the face in 2020. Not all versions of Pepe are meant in affinity with the alt-right, BUT this smug version frequently signals just that. Moreover, people imitate this pose in photos to signal being chuds of some stripe. Pepe’s creator is notoriously furious at the co-opting of his intellectual property. [1] [2] [3]
	The “Groyper” is a variation of Pepe the Frog, imagined as a toad. Whereas Pepe CAN be deniable, the Groyper variant is almost exclusively a neo-Nazi thing. Fans of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes call themselves the “Groyper Army”; they called their campaign of shrieking provocateurism at those perceived as lesser conservatives (namely Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA org) the “Groyper War”. Let them fight, I guess? Headaches all around.
	The Kekistan flag is a 4chan /pol/, thing, related to the co-opting of Pepe the Frog with lore so stupid I refuse to share it here. It was intentionally designed to resemble the Nazi war flag of the German armed forces, save with the Nazi symbols and color scheme swapped out for ones matching 4chan’s branding. Folks claim it was originally intended as a symbol to wave in push-back against political correctness; a lot of terminally-online neo-Nazis seem to like this flag a lot. A few of these showed up at Boston Free Speech events as well as Unite the Right and J6. Anyone who calls themselves an “esoteric Kekist” is telling you they’re a neo-Nazi to your face, is planning on calling you stupid if you point this out, and thinks leaning hard into “post-irony” will be enough to save them.
	The flag of Rhodesia, a white supremacist timocracy that later became Zimbabwe after 15 years of civil conflict, a symbol for the brutal oppression of black folks by white folks. Worn as a patch by the Charleston church shooter.		The flag of the Union of South Africa, used during the era of South African apartheid and thus another symbol for the brutal oppression of black folks by white folks. Also worn as a patch by the Charleston church shooter.
	Retired Azov Battalion logo, used until 2015. Azov was originally a volunteer militia before being folded into the National Guard of Ukraine. It used obvious Nazi imagery, and had members alleged to have participated in human rights violations. While there are claims that Azov has since expelled its neo-Nazi members and deradicalized, several members are still obvious neo-Nazis with obvious neo-Nazi tattoos. So, neo-Nazis worldwide co-opt Azov patches that use or otherwise allude to Nazi imagery.
	modern Azov Brigade logo, featuring the wolfsangel		Azov Brigade logo variant, with a more deniable version of the wolfsangel. Neo-Nazi Jake Colwell has this as a sticker on his laptop.
	The symbol for Vril, an occult source of energy & “all-permeating fluid” akin to orgone that enables members of an imagined “Vril-ya” subterranean master race to communicate via telepathy, suppress pain, heal wounds, hypnotize others to sleep, and, in some specimens, deploy enough telekinetic power to obliterate a city. Outlined in 1871 science fiction novel Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, some lunatics tied this to a secret Weimar-era “Vril Society” (read as: book club that got way too into it) that was falsely claimed to have a role in elevating the Nazis before WWII. The concept of vril is entirely hogwash; the book itself is, again, a work of fiction. However, there are esoteric neo-Nazis who appear to believe the book is a true account (this may or may not include NSC-131 organizer Liam MacNeil). or at least like the concepts enough to wear this symbol on merch (like MacNeil) or (in the case of failed Nashville TN shooter Elijah Millar) paint it on a shotgun. [1] This is apparently neo-Nazi deep lore? I was shocked to find it’s not in the GPAHE database, and even missing from both the above-linked Wikipedia pages. If you see someone wearing this symbol, they’re either a neo-Nazi or ignorant of its true meaning.

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generic fascism

A sampling of fascist symbols from various worldwide movements and political parties, both historical and contemporary. As with Wikipedia’s entries for Nazi symbolism, the page on Fascist symbolism is required reading. Some symbols see heavy visual redesign; that it, one you see in the wild may not look exactly like the examples provided here, but generally still hold design similarities (e.g. sometimes the yoke in the yoke & arrows can be replaced with a handkerchief, a tie of laurels, or some other binding).

	The fasces, a tied bundle of wooden rods that incorporates an axe. There are a number of versions of the fasces in many contexts; this specific design is the one hearkened to most frequently by modern American fascists.		St. Michael’s cross, the symbol of the Iron Guard. The Christchurch shooter painted a simplified version of one of these on his firearm.
	the arrow cross, symbol of the Arrow Cross Party		a labrys axe, symbol of the neo-fascist Ordine Nuovo, also used in separate non-fascist contexts in feminist and lesbian subcultures
	the Falange Española’s yoke & arrows		the flash & circle logo of the British Union of Fascists
	the war flag of the Italian Social Republic		The Grecian meander of the Golden Dawn logo. Meandros are a design element in a lot of Grecian art, but it’s unusual to see a single meander like this anywhere. This color scheme may be meant to intentionally invoke the Nazi flag.
	The Confederate Navy Jack flag. Disgustingly racist in its own right, this flag design has been reclaimed by Nazis & neo-Nazis as a stand-in for the Nazi flag in areas where blatant Nazi imagery is outlawed. The Confederate South will only rise again as dark smoke dissipating into the sky.
	fuck I have to start talking about Moldbug? Fine, whatever. This is the symbol of the Dark Enlightenment, a reactionary “philosophy” and political movement that is opposed to democracy and egalitarianism, otherwise called “neo-reactionary” or “NRx” for short. It’s proto-fascist neo-monarchy with tech features and stupid names for everything. It’s the brainchild of unbelievably shitty writer Curtis Yarvin, a/k/a “Mencius Moldbug,” an edgelord pretending to be a scholar and man who parrots neo-Confederate talking points, who has the ear of some of the worst rich people you know. If Trump is an idiot’s idea of success, Yarvin’s an idiot’s idea of genius. The firing of vast swathes of government employees, in order to replace them with lickspittles and destroy massive amounts of institutional knowledge? That was this guy’s idea. Yarvin is proof that the American Dream still exists for a certain strain of preening, undignified loser, provided you’re willing to tell the most unfathomably stupid rich & powerful people in the United States that, yes, they can in fact justify their selfishness and will to domination from a philosophical standpoint that is absolutely not built on the rhetorical equivalent of warm pudding. In any case, this symbol showed up on the person of failed Nashville TN shooter and alleged neo-Nazi Elijah Millar, who also wielded a shotgun decorated with a number of symbols in common with the Christchurch shooter. [1]

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co-opted neo-pagan symbols, runes, & other religious symbols

Modern neo-paganism comes in several flavors, most of which are not conducive to white supremacy or racial hatred by default. However, several of their symbols have been co-opted by Nazis, neo-Nazis, neo-fascists, and white nationalists. Some are yellow flags in need of further context, and others are so unusual to see in the United States that they’re more likely to be chuddy than not.

	triskele		valknut
	Lebensrune / Algiz rune, for “life”		Todensrune / inverted Algiz rune, for “death”
	Othal rune, for “heritage”		Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor. Often presents in the form of a pendant with varying degrees of detailing and embellishment.
	wolfsangel, horizontal		wolfsangel, vertical
	The kolovrat, a symbol that has been tied to antisemitism in the Slavic neo-pagan movement. Not all Slavic neo-pagans are antisemitic; still, the guy who co-opted it did basically say his idea of the kolovrat meant the same thing as the Nazi swastika. Sold in pendant form by some unwitting U.S. shops.
	The cross of the Russian Orthodox Church. If you see it worn in the U.S. by someone who is in no way Russian whether by blood or marriage, and in concert with other symbols included in this lexicon, it’s generally a bad sign. If I recall correctly, NH local violent fascist John Camden converted to Russian Orthodoxy for awhile.

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co-opted flags & other symbols

These are more innocuous. Most generally have to do with state independence or regional secession. The local chuds are real fond of them, generally claiming them to covertly communicate their desire to create an ethnostate in New England. Most are generally flown by sane people with relevant pet causes. Others, including the webtoon character, have simply been co-opted by neo-Nazis, and are yellow flags much like neo-pagan symbols.

	Massachusetts naval ensign		Maine naval ensign
	New England Independence flag		New England Independence flag, variant
	Vermont Republic flag		Betsy Ross flag, a favorite of the Patriot Front set
	Appeal to Heaven flag, significantly more loaded than the other flags here		Serapis flag, recently seen in the company of local Patriot Front members
	Christian flag, the white field is supposed to represent the purity of Jesus, the chuds may prefer the vast field of white for a different reason		Vinland flag
	Pepe the Frog, neutral version		Pepe the Frog, the version that likely got the alt-right interested in him in the first place
	the ’00s-’10s version of the Punisher logo, taken from the 2004 Thomas Jane film, used to indicate a desire to commit extralegal vigilante violence (Marvel Comics has since created a new logo, ceding this version to the chuds like dipshits)		American flag version of the Punisher logo, common among militia movement types and local police alike

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fictional flags from Hearts of Iron IV mods

These are flags occasionally used as identifiers between neo-Nazi and neo-fascist nerds, generally taken from chud-favored Hearts of Iron IV mods. Because they’re fake flags, most aren’t immediately recognizable as fascist or Nazi flags when they’re not festooned with swastikas, totenkopfs, or SS bolts. The HOI4 fanbase even made flags for hypothetical countries they’d like to play as. If you see someone rocking these flags, they’re not just a chud; they’re a vicious little dork who thinks they’re clever to go under the radar like they do. Most are from the The New Order mod unless otherwise marked. A number of them just take the sigils of various Waffen-SS divisions and turn them into flags; check Wikipedia’s List of Waffen-SS divisions for a more robust index.

	Himmler’s Ordenstaat Burgund		Oskar Dirlewanger’s Realm
	Peiper’s Kampfgruppe Helige Pflicht		SS-Kampfgruppe Fegelein
	Reichkommissariat Ostland		Nazi Antarctica, modeled after the logo of the Ahnenerbe
	the fascist Italian Empire		the ultranationalist Black League
	Sergey Taboritsky’s Imperial Regency of Western Russia		populist-nationalist New England, made for a “Dankest Hour” submod for HOI4: Kaiserreich

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