https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/20/racism-and-rape-fantasies-the-pr-headache-facing-finlands-new-right-wing-government
In response to a request for comment, the Finns Party tells Euronews Halla-aho "is one of the most esteemed politicians in Finland."
However, Party Secretary Arto Luukkanen says "your information concerning Finnish politics is not apt and does not correspond to realities of life. To rely on biased sources is a typical 'rookies-mistake' (sic), both in journalism and in historiography (sic)" he added.
This guy transformed the Finns Party from a joke into the third biggest party and became one of the most popular politicians in Finland... by having a blog where he complained about immigrants and Muslims, but in a very annoying pedantic snarky way that sort of combined the styles of Yahtzee Croshaw and
Him and his followers liked to swear up and down that he couldn't possibly be racist since he was only using facts and logic aka cherrypicking studies and news articles. He basically came up with a way to repackage racism in a way that was irresistible to dipshit dudes aged 25-50 who worked with computers, and who had always been massively racist but knew just saying you wanted to shoot the n-words was socially unacceptable. This guy was Finland's first poster politician and it cannot be understated how big he was in like 2010.
Prior to becoming big with his blog he was some bloodless academic with a doctorate in Old Church Slavonic living in a fancy part of Helsinki. He also loves guns, specifically handguns and target shooting but opted for civil service instead of mandatory military service
He used to be in a racist metal band in university and belongs to the secretive Völkisch organisation Suomen Sisu along with several other Finns Party higher ups. They have some kind of literary study group that's literally called Thule Society
Before Halla-aho, Tony Halme was a also major factor in the party's popularity. They went all in on having a celebrity candidate (pro wrestler who was briefly in the WWF as Ludvig Borga, failed boxer and MMA fighter, appeared on the Finnish version of American Gladiators, really he was way more famous in Finland than you'd expect) and Finns just couldn't get enough of this guy who said racist and ”hur hur, feminists and modern art amirite?” shit in the media. As almost always happens with celebrity candidates in liberal democracies, it was very successful at raising the profile of the Finns Party in the 2003 elections.
Halme originally wanted to run as part of some even more right-wing party that was basically a bunch of fascists, and also had an SS tattoo.
The difference is that Halme was a joke and a complete embarrassment between his meathead persona, Exit Only tattooed above his ass and continual drug escapades, and the Finns party was seen as something for dumbdumbs and yokels
Halla-aho made it so that educated middle class guys could support the party without fear of being laughed at or dying of cringe themselves
IIRC before he actually became a politician his followers were debating if he should join the Finns or start his own party because they were afraid of the Finns party association
yes when I googled his name some liguistic paper about vowels or something came up lol
Why did he study old church Slavonic? Seems like a weird choice for a guy like him, why not runes or old Finnish language
He did study was not too good at it, then continued with a PhD that didn't lead to academic impact or positions. I think he chose the PhD field cause it wasn't very competitive and it meant to further his Slavic presence, both in terms of right wing networks in the areas on one hand and also in terms of links to a fictive medieval past.
it meant to further his Slavic presence, both in terms of right wing networks in the areas on one hand
He speaks Ukrainian
I honestly also think he did it because he's a fucking nerd. There's a hilarious photo of him with long hair from his metal band days floating around and he looks like the biggest dweeb (which he still does)
In response to a request for comment, the Finns Party tells Euronews Halla-aho "is one of the most esteemed politicians in Finland."
We're not denying he's terrible, but boy, is he popular.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that in their post-war plans the Nazis considered Finns too Asiatic to be allowed entry into the Reich but planned to keep them around as a useful buffer between Aryans and the Asiatic Hordes
On the other hand I think some Nazis had an interest in old Finnish mythology, etc. Fascism and Nazi race science are completely incoherent anyway, you'd probably get different answers from the same Nazi based on which foot he stepped out of bed on that day, or the phase of the moon
Not directly related to Nazis specifically but if you're interested in the topic of Finns and whiteness, I've been meaning to finish this article by a historian I follow. She studies ethnic groups that were located in the peripheral/interstitial regions of empires, such as Finns and Tatars.
Imperial Complicity: Finns and Tatars in the Political Hierarchy of Races (pdf)
There's a really odd essay by British-Jewish historian Cecil Roth from the 1930s where he tries to proves that Jews are Europeans and he's like "actually, the word "Europe" is from Phoenecian and Jews are more European than Finns and Magyars
This is ... mask off ... even for a Euro-fascist. Usually they do the thing where they get plausible deniability about their racism by replacing race with stuff like culture but this guy is an out and proud Nazi.
How much power does these fascists have in the new Finnish reactionary regime?
I think the first quote about the whipping is from his university days when he was interviewed as part of his band or something. The second is from some bizarre probably made up incident he recounted on his blog where he claims a gay guy walked up to him and demanded to suck his dick while he was out with his wife and children, which, uhh... look at him
. He said he had nothing against gay people but he only wanted to shoot this gay guyHe typically kept his power levels lower on his blog, frequently reiterating that he was Not Racist™. Of course, he belongs to Suomen Sisu and has quotes like the first one floating about which makes the denials a bit less effective
Typically, but he did write that thing about "Somalis being genetically inferior and only capable of leeching off of taxpayers' money", which got him convicted for incitement
Yes, but even that was done in an annoying pedant way. IIRC, there was some article where a liberal journalist said Finnish people were racist, or violent, or prone to beating their wives or something else based on statistics. Halla-aho and his circle proceeded to get extremely mad about how this racist slander against the proud people of Finland could get published in a newspaper
Halla-aho then dug up some more cherrypicked crime and welfare statistics about Somali immigrants and went
If it's okay to say that Finnish people are backwards and racist based on statistics, it should also be okay to say that Somalis are nothing but lazy freeloaders genetically predisposed to thievery and violent crime, and if I get into trouble for saying so it just proves the media has a double standard and that some ethnicities are more equal than others
See? He's not racist, he's just concerned about Ethics in
GamingJournalism
Time to remind him of his own words
violence is an underrated problem-solving tool these days
violence is an under-rated problem solving tool these days.
He said it, not us.
What the fuck is this shit? Racism and rape fantasies? What kind of fucked up world are we living in? I mean, seriously. Didn't we already establish that racism and rape are bad things? But hey, I guess some people just never fucking learn. And when you've got politicians and leaders who are openly embracing neo-Nazis and spouting off about their disturbing fantasies, it's no wonder we're living in a goddamn dystopian nightmare. And don't even get me started on Finland. What the hell is up with that place? I mean, seriously, Finland? Where the fuck is that? Is it even on the map? I'll tell you what, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't, because for all I know, Finland could just be a made-up country like fucking Wakanda or some shit. And from what I've been hearing lately, it sounds like Finland is more like fucking Mordor than anything else. And what's with all the saunas, huh? You Finnish people think you're so fucking special because you like to sit around in a hot box and sweat your balls off? Well, let me tell you something, there's nothing special about that. I can do that shit in my fucking shower. I don't need a goddamn log cabin to do it in. But hey, at least Finland has some good video games, right? Wrong! All you've got is fucking Angry Birds and some goddamn mobile games that nobody gives a shit about. And you know what, that's probably because everyone in Finland is too busy sitting in their saunas and jerking off to pictures of reindeer or whatever the hell they're into.
And I thought Åkesson and the Sweden democrats were bad. They at least are a bit less mask off.
Wall is insufficient, he can stand on the launch pad during the next SpaceX debacle
