Mythology and fairy tales are our oldest repositories of wisdom. Stories shaped over time and told over and over as a way of giving us instructions for life. In the fairy tale of Rumplestiltskin, once the miller’s daughter discovers his name his power is broken. Learn the true name of someone or something and its power over you is broken and you gain power over it. It remains true. It is a psychological truth that you cannot fight what you cannot name. Consider the alt-right.
Sydney Ember, in an article in the November 29, 2016 issue of the New York Times discussed the quandary that news media have in referring to the white nationalists and white supremacists that have gained a political voice in Donald Trump. They have named themselves the alt-right. Readers and viewers have complained about this name. One reader asked the Washington Post to stop referring to white, Christian supremacists as the alt-right, saying it sounds like “a subgenre of rock music.”
I have referred to Christian white nationalist, white supremacists as the “alt-right.” Using their true name seemed offensive. I wanted to keep communication channels open by not insulting. I’ve been wrong. They embrace the truth of their name. There is no channel for communication without their true name.
The alt-right should be referred to as Neo-Nazi or white nationalist or white supremacist or racist or a host of other names that there is not space to discuss. That is their true name.
Allowing President-elect Trump or Steve Bannon or the Republican Party to be seen as friendly to the alt-right or open to alt-right ideas sounds innocent, almost descriptive of a kind of sci-fi futurism.
Donald Trump as friend of the Neo-Nazi, white nationalist, white supremacist movement is the truth. Donald Trump and the Republican Party as apologist and enabler for the Neo-Nazi, white nationalist, white supremacist movement is the truth. A dark threat we dare not ignore.
In speaking their true name we can begin to break their power. We can begin to gain power over these political Rumplestiltskins. To do anything less is to cede our power to have a role in directing our future and the future of our society. So, I will never use that name again, but will use their true name. Neo-Nazi, white nationalist, white supremacists. And to oppose them in their true name.
The Neo-Nazis will be angry, just as Rumplestiltskin was angry when the miller’s daughter spoke his name. In the fairy tale he was so angry that he stamped his right foot hard, so hard that it buried in the earth up to his knee. Then, furious, he grabbed his other foot with both hands and pulled so hard that he split apart. He was no more. May the Neo-Nazi Republicans be so angry at hearing their true name.
Submitted by Michael Pfeifer