Fascist Fashion Biz Fuels Radicalization With a Growing Revenue Stream – By Karim Zidan (Right Wing Watch) / July 7 2021
They arrived in a haze of red and blue smoke.
Clad in khaki cargo pants, matching dark blue t-shirts, white face masks, and dark sunglasses, members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front marched through downtown Nashville on June 5, walking purposefully towards the Tennessee State Capitol. The group walked in tight formation, armed with shields and modified versions of the American flag with the Patriot Front logo of a fasces—a bound bundle of wooden rods used as a Roman symbol of power and authority—in a circle of 13 stars, in apparent homage to the original U.S. Stars and Stripes flag on which the stars represented the original 13 colonies. Their leader, Thomas Rousseau, marched at the helm wearing a cowboy hat and a blue shirt, flanked by several members holding a sign emblazoned with the words, “Victory or Death.”
The group—an off-shoot of Vanguard America, whose members are known for their unabashed white supremacism, antisemitism, homophobia, and fascism—reached the State Capitol, which houses the Tennessee General Assembly and the governor’s office, and stood before the government building. The flagbearers climbed the steps and stood, single-file, by the entrance while the rest surrounded the building. Rousseau surveyed his group, megaphone in hand, chanting “Life, liberty, victory!”
The menacing scene was typical of Patriot Front’s attention-seeking tactics, typically employed during planned demonstrations. They set off smoke bombs, march in military formation, and dress in near-identical clothing to signal their extremist views. The group’s fashion choices are particularly significant, as they reflect the ever-evolving marketing tactics that members of the far right use to convey their white supremacist ideology.
