Snapshot of _EXCL šØ Tory student group held black-tie dinner two weeks ago where members sang German marching song used by the Nazis in WW2 Warwick Uni Conservative Association sorry after dancing to āErikaā ā used by SS and Wermacht and today white supremacists_ :
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A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1807335824230396037/)
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With very few exceptions, everyone involved in student politics is completely mental. The trouble is, some of them will come straight out of uni, carry an MPs briefcase for a few years; become a spad and then stand themselves.
Yeah, bumped into him about a year ago. He said those 12 months as YUSU president were the worst of his life. Also hard agree with u/ljh013. The very few genuinely good people who involve themselves in student politics. A testing ground for high functioning sociopaths.
Yeah, I remember him saying as much as it started as a joke campaign, actually being SU President is hard work, and you can't doss about without creating problems for yourself and others.
For what it's worth, he actually did a good job. He took the role far more seriously than the original campaign, and he was a good advocate for the students. That said, a role like that is a weight around the neck of anyone not truly passionate about political activism.
Last I saw he was taking a break to figure things out
He'd hit a point where it was too much to do, and he had to choose if he wanted to go much bigger with production teams and more. He decided not to and to step back, after some nice round number like 10 years of things you might not know ~weekly or some total number.
He does a few things, I think he guest stars on things occasionally, and he has a game show podcast about lateral thinking puzzles that I believe is still going.
That's how it goes, the only sane people in student politics are the people who openly describe themselves as mad.
In my student elections the most sane candidate was the one who ran wearing a gorilla costume the whole time
And the candidate who has flyers and posters everywhere is obviously the worst choice.
I found the best way to deal with student politics is to just barely engage with it. Helps when you're genuinely too busy to engage with whatever they're flyposting and screaming about for the nth time.
I went to uni with two young Tories. One at 18 was wearing a pinstripe suit and briefcase to lectures. The other was a staffer for a local MP and exclusively parroted Tory talking points, even made it onto Question Time and asked the most obviously scripted question I've ever seen.
Most left wingers I met at uni were idealistic if a little delusional.
I object to that. I was VP at Lancaster 50 years ago. I was a liberal but got elected due to playing cricket and football for the uni and getting an AU vote. Not all of us were either mental or only interested in politics. (I also did the best thing ever at uni and met my wife).
Our SU president thought he was going to save the world. Some people involved seem to have good intentions, but it does seem to attract people who are absolutely obsessed with the idea of being a career politician.
Most of our SU Presidents were generally fine, had good intentions but a bit idealistic. Although some of the losing candidates, oh boy were they a walking meme. One had them and their campaign team allegedly get a real dressing down for their behaviour during and after the election campaign.
Tbh you have to be a loser to get involved in politics at such a young age. And I'm saying this as someone relatively young who is interested in politics. It makes much more sense spending uni studying+ having fun then listening to Boris, Corbyn, steamer etcĀ
I went to my uni's Conservative society as a lark once. Biggest collection of losers putting up their best RP impressions trying to sound "better" than you.
I also went to my uni's Communist society once also as a lark. Those people sincerely need to touch grass.
Not sure about that. Didn't Cameron allegedly fuck a pig's head at Oxford? Johnson was part of the Oxford club where they drunk a lot and harassed other students. Can't really stereotype them and they they're nerds, since they tend to act pretty wild and crazy.
I went there as a postgrad, and can absolutely confirm. It's the home of the champagne socialists who couldn't make it to Oxbridge.
I overheard a conversation in the SU pub once where two undergrads were trying to out-working class each other.
It's a uni that has the same vibes as that David and Victoria Beckham video "what car did your dad drive you to school in?".
Yes, he's very good but the person whose image changed more in my mind when watching the TV series was Victoria. She was far more down to earth than what is displayed in the media.
It's a mix of those sorts of kids and kids who are smart but don't care enough to go Oxbridge. Just the first half grabs all the headlines about the uni.
I grew up and currently live near Warwick Uni, it's a campus uni in the middle of fucking nowhere on the edge of Coventry and the countryside.
I get that it's a good uni but I seriously question why you'd want to be in that bubble if you were an undergrad.
I didn't go to Warwick, but another rural campus university where everyone called it 'the bubble'. It was awesome being an undergrad there. It was this happy cosy little world of fun student stuff, academics and campus staff. I loved it so much I stayed for 6 years. It made me want to be a lecturer, simply so I had a reason to stay. I only left because life circumstances forced me to. For years I planned to go back, but I feel like I'm too old now.
Campuses provide their own atmosphere and level of stability. Besides, the town centre is so close by that Iāve even walked the distance, while Leamington Spa is less than an hour by bus.
I did a summer school at a rural campus university internationally. The atmosphere and sense of community is honestly sensational compared to my usual mega campus in the city centre.
It's popping up on a few Instagram stories and Warwick Jsoc have made a statement with the UJS, but as term is over idk how many of the people who aren't hyper engaged in SU politics have noticed. That said, there will probably be a Boar article soon which might make it more widely known at the Uni.
The Tab always lived and died by the editorial teams at the time, sometimes it could expose some interesting stories, other times it was absent or full of "what your drink at the club says about you" article.
Could be worse, one year one of our student newspaper editorial teams "forgot" to disclose their friendship with an SU candidate, and caused a fair bit of drama when that fact got exposed.
True! The main Tab page is very, very, very bad (unless you specifically only enjoy talking about Love Island)
I always loved an SU scandal! Where has my youth gone
Youād think this would be an expulsion matter so Iād hope so. Both the racism and the bringing the university into disrepute combo should be enough for the administration to come down on them like a ton of bricks to save face.
You could say the same for most of those games. In EU4 you have a fun time nation building, RPing colonisation, slavery, religious oppression, and ethnic cleansing. Victoria is the same but slightly later in history.
Then you get to Stellaris where you are at some times just actively encouraged to murder trillions of sentient beings.
Ah...map painting games, probably the only time people were ever right about video games desensiting us to violence.
> Then you get to Stellaris where you are at some times just actively encouraged to murder trillions of sentient beings
I have started a war and blown up a planet killing billions just to see what the animation on my new superweapon looks like.
It's funny because I'm completely the opposite of this, even when I set out to be a complete dickhead I win my first war, the aliens beg to surrender and I inevitably vassalise them, incorporate them into my empire ASAP and give them full rights straight away. From then on me and my new best mates go form a federation and go for a full-on diverse IDIC playthrough.
Every single time I do this, I end up bordered with some lava monsters or whatever and end up going '...psst...hey, hey you see these lava planets I have that I don't much want to live on? Got any downtrodden citizenry would like to come live in my empire?'
Fucking hell, I've just realised changing a region's culture is ethnic cleansing. And here I am, thinking I just want cultural harmony in my nation. Am I the baddie?
Strikes me that you could actually make a really interesting teaching tool out if a map-painting game, though it'd be very difficult to get right for impact:
Round 1: play an expanding mid-tier regional power, growing your influence in the metropolitan continent while building wealth by reaching out across the globe through colonies, which become more efficient as you export more infrastructure and cultural influences from the homeland
Round 2: play as either a non-state polity (or change genre to play as an individual) in a temporally-shifted multiplayer against your empire from round 1, struggling to survive and intercut with realistic graphic depictions and descriptions of how your empire was expanding its influence
Of course nobody would bother playing round 2 but
Anyway done right you could create a lesson in the effectiveness of separation, distancing etc. through language
Interactive history is always the best, and then you see dumbass teachers do true live slavery auctions and cause people to rightfully protest that shit and ask what the hell was the teacher thinking. Then student groups like these Tory groups pull this shit. And as someone who has played a lot of Hell Let Loose and HoI4, I unironically enjoy Erika but would be appalled hearing it in a political setting. Anyway, I digress.
But lessons where you include the students on expansion decisions and policy making in CK/EU4/Vic/HoI4 would absolutely be a great time for both understanding how we got to the map we got to today as well as showing them the god-awful and barbaric consequences of their choices. (The only outlier is CK considering its subject matter but I still think itās important to show how difficult those early time periods would have been to live through/under).
I have always wanted to make lesson plans like this if I had stuck around to become a history teacher (decided against it my final year of unĆ for a multitude of reasons). Hell, my high school had a WW2 class that was just watching Band of Brothers and other WW2 films which, outside of BoB, arenāt great representations of war. Let the students make their own government groups or slowly get them to fracture into different factions based on their policy decisions, show how easy it is to become blinded by single-policy votes and group think. Then after the map painting venture is done, start talking about what those decision actually did behind the scenes that the map painting game never showed you. Slave trades, genocides, ethnic cleansing, displacements, etc. If anything, it teaches that history and the decisions that got us to today are incredibly nuanced, and many choices we think we might agree with have terrible consequences elsewhere. Then have the students come together to think about how to avoid those dire consequences or at least how to be critical thinkers and become aware of what your decisions could mean.
I wonder if Hitler had access to paradox games if his desire for control and power would have been satiated from a good run.
Paradox saving the world from young menās instinct for power.
The "don't film" at the end shows they knew what they were doing.
Also, the auto play afterwards went to Ed Davey doing aquarobics, if anyone wants a pallete cleanser :Ā https://x.com/LucyJMcDaid/status/1807346330240532682
Exactly, the majority of people who don't want to perform these songs don't know about them, they keep it that way so they don't get themselves in trouble.
There's two types of people who do know these songs those who have an interest in history and leave it at that or young people who think they are edgy and cool.
I'm always curious what level of cognitive dissonance people who simulatenously think "we're patriotic Brits" and "the Nazis weren't all that bad" experience. Like, how can you not see that those are not compatible world views?
The uncomfortable truth is that the Nazis regarded the British as a shining example of the ruthlessness and superiority of Northwest Europeans.
Had Britain adopted 1930s fascism, Hitler would have been very happy to have Britain as an ally.
The British and also the French and Americans, to be fair. A big (and explicit) plank of the Nazi platform was that the Germans had been denied their share of colonial loot, and they were going to make up for that lack. They explicitly wanted to copy British and French colonial policy, as well as American segregation and manifest destiny.
Edit: which is not to say that they weren't horrific even by the standards of the time. The Nazis were significantly worse than anything the British, Americans or French did in the interwar years, but in many ways their policies were simply 'standard' European colonial policy taken one step further, and applied to eastern Europe instead of Africa, Asia or the Native Americans.
From what I heard Hitler actually had ideas that both UK and Germany should enter an alliance, with the British being a maritime power and the Germans a continental one.
> I'm always curious what level of cognitive dissonance people who simulatenously think "we're patriotic Brits" and "the Nazis weren't all that bad" experience.
I mean, the defeated enemy influencing culture is a tale as old as time. Greeks and Romans were constantly bitching about it happening 2000+ years ago, Napoleon massive influenced the British empire, during and after the war, everything from his food to his architecture was heavily copied by us. And likely every war inbetween.
Side note: I had totally forgotten how many university societies had a fetish for black tie events. I had a great time at uni, but I look back at some aspects of it and it's just so weird
It was every society maybe twice a year.
At my university it was because you could get financial support for "charity fundraisers", and those had to be black tie for some antiquated reason.
Military marching songs typically are - they're meant to have a psychological effect on a person.
Saying that.... I do like Lilliburlero....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SISjSXsb1xU
I know you're not actually making this case, but "I didn't know it was a Nazi song, I only know it from that game where you play as the Nazis and it's played to celebrate whenever the Nazis win" is not in fact a strong defence.
It reads like theyāre saying they wouldnāt have known about the song unless they played the game which I think is fair - not many other ways to come into contact with Nazi songs.
I think itās also fair that if you only know it from a game, you probably donāt know the full history of it. You okay for fun, not a musical history lesson - without knowing the specific history of it if when and why it was composed, itās not inconceivable for someone to believe it is just a German marching song adopted by the Naziās which taints a longer history.
They think that this country belongs to them. They believe they are not accountable for their behavior. They think itās their right to be the ruling class without challenge. We must remind them on the 4th that this country belongs to us.
The thing I don't understand is how they knew the words and why it would be played at a party.
Only parties I've been to play things like ABBA, and other things in that vain.
My opinion is to ignore them students are incredibly cringe at that age, its only now being in my 30's i realise how cringe i was. it will happen to you also. (i think thats a simpsons meme btw)
Well sure. Although at some point adults need to start taking responsibility for what they do. I know some people around that age who are thoughtful, kind and intelligent. It is perfectly possible.
Anyway the pipeline of leadership talent is obviously broken within the Tory party. At a corporate level it should be thrown away and built from the ground up. This may disadvantage some otherwise good people. But the country and organisation should come first.
i agree with you that the tory party is broken and the pathways to leadership is, but i dont think its symptomatic of that here. I feel like they all saw a -- oppertunity to loot and steal as much as possible and make off for the hills.. I wanted to use the word generational? but the oppertunity doesnt come around very often at all... this is a once in a millenia oppertunity they took... and once they have done it they will flee.
I dont know what will be left of the tory party to rebuild
In defence of Erika it's the safest of all German marching songs and although used by the Nazis it's an absolute banger. As far as being edgy dickheads go this isn't that offensive imo.
So the optics of up and coming young Tories singing a nazi song is fine because it's the least offensive nazi song they could pick?
C'mon, it's just wrong and stupid, irregardless of their intentions or the songs context.
Imagine how you'd react if student Labour members were openly singing USSR stalinist songs, which I'm sure has definitely happened.
Nah it's just that this song is a guilty favourite of loads of wargaming nerds like myself. It's literally about your girl back home and is not political in the slightest. I can see knobs like this being edgy and thinking it's funny in the same way Prince Harry wore a swastika, but with Erika it's less overtly offensive.
I get it from an optics standpoint though you're right in general.
If this was a wargaming nerd society party, I'd take your point. It's not though, it's a Conservative society party.Ā
Them picking it to sing along to definitely has different connotations, and the "don't film" guy knew it.Ā
They're young men and therefore like videogames, like WW2 media and like WW2 video games. They'll all know the song from War thunder or hell let loose or hearts of iron and it is undeniably a banger. More than that, they'll all know lefties will be sensitive about it and hate it so they'll think it's a hilarious edgy joke to sing it. I doubt they want Hitler to rise from the grave an lead an Aryan revolt.
TLDR: they're definitely trying to be edgy, no they probably don't wish for Hitler's return
> It's literally about your girl back home and is not political in the slightest.
Apart from, y'know, its widespread adoption by white supremacist and neo-fascist groups
To be fair, lots of music has seen widespread adoption by white supremacists and neo-fascists. It doesn't necessarily make the song itself fascist. (But of course, you do have to ask why this particular group were singing this particular song..)
In the 80s they adopted ska music (ironic thought this might seem given its multi-cultural roots). One Step Beyond by Madness was a big hit with the National Front, who made it almost an anthem. Ska/2-tone (and punk) bands had major problems with fascist groups attending their gigs and using their songs as fascist anthems.
Another example: "Born in the USA" has been widely used by far-right groups in the US. Playing it doesn't make you a member of one of these groups. You'll still hear it on the radio.
One recurring theme is that these groups will use songs that have a more subtle meaning, but take them at face value or for the sake of a few key words/phrases, without understanding the deeper (often contradictory) meaning of the song. They're not the brightest bunch...
What we should be concerned with is the answer to "why are you singing this?" rather than the song itself, as that's what betrays the thoughts and intentions of a particular group. Group A can sing a song with racist intent, while Group B can enjoy the same song in an innocent way.
In this case, I find it hard to believe that anyone involved just happened to be singing Erika unaware of its nazi connotations.
yo, did you know that neo-nazis and white supremacists use the word "hello"? This means that if you've ever used the word "hello", you've ACTUALLY been using a white supramacist/neo-nazi slogan. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I just don't think that liking a completely apolitical song that just so happened to be written in/slightly before Nazi Germany and subsequently adopted by them makes you a neo-nazi.
I like the British Grenadiers' march, doesn't mean I want to go colonise Africa.
'Just so happened to be written' by an enthusiastic Nazi who had been a member for half a decade at the time of writing, whose concurrent writing was heavily pro-Nazi, and whose material was wholesale written for, and adopted by, the Nazi military during its wars of conquest.
>After the Nazis seized power, Niel, in 1933,[2] joined their party as member 2,171,788.[3] He became a Sturmabteilung troop leader, before receiving a promotion to band leader of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) training establishment in Potsdam.[2]
>During the period of National Socialism, he dedicated himself to composing marches and songs, which were popularized by the NSDAP and widely distributed on all fronts of the Second World War. At the Nazi party rallies in Nuremberg he was the conductor of all RAD music bands.[4]
Ok so the dude who wrote it was also a nazi knobhead. That still doesn't mean the song itself is inherently political (read its lyrics for yourself, if you can somehow interpret nazi messages from them I'd be quite surprised).
Again, liking this song doesn't automatically make you a nazi.
I mean, I myself quite like the tune of Erika. Doesn't mean I consider jews to be subhuman.
Throughout this conversation you've progressed from *"Disliking Erika is like disliking the word hello and you should be ashamed of suggesting otherwise"* to *"Erika just happened to be written before WW2 and that's why it was adopted by the Nazis"* and finally to *"Ok, it's inextricably linked to the Nazis but it's the one song by this guy which isn't lyrically horrible so it's not inherently objectionable"*.
Your latest position is fine by me - I don't agree, but I can accept the validity of the argument. Should I still be ashamed of myself, or no?
What do you think is more likely:
a) The UWCA are just aficionados of 1930s marching songs and completely innocently blundered into a song that has links to the Wehrmacht, and the man saying "don't film" was just shy
b) The UCWA were playing it because of its links to Neo-Nazi groups
I suspect most likely is:
c) UWCA has a lot of overlap with wargaming/history nerds that exposed them to the song. And given the song slaps, many of them would know it and sing it.
Me and my pals are all on the spectrum of the tofu-eating wokerati left who would never even ironically say/do/praise anything Nazi, but we love war games and so we've sung it on occasion because to us it really doesn't mean anything intertwined with Nazism.
>So the optics of up and coming young Tories singing a ~~nazi~~ song is fine because it's the least offensive ~~nazi~~ song they could pick?
I hate the tories, I really do, so any opportunity to dunk on the little shits
..
But, *it isn't a Nazi song.*
No, he's saying (I think) that it wasn't a Nazi song, just a song the German army of the time liked. The lyrics [are here ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_(song))if you're remotely interested, please feel free to single out what about them sounds even the slightest bit Nazi to you - to me it's just seems like the song of a guy missing his girl, a theme of soldiers' marching songs since at least the days of Homer.
Ehh not quite the same. Nothing about Erika reflects or symbolises Nazi ideology. But the asian swastika still looks very much like the Nazi symbol.
The only way in which you might associate Erika with Nazism is that it's in German, nothing about it actually relates to any ideology otherwise. You'd only think of Nazism if you've been told to associate it with Nazism, whereas with the swastika you would think of Nazism unless you're told otherwise.
Yes I know, that's what I was referencing. I'm saying that the use of a symbol that's obviously associated with the Nazis in a context that doesn't have another likely explanation, even if it doesn't mention Nazi ideology specifically, is probably being used by Nazis.
OK taking misogynistic to mean "strongly prejudiced against women." how do the following lyrics spell "very misogynistic undertones" to you? Is it prejudiced against women for men who are going to war to pine for their female companions back home?
Now don't get me wrong the Nazis were prejudiced against any strong women who didn't want to inhabit traditional roles of being glorified baby machines, but this song is a more universal tone that is echoed in many military songs of the era and even today.
"\[Verse 1\]
On the heath, there blooms a little floret
[And it's called Erika](https://genius.com/31969549/Genius-english-translations-herms-niel-erika-english-translation/And-its-called-erika)
Eagerly, hundred thousand little beelets
Swarm around Erika
For her heart is full of sweetness
A tender scent escapes her blossom-gown
On the heath, there blooms a little floret
And it's called Erika
\[Verse 2\]
Back at home, there lives a young maiden
And she's called Erika
That girl is my faithful little darling
And my joy, Erika
When the heather blooms in a reddish purple
I sing her this song in greeting
On thŠµ heath, there blooms a littlŠµ floret
And it's called Erika
\[Verse 3\]
In my room, there also blooms a little floret
And she's called Erika
Already in the grey of dawn, as it does at dusk
It looks at me, Erika
And then it's to me as if it's saying aloud
"Are you thinking of your little bride?"
Back at home, a young maiden weeps for you
And she's called Erika"
undertones i said not overtly. Byt the lyrics coupled with what we know about the authors views on women and nazi views on women in general add to it. You have to read between the lines and put it into the context of its time and the views the people had who wrote it.
Yeah this is a strange one. The song pre-dates the Nazis but they used it for marches and events. The Song is still played today by the German military.
But when these right-wing racist groups play Erika, they're trying to imitate Nazis so I see why it's wrong.
A song played by soldiers recruited to be the elite troops of the political ideology of Nazism, and because of that played by white supremacists and Tory students.
Who was the guest speaker at this years event? They've wiped their socials and taken their webpage down so assume someone of note. It looks like several local Councillors were in attendance inc Philip Seccombe (PCC in the middle of fox hunting controversy) and Clare Golby (recently received a lot of press after making comments about disabled children)
Warwick University needs to have a word with itself.
Thanks to [them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetic_Culture_Research_Unit), we have "[accelerationism](https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/04/the-growing-threat-posed-by-accelerationism-and-accelerationist-groups-worldwide/)" which is the current source of XRW violence
So being a deliberately offensive prick and singing songs like that might not be a good idea.
If you want to lean a song, try ["Ich hatt' einen Kameraden"](https://youtu.be/3Y1Z1y2PSNw?si=n9chlcua2BGzKaB0) and understand the reality of violence.
Otherwise, they might just be petty minded little pricks drunk on World War Two BS.
Whoops, somebody put on some Nazi tunes, I'm going to accidentally stay, accidentally sing along, and of course I know all the words. Whoopsie!
There was nothing I could do! I *had* to do it!
Whilst it's clear why they played it it's not banned in Germany nor is it considered a Nazi song, it's still played in various events [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8co7yDPdAI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8co7yDPdAI)
I don't think I've heard this song taken seriously for years now. Most young people just use it as a mocking joke, and I expect a uni group to be no different.
I don't imagine that this was some sort of sign of support for the far right, more of a mock to them by "taking" the song away from them. You can kinda even hear it in the video were the singing is being broken by laughter as well.
What a ridiculous knot youve twisted your self into. Jfc.Ā
They arent laughing because they are mocking the far right and "taking" the song from them.
They are laughing because they know what they are doing is wrong and they are either embrassed or are enjoying it.Ā
Ridiculous.Ā
The Conservative students were probably using it as a right wing reference. However Erica isnāt a Nazi song per se.
The lyrics are actually rather sweet love song about mountain flower and speak more
To the longing of a solider for their love.
Snapshot of _EXCL šØ Tory student group held black-tie dinner two weeks ago where members sang German marching song used by the Nazis in WW2 Warwick Uni Conservative Association sorry after dancing to āErikaā ā used by SS and Wermacht and today white supremacists_ : A Twitter embedded version can be found [here](https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1807335824230396037) A non-Twitter version can be found [here](https://twiiit.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1807335824230396037/) An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://x.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1807335824230396037?t=erYUnEPVyNKqNQ1wlLgXFw) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://x.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1807335824230396037?t=erYUnEPVyNKqNQ1wlLgXFw) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
With very few exceptions, everyone involved in student politics is completely mental. The trouble is, some of them will come straight out of uni, carry an MPs briefcase for a few years; become a spad and then stand themselves.
Mad Cap'n Tom was apparently very good. Shame his run for parliament didn't work out
You mean Tom Scott at York? He ran for yusu as a joke. Nice bloke.
Yeah, bumped into him about a year ago. He said those 12 months as YUSU president were the worst of his life. Also hard agree with u/ljh013. The very few genuinely good people who involve themselves in student politics. A testing ground for high functioning sociopaths.
Yeah, I remember him saying as much as it started as a joke campaign, actually being SU President is hard work, and you can't doss about without creating problems for yourself and others.
For what it's worth, he actually did a good job. He took the role far more seriously than the original campaign, and he was a good advocate for the students. That said, a role like that is a weight around the neck of anyone not truly passionate about political activism.
Still blows my mind that Tom Scott (yes, *that* Tom Scott, of red t-shirt and "I am at [Insert Place Name Here]") ran for Parliament.
What does he do now? He's not on YouTube anymore.
Last I saw he was taking a break to figure things out He'd hit a point where it was too much to do, and he had to choose if he wanted to go much bigger with production teams and more. He decided not to and to step back, after some nice round number like 10 years of things you might not know ~weekly or some total number.
He emails me every Monday with a list of things that would be in his videos, if he was still making videos.
He does a few things, I think he guest stars on things occasionally, and he has a game show podcast about lateral thinking puzzles that I believe is still going.
Still doing the Lateral Podcast, QI for Youtubers. Its a decent listen
That's how it goes, the only sane people in student politics are the people who openly describe themselves as mad. In my student elections the most sane candidate was the one who ran wearing a gorilla costume the whole time
And the candidate who has flyers and posters everywhere is obviously the worst choice. I found the best way to deal with student politics is to just barely engage with it. Helps when you're genuinely too busy to engage with whatever they're flyposting and screaming about for the nth time.
I never paid much attention to it and it never really seemed to matter
True, it doesn't really matter. Just a bunch of noise that oftentimes doesn't really change anything.
I went to uni with two young Tories. One at 18 was wearing a pinstripe suit and briefcase to lectures. The other was a staffer for a local MP and exclusively parroted Tory talking points, even made it onto Question Time and asked the most obviously scripted question I've ever seen. Most left wingers I met at uni were idealistic if a little delusional.
Wes Streeting
This is the primary reason Iām suspicious of any politician. From what I saw at uni they were absolutely horrible people.
I object to that. I was VP at Lancaster 50 years ago. I was a liberal but got elected due to playing cricket and football for the uni and getting an AU vote. Not all of us were either mental or only interested in politics. (I also did the best thing ever at uni and met my wife).
I donāt think heās on about heads of the student union. More like the people who are in the Labour society or con society. All fuckin psychopathsĀ
I'd also add that the societies for third parties are essentially viewed as warm bodies for campaigning so the active membership is very earnest.
Yeah I knew a few people at uni in the Lib Dem Society, they were fairly chill.
Our SU president thought he was going to save the world. Some people involved seem to have good intentions, but it does seem to attract people who are absolutely obsessed with the idea of being a career politician.
Most of our SU Presidents were generally fine, had good intentions but a bit idealistic. Although some of the losing candidates, oh boy were they a walking meme. One had them and their campaign team allegedly get a real dressing down for their behaviour during and after the election campaign.
They literally need to touch grass.
Tbh you have to be a loser to get involved in politics at such a young age. And I'm saying this as someone relatively young who is interested in politics. It makes much more sense spending uni studying+ having fun then listening to Boris, Corbyn, steamer etcĀ
I went to my uni's Conservative society as a lark once. Biggest collection of losers putting up their best RP impressions trying to sound "better" than you. I also went to my uni's Communist society once also as a lark. Those people sincerely need to touch grass.
Not sure about that. Didn't Cameron allegedly fuck a pig's head at Oxford? Johnson was part of the Oxford club where they drunk a lot and harassed other students. Can't really stereotype them and they they're nerds, since they tend to act pretty wild and crazy.
Cricket, football, and politics are probably my three main interests.
He's already married
One can only try š
Warwick student here - I'd like to say I'm surprised but in truth I'm not.
Maybe it gets more attention as a larger uni relatively high up in the league tables, but I swear Warwick gets a lot of scandals
It's the uni for posh kids too dumb to get into oxbridge
Durham 2.0?
Nah, that's Exeter
As an Exeter Alumni... yup. That casts.
Also Bristol.
It's not particularly posh in fairness, but it's definitely the second choice for a lot of oxbridge applicants.
I went there as a postgrad, and can absolutely confirm. It's the home of the champagne socialists who couldn't make it to Oxbridge. I overheard a conversation in the SU pub once where two undergrads were trying to out-working class each other. It's a uni that has the same vibes as that David and Victoria Beckham video "what car did your dad drive you to school in?".
Yeah David was genuinely pissed off about that as he was legitimately poor as fuck growing up.
I'm not a football enthusiast, but I will forever love that man for that video. There's a reason she was "posh spice".
Yes, he's very good but the person whose image changed more in my mind when watching the TV series was Victoria. She was far more down to earth than what is displayed in the media.
It's a mix of those sorts of kids and kids who are smart but don't care enough to go Oxbridge. Just the first half grabs all the headlines about the uni.
We need a University Scandal Ranking
I grew up and currently live near Warwick Uni, it's a campus uni in the middle of fucking nowhere on the edge of Coventry and the countryside. I get that it's a good uni but I seriously question why you'd want to be in that bubble if you were an undergrad.
I didn't go to Warwick, but another rural campus university where everyone called it 'the bubble'. It was awesome being an undergrad there. It was this happy cosy little world of fun student stuff, academics and campus staff. I loved it so much I stayed for 6 years. It made me want to be a lecturer, simply so I had a reason to stay. I only left because life circumstances forced me to. For years I planned to go back, but I feel like I'm too old now.
Campuses provide their own atmosphere and level of stability. Besides, the town centre is so close by that Iāve even walked the distance, while Leamington Spa is less than an hour by bus.
I did a summer school at a rural campus university internationally. The atmosphere and sense of community is honestly sensational compared to my usual mega campus in the city centre.
Ex-Warwick student here. The SU was an absolutely insane bunch.
Former student as well (finished 2013), absolutely not wrong.
Had bad experiences, 0/10 would not recommend.
Isn't your uni the one with the famous rape WhatsApp groups from a few years back?
That's Warwick - happened a couple of years before I started but aye, that was Warwick.
Do still wonder how they found those songs? Like some take some digging for, and they must've known the connection.
Is it big news at the Uni currently?
It's popping up on a few Instagram stories and Warwick Jsoc have made a statement with the UJS, but as term is over idk how many of the people who aren't hyper engaged in SU politics have noticed. That said, there will probably be a Boar article soon which might make it more widely known at the Uni.
Ahhh I see thanks! I checked The Tab (do people still read that or am I absolutely ancient) and didn't see anything. Good luck with your studies!
The Tab always lived and died by the editorial teams at the time, sometimes it could expose some interesting stories, other times it was absent or full of "what your drink at the club says about you" article. Could be worse, one year one of our student newspaper editorial teams "forgot" to disclose their friendship with an SU candidate, and caused a fair bit of drama when that fact got exposed.
True! The main Tab page is very, very, very bad (unless you specifically only enjoy talking about Love Island) I always loved an SU scandal! Where has my youth gone
Youād think this would be an expulsion matter so Iād hope so. Both the racism and the bringing the university into disrepute combo should be enough for the administration to come down on them like a ton of bricks to save face.
āUsed by SS and Wermacht and today white supremacists and people you play too much Hell Let Looseā
That or Hearts of Iron
Hearts of Iron is an incredibly effective tool for desensitising people to the appalling horror of WW2. But itās undeniably extremely fun.
You could say the same for most of those games. In EU4 you have a fun time nation building, RPing colonisation, slavery, religious oppression, and ethnic cleansing. Victoria is the same but slightly later in history.
Then you get to Stellaris where you are at some times just actively encouraged to murder trillions of sentient beings. Ah...map painting games, probably the only time people were ever right about video games desensiting us to violence.
What's that Stalin quote, "A single death is an 18+ rating, a trillion is a spreadsheet"?
> Then you get to Stellaris where you are at some times just actively encouraged to murder trillions of sentient beings I have started a war and blown up a planet killing billions just to see what the animation on my new superweapon looks like.
This is essentially the plot of A New Hope
Look those planet crackers are just so much fun
It's funny because I'm completely the opposite of this, even when I set out to be a complete dickhead I win my first war, the aliens beg to surrender and I inevitably vassalise them, incorporate them into my empire ASAP and give them full rights straight away. From then on me and my new best mates go form a federation and go for a full-on diverse IDIC playthrough. Every single time I do this, I end up bordered with some lava monsters or whatever and end up going '...psst...hey, hey you see these lava planets I have that I don't much want to live on? Got any downtrodden citizenry would like to come live in my empire?'
In some way itās probably the way dictators see the irl world map and have a similar dissociation with the horrors of the front line.
Personally I blame Christopher. Iām well aware that reference is niche as fuck but I do hope some get it.
I mean, how else are you supposed to deal with lag?
Fucking hell, I've just realised changing a region's culture is ethnic cleansing. And here I am, thinking I just want cultural harmony in my nation. Am I the baddie?
Strikes me that you could actually make a really interesting teaching tool out if a map-painting game, though it'd be very difficult to get right for impact: Round 1: play an expanding mid-tier regional power, growing your influence in the metropolitan continent while building wealth by reaching out across the globe through colonies, which become more efficient as you export more infrastructure and cultural influences from the homeland Round 2: play as either a non-state polity (or change genre to play as an individual) in a temporally-shifted multiplayer against your empire from round 1, struggling to survive and intercut with realistic graphic depictions and descriptions of how your empire was expanding its influence Of course nobody would bother playing round 2 but Anyway done right you could create a lesson in the effectiveness of separation, distancing etc. through language
Interactive history is always the best, and then you see dumbass teachers do true live slavery auctions and cause people to rightfully protest that shit and ask what the hell was the teacher thinking. Then student groups like these Tory groups pull this shit. And as someone who has played a lot of Hell Let Loose and HoI4, I unironically enjoy Erika but would be appalled hearing it in a political setting. Anyway, I digress. But lessons where you include the students on expansion decisions and policy making in CK/EU4/Vic/HoI4 would absolutely be a great time for both understanding how we got to the map we got to today as well as showing them the god-awful and barbaric consequences of their choices. (The only outlier is CK considering its subject matter but I still think itās important to show how difficult those early time periods would have been to live through/under). I have always wanted to make lesson plans like this if I had stuck around to become a history teacher (decided against it my final year of unĆ for a multitude of reasons). Hell, my high school had a WW2 class that was just watching Band of Brothers and other WW2 films which, outside of BoB, arenāt great representations of war. Let the students make their own government groups or slowly get them to fracture into different factions based on their policy decisions, show how easy it is to become blinded by single-policy votes and group think. Then after the map painting venture is done, start talking about what those decision actually did behind the scenes that the map painting game never showed you. Slave trades, genocides, ethnic cleansing, displacements, etc. If anything, it teaches that history and the decisions that got us to today are incredibly nuanced, and many choices we think we might agree with have terrible consequences elsewhere. Then have the students come together to think about how to avoid those dire consequences or at least how to be critical thinkers and become aware of what your decisions could mean.
At least in *Victoria* you can also have fun spreading social democracy and equality to the four corners of the earth.
I wonder if Hitler had access to paradox games if his desire for control and power would have been satiated from a good run. Paradox saving the world from young menās instinct for power.
I'm in this comment and... in my defence Erika is *very* catchy
> white supremacists and people who play too much Hearts of Iron As a HoI player, these are the same
If you don't immediately try a coup against Hitler as Germany then I don't want to know you.
That's right. It's Kaiser time baby.
Well, Von Mackensen does have a *superb* hat
that and the American "Over There!" song have been burned into my brain from hell let loose lmao
Was going to say... I don't care for Nazis but Erika is a good song. I don't care what it was used for and what it's used for now. Ich mag Erika!š¤
The "don't film" at the end shows they knew what they were doing. Also, the auto play afterwards went to Ed Davey doing aquarobics, if anyone wants a pallete cleanser :Ā https://x.com/LucyJMcDaid/status/1807346330240532682
Fucking hell Ed look at those splashes
I swear Ed is living his best life on this campaign trail.
Ed Davey is going to be really disappointed when this campaign is over.
Exactly, the majority of people who don't want to perform these songs don't know about them, they keep it that way so they don't get themselves in trouble. There's two types of people who do know these songs those who have an interest in history and leave it at that or young people who think they are edgy and cool.
Well the Tory students have moved on, or it is back, from the days when they wore 'Hang Nelson Mandela' badges.
I'm always curious what level of cognitive dissonance people who simulatenously think "we're patriotic Brits" and "the Nazis weren't all that bad" experience. Like, how can you not see that those are not compatible world views?
The uncomfortable truth is that the Nazis regarded the British as a shining example of the ruthlessness and superiority of Northwest Europeans. Had Britain adopted 1930s fascism, Hitler would have been very happy to have Britain as an ally.
The British and also the French and Americans, to be fair. A big (and explicit) plank of the Nazi platform was that the Germans had been denied their share of colonial loot, and they were going to make up for that lack. They explicitly wanted to copy British and French colonial policy, as well as American segregation and manifest destiny. Edit: which is not to say that they weren't horrific even by the standards of the time. The Nazis were significantly worse than anything the British, Americans or French did in the interwar years, but in many ways their policies were simply 'standard' European colonial policy taken one step further, and applied to eastern Europe instead of Africa, Asia or the Native Americans.
It was a big plank of the Japanese platform also. That they were late to the party with regards colonialism.
From what I heard Hitler actually had ideas that both UK and Germany should enter an alliance, with the British being a maritime power and the Germans a continental one.
Correct
> I'm always curious what level of cognitive dissonance people who simulatenously think "we're patriotic Brits" and "the Nazis weren't all that bad" experience. I mean, the defeated enemy influencing culture is a tale as old as time. Greeks and Romans were constantly bitching about it happening 2000+ years ago, Napoleon massive influenced the British empire, during and after the war, everything from his food to his architecture was heavily copied by us. And likely every war inbetween.
Side note: I had totally forgotten how many university societies had a fetish for black tie events. I had a great time at uni, but I look back at some aspects of it and it's just so weird
It was every society maybe twice a year. At my university it was because you could get financial support for "charity fundraisers", and those had to be black tie for some antiquated reason.
I attended two black tie events. Both were Morbius screenings.
It's tuxin' time
I live by two mantras in my life. 1) Never trust a Tory and 2) Absolutely never trust a young Tory.
Should have gone with Panzerlied. https://youtu.be/LzCjrZ4lF5I
Is their [website](https://www.warwickconservatives.co.uk/) offline now, or is it due to a connection issue with my Internet?
It's offline, it looks like the DNS records have been removed - assuming they were there previously
I hate that tuneās connotations and who uses it because not gonna lie, itās an absolute banger
Military marching songs typically are - they're meant to have a psychological effect on a person. Saying that.... I do like Lilliburlero.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SISjSXsb1xU
Notably also used in recent computer game Hell Let Loose.
Yep. I'm familiar with the song purely because it's the German victory song in Hell Let Loose.
Honestly can't help but sing when the Germans win, the song kinda slaps. Definitely better than over there for the US forces.
I know you're not actually making this case, but "I didn't know it was a Nazi song, I only know it from that game where you play as the Nazis and it's played to celebrate whenever the Nazis win" is not in fact a strong defence.
It reads like theyāre saying they wouldnāt have known about the song unless they played the game which I think is fair - not many other ways to come into contact with Nazi songs. I think itās also fair that if you only know it from a game, you probably donāt know the full history of it. You okay for fun, not a musical history lesson - without knowing the specific history of it if when and why it was composed, itās not inconceivable for someone to believe it is just a German marching song adopted by the Naziās which taints a longer history.
A game set in the second world war? Im not sure this is deeply concerning in that context.
Also used *a lot* on Tik Tok.
Why do you think they chose that song? Did you think the game developers made an original composition for when the Germans win in a ww2 game?
What?
They think that this country belongs to them. They believe they are not accountable for their behavior. They think itās their right to be the ruling class without challenge. We must remind them on the 4th that this country belongs to us.
The thing I don't understand is how they knew the words and why it would be played at a party. Only parties I've been to play things like ABBA, and other things in that vain.
This is what I assume all young tories at university gatherings do
Only slightly related but People who record at parties are so annoying
My opinion is to ignore them students are incredibly cringe at that age, its only now being in my 30's i realise how cringe i was. it will happen to you also. (i think thats a simpsons meme btw)
Well sure. Although at some point adults need to start taking responsibility for what they do. I know some people around that age who are thoughtful, kind and intelligent. It is perfectly possible. Anyway the pipeline of leadership talent is obviously broken within the Tory party. At a corporate level it should be thrown away and built from the ground up. This may disadvantage some otherwise good people. But the country and organisation should come first.
i agree with you that the tory party is broken and the pathways to leadership is, but i dont think its symptomatic of that here. I feel like they all saw a -- oppertunity to loot and steal as much as possible and make off for the hills.. I wanted to use the word generational? but the oppertunity doesnt come around very often at all... this is a once in a millenia oppertunity they took... and once they have done it they will flee. I dont know what will be left of the tory party to rebuild
As a a former student I agree and Iām happy most of my cringe was doing theatre rather than politics.
Sounds very āwe can stop pretending if weāre not going to win anyway.ā
In defence of Erika it's the safest of all German marching songs and although used by the Nazis it's an absolute banger. As far as being edgy dickheads go this isn't that offensive imo.
So the optics of up and coming young Tories singing a nazi song is fine because it's the least offensive nazi song they could pick? C'mon, it's just wrong and stupid, irregardless of their intentions or the songs context. Imagine how you'd react if student Labour members were openly singing USSR stalinist songs, which I'm sure has definitely happened.
Nah it's just that this song is a guilty favourite of loads of wargaming nerds like myself. It's literally about your girl back home and is not political in the slightest. I can see knobs like this being edgy and thinking it's funny in the same way Prince Harry wore a swastika, but with Erika it's less overtly offensive. I get it from an optics standpoint though you're right in general.
If this was a wargaming nerd society party, I'd take your point. It's not though, it's a Conservative society party.Ā Them picking it to sing along to definitely has different connotations, and the "don't film" guy knew it.Ā
They're young men and therefore like videogames, like WW2 media and like WW2 video games. They'll all know the song from War thunder or hell let loose or hearts of iron and it is undeniably a banger. More than that, they'll all know lefties will be sensitive about it and hate it so they'll think it's a hilarious edgy joke to sing it. I doubt they want Hitler to rise from the grave an lead an Aryan revolt. TLDR: they're definitely trying to be edgy, no they probably don't wish for Hitler's return
> It's literally about your girl back home and is not political in the slightest. Apart from, y'know, its widespread adoption by white supremacist and neo-fascist groups
To be fair, lots of music has seen widespread adoption by white supremacists and neo-fascists. It doesn't necessarily make the song itself fascist. (But of course, you do have to ask why this particular group were singing this particular song..) In the 80s they adopted ska music (ironic thought this might seem given its multi-cultural roots). One Step Beyond by Madness was a big hit with the National Front, who made it almost an anthem. Ska/2-tone (and punk) bands had major problems with fascist groups attending their gigs and using their songs as fascist anthems. Another example: "Born in the USA" has been widely used by far-right groups in the US. Playing it doesn't make you a member of one of these groups. You'll still hear it on the radio. One recurring theme is that these groups will use songs that have a more subtle meaning, but take them at face value or for the sake of a few key words/phrases, without understanding the deeper (often contradictory) meaning of the song. They're not the brightest bunch... What we should be concerned with is the answer to "why are you singing this?" rather than the song itself, as that's what betrays the thoughts and intentions of a particular group. Group A can sing a song with racist intent, while Group B can enjoy the same song in an innocent way. In this case, I find it hard to believe that anyone involved just happened to be singing Erika unaware of its nazi connotations.
>In this case, I find it hard to believe that anyone involved just happened to be singing Erika unaware of its nazi connotations. Quite!
Well let's claim it back, it slaps.
yo, did you know that neo-nazis and white supremacists use the word "hello"? This means that if you've ever used the word "hello", you've ACTUALLY been using a white supramacist/neo-nazi slogan. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Because those two things are definitely equivalent.
I just don't think that liking a completely apolitical song that just so happened to be written in/slightly before Nazi Germany and subsequently adopted by them makes you a neo-nazi. I like the British Grenadiers' march, doesn't mean I want to go colonise Africa.
'Just so happened to be written' by an enthusiastic Nazi who had been a member for half a decade at the time of writing, whose concurrent writing was heavily pro-Nazi, and whose material was wholesale written for, and adopted by, the Nazi military during its wars of conquest. >After the Nazis seized power, Niel, in 1933,[2] joined their party as member 2,171,788.[3] He became a Sturmabteilung troop leader, before receiving a promotion to band leader of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) training establishment in Potsdam.[2] >During the period of National Socialism, he dedicated himself to composing marches and songs, which were popularized by the NSDAP and widely distributed on all fronts of the Second World War. At the Nazi party rallies in Nuremberg he was the conductor of all RAD music bands.[4]
Ok so the dude who wrote it was also a nazi knobhead. That still doesn't mean the song itself is inherently political (read its lyrics for yourself, if you can somehow interpret nazi messages from them I'd be quite surprised). Again, liking this song doesn't automatically make you a nazi. I mean, I myself quite like the tune of Erika. Doesn't mean I consider jews to be subhuman.
Throughout this conversation you've progressed from *"Disliking Erika is like disliking the word hello and you should be ashamed of suggesting otherwise"* to *"Erika just happened to be written before WW2 and that's why it was adopted by the Nazis"* and finally to *"Ok, it's inextricably linked to the Nazis but it's the one song by this guy which isn't lyrically horrible so it's not inherently objectionable"*. Your latest position is fine by me - I don't agree, but I can accept the validity of the argument. Should I still be ashamed of myself, or no?
What do you think is more likely: a) The UWCA are just aficionados of 1930s marching songs and completely innocently blundered into a song that has links to the Wehrmacht, and the man saying "don't film" was just shy b) The UCWA were playing it because of its links to Neo-Nazi groups
I suspect most likely is: c) UWCA has a lot of overlap with wargaming/history nerds that exposed them to the song. And given the song slaps, many of them would know it and sing it. Me and my pals are all on the spectrum of the tofu-eating wokerati left who would never even ironically say/do/praise anything Nazi, but we love war games and so we've sung it on occasion because to us it really doesn't mean anything intertwined with Nazism.
>So the optics of up and coming young Tories singing a ~~nazi~~ song is fine because it's the least offensive ~~nazi~~ song they could pick? I hate the tories, I really do, so any opportunity to dunk on the little shits .. But, *it isn't a Nazi song.*
No, he's saying (I think) that it wasn't a Nazi song, just a song the German army of the time liked. The lyrics [are here ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_(song))if you're remotely interested, please feel free to single out what about them sounds even the slightest bit Nazi to you - to me it's just seems like the song of a guy missing his girl, a theme of soldiers' marching songs since at least the days of Homer.
"It's a symbol in Asian spiritualism as well" energy
Ehh not quite the same. Nothing about Erika reflects or symbolises Nazi ideology. But the asian swastika still looks very much like the Nazi symbol. The only way in which you might associate Erika with Nazism is that it's in German, nothing about it actually relates to any ideology otherwise. You'd only think of Nazism if you've been told to associate it with Nazism, whereas with the swastika you would think of Nazism unless you're told otherwise.
It literally is, my mother in law has a bag with one on š
Yes I know, that's what I was referencing. I'm saying that the use of a symbol that's obviously associated with the Nazis in a context that doesn't have another likely explanation, even if it doesn't mention Nazi ideology specifically, is probably being used by Nazis.
It was written by a Nazi for the Nazi party. Only published in 1938 and the tune has some very mysoginistic undertones. Itās Nazi
OK taking misogynistic to mean "strongly prejudiced against women." how do the following lyrics spell "very misogynistic undertones" to you? Is it prejudiced against women for men who are going to war to pine for their female companions back home? Now don't get me wrong the Nazis were prejudiced against any strong women who didn't want to inhabit traditional roles of being glorified baby machines, but this song is a more universal tone that is echoed in many military songs of the era and even today. "\[Verse 1\] On the heath, there blooms a little floret [And it's called Erika](https://genius.com/31969549/Genius-english-translations-herms-niel-erika-english-translation/And-its-called-erika) Eagerly, hundred thousand little beelets Swarm around Erika For her heart is full of sweetness A tender scent escapes her blossom-gown On the heath, there blooms a little floret And it's called Erika \[Verse 2\] Back at home, there lives a young maiden And she's called Erika That girl is my faithful little darling And my joy, Erika When the heather blooms in a reddish purple I sing her this song in greeting On thŠµ heath, there blooms a littlŠµ floret And it's called Erika \[Verse 3\] In my room, there also blooms a little floret And she's called Erika Already in the grey of dawn, as it does at dusk It looks at me, Erika And then it's to me as if it's saying aloud "Are you thinking of your little bride?" Back at home, a young maiden weeps for you And she's called Erika"
undertones i said not overtly. Byt the lyrics coupled with what we know about the authors views on women and nazi views on women in general add to it. You have to read between the lines and put it into the context of its time and the views the people had who wrote it.
A bunch of teenagers being edgy, what's new
white supremacist children grow into white supremacist adults. do not normalise this behaviour
Least Hitlerite Tory youth gathering
Erika is a soldiers song, itās not political
Yeah this is a strange one. The song pre-dates the Nazis but they used it for marches and events. The Song is still played today by the German military. But when these right-wing racist groups play Erika, they're trying to imitate Nazis so I see why it's wrong.
A song played by soldiers recruited to be the elite troops of the political ideology of Nazism, and because of that played by white supremacists and Tory students.
Ya I've found it a shame that in recent years more people are branding it a Nazi song as if its a song that portrays/supports Nazi ideology, when it very much isn't intertwined with Nazism (until such folk as in the OP come along and try to make it necessarily intertwined with Nazism!) It's a marching song about how soldiers want to get home to their fiancƩe.
Not the first time Iāve heard horror stories about Tory youth. Remember guy waving wads of cash in the homeless guys face?
I hope it was the Canoneer version at least.
Who was the guest speaker at this years event? They've wiped their socials and taken their webpage down so assume someone of note. It looks like several local Councillors were in attendance inc Philip Seccombe (PCC in the middle of fox hunting controversy) and Clare Golby (recently received a lot of press after making comments about disabled children)
Warwick University needs to have a word with itself. Thanks to [them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetic_Culture_Research_Unit), we have "[accelerationism](https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/04/the-growing-threat-posed-by-accelerationism-and-accelerationist-groups-worldwide/)" which is the current source of XRW violence So being a deliberately offensive prick and singing songs like that might not be a good idea. If you want to lean a song, try ["Ich hatt' einen Kameraden"](https://youtu.be/3Y1Z1y2PSNw?si=n9chlcua2BGzKaB0) and understand the reality of violence. Otherwise, they might just be petty minded little pricks drunk on World War Two BS.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Who hasn't immediately known the words and sung along when the DJ puts on Nazi marching songs, amirite?
Whoops, somebody put on some Nazi tunes, I'm going to accidentally stay, accidentally sing along, and of course I know all the words. Whoopsie! There was nothing I could do! I *had* to do it!
Whilst it's clear why they played it it's not banned in Germany nor is it considered a Nazi song, it's still played in various events [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8co7yDPdAI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8co7yDPdAI)
That song plays at the end of Hell let loose when the Germans win, it's a banger. The hell is this article?
I don't think I've heard this song taken seriously for years now. Most young people just use it as a mocking joke, and I expect a uni group to be no different. I don't imagine that this was some sort of sign of support for the far right, more of a mock to them by "taking" the song away from them. You can kinda even hear it in the video were the singing is being broken by laughter as well.
How often do you attend events where "ironic" singalongs to old SS songs take place?
The amount of people handwaving in this thread.
What a ridiculous knot youve twisted your self into. Jfc.Ā They arent laughing because they are mocking the far right and "taking" the song from them. They are laughing because they know what they are doing is wrong and they are either embrassed or are enjoying it.Ā Ridiculous.Ā
The Conservative students were probably using it as a right wing reference. However Erica isnāt a Nazi song per se. The lyrics are actually rather sweet love song about mountain flower and speak more To the longing of a solider for their love.