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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24390 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026

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I've somewhat noticed that as well, but that "Historical European Martial Arts" are woke is so weird on its face. You'd think that it might be full of RETVRN types, or at least chill conservatives. But nope. I guess it's just too far from anything practical, so it appeals almost only to the neuro-atypical, which are very disproportionally woke.

Doing something unusual (unless it is locally usual in the place/subculture you grew up in) implies high openness to experience, which is correlated with political liberalism (and also IQ, education and whiteness). Any weird hobby will be full of WEIRD people.

Also one or two woke types getting in tend to be far more militant about spreading their preference, especially if rare women in a male dominated space

I guess the RETVRN types, or at least chill conservatives are to be found mainly among the Viking/Gladiator reenactors instead. I admit I have no idea what "Historical European Martial Arts" are.

Somewhere in between the outright RETVRNers and the chill conservatives (who would never do such low-status things as HEMA or reenactment) are the much more populous pagan LARPers, and those are well-represented among reenactors.

So it is. Now to be sure, there are lots of people around who just want to grill fight, and those are my crowd. Hell, I can even gel with the openly antifa guys as long as we're talking shop and they're not trying to shoehorn their political jokes into everything. Doesn't mean I approve of their wearing flags and banners to tournaments, quite the contrary, but I know well enough to keep quiet on that. And yes, HEMA is primarily nerds doing nerd things. Open conservatives, even chill ones, are actively pushed out. RETVRNers show up sometimes by accident, and are usually given sufficiently cold shoulders to get the message. And the "neuro" crowd is indeed practically everyone present.

I'm strongly considering switching clubs, since my old club (from which I have moved away geographically anyways) has really fallen off in terms of tournament focus and has gone far more woke since the generational shift following the "pandemic", and there's a closer one (it only costs me about 2,5h and 30€ to get there and back rather than 4h and 50€) in which people are much more motivated to actually go to competitions and spend far less time taking tiresome potshots at the political outgroup. Can't quite get myself to pull the trigger, loyalty is a bitch, but the option seems more appealing by the season.

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