www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/why-is-this-gop-house-candidate-dressed-as-a-nazi/64319/

Note to self. If you want to be in any kind of political position, you can't do shit but graduate college, get married, have children, and work.

Everything else you may want to do in life, hobbies, activities, etc. will always be used against you.

That's how Americans like their politicians, completely boring, lifeless, and homogenized.

Oh, good. A thread about politics.

Chapel, we actually had a local game designer run for city council in one of the suburbs. And his opponents definitely tried to use his gaming background against him:

www.icv2.com/articles/news/11496.html

He got elected anyway, and now you can read updates on council business at his blog:

blog.johnnephew.com/2009/07/website-update.html

Politics are not Trash Culture. Hopefully this thread will die quickly so we can talk about fun stuff.

Arise, ye workers from your slumber,
Arise, ye prisoners of want.
For reason in revolt now thunders,
and at last ends the age of cant!
Away with all your superstitions,
Servile masses, arise, arise!
We'll change henceforth the old tradition,
And spurn the dust to win the prize!
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale,
Unites the human race.

This is the first I've seen of this "historical reenactment" stuff, which seems to be a kind of LARPing for wargamers. That's why I posted the link. Maybe some of you are too close to the context to see that.

Hatchling wrote:

Oh really? It is apparently quite the hobby in the States. It rather amuses me. Here's a site for your perusal: www.atthefront.com/rantsarchive.html It's the site of a guy who sells these people equipment, and he is apparently very mad at the majority of these people, probably understandably so.

By the way, I would not vote for a Nazi reenactor. It takes a special mindset to don a Nazi uniform, SS in particular, and that mindset has nothing to do with historical interest. I understand that the reenactors probably need someone to play the "bad guys", but amazingly enough, the "bad guys" are more numerous. It must be because the uniforms look better. Yeah, definitely.

Holy shit, that outfitter guy's site is comedy gold.

This stuff isn't really news in the US, although usually I only see the Civil War guys in the media.

Dressing up as the bad guys from a war with many still-living veterans is in incredibly poor taste.

Also, this quote from the candidate in question:
""I've always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that's incredible.""

Yeah, wank more.

Re-enactment groups are common around the UK for WW2 stuff. Our local small restored Steam Railway line has different theme weekends and they have a miliatry one at the end of summer, the last couple of years they have had a 101st Airborne group (english guys though) fighing a German luftwaffe army group in a short 10 min battle with fully operational rifles and machine guns firing blanks in the battle (with the crowd only a dozen or two yards away).
Other groups will just collect and display equipment and deactivated weapons in static displays (all still in uniforms from the era), one of the younger lads is in a British one that had a display on the day and as well as the weapons and vehicles they had a restored 6 pounder anti-tank gun that they are in the process of getting the required licenses to fire blank rounds from it.

I can understand Schweig's thoughts on re-enactors choosing German or Nazi army groups, being brought up in Germany over the last 60 years probably means constant reinforcement of the evil of the Nazi regime.
And maybe not the uniforms that look better but the weapons and machinery (I would love to drive around in a German halftrack, with the US one a close second) pull people to the German side.

Although after looking at the site those guys seem pretty fixed on the specific SS regiment.