This'll have to be a pearoast
First off, you can call me a hypocrite if you want. I'm an urban explorer who makes a big deal about the evils of urban renewal in South Korea, yet lives in one of the biggest, most evil apartment complexes.

But this one will be about my friend Vrev, not his real name, who really takes the cake when it comes to hypocrisy. And, to be honest, I'm glad he's a hypocrite because he'd be a much worse human being if he stuck to his beliefs.

Let me start by introducing him. He's an American soldier, a self-described national socialist, and a skinhead. Not one of those "This is England" "skinheads-came-from-black-culture" skinheads, but an archetypal multiculturalism-hating bald-head.

First off, with the National Socialism bit, he doesn't worship Hitler, but he loves the whole idealism thing Hitler came up with that I really don't get, something about race-blah-blah nation-blah-blah. See my username to understand what I think of the topic. What are National Socialists/Nazis known for? Anti-Semitism, you say? Vrev spends most of his time online blogging about how blindly he supports Israel and how Islam should be wiped off the face of the Earth.

He listens to a wide variety of music, and despite being a devout Christian, is attracted to anti-Christian black metal and that sort of thing (meanwhile, I'm a devout atheist who listens to spiritual and sometimes outright-religious reggae music). But his favourite vein of music is known as Rock Against Communism music, or RAC, which he verbalises as "rack." Basically, RAC was a response to the Rock Against Racism movement of the '80s, but instead of being actually against the Iron Curtain, RACkers targeted things that seemed communist-like to them, namely anti-racism, multiculturalism and immigration. Although Vrev was very anti-communist, speaking out against the American Democratic Party whenever he could.

When I first met him, when he was first sent by the US army to South Korea, where he worked as a Korean linguist, he had many great things to say about Korea. As he pointed out to me and my Korean wife, western people are great, and eastern people are great, but black people are innately inferior. A few months later, he actually met black people (where he comes from in the US there are very few black people), probably the first two black people he ever got to know, and became good friends with both of them and 100% took back his words.

What else? Oh yeah, he also comes across as very homophobic, both as a Christian and as a sheltered conservative. Yet when I first met him, I got the strong sense he was flirting with me, touching my thighs gently and lingering a little too much on the eye contact. He started a notorious topic on our message board about how he thinks the male body is objectively more beautiful than the female body. Then he was caught at a reggae dance party making out with a lesbian (lesbian in that she was married to a woman but I guess technically she was a bisexual polygamist [and very cool individual]).

Something I learnt about Vrev is that he is easily controlled by emotional arguments. He fell in love with National Socialism because of the love the Nazis felt for their country, rather than the hatred they're more well known for. He loves RAC music because most of the bands claim to be patriots (while saluting a foreign, failed flag). Then things got complicated when he started dating a Chinese girl he met in a Korean language class.

I'll start to wrap this up, but basically he got really deep into Chinese patriotism. He told me one night, China's government is closer to national socialism than communism.

I guess that didn't work for his superiors. They found out his girlfriend's father was a big wheel in the Chinese army, and he got demoted from linguist to truck driver because the US army was afraid he was a security risk, and might slip information to his hated communist enemy. After that, he seemed to soften a bit on his patriotism, and announced on Facebook (that stupid 25 things meme) that he never really wants to live in the US again.

When I first met him I saw very quickly in what ways he was screwed up. I have to admit I take less pleasure than I hoped every time his beliefs get proven wrong (though that doesn't stop me from trying). He has dabbled in, and summarily rejected, numerous ideologies that most of us consider too evil to think critically about. He's basically learning by experience. I wonder where he'll be in ten years, if some nutbag cult leader will steal his soul, or if he'll learn from his experiences and become smarter than most of us. I do have to say I have more affection for him than most humans (even though I misspelled his name and there's very little hope of him finding this).
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 14:44, 10 replies)

dude seems desperate to find some sense of identity
Any idea why he has rejected his background?
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 14:48, closed)

Not really
I don't think he has particularly rejected his background at all. Everything new he believes in, he manages to fit into his life. He comes from a weird part of the US with a background of Scandinavian immigrants and virtually no minorities. He told me once his brother is a more serious racist.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 2:43, closed)

Minnesota?

( flake has nothing against your right leg, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 11:39, closed)

Close.
North Dakota.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Mon 23 Feb 2009, 10:24, closed)

Fuck biscuits
I was thinking about the movie Fargo, and remembered that it was set mainly in MN.

I'd forgotten that part of the movie was set in Fargo, hence the name, and that Fargo is actually in ND.

Serves me right for not remembering my Geography lessons as a kid in TX. D'oh.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Tue 24 Feb 2009, 23:49, closed)

Yeah
He's not far from Fargo, or possibly from Fargo. He doesn't speak like the people in the movie, ya.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Wed 25 Feb 2009, 13:42, closed)

Sounds like an interesting fella.
A lot better to shift views like that based on personal experience than be stiff-necked and rooted to one view whatever happens, I guess.
Have a click, liked that.
(Sundayturkey has the biggest mug of tea, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 16:28, closed)

Yeah, he's interesting
He's very intelligent and an impressive writer, despite his schizophrenic sense of identity.

When he was first moving to Korea, he told me "I want to expand my mind by experiencing other cultures, but I don't want any of my political beliefs to be challenged." Fortunately it's happened so gradually I don't think he's noticed.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 2:41, closed)

He's right about one thing
Fascism and Communism are just different sides of the same coin. Just the flags are different colours
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 20:56, closed)

Especially...
...when you compare their propaganda, which is usually what ropes Vrev in.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 2:43, closed)