They were socialists punks & goths from east germany who would regularly get in fights with reactionaries in their youth??? I genuinely did not see this coming. Maybe it would have been obvious if I spoke german but I don’t and I am shocked. Genuinely expected chud behavior

  • sammer510 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Don’t get too excited cuz the members of Rammstein had some allegations not that long ago about sexual stuff. But yes Rammstein has never been a Nazi band. The song “Links” which means “Left” is kind of about this. Tons of their songs and imagery and music videos and concert stuff also are like…gay sadomasochism stuff. Watch the music video for Mein Teil (which means “my part” which is slang for “my dick”) or the music video for Sonne or watch some of their concert footage where they have like a giant dick that they use to spray faux jizz all over the audience. They’re not like Nazi Germans they’re like the weirdo sex Germans.

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      As a card-carrying weirdo sex German, i object to being compared to Rammstein.

      But yes, it shouldn’t surprise anybody that people who spent their youth as punks and goths in East Germany regularly got into fights with nazi skins, the fash basically tried to conquer that place immediately after the DDR fell and that has always included lots of street violence. Basically every leftist space there has been won by punching nazis in the face until they mostly gave up on the area, and after more than 30 years of fascist organizing and downright settlement policies, and tons of leftist or just not-fascist people moving away from dying towns ravaged by neoliberal shock treatment, there aren’t many of these places left.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        after more than 30 years of fascist organizing and downright settlement policies, and tons of leftist or just not-fascist people moving away from dying towns ravaged by neoliberal shock treatment, there aren’t many of these places left.

        I have never considered how this might be the case. Is there anything written about it? Sounds like an interesting rabbit hole if there’s ever been a deliberate effort and any similarities to like west bank shit or whatever.

        • AcidSmiley [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          The modus operandi is less West Bank and more cult compound, or just large parts of the nazi scene in a Western city buying cheap, abandoned houses in an almost-ghost town in the East. I can dig up sources, but i don’t know anything in English about this.

          • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            24 hours ago

            I mean, that’s not really that dissimilar. Difference is they’re not literally stealing the houses. So what they take over an area with small numbers of people an impose their cultural presence on the local area then move on to do it again elsewhere? Can probably do that with 15-30 people in areas with up to a few thousand.

    • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      Tons of their songs and imagery and music videos and concert stuff also are like…gay sadomasochism stuff.

      I actually saw rammstein in concert (part of the family values tour) and while haven’t seen many live shows, it was easily the most unforgettable show I’ve ever seen anybody put on.

      I still remember:

      • Lead singer comes out for the opener with a laser eye and a metal jacket they then set on fire.

      • Missile launcher shot over the crowd

      • Laser show

      • Simulated gay sex with giant flashing robot strap-on

      • Same strap-on then sprayed water over the crowd (a blessedly cool relief in the pit honestly)

      I’ll never forget 'em

      • krolden@lemmy.ml
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        Same. Was first big concert. I thought he was peeing at first and then my buddy was like no and I was like ohhhhhh

        Great time.

  • Smeagolicious [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Pretty shitty in other ways but not nazi yea - I never listened to em much but I remember liking Deutschland from a few years ago. The music video had nazi imagery which caused some controversy which I thought was odd because…the entire song was about not being able to love the concept of “germany” because of all its horrid shit - hell the nazi imagery in the video had the band being executed in a camp. Didn’t strike me as an endorsement lol.

    • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      For real? I never checked out KMFDM because I saw their name translated as “No mercy for the majority” and assumed they were on some “might makes right, crush the weak” fash shit.

          • anarcho_blinkenist [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            Even in their earliest industrial albums (maybe not their first 2 albums as much — the synthpop ones lol) in the late 80s were very overtly political — both in the music and in live performances, where they’d go on political rants all the time during their shows. It’s so weird to me CHUDs will talk as if the album The Land of R*pe and Honey was apolitical, with songs like ‘Golden Dawn’ and ‘Hizbollah

            The titular track of ‘The Land of R*pe and Honey’ is overtly anti-nationalist with ‘sieg heil’ chant sample-clips in the background of lyrics like “Step by step, blood by blood, the mountain that you tumbled from”… “fist to fist, eye to eye, rulers of the wasteland”… “head to head, chest to chest, which country is the very best? and in the land of r*pe and honey, you prey/pray” It is not subtle. And when Nazi skinheads who were too stupid to get the message would show up with a backwards idea the band would jump into the crowd to beat their asses themselves.

            One of their old live shows had Jello Biafra on stage during that song holding an American flag while goose stepping and alternating doing the nazi salute and then bringing that hand to suck his thumb like a baby. This is not apolitical lmao. Which incidentally I’ve also heard people complain about Jello Biafra going woke as if he was ever apolitical; with his band called DEAD KENNEDIES with such apolitical songs like “kill the poor” "lets lynch the landlord’ “holiday in cambodia” lmao.

            And the second industrial album by Ministry from 1989 The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste also has very prominent political messages throughout too. ‘Thieves’ (banger song) has sample-clips of Nixon and of Lee Erney’s character in Full Metal Jacket; and when it says “Thieves and liars! Murderers! Hypocrites and bastards!” “Hey thanks for nothing! Morals in the dust! two-faced bastards and syncophants! No trust!” it is not speaking apolitically lol.

            Breathe’ talks overtly and explicitly about corporate self-serving destroying the environment and healthy life, talks about children suffocating on second-hand air in poisoned environments and lyrics like “Rusted syringes and half-thought disposal, A burial at sea, Waste water graveyard, Swimming in disease”

            Cannibal Song’ and ‘Never Believe’ have overt anti-clerical and anti-prison bents in pretty visceral terms.

            It takes a deliberate effort I don’t understand in order to ‘not see politics’ in even the earliest of their industrial and metal works, to say nothing of their live performances which used and tore down fascist symbols and was as in your face with politics as it could get. They have always been like this, then continued as you said through Bush… I mean they never stopped. Al has always been very outspoken politically and works with people who are the same.

    • Default_Defect
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      1 day ago

      Eisbrecher and OOMPH!! too. No idea about their background though.

  • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    Woah, what an odd coincidence for me. I haven’t listened to Rammstein for literally years (I was never much of a fan or anything, just liked some of the stuff they did and knew they were cool as far as politics). But just last night I happened to think of one of their songs and decided to loop it a few times for nostalgia’s sake. Crazy. Anyway, as everyone has said, they are pretty decent politically, but I had no idea there was any SA stuff, so that’s a major disappointment but not totally surprising. The song that I happened to remember and that made me want to listen to them for the first time in years was “Amerika.” It goes even harder with the video.

    https://cal1.iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM

    edit in case the above youtube frontend isn’t working, here’s another: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM

    English-translated lyrics:

    spoiler

    [Chorus]
    We’re all living in America
    America is wonderful
    We’re all living in America
    America, America
    We’re all living in America
    America is wonderful
    We’re all living in America
    America, America

    [Verse 1]
    When we dance I want to lead
    When you turn yourself around alone
    Let us control you a bit
    I’ll show you how to walk right
    We create a lovely round dance
    The freedom plays from all violins
    Music comes from the White House
    And in front of Paris stands Mickey Mouse

    [Chorus]
    We’re all living in America
    America is wonderful
    We’re all living in America
    America, America

    [Verse 2]
    I know the very useful steps
    And I will protect you from missteps
    And who does not want to dance at the end
    Does not know that he must dance
    We create a lovely round dance
    I will show you the direction
    To Africa comes Santa Claus
    And in front of Paris stands Mickey Mouse

    [Chorus]
    We’re all living in America
    America is wonderful
    We’re all living in America
    America, America
    We’re all living in America
    Coca Cola, Wonderbra
    We’re all living in America
    America, America

    [Bridge]
    This is not a love song
    This is not a love song
    I don’t sing my mother tongue
    No, this is not a love song
    [Chorus]
    We’re all living in America
    America is wonderful
    We’re all living in America
    America, America
    We’re all living in America
    Coca Cola, sometimes war
    We’re all living in America
    America, America