They hiked with torches, and one of them had a laptop named “Wolf’s lair”. Sure, they could be nazis or something, but those things do not exactly prove that.
Point is, no matter how suspicios you think that would look, I would not go as far as declaring it “Nazi dog whistling”.
Laptop called "Wolf's Lair"? Hiking at night with burning torches? Hmm, you're right... while it's no cast-iron proof, they could definitely be nazis or something.
I wouldn’t call anything “dog whistling” unless it was confirmed that this was its purpose. Otherwise, every single black metal band would be guilty of something or other. Intention matters.
> You are also missing some other “suspicious” facts.
Those two things I listed were the only two things asserted by the links provided. I would guess that actual nazis would perhaps show more signs, especially with so many people eager to find something, anything, to pin on them.
I mean, no? Black metal is about death, satanism, and the dark coldness of the grave. It’s entirely overt. I’m sure a few BM bands do engage in all kinds of signaling, but talking as an ex BM enthusiast, the nazi/fascist stuff is coming out of other genres. Power metal, death mean, eg., and there it is a minority as well.
Yes, that is exactly my point. BM might have elements in common with other, more questionable, factions, but this does not make BM’s style into “signaling”. Likewise, mere torches by themselves, is not necessarily signaling. I mean, nazis at one point thought that torches were cool, for normal human reasons. Might not normal people also think that torches are cool, for the same, normal human reasons?
