School kids protest drag event in Canada - there is hope

[Sidaway]

This is encouraging.

Steady on Cailleach, someone might think you're associated with a staunch Christian like me, if we're seen wearing the same symbol.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the Celtic cross - it’s that certain white supremacist groups have adopted it as a symbol, just like there’s nothing wrong with Norse mythology but white supremacists appropriate it. In this case, where it’s not a historic or cultural group with Celtic roots, the poster was just saying that it’s likely that’s why they’re using the symbol, just like Soldiers of Odin isn’t a historical society exploring mythology. They weren’t saying that actual historical items or Irish people are default racist.

The Celtic cross has been around longer than anyone knows. It means different things to different people, especially Celts. Biden has one on his Bible. But it has also, in this form, been used since WW2 as a symbol by extreme right wing groups. I'm just saying "True North" + Red Maga like hats + the phrase "great white North" + the plain celtic cross taken together = enough for me to say these guys are far right.

With some confidence.

I bought a celtic Cross in the 1990s from a tourist shop at the bottom of Croagh Patrick, it was full of tourists and pilgrims not a Nazi in sight.

I bought a celtic Cross in the 1990s from a tourist shop at the bottom of Croagh Patrick, it was full of tourists and pilgrims not a Nazi in sight.

The fact that the far right have nicked the shape means nothing. Don't worry. Your cross is unsullied by any hint of right wing extremism. So is Joe Biden's.

Maybe they think that.

But they also might just be against sexualized material being presented to children, which seems pretty sensible really.

The student protestors are more interesting than the group.

But I would be hesitant to draw some of the conclusions people here are. I would say they clearly seem to be nationalists, it's less clear that they are white supremacists based on what people have mentioned.

"True North" is part of the Canadian national anthem "the true North strong and free". The phrase "great white North" is common and the only time I've heard it with racial connotations was tongue in cheek, making fun of the whiteness of Canadians.

And Celtic crosses are common here, and people absolutely don't think they are "unconnected" to them. Most of our provinces have their own tartans, for example, there are Gaelic schools in some places. And almost everyone who lives here has ancestors that come from somewhere else, even a large portion of First Nations people.

That's true. The students seem a varied, cheerful bunch, who are probably just marking the imbecile nonsense the school is putting them through. I'm talking about the guys in the red hats, who made the video. As someone upthread said, if you stop people commenting and call everything transphobia (I'm paraphrasing quite freely here) then you open the door to exploitation by those with other purposes.

The Irish weren't involved in WW2.

"True North" is fine.
"Great white North" is fine.
Celtic crosses are utterly fine.
Red hats are fine.
Bibles are totally fine.

But when you put them all together, you get a whiff of something else.

Do the extreme far-right in America (can I say North or is that dodgy now) use the English language to communicate their aims?

You'd have to add English language - fine. But when you add using the English language to something emanating from North America; along with bibles = not fine.

Maybe that is where the confusion aspersions of far right associations of the Celtic cross has emanated. It is because, allegedly, the poor old Celtic Cross seems to have been put into an O of the English language. And, thus has become associated with the extreme far-right in North America.

Of course, I'm not saying all those who communicate using the English language (and provenance is North America) are racists. But of course it is another marker of those who are. I repeat, I'm not saying the English language is racist in and of itself!!

Is that about right?

They may well have been influenced by Christian nationalist type stuff. Although that also can include people who are just unfashionable patriotic these days. Anyone who isn't unremittingly internationalist and thinks ties to place are for the plebs tends to be looked down upon.

But why the assumption that they are racists?

Agree @ReadersD1gest !!!