Uppsala: Responses to Folkish Heathens

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Responses To Folkish Heathens

by Wayland Skallagrimsson

It has been several years since I posted my essay on Folkish heathenry. Over the course of those years I have gotten many responses from Folkish heathens on this article. As there has been almost no difference between these responses, and as that does not seem likely to ever change in the near future, I thought I'd just write a generic response and post it next to my original article. To any Folkish heathen wanting to reply to my original article, read this. If my words apply to you, you don't really need to waste my time by writing to me directly. If you actually have something original or relevant to say, then feel free to write me. And to anyone else who is dealing with Folkish issues elsewhere, feel free to repost this or my original article.

All of the responses I have gotten to my article have had one thing in common. None of them, NOT ONE OF THEM have addressed so much as one of the points I raised in my essay against Folkish heathenry. Even when they have engaged me in lengthy debates and I asked them to actually try to address the issues I raised, none of them have ever managed to. Some few have admitted they cannot answer even one of my points. Most have simply ignored me, and acted like they couldn't hear.

Guess what? Neither I nor any person with a brain or any intellectual integrity is impressed by this. Pretending you can't hear things you cannot deal with? That's cowardly. It's a childish schoolyard trick. Grow up. And if you cannot respond to my disproofs of Folkish beliefs? If you have no argument that is more logical or comes from better sources than mine?

Well, there's a couple of different ways you can deal with that. The honest and reasonable way to respond is to then admit that you are wrong. I offered proof that Folkish beliefs are not heathen. If you think otherwise, prove it. If you cannot prove it then history, logic, and heathen lore are on my side, not yours. I offered proof. You could not. Reason therefore concludes that I am right, and you are wrong.

You could always simply ignore reason. You could simply ignore proof. Some people prefer to ignore thinking, logic, and the use of rigorous standards of proof, and instead focus on what their instincts tell them. I am not a huge fan of this way of living, to be honest. It seems kind of crazy to me. But I respect it. Everyone has their own truth, and everyone lives their lives according to whatever truth they have. Insofar as this response goes, OK, fine. I'm not going to argue about it. We are simply very different people who see the world in very different ways.

But if you choose to follow this way, then honesty compels you to admit that all available proof and reason show that Folkism is not a heathen belief, and that you simply prefer to follow Folkism for reasons of your own. UPGs (Unusual Personal Gnoses) do form a part of our religion. It is a respectable religious path to base your religion around UPGs. I disagree with you. But I respect your right to practice your religion your way. I lift a horn to you.

But what you cannot do is to fail to offer proof for your arguments, fail to disprove my disproofs of Folkism, claim you will ignore all reason and all ancient sources, and STILL claim that Folkish belief is a genuine part of ancient heathen belief. That is just a lie. It is dishonest. It is cowardly. What, you cannot use the brains that Odin gave you? You don't have the balls to stand up and admit that your beliefs are your own, and not a part of the ancient heathen ways?

I have no respect for you WHATSOEVER if you take that path. The ancient heathens were curious. They were great explorers. They were brave. You, on the the other hand, are a cowardly little fool who has neither curiosity nor integrity. You are nothing like the ancient heathens. Stop your stupid little Live Action Role Playing Game. Remember the Nine Noble Virtues? Bravery, Honesty, and Honor are chief amongst them. You show none of these traits. Go fuck off to Stormfront. Pour yourself a nice big glass of Shut The Hel Up and stop masquerading as a heathen. And stop wasting my time. I have no respect for you, and your words have no more meaning to me, or anyone with a brain, than the barkings of a mad dog. Or the babbling of a young child. You show no more brains than either.

Many Folkies instead of actually trying to either answer me or honestly admit that their beliefs are UPGs instead resort to the basest forms of debating tricks. They try to attract attention away from the fact that they cannot respond to me on a rational basis with dumbass straw man distractions or ad hominem attacks. A favorite trick is to simply dismiss everything I say as being “more Universalist nonsense”. As my writings clearly state that I am no a Universalist, that I am in fact a Tribalist who disagrees with Universalism most strenuously, you are simply lying. You slander my name to try to hide the fact that you are a fool and a coward. This is honorless. And the same goes for the one where you try to paint me as “just one of the PC crowd”. I ain't PC. I don't hold with such nonsense. As I have clearly stated in many places. I did you the honor of addressing your Folkish arguments in a reasonable fashion, using ancient sources, using logic alone. I spread no lies. You do not show the honor that I do.

And then there's the response that tries to attack my character. Let's see… my favorite is the one that tries to accuse me of cowardice, of hiding behind a fake name. It has long been an honored heathen tradition to take a religious name upon converting to heathenry. Something that shows something of your path and your character. Like Kveldulf Gundarsson and Edred Thorsson did. Like I have done. Either you do not realize this, which shows that you actually know very little about heathen ways (what's wrong, too busy “being white” to actually practice our religion?) or, again, you are lying to try to smear my character. Neither thing makes you look good.

And then there's the one that dismisses me as a nobody, whom they have never heard of. Like that matters. It is my words that matter, not whether you happen to have heard of me. Though if you only stick to your tiny little world of people who think just like you then of course you would not have run into the hundreds of people who have read my web writings or bought my books. And then there's the accusation that I am disrespectful of people like Steve McNallen, the “father of American Asatru”, so I am clearly not worth listening to. Another canard. Most modern American heathens don't have even the most tenuous connection to McNallen. And McNallen is unworthy of respect. His writings are far more concerned with race than religion, with faking science to make his racism look acceptable, and with accusing all Mexicans of being subconsciously part of some vast psychic conspiracy to overthrow “whitey”. NOT anything to be proud of.

Oh, and I can't forget the whiny little responses that accuse me of being judgmental and intolerant. An awfully hippie response from the same people who also whine about me being supposedly PC. Frankly, I think it's a load of crap. Judging is human. It is what we were evolved to do. Life is impossible without being judgmental. We all judge that breathing air is good. We all judge that eating food is good, and eating poison is bad. Most of us judge that sex is good, and that being hit repeatedly in the head with a baseball bat is bad. This is just a part of being human: making decisions.

Yes, being TOO judgmental is a bad thing. Having an open and flexible mind is the way of strength. But having an open mind is bad when it makes you give as much respect to opinions that are harmful as to opinions that are not. I respect various forms of sexual orientation. Hey, whatever two consenting adults choose to do in the privacy of their own homes is none of my business. Even if they are of the same sex, or involve whips and chains and things. But my tolerance does not extend to child molesters, who are simply monsters who need to be put down. I respect the beliefs of Democrats and Republicans alike (insofar as I respect any political beliefs at all), but my tolerance does not extend to doctrines of preemptive war and faking evidence as justification for war. I respect all religions. But my tolerance does not extend to religions that harm others as a part of their belief system.

And I have no tolerance whatsoever for unheathen beliefs being passed off as real heathen ones. If you want a religion that is based around whites only, then go make up your own religion. Do not pretend that it is a thing of this religion. That is a lie. And I am not so tolerant that I tolerate such lies.

All of these are just just pathetic little tricks. You can't disprove my arguments. You haven't got the balls to accept the consequences of having your cherished beliefs proved false. So you use these childish distractions in the hopes that if you yell loudly enough no one will notice that you haven't got anything to offer. Grow up, loser. Most of us stopped being impressed with these tricks in the fourth grade.

I waited years for a Folkie to respond to my arguments in an intelligent and well thought-out manner. To show that there was even a shred of evidence that ancient heathenry was Folkish. But I have not yet met one who could. The only intelligent arguments I got either admitted in the end that heathenry was never Folkish or recognized that the Folkish belief was modern, a UPG. ALL of the rest of the responses I got were rabid foaming at the mouth rants or simple childish bullshittery. And why is this? Because there is no justification for Folkishness as a heathen belief. None at all. If there were, at least ONE Folkie would have showed it by now.

Indeed, the closest approach to an attempt at an actual argument is to quote some of the writings of Varg Vikernes, a convicted murderer and arsonist, a dual faith heathen/Satanist. He has an essay on the Lay of Rig that he interprets in a highly warped manner as showing that ancient heathens were Folkish. He claims that the three classes of people fathered by Rig were of three different races, and that the thralls were black, and that this proves ancient heathen racism. Of course, to do this he has to ignore the fact that the parents of the different classes are all spoken of as being the same family, meaning that they were all white. He has to mistranslate words to even try to show that the thralls were supposed to be black. (They were actually called “swarthy”, like poor people and rednecks everywhere, meaning they are flushed with work and covered in the grime of their labors.) To make this ridiculous claim he also has to ignore the fact that historically speaking, 99.9% of thralls were from other white races. Sorry Folkies. Varg's arguments are simply lies.

Understand, these comments are addressed to the childish Folikie, the one who cannot prove his ideas but will not acknowledge them as HIS ideas, and instead insists on claiming them ancient. They are not addressed to those who are really Tribalists. They are not addressed to those who acknowledge Folkism as a UPG unique to their particular hearth. But to that first kind I say:

The ancients did not care about race. Your religion is all about race. You are not heathen. The ancients were courageous. You lack the courage to be honest either with yourself or with others. You are not heathen. The ancients loved to learn new things, see other ways. They traveled far and wide, settled in foreign lands. They adopted other gods, and other people into their religion. You lack the courage to even hold an intellectual conversation about beliefs that are in the least bit different than yours. You are not heathen. The ancients believed in living with honor. You slander and use tricks to make honest people look bad. You have no honor. You are not heathen. The ancients valued honesty. You lie. You are not heathen.

I know my arguments will have no effect on you at all. You will continue lying. You will continue hiding from the truth, or anyone who makes you think. You will continue using your childish little tricks. You've already proven you lack the courage or integrity to do anything else. But other religions, and also many real heathens, actually LIVE their religions. They write deep and insightful books, to inspire faith, help others, and explore their lore. They perform acts of deep devotion to honor their gods and show other people the depth of their devotion. They spend a year standing only on one foot. They place their hands in flames. They roll on the ground from one side of their country to another. They live lives of poverty and service to the poor and the sick. What do you do? You strike poses of yourself looking oh-so-tough with guns. (Let me clue you in. People who are GENUINELY strong don't need pictures of themselves posing to prove it.) Heathenry does not need people who know how to Vogue. We do not need posers.

You may fool the ignorant. You may even fool the self. But deep down inside… oh yes. We know the truth, you and I. You have no faith. You are not religious. You are not heathen. You are just a scared little fool, trying to look tough. Well, you aren't fooling anyone buddy. Not anyone who matters.

You are not the future of heathenry. You are the past. There are REAL heathens out there, trying to take our people into the future.

Get out of our way.