A Frith, what would we do without you?

Live in a society, apparently.

So I went on the internet, and I found this: No Frith With Bullies by Havamal Mama

“Yesterday in one of the regional Heathen groups I am part of on Facebook, someone asked if anyone could recommend a more conservative Heathen group/kindred/space for ritual. Because all the groups they’d met thus far are too liberal. Too leftist. Too anti-Trump.”

I think we can all see where this is going. Someone, of a more conservative political bend, wanted to find some like minded people. To find a place where they wouldn’t be demonized or derided for their political views. Where they wouldn’t be vilified and maligned for being part the 50% of this country that isn’t left wing.

And guess how they were treated?

“If you don’t know, Heathenry is one of the more conservative branches of paganism. Racism and bigotry have a significant role in the personal practices of a decent portion of the Heathen population of the United States. So that person’s comments about too liberal and too leftist people being hard to share a horn with hit the some of the folks in the group pretty hard. Lazily phrased or not, a dog whistle is still a dog whistle.“

That’s right. Instantly to the “you’re a racist, bigoted, evil person!”

It’s all so tiresome.

“The person also made it clear that they’re unwilling to let go of the swastika just because some “mad man in Germany used it.”“

He sounds based. Possibly redpilled. I mean, leftists have no problem using the red and black anti-fa flag despite the fact it was used by literal communists who have butchered a hundred and fifty plus million people. Or throwing their support behind BLM despite it murdering over thirty people, doing billions in property damage, countless instances of physical assault, and being a literal terrorist movement. Or voting in Kamala Harris despite the fact she sent thousands of men to prison and kept them there as slave labor. So I fail to see how this guy is a bad guy for refusing to give up one of our ancient and holy symbols just cause a little blood got on it..

Oh no, was that a dog whistle?

“Before you tell me that some Eastern European groups are trying to reclaim it, I need you to know that I don’t care. I live in Brooklyn, where one in four people is Jewish. My neighborhood is distinctly Jewish. The building next to mine is a yeshiva. There are five synagogues within walking distance from my home. My polling place is a Jewish Community Center.

The thought of the fear and anger that my neighbors would feel at the sight of that awful symbol on display is heartbreaking.“

Mama, just a little bit of advice from someone who has spent waaaaaaaay to much time on the internet. When someone asks you why we, as Heathens, cannot use our sacred symbols, shouting “The Jews!” is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. I mean, seriously, it’s terrible. You do not want to do that.

But you did, so let’s deal with it, while we’re talking about bullies and refusing to keep frith with them.

What have the Jews done for us Heathens? Well, their “anti-racist” organizations have universally labeled our faith a religion of hate, our symbols as hate symbols, our organizations as hate organizations, and our people as racist, bigots, and worse, with only the most tepid of acknowledgements that ‘not always, nor in every case’ and that, usually, after being forced to do so.

One of the most prominent of these organizations is the ADL, or Anti-Defamation League. It is an organization run by Jews, financed largely by Jews, and with great support from the Jewish community. It is also an organization literally founded to blame a black man for the murder of a young girl, and to explicitly defend her murderer, a pedophile rapist. The “defamation” they’re so “anti”? Was the fact that he was a pedophile and a rapist getting out. To this day, they still insist Katz was innocent of the crime and hold him up as an innocent victim of anti-semitism. And they have used their power, privilege, and prestige, to label hundreds of groups and thousands, even millions, of people, as degenerates who should be excised from society.

They are, by action and definition, bullies. With the highest levels of support of the Jewish community. A community that is larger, wealthier, and far, far more influential than our own Heathen community. Influence and power they have used to malign and vilify our faith and its practitioners. Who, as a community, view not just Heathens, but literally every non-Jewish person on this planet, as an existential threat to their existance. And I’m not just saying that as someone who lived in the Jewish community and nearly got converted to Judaism, you can go read their own words on the subject. Many Jews are not shy about how they view everyone (but especially whites) as world ending threats to themselves.

Yet Mama would stand in Frith with them, who have objectively ‘bullied’ our people. But will not keep frith with a man who would stand up for our symbols, but instead joins in on hating him because, why? He isn’t anti-Trump? Nearly eighty million people voted for trump in the last election. It was, honestly, a record breaking number of votes, outpacing even Obama at his height. By all accounts, half the country supported and believed in the man. It is little wonder that a man might have some desire to be with like minded Heathens.

“I don’t know most of the people in my building, let alone the people in my neighborhood. But I will absolutely stand between them and anyone who would do them harm. Not because the Havamal says to but because my mother raised me to stand up to bullies.”

Tell me Mama, did you vote for Biden? The man is on record being super willing to “take people behind the shed and teach them a lesson” to hear him talk. If you voted for him, you most certainly voted for Harris. A woman who locked up thousands, and kept the innocent on death row, all for her own gain. I would certainly call those the actions of bullies. Did you vote for them, Mama? Did you cast your voice to their cause?

Did you keep Frith with them?

It is easy to say “I will stand in defense of strangers.” Words are easily spoken, and boldly made. It is, however, one’s actions that we can judge the nature of a person on. If you voted for Biden, given how just two weeks of his presidency has gone, how many people have come to harm under the avalanche of his executive orders, you have brought great harm upon your neighbors, not defended them.

“My greater regional community is more conservative than they are liberal, and at times that frustrates me. I know that a lot of them likely voted for Trump. Some of them might do it again. But I hope that when they step into their polling places in November, they remember what I said to that person who didn’t want to share a horn with leftists and anti-Trumpers even as they demanded our hospitality:

There are disabled people in this community. There are LGBTQ+ people in this community. There are BIPoC in this community. There are people of Jewish backgrounds in this community. There are neurodivergent people in this community.

Like it or not the political is personal for most of the people in this community. Wyrd means something to a lot of us too.”

Hmm, disabled people. Like diabetics? You know, Trump put in price protections to prevent companies from fucking with the price of insulin and literally holding people’s lives hostage. You know what Biden did his first week in office? Strip those protections. People saw their insulin prices go from $70 a month to $700 in a single week. A drug they literally cannot live without, a gun to their heads, and the price to keep the trigger from being pulled just went up.

Did you vote for Biden, Mama? Did you keep frith with this bully?

BIPoC. People of Color? Like those whose communities were burned down, looted, and assaulted by BLM? An organization who members had their bail funded by Kamala Harris. An organization encouraged to engage in terrorism and bullying by Biden and Harris. Or all those men Harris threw into prison and then kept there?

Did you vote for Harris, Mama? Did you keep frith with this bully?

LGBTQ+. A community well known for suing and attacking people who dare tell them no. I mean, I don’t know how long you been around Mama, but I’ve been around long enough to remember when the transgender community, with their other LGBTQ allies, completely annihilated the Dianics as a faith, hunting down their leaders, and members, and making sure they were mercilessly removed from any Pagan space it was possible to remove them from. As it stands, transgender athletes, with the support of Biden’s EO, are set to have full, unfettered, and dominating access to all women’s sports, something that has been shown to negatively affect young women both academically, and psychologically.

Do you keep frith them, Mama? Do you keep frith with these bullies?

Since the election has happened, the world has watched as Trump was stripped of his accounts, social media, financial, otherwise, while still president. His supporters have faced similar treatment. Many have been labeled terrorists and insurrectionists, for committing far less violence than BLM did. Their rights are being ignored, their views being criminalized, their existence labeled an existential threat to this country. For questioning an election. Something the democrats did since 2016. They have been bullied by the politicians, the press, and private individuals, all of whom are “anti-trump.”

Do you keep frith with these politicians, tech oligarchs, and media mogals, Mama? Do you keep Frith with these bullies?

Is it any wonder a man might seek to leave such a place for a group that was more considerate and compassionate, and less hostile? Sure, the post was written back in July, but let’s be honest, the vitriol was still pretty damn potent even back then. After all, alternative voices, many in support of Trump, have been stripped of their media accounts, their jobs, their safety, and more. All for the “crime” of supporting the only man who promised to make their lives better, and that they weren’t bad people. Silenced and attacked, by people like you, Mama.

I thought your mother taught you to stand up to bullies, Mama?

This looks a lot like standing with bullies.

This looks a lot like being a bully.

So, Mama, if you can’t keep frith with bullies, how are you able to keep frith with yourself?

And why should the Gods keep Frith with you? After all, you would cast aside the kin of your faith and blood, for people not of your faith, not of your blood, but who instead bully your faith, your kin. You keep frith with bullies, so the bullies will tell you that you are a good person. So they will not bully you. You haven’t stood up for anything. All you’ve done is kneel. Hanging with BIPOC, I’m sure you’re aware of their term for someone who…sides with the master, rather than the oppressed. We Heathens have no such term that I know of, and I would like to think us all the better for that, but it seems we have people who would fit such a term.

Still, perhaps this is an excellent case of “do as I say, not as I do,” and we should listen to the words of Mama, and not keep Frith with bullies.

Hel Bless