Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyWf
The truly hilarious thing about that, and it's bad that I know this but now you all need to know it too, is that the Klan got rid of most of their absurd names after everyone learned how dumb they were:
Like they aren't cool at all? The ****ing Bloods have a cooler first letter replacement thing.
They aren't cool at all, no. I thought someone else here mentioned it already, but if not: the Klan names actually weren't in conceit intended to be whatever-the-19th-century-equivalent-of-cool-is, but were supposed to be ironic and dumb. The original Klan dudes knew that. The second generation Klan dudes (who made them even dumber, and is where your list comes from) knew that.
Imagine, for instance, if they named themselves after a tune from a Disney Broadway show and their initiation rights involved pretend-punching each other while they name cereals. That's what Klan names were meant to invoke, that sort of self aware irony that you find in modern middle class and up right wing idiots.
I thought the dropping of the nomenclature was sort of as you describe: I thought it was mostly David Duke's doing in the 1970s to appeal to more proper working class rednecks and the like, who didn't appreciate the irony and didn't want the whiff of irony and fraternal organization mysticism (read: elite hobbies and tastes) associated with the past instances of the Klan. He was basically trying to dumb it down a little, make it less mystical, more working class, less Free Mason-y.
Anyway, that all might be wrong. But I'm pretty confident Damore has bad taste AND isn't even in on the joke.