Watch out, America! Nazis are coming to your local gym looking for new recruits. Or at least that’s what a histrionic article from MSNBC’s Cynthia Miller-Idress wants you to believe.
A grand total of four members of something called the Rise Above Movement were arrested as recently as 2018 for their involvement in the 2017 riot in Charlottesville, Virginia. Apparently, members of this group are luring young male recruits in “with health tips and strategies for positive changes” before they are later invited to closed chat groups in which far-right content is shared.
Just how dangerous are the fitness fascists? Miller-Idress literally invokes Hitler. “Physical fitness has always been central to the far right,” she writes. “In Mein Kampf, Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with fanatical love of the fatherland, would do more for the German nation than any mediocre tactical weapons training.”
So what are we to do to stop the fascist fitness menace? “It’s critical that leaders, including parents, physical trainers, gym owners, coaches, and others in the fitness world understand how online grooming and recruitment can intersect with spaces that we generally think of as promoting health and well-being.”
Well, at least we finally find one type of grooming the Left is actually concerned about.