If you look hard enough for a problem, you’ll find it.
MSNBC ran an Op-Ed written by Cynthia Miller Idriss in which she attempted to denounce home fitness and its potential role as a fertile ground for white nationalists. Miler Idriss focuses on a small number of mixed martial art training groups across Europe and Canada who have been accused of using neo Nazi language. Miler Idriss worries that there will be more white supremacy-minded MMA centers within America.
You read it right.
However, the first-class absurdity does not end there.
Miller-Idriss believes an obsession with fitness encourages life skills and values that appeal to white supremacists.
“The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition. Physical fitness training, especially in combat sports, appeals to the far right for many reasons: fighters are trained to accept significant physical pain, to be “warriors,” and to embrace messaging around solidarity, heroism, and brotherhood.”
My first thought after reading that is … duh!
If you are involved in any kind of sport, you will learn how to push through pain and show heroism. Physical fitness training does not offer anything unique, nor is it inherently superior to other forms of exercise. It certainly doesn’t hint at white supremacy. Perhaps they just want to be fit and gain valuable life lessons.
Why is it so important to portray MMA and physical training as a place where white supremacists can be trained and developed and then sent to wreck havoc in an unsuspecting society?
Maybe it’s because Miller-Idriss does this for a living. According to her byline, she is a professor in the “School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at American University, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab.”
Therefore, she is interested in economic opportunities to find right-wing boogiemen at new and exciting places.
MMA does not foster white supremacists. For those who care, many black, hispanic, or African fighters have enjoyed and maintained incredible levels of success in MMA. The only reason people believe that white supremacists prosper in the UFC is due to the many supporters of Donald Trump, such as Joe Rogan, a UFC figure and podcaster based in the UFC. Although Trump supporters are often portrayed as white supremacists, they don’t necessarily make them so.
So if you’re thinking about getting into physical fitness or even MMA at a more serious level, go enjoy yourself. Don’t be intimidated by the Nazis.
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