Warhammer 40K Op-Ed: Lets Talk About The Community’s Nazi Player Problem

Well. If you didn’t know it before, the 40K community has a Nazi problem.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Nazis suck. They are horrible, horrible people. The worst of humankind. They have no place in the public sphere and no place in our hobby. I’m not here to convince you why Nazis suck. If you think they don’t, please leave and don’t come back.

They are a blight on this world. And the sad fact is, that once you start letting Nazis in, they will spread and they will take over.

This hobby and the tabletop industry as a whole already have issues with negative groups keeping women, POC, and LGBTQ+ people away from it. Nazis are the ultimate breed of these negative forces. You simply can’t allow them to get a foothold.

Talavera

Read Tager’s full thread here.

So what brings this on now? Well of course we know it’s been an issue for a long time, Nazis persist in trying to infiltrate the hobby helped, and drawn in, by some of 40K iconography and misunderstood satirical tones. It’s something that has occasionally seen push back against, such as when a certain Youtuber lost some platforms, but as a whole, the community has not done a great job of rooting out 40K Nazis, which has led to this.

Player wearing Nazi iconography at Talavera Event – Photographer Unknown

The other week there was a Nazi issue at the Invasion Talavara event in Spain. It’s been covered both in Spanish and English. In essence, a player going by “Austrian Painter” (a reference I hopefully don’t have to spell out) showed up wearing clear Neo-Nazi symbols on their clothes.

So, just to be clear, when I’m saying Nazi here, I don’t mean “Grammar Nazi” or “Rules Nazi” or “Someone I disagree with so I’m going to call them a Nazi, Nazi”. I mean a 100% genuine Nazi. The kind of person Lt. Aldo Raine would consider a Nazi. And he showed up, others there openly declaring who and what he is.

A Real Winner

So, what happened with this guy? Clearly, we can’t allow actual Nazis in our events. Clearly wearing Nazi symbols goes against what should be common anti-harassment protocols. Clearly showing up in Nazis symbols could be considered as a threat to other players.

I’m not joking here, as a Jewish person I would feel threatened playing against a Nazi. Even the joy of utterly destroying him on the tabletop wouldn’t be worth it. So, what did the organizers do?

Well, nothing much, at least to the Nazi. According to reports from the event, this Nazi was allowed to play without penalty. When some players refused to play against him (good for them!), the event organizers didn’t even do the bare minimum and allowed for a re-paring.

Instead, the damn Nazi was allegedly given full points for the round as the other players had “conceded”. WTF. Rather than suffering any punishments, the Nazi was *rewarded* and players who, like anyone in their right mind, felt uncomfortable with sitting down for a friendly game with a LITERAL NAZI were punished. To put it mildly, not cool.

Aftermath

According to reports, and I sadly don’t have the language skills to read the original post, a lot of people have been jumping to the defense in this situation. In defense of the Nazi. Meanwhile, the event organizers have not said anything about it, other than reported banning people who complained about the Nazi on twitch.

And look, once again, I’m not here to tell you why Nazis are bad. I’m not going argue some vague idea of free speech or some such bs the alt-right wants to pull out.

The bottom line is if you support or defend Nazis showing up at 40k tournaments, get lost. We aren’t going to see eye to eye and I’m not going to waste my time on you. The fact is that response to this has not been good.

What Needs To Be Done

The truth is, I didn’t want to be writing about 40K Nazis today. I wanted to be on a beach on vacation. In fact, the only time I really want to write about Nazis is to talk about how they are historically massive losers both in the US and in their overblown military endeavors. But, I don’t think this is something we as a community can or should be silent about.

Sadly with a majority of the community being English-speaking, it’s very easy for news from non-English sources to get missed. Some English sites have covered it, such as the one I noted above. At the end of the day, I think it’s important that we use our platforms to bring attention to this issue. Not only so that the community as a whole can take action but so that specifically GW and event organizers can.

Because again, let us be clear, we cannot tolerate Nazis in 40K events.

If a Nazi wants to go out into a park and parade around showing off what a hateful, pathetic idiot they are, they can do that. Events however are not public spaces like that. And all events should at a bare minimum ensure that people participating in them are free from harassment, threat, and intimidation.

For me, and many others, sitting down across the table from someone wearing Nazi symbols, like the pathetic man in Spain, is the same as sitting down with someone constantly yelling at you that they think you and your family should be killed.

Having a Nazi at an event breaks every kind of anti-hate, anti-harassment, and anti-threat policy you can think of.  It’s unconscionable that we allow this at events or in our hobby in general.

GW, please help on this one.

What we need is action. We need firm statements from GW and major event organizers decrying and banning this kind of behavior. We need FLGS to follow suit, banning it from stores and local events.

Sadly this isn’t something that just random players can change. At Talavera individual players did the right thing and refused to play against a Nazi. This was the right call, and if you find yourself in a similar situation, I suggest you also do that. Don’t give them a platform. But sadly because the organizers didn’t take action the damn Nazi was rewarded and players doing the right thing were punished.

That can’t continue. We need action, but lack of action in this situation is the same as tacit support for the Nazis in 40K. We can’t allow that. Nazis need to be told to go home. They aren’t welcome here. Here is the bottom line:

Fuck Nazis.

via Marvel – art by Jack Kirby

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.