Fourteen Words

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A lunatic Chaplin imitator
and his greatest fans

Nazism
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First as tragedy
Then as farce
Frogs, clowns, and swastikas
Alt-right
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Chuds
Rebuilding the Reich, one meme at a time
Buzzwords and dogwhistles
[citation NOT needed]

The Fourteen Words is a White nationalist phrase which refers to one of the following 14-word slogans:[1]

  • We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.
  • Because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth.

The slogans were coined by noted racist David Lane in reference to his 88 Precepts and "pyramidprophecy". Thus, white supremacists will sometimes combine "the 14 words" in reference to the excerpt in the phrase "14/88" or "1488". It is sometimes claimed the first set of 14 words was inspired by an 88-word passage in Volume 1, Chapter 8 of Mein Kampf[note 1] but neither Lane or his publisher Fourteen Word Press ever made this association and it is probably a coincidence.

"88" has dual meaning as it also is used to reference H as the 8th letter of the alphabet, and thus the 88 can also be used to stand for HH, or "Heil Hitler".[2]

Political use[edit]

Virtually every Neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and white nationalist has used this slogan or a variation of it at some point as well as their ideologies (of course white-centric) being based on this motto.

Hungarian far-right (though purportedly not Neo-Nazi) party Jobbik often uses the numbers 14 and 88, such as publishing their program for the 2010 elections in 88 pages[3] and having their party headquarters' phone number be (+36 1) 365 14 88.[4]

The white separatist, white nationalist organization Northwest Front and Neo-Nazi Harold Covington use the 14 words in the preamble of the Northwest American Republic Constitution which reads as:

In the name of the Divine Creator of all things we, the Aryan peoples of the earth, do hereby set forth this Constitution of the Northwest American Republic, in order that we may secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.[5]

In January 2017, Ann Coulter posted a tweet saying only "14!".[6] This was widely interpreted by alt-right Twitter users, as well as liberal observers, as a dog whistle referencing the Fourteen Words and openly identifying herself for the first time as a white nationalist. Coulter later tweeted that she was counting down the final days of Obama's Presidency, but that doesn't seem to be true because 15 days were left in Obama's Presidency, not 14.[7]

In June 2020, Donald Trump's campaign ran 88 ads on Facebook fearmongering about Antifa, with the first sentence being 14 words long, and along with a Nazi Symbol for political prisoners (an inverted red triangle).[8] While the use of a sentence that was 14 words long in an anti-antifa ad that ran 88 times could be coincidence by themselves, their occurrence with a symbol used in Nazi concentration camps that is not associated with Antifa indicates that this was an intentional dog whistle paid for by the GOP and associated directly with Trump and Mike Pence accounts.[9] Notably, the Trump campaign had previously used an antisemitic dog whistle ad in its 2016 presidential campaign.[9]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. Every thought and every idea, every doctrine and all knowledge, must serve this purpose. And everything must be examined from this point of view and used or rejected according to its utility.
    —Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

References[edit]

  1. "Hate on Display: 14 (words)." Anti-Defamation League.
  2. "The Truth about 88: New Book Reveals Secret Meaning of Neo-Nazi Codes." Der Spiegel. 2011 June 7.
  3. "Radical Change: Jobbik Parliamentary Program." Jobbik.
  4. "Information — Parliamentary parties."
  5. https://archive.is/http://www.northwestfront.net/constitution.html
  6. 14! by Ann Coulter (7:00 AM - 5 Jan 2017) Twitter (archived from November 8, 2020).
  7. Huffington Post, "This Ann Coulter Tweet Sure Looks Like A Shoutout To White Supremacists", January 5, 2017.
  8. Facebook finally removed Trump campaign ads with inverted red triangle — an infamous Nazi symbol by Kayla Gogarty & John Whitehouse (Published 06/18/20 11:47 AM EDT; Updated 06/18/20 1:15 PM EDT) Media Matters for America
  9. 9.0 9.1 Facebook takes down Trump ads featuring symbol used by Nazis to mark political prisoners by Chris Mills Rodrigo (06/18/20 02:11 PM EDT) The Hill.