Who ever thought punk was not progressive? At minimum it was blatantly anti-authoritarian and counter to the conservative culture in Thatcher's UK and Reagan's US. Why would anyone be shocked to find out that it was also pro-choice, feminist, and anti-discriminatory?
Because the Nazi skinheads did a great job of co-opting the punk title for most people who weren't actually interested in punk. The news media were very complicit in pushing that specific image to undermine the punk movement to the general public.
I was so sad when I discovered the Hammerskins were a thing (a White Power band inspired by Pink Floyd's Waiting For The Worms, but without the irony, with a corresponding militant movement). The Hammerskins took their logo:
From the Hammers banner from the movie version of Pink Floyd's The Wall
Which means when I reference the Hammers in parody of white power movements, I risk being associated with an actual white power movement.
If they had balls, they'd call themselves The Worms.
<looking up to make sure The Worms isn't a social movement yet>
That's true everywhere. The issue isn't what they are, the issue is how they were deliberately misrepresented. A whole lot of films and shows made it a point to conflate punks with white supremacists.
I wanted to say that that's what they are seen here in Germany. I have never heard of these films and the idea is new to me. Btw: the original skinheads were left working class so maybe history repeats itself here.
The Nazi skinheads co-opted skinhead. After the Geraldo Rivera episode everyone I knew let their hair grow out because they didn't want to be associated with that shit. Before that there were only a few isolated scenes where you'd see Nazi skinheads. Cutting off your hair was popular in the hardcore punk scenes because it was contrary to the long feathered hair popular in the 70's and 80's plus it was a lot easier than trying to get a Mohawk to stand up straight. That took a whole can of hairspray and we were all broke.
Because the right have been carefully spending decades rewriting history and dumbfucks keep falling for it. Punk, doctor who and ratm were never conservative but pundits will tell you at great length how shocked and appalled they are when these things keep being left af
I mean a pretty popular punk song is NOFX Ronnie and Mags. It just talks incredible shit about Regan and thatcher. Listen to NOFX Jesusland and that should indicate what it’s all about. Damn I love punk.