Charles Krafft can't get a break from the Seattle Stranger. This is the second time in recent months that the publication had dogpiled him. The last instances were in September (the day after his birthday and two days later for good measure). Most recently it was the day before Thanksgiving because evidently, it isn't really "holiday season" in Seattle until <a href="http://archive.is/fdAku ">Charlie has been scathed by <i>the Stranger</i>.
To provide some context, it was Jen Graves at Seattle's <i>The Stranger</i> who first "outed" Krafft as a White Nationalist and historical revisionist back in 2013. I recall the drama that started it all began while Krafft was in India for the Maha Khumb Mela festival. "Where are all the right wing artists," Charles Krafft once asked. Considering the treatment he's received since "coming out" as a conservative-leaning, traditionalist artist it's not surprising that anyone with a dissident (i.e. not Cultural Marxist) belief system might try hiding their true feelings to fit in.
Krafft is especially known for his stunning blue delft work. Busts featuring figures like Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, Ahmadinejad and Aleister Crowley as well as porcelain weapons cast from molds, are iconic Krafftworks. Many of the weapons in the Porcelain War Museum, by the way, are cast from weapons bought on the black market in Slovenia during the Serbian conflict with funds received from the NEA and a Soros grant. After Jen Graves' hatchet job on Krafft, he found himself subject to a blacklist. University commencement speeches dried up overnight, museums put "warning labels" on his work, gallery shows have been cancelled.
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Just days after Charles' birthday in September, <a href="http://archive.is/aB7t4 "><i>the Stranger</i> piggy-backed on the success of a <i>New York Times</i> piece on an "Alt-Right" infiltrator</a> attending the Northwest Forum meeting. Lewis had previously used deceptive means to obtain material from Krafft for a piece on"White Nationalists in Washington." David Lewis at the Stranger used similarly deceptive means to obtain an invite to the Northwest Forum in August.
The <i>New York Times</i> infiltrator representing an organization called Hope Not Hate made some dubious claims. For instance, referencing a "shrine to National Socialism." No shrines to National Socialism, but the spy certainly noticed a shrine to artist Morris Graves which does feature a fire-wheel (untilted swastika). The fire-wheel referencing Graves' (and Krafft's) Buddhist practice. There was also a <a href="
https://thegoldwater.com/news/8444-Hope-Not-Hate-Exposes-Bad-Boy-of-Blue-Delft-Pottery-Charles-Krafft">mention of copies of Mein Kampf on the shelf</a>. What the undercover reporter failed to mention was that the copies of Mein Kampf were repainted porcelain trinkets. One featuring a Buddha holding a book was repurposed with Mein Kampf on the cover of the book and Ghandi glasses added to the Buddha in reference to Mahatma's friendship Adolph. A couple of Hummel figurines, a seal with a swastika painted on its back, a young boy in an Alpine cap holds a book painted to read Mein Kampf as well.
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<quote>“He put that picture of me and that expression where I am looking kind of silly. I’m doing almost a coon face. Let’s face it. Look at it.” Mudede said, when asked to comment on Krafft’s profile photo.</quote>
The most recent tempest over a teapot, involves Charles Krafft momentarily changing his profile picture to that of African American film critic, Charles Mudede. The Stranger called it a "clear case of racially-motivated harassment." But was it really so clear-cut? The Stranger called Krafft purportedly to discover his motivation for posting the photo.
<blockquote>“You know why I used it, do you? You guys do nothing but go after me. Everything you write about me is negative and half of it is bullshit,” Krafft said on the phone. Asked to specify inaccuracies in our reporting, Krafft pointed to “the last bit about the Northwest Forum with gun-carrying white supremacists at my house. We’re not white supremacists. I’m not going to get into it. We’re called white nationalists. What you’re doing is a pejorative. You have that son-of-a-bitch David Lewis sneaking into my house under false pretexts.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BbvjS8eDkCd/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Thought Crime Scene tape, for sale at Villadelerium #charleskrafft #thoughtcriminal</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Charles Krafft (@villadelirium) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-11-21T03:56:37+00:00">Nov 20, 2017 at 7:56pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script> (thought crime)
<i>The Stranger</i> explained that they had no interest however in "delineating between two dangerous and repugnant ideologies," (White Nationalism vs. White Supremacy) and then jump on the defensive. Krafft had conflated the New York Times piece which featured an undercover "agent" from Hope Not Hate who did show up at his house for a barbecue. In his <a href="http://archive.is/oKbAw"><i>NYT</i> piece</a> there is a reference to <a href="http://archive.is/KXX9k">"heavily armed Holocaust deniers"</a> in attendance. (There were not by the way). Considering the creative embellishments regarding guns and copies of Mein Kampf, one wonders how much more in the "official record" carried by the Times is inaccurate.
They also note that their writer doesn't use the term "white supremacist" once except when Lewis "jokingly" called a young child in attendance “the next generation of white supremacy.” He doesn't have to though. After mocking someone's 5 year old daughter, Lewis made references to "a lookout Nazi in a white polo shirt." Dave goes on to explain, in case you weren't certain his perspective yet, "Virtually every time I use the word 'Nazi' I’m using it as an insult."
White supremacist, Nazi, what's in a name, right? Well, a lot sometimes. For instance, Krafft is <i>not</i> a denier of the Holocaust per se. And that's one of his beefs, the weaponization of words like White Nationalist or "(anything) denier." As for the Holocaust, the US, Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, they all had internment camps. The British were also especially brutal to their prisoners of war, same with the Japanese. Krafft and other Holocaust Revisionists or Holocaust Skeptics don't question the fact that Jews were rounded up in camps. Some Holocaust skeptics and revisionists are even Jewish, which begs the question regarding how questioning, history might make one an anti-Semite. Issues like the number of dead at Auschwitz being changed in the 90's and other facts on the record actually lend some credence to the suggestion that the accepted history of the Holocaust may have some errors. Truth should be able to stand up to scrutiny. In the case of certain protected narratives like the Holocaust and Climate Change, however, scientific and historical inquiry become not only taboo, but in many countries illegal. How does this differ so from Galileo and Copernicus' persecution?
Part of <i>Stranger's</i> upset is related to the fact that "Mudede is the only black staff member." They, of course, asked Krafft if his race played a factor. First off, I find it kind of sad that an ultra-liberal, super-progressive publication in Seattle couldn't manage more than one diversity hire. Secondly, having corresponded with Charles Krafft for years, I don't buy the fact that he is a "racist." Proud of being white, protective of European Culture and heritage? Concerned about issues that face white people? Sure. I know he has no problems with David Stein (Jewish Holocaust revisionist) and is a long-time friend of (half-Jewish) author and editor, Adam Parfrey of Feral House. I think it's fair to say that his response, when asked if there was racial motivation, was in earnest, "“No, he, just represents The Stranger and that postmodern, intellectual French, neo-Marxist intellectual take on everything that seems to epitomize everything,"
Hijacking Mudede's image for his profile picture was a means, not an end, Krafft explained to the Stranger over the phone:
<quote>“I’m pissed off at The Stranger every day. I thought I’d do something on my own Facebook page,” the once-acclaimed artist who has since become a pariah said.
“It goes back to the Holocaust denier part. That’s four years old. Every time you get a chance to stick it to me again, you do so,” he continued. “You’re going to call me up and get politically correct with me about racism and, this picture and why you think I did it. Why don’t you send somebody to talk to me before you do hit pieces on me?”</blockquote>
"The once-acclaimed artist who has since become a pariah said" geez, and I thought I had an issue with out of control, clunky run-on sentences… Seems there's just something about Charlie that fumes the Stranger staff beyond the point of grammatical control. Jen Graves received a Pulitzer nomination for <a href="http://archive.is/kJNtu">her article</a> succinctly entitled: "Charles Krafft is a white nationalist who believes the Holocaust is a deliberately exaggerated myth." Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Evidently, so long as you're supporting the right causes, having your facts in line and expressing them cogently isn't as important.
And that's at the crux of the importance of Charles Krafft both as "the bad boy of blue delft pottery" and a living reminder of the wholesale disappearance down the memory hole of dissident opinions in the world of art, culture and academia. In my years of correspondence with the author, he has offered an ever growing syllabus of culture makers who were disappeared down the memory hole. Charles Krafft not only documents these forgotten cultural vanguards of art and literature who were deleted from the record by the gatekeepers of the ivory tower, but stands as a living reminder of how easily one might become a martyr to free speech.
The day before the forum I’m invited to an exclusive barbecue in a suburb of Seattle at the house of Charles Krafft, the infamous Nazi ceramicist. His home is a temple to National Socialism. Swastikas cover the walls and Mein Kampf sits on the bookshelf, alongside works by Mussolini, Evola and WW2 paraphernalia.
One of the questions came from an East Indian-Canadian. I don’t remember what he asked because I was too busy sharing confused looks with the Neo-Nazis. Right guys? WTF?
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At the break, I asked the questioner if being brown-skinned ever interferes with being a white separatist. It led to a lengthy conversation that made no sense, and I was glad when the break ended to get back to the speeches.
<blockquote>Virtually every time I use the word “Nazi” I’m using it as an insult. In the world of millennial white nationalism, there aren't a ton of people who actually self-identify as Nazis. Despite usually agreeing with everything the Nazis did and believing the Holocaust is just “anti-white propaganda,” they always claim a technical reason for why they aren’t “National Socialists.” None of these reasons would ever make sense to anybody outside the community and “I’m not a Nazi, but” is one of the most common white nationalist recruitment tricks to have people hear them out.</blockquote>
At his Facebook, Charles explained his previous run-ins with David Lewis, the Stranger's infiltrator:
<blockquote>I was contacted about two years ago by David Lewis and his friend Safiye Rose Sentürk who asked to interview me for a podcast channel they'd started. Ostensibly, their interest in me was as a local artist eccentric. My eccentricities being Holocaust heresy and racial self-awareness. So, I indulged them in their request to add me to their podcast project. Afterwards, they contacted me again to ask if I would be an extra in a film they were making. They were rather vague about what my role would be in it, but I set aside two Saturday afternoons for this. Both times they cancelled the shoots because of weather. I had them to my home to discuss their projects which struck me at the time as collegiate level art student ideas. I didn't mind lending my time because I thought I was helping them. About two weeks after The Stranger re-published parts of an article about the Northwest Forum in which I was mentioned by a Swedish infilterator working for an SPLC-like snoop outfit in London called HOPE NOT HATE appeared in The New York Times about The Northwest Forum a copycat infiltration exposé appeared in The Stranger in which David Lewis used his previous a-political exchanges with me as a hook to hang his sanctimonious story on. David Lewis and Patrik Hermansson the "young, gay, anti-racist activist from Sweden" whose NWF exposé he replicated both went on Bill "No platform for non-progressives" Radke's KUOW-fm afternoon chat show , the local NPR outlet, to draw attention to their dopey "Daniel in Lion's Den" stories about The Northwest Forum trying make what had amounted to a series of private book club meetings followed by a dinner sound like KKK gatherings. David Lewis ingratiated himself with me and then betrayed my trust after I went out of my way to assist him and Safiye Rose Sentürk complete what I assumed at that time were course requirements at the University of Washington. I told Steven Hsieh, David Lewis' collegue at The Stranger news desk, (who was on the phone to me within an hour after I'd replaced my FB profile picture with one of Charles Mudede) that David Lewis' article mentioned people wearing guns at pre-NW Forum backyard bar b-ques I'd hosted. To be fair and honest here, In the heat of my ire over this phone call from the media about a silly Facebook posting I mistook what Patrick Hermansson had written for David Lewis'reportage on the same event(s). Mea culpa you sneaky little dip shits! Whenever it's a slow news day in Seattle you can bet The Stranger's elfin cub reporters are out pounding the pavement looking for non-events they can turn into outrage over the bigotry they see all around them boiling away just below the latte foam."
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:38.63636363636363% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/-BY3tqQzUg/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Charles Krafft (@villadelirium)</a> on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-11-13T10:30:01+00:00">Nov 13, 2015 at 2:30am PST</time></p></div></blockquote>
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If you'd like to help support the work of one of the few right wing leaning artists willing to stand-up to "the Long March" through the institutions that has resulted in a cultural echo chamber in the academic and art world, you can pick up <a href="http://www.charleskrafft.com/necklaces/">signed, porcelain shotgun shells and signed rifle bullet necklaces, banners and pennants and <a href="http://www.charleskrafft.com/villa-delerium-medals/">Villa Delirium Medals</a> to larger pieces like the Diasterware Delft plates or <a href="http://www.charleskrafft.com/weaponry/">weapons ranging from guns, knives, grenades and rockets to molotov cocktails</a> from his Porcelain War Museum.
