📺🧠 What does "N***a Heil Hitler" mean?
Disclaimer: Ironically for an article about the widening gulf between substance and signifier, I'm obligated to point out the Use-Mention Distinction. In this article the word "Nigga" is only ever mentioned, not used to refer to anyone or anything material. I'll be discussing the word's usage and meaning as a signifier without using it. In our meta-ironic collapse state some would use this frame as a means to use the word immaturely, I will not. I've censored the word in the title for the convenience of users of the Bearblog discovery page. I encourage watching the piece before reading: Here
The chorus "Nigga Heil Hitler" in "HH"1 is, quite intentionally, an anti-authoritarian rallying cry against the liberal world order established in the mythologised post-WW2 western hegemony.2 It is offensive by design, cloaked in anti-aesthetic memetic camoflage so powerful as to make it essentially impossible to interact with for a member of this liberal hegemony other than to disregard it. Nevertheless, I doubt many can sincerely reject the libidinal power of the piece. It juxtaposes the most powerful possible combination of signifiers - "Nigga" a slur so potent that even post-reclamation by the black community it is unsayable in all but the most extreme communities, and "Heil Hitler" a salute to the Nazi movement liberalism triumphed over in the 20th century. These signifiers combined are incomprehensibly incompatible with any liberal structure, contradictory by design, they cannot be metabolized by the cultural system, only rejected and dismissed as insanity. There's a lot to unpack here, let's start from the beginning.
Liberalism is ostensibly synonymous with freedom of speech, yet these two signifiers are unspeakable in the wrong context. The black community can freely use "Nigga" post-reclamation and experience no ill effects, having a theoretical authoritative ownership over it. Yet this is a liberal structure, enforcing liberal systems, liberal values, by primarily white liberals - while the black community will often rally against this month's white microcelebrity being outed as an "N-word sayer" for singing along to a song or regarding a friend in a casual context, it is generally the white community that enacts punishment supposedly on their behalf. Some view this as rightful reparations, the white community finally providing support in the fight against racism, yet they reinforce it with the power of their backlash. By wielding the power to inflict punishment, the white community retains the power over the signifier itself, most obviously apparent in the case of Shiloh Hendrix.3 Ultimately the material punishment is defined by the wielders of the capacity for punishment, and white wealth holders maintain this capacity. In the wake of Trump's second term win, the previously uncontested liberal system holds declining cultural dominance.
It is in this context that "Nigga Heil Hitler" was concocted by a deviant, self-destructive, clearly unhappy and unwell, but masterful cultural tactician. The phrase "Nigga Heil Hitler" cannot exist. The same group supposedly saved by liberal progressivism's overwhelming victory over fascism cannot salute a dictator that would have ostensibly had them put to death by virtue of their skin colour. This is incomprehensible without a single-minded focus on the signifier and its meaning today divorced from its attachment to historical context. A historical context defined by the white supremacist liberal structure that exists today.
Today there exists a single successful frame of rebellion against the structures of liberalism, and that is far-right fascism. The populist right-wing surge has dominated a decade of American politics, brought the old powers of the Republican party to heel and successfully placed their man in power. To contextualise the monumental achievement, consider what the equivalent populist leftist movement would look like - Bernie Sanders gains absolute hold over the Democrats, having narrowly failed to secure a coup at the end of the previous election cycle. He has unchecked power, with Democrats in the Senate and Congress following his lead on every issue. As the term progresses he teases running for a third term and prepares AOC for a dynastic rule of the far left over America. This is unbelievable, yet all happened for the right-wing in real-life.
Nazism as Antiliberalism
In this frame, there are two systems in opposition - liberalism and antiliberalism, with the latter being entirely captured by fascist populists. Ye is subjected to oppressive structures in both, the former dismantling his family "Man these people took my kids from me, then they froze my bank account" and the latter emasculating him "Yes I am a cuck I like when people fuck on my bitch". He continues to countersignal both sides of the aisle, identifying himself with signifiers that are absolutely unappealling to both - "I am a Cuck" is to the far-right what "I am a Nazi" is to the left. This textual reading is incompatible with a declaration of allegiance to Nazi ideology, and indeed the video reinforces the framing device for the song as a whole via this imagery:
This image is, in theory, utterly horrifying to Nazis - an organized group of powerful black men commandeering their signifier while dressed in the regalia of tribal warfare. The juxtaposition works in both directions, a libidinal hostile takeover of both the liberal fascism of dictatorship over signification and the fascist fascism of fascism.4 The clever Nazis5 have, in their infinite pragmatism, recognised this as a further opportunity to seize cultural and libidinal fuel reserves from the logistic lines supplying the leftist front of the culture war. The dumbest Nazis are panicking about black culture being inferior and miss the antiliberal forest for the racial supremacy trees. The pragmatist fascists understand far better than liberals that they do not decide where libidinal energy stores reside, they must utilise these predefined sources of fuel wherever they become apparent. We've seen already from Shiloh that the reactionary backlash to the authoritarian language policing of liberalism is a region of great cultural power, already in use for decades by Nazis innoculating their new recruits in signifiers inaccessible to liberal persuasion and coercion - now reclaimed in full force by the populist right's advocacy for abject racism.
Ye's Motivations & The Black Community
Ye's motivations have conveniently aligned with the antiliberals due to the failed promise of Capital to provide him unchecked power and freedom "With all of the money and fame I still can't get my kids back. With all of the money and fame I still don't get to see my children." The Liberals (always signified by Ye as "Jews"6) have dismantled his access to community, destroyed his family and toxified his image. In a theoretically free market he has lost access to the capital power he feels entitled to, and the capital power he wields is insufficient to give him the basics all people deserve. There are other rules at play than the ones laid out explicitly. This concept is explored in parallel within Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J.", which mirrors some of Ye's sentiment "You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it" but acquiesces to it. Jay-Z, one of fewer than 20 black billionaires, reads Jewish (Capitalist-Liberal) financial dominance as a playbook to follow, "Financial freedom my only hope, fuck living rich and dying broke" rather than one to oppose. He does so successfully, though "The Story of O.J." has a strange unresolved conflict between the verses of financial advice ending with the chorus declaring "Rich nigga, poor nigga, house nigga, field nigga - still nigga".
This mixed messaging is a precursor to Ye's work here - where Jay-Z's only self-proclaimed barrier to freedom is race, Ye's barrier to freedom is his incompatibility with liberal values restricting his artistry and expression. He rails against being misunderstood, pointing all but explicitly at the frustration that he is only interpreted via signalling "Niggas see my twitter but they don't see how I be feeling" the dismissal of his internal state and meaning leading to him adopting the most damaging signifier imaginable "so I became a Nazi bitch I'm the villain" in protest. In many ways this is an explicit declaration of disconnect between substance and signifier - a black man cannot be a nazi, the concept is so ridiculous (in the liberal frame) that it demands an analysis that separates the signification from the intended meaning.
Ye's goal here is to demonstrate the re-interpretation of a signifier in much the same way that "Nigga" was reclaimed by the black community. This is where "Nigga Heil Hitler" sources its critique - it attaches a reclaimed signifier to one that still contains great negative power. "Nigga" is a potent mechanism for this, simultaneously holding position as the worst possible utterance in some contexts, and a term of endearment and community in another. Perhaps controversially, I think this is in the pursuit of antiliberalism rather than the pursuit of fascism, though this rhetoric will shortly be co-opted by real fascists.7 For Ye, and for antiliberals (left or otherwise), liberalism is the fundamental source of community fracture, atomisation and collapse - so opposition to it is a pro-community retaliation. "All my Niggas Nazis, Nigga Heil Hitler" speaks to this sentiment, "All my Niggas Nazis" building an antiliberal coalition signified by the most powerful antiliberal label conceivable.
This ultimately, is the point of "Nigga Heil Hitler", contrasting the failure of liberalism to solve racism via the reclaimed signifier of liberal white supremacy, with the demythologisation of liberalism's foundation story of overcoming fascism. Today oligarchs throw roman salutes, a fascist failed coup turned into a successful overrun of the political establishment and online platforms are driven by far-right conspiracism. Liberalism has failed in both its promise to provide egalitarian assimilation8 to oppressed minorities and in its promise to defeat and repel fascism. It toxified its opposition as "Nazis" in much the same Christians have signified their opposition as "Satanic" - a catchall term for "not" supporting a hegemonic framework keeping fascism/demons at bay. If you're not with us, you're acting in service, unwittingly or otherwise, to the dark forces.
The Hitler Speech
With all this in mind, we do now come to the portion of the song that uncritically reproduces a speech by Adolf Hitler.
"Whether you think my work is right, whether you believe that I have been diligent, that I have worked, that I have stood up for you during these years, that I have used my time decently in the service of my people. You cast your vote now, if "YES", then stand up for me as I stood up for you."
The content is dressed in an unacceptable signifier, once again draping it in an inaccessible barrier to liberal understanding, yet the content is meaningful. It is not disputable that Ye has been, like in Hitler's speech here, fighting for something at great personal cost to himself. He is not a Black Capitalist like Jay-Z, who seeks freedom through exploitation - nor is he adhering comfortably to one side for cultural capital (Again, his declarations of deviancy and being a cuck are not compatible with the Nazi aesthetic) following in the conservative cancellation pathway of figures like Russel Brand. He does believe he has been working "in the service of my people", by opposing the liberal structure that continues to subjugate them. Curiously the speech also relates to democracy, contrasted with its fascistic source. This time the subtance/signifier divide is reversed, Hitler paying lip service to democracy to mask fascistic intent.
No one can speak to the intent behind Ye's work here, but he's indisputably an effective channeler of art, memes and culturo-libidinous energy. His hyperposition in culture fundamentally entangles his personal struggles with cultural ones, a node through which relations to capital superstructures and the zeitgeist flow. Whether you believe Ye's cultural productions create these resonances or are sourced by them, they impact the communal psyche and represent genuine forces. Framelocked liberals will be unable to perceive the colossal energies behind these flows, assuming it to be toying with forbidden words for the sake of touching the hot stove. They fail to recognise the hammerblow to liberal-progressive structures of tone-policing and objective adherence, formerly upheld by the PMCs most responsible for the war on the working class and most offended by blunt assemblages like "Nigga Heil Hitler".
Conclusions
It is important not to dismiss powerful movements of libidinous energy, no matter the source. Disgust for Nazis benefits both Nazis and Liberals. Fascists benefit from the ratcheting effect that toxifying newly captured recruits offers, while Liberals benefit from the looming threat of fascism to justify their lesser evilism. By rejecting Nazi rhetoric, and by ceding rhetoric that looks fascistic to Nazis, you cede control of genuine cultural power. Anyone with genuine intent to apply force to the zeitgeist in any direction must contend with the existing flows within it - the population cannot horrify you lest you isolate yourself from it. Ye's work is representative of a real cultural moment and force - possibly one of the last pieces of art before the collapse of the real into the hypereal AI-slopocalypse.
The two-piece rhetorical instrument "Nigga Heil Hitler" heralds the manifestation of the antiliberal assemblage, containing all forms of opposition to the hegemony, including those the left wishes it had maintained control over. We have ceded almost all ground to the fascists, and must begin reclaiming psychic terrain in prepation for a post-neoliberal collapse state.
Footnotes
Previously discussed in Sociogenic Cancer↩
Shiloh is, for lack of a better descriptor, a random white woman who was recorded calling a young child a "a little nigger" and received half a million dollars in donations from white supremacist online organizers in opposition to the obvious liberal backlash.↩
Once "the fascist fascism of fascism" entered my mind I was no more equipped to rebel against it than Ye was against "Nigga Heil Hitler". It is the best line I have ever written. I will not be taking feedback↩
Fuentes, no surprises there, but more surprisingly Jake Shields, who I do consider to be a true idiot but has in rare form immediately backed Ye's project.↩
Depending on his state of mind, Ye fluctuates between an obviously sincere belief in the most potent anti-semitic conspiracy theories and a depiction of "Jews" as a signifier for liberal capital control and coercion. Like most members of the far-right when he says Jew he could be referring to either, and usually a mix of the two. The latter definition is a critique familiar to most leftists, the former a simplistic system of signification used by fascists to seize control of that critique for their racial supremacist worldview.↩
I have an intuitive, unfalsfiable belief that some fascists, like Fuentes', allegiance is more firmly antiliberal than pro-nazi. I believe some right wing populists fall into this category and are more interested in destroying the liberal world order by any means necessary than their specific brand of fascism. I do not think this distinction generally matters because they'll ultimately pave the way for fascists.↩
I'd love to mention the recent release Sinners as an excellent depiction of the well-meaning assimilationist tendencies of liberal capitalists (shrewdly depicted as cannibalistic vampires) offering an escape from the raw racial oppression of Jim Crow-era America. The black community rallies against and rejects these parasitic entities despite them bringing a utopian multicultural new world order, prosperity and freedom. To the liberal vampires the costs are only perceptible outside their internal constructs, the moment they're converted they fail to recognise the violence they participate in. This makes it even harder for an outside observer (one unaware of the contextual frame) to sympathise with the black community shunning pleading white demons on the doorstep. The film is excellent at depicting the genuinely positive benefits of "becoming vampire", and how this parasitic system of wealth extracts cultural value from black communities at both benefit and cost. There's a lot more to say on Sinners but sadly not quite enough for an article.↩