When he first appeared the Philadelphia Flyers mascot was merely an oddity. But he quickly became a part of the internet’s culture wars
Last week, a headline on neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer read like something from an alternate universe: “Alt-Right Icon Gritty Seeks to Follow Adolf Hitler’s Footsteps and Become Time’s 2018 Man Of The Year”. It was at least the third piece the site has posted in the last month proclaiming Gritty – the googly-eyed, giant, orange, hockey-playing monster mascot for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers – as a symbol of the far right.
As it happens, the Daily Stormer is playing catch-up, in reality trying to re-appropriate Gritty as a symbol – to take him away from their ideological opponents on the left. Because, you see, Gritty was already a partisan. Gritty, this smiling muppety nightmare on skates, is antifa.
Written by Colin Horgan
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/27/gritty-flyers-mascot-antifa-pepe-the-frog under the title “Liberté, Egalité, Gritté: how an NHL mascot became an antifa hero”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
