There is a specific, rhythmic tedium to the way the European security apparatus clears its throat. Every few months, like a clockwork ritual designed to remind the tax-paying sheep that the shepherds are still awake, we are treated to the spectacle of a "police crackdown." The latest installment involves the arrest of dozens of suspected far-right militants, a group of individuals who seem to have confused "saving Western civilization" with hoarding illegal hardware and paper that should have been recycled decades ago. The news cycle, ever eager to provide a stage for this pantomime, reports with breathless urgency that searches yielded "weapons of different kinds" and the dreaded "neo-Nazi propaganda." One can almost feel the collective shiver of the establishment as it realizes there are people out there with both bad ideas and the tactical competence of a wet paper bag.

Let us begin with our protagonists: the militants. These are the self-appointed guardians of a heritage they couldn’t define if you gave them a dictionary and a week of solitude. There is a profound, almost touching stupidity in the modern neo-Nazi. It is the ultimate participation trophy for the genetically unremarkable and the intellectually destitute. These men look into the mirror, see a failure staring back, and decide it must be the result of a global conspiracy rather than their own inability to hold down a job or master basic hygiene. To defend a "race" that they themselves represent so poorly is the height of satirical tragedy. They cling to the symbols of a regime that was decisively crushed nearly a century ago, a regime that would have likely viewed these modern-day "soldiers" as the very "untermenschen" they claim to despise. They are LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) as villains from a history book they’ve never actually read, playing a high-stakes game of dress-up in their parents' basements.

Then there is the state, the other half of this depressing symbiotic relationship. The authorities love these raids. It allows the police to put on their most expensive tactical gear, kick in a few doors, and pose for the cameras with a table full of "seized items." This table usually consists of a few rusted firearms, a collection of gas-station daggers, and enough pamphlets to constitute a fire hazard. By labeling this a "crackdown on militants," the state justifies its ever-expanding surveillance powers and its bloated budgets. It is a convenient distraction. Whenever the public begins to notice that the economy is a hallucination and the social contract has been shredded for use as corporate confetti, the government finds a few dozen of these losers to parade in front of the cameras. It’s a perfect script: the state gets to pretend it’s protecting "democracy"—that battered, hollowed-out concept—against a looming existential threat that consists mostly of men who don't know how to use the internet privately.

The "propaganda" mentioned in the reports is perhaps the most pathetic element of the entire affair. In an age where the most dangerous ideologies are distributed via sophisticated algorithms and high-frequency trading platforms, these enthusiasts are still playing with physical paper. It is intellectual archaeology. They aren't building a future; they are role-playing a past they aren't even old enough to remember. The state treats these flyers like they are radioactive isotopes, fearing that the mere sight of a swastika might turn a functioning citizen into a goose-stepping drone. This suggests a profound lack of confidence in the very "values" the state claims to uphold. If your democracy is so fragile that a few mimeographed manifestos from a basement can topple it, perhaps the problem isn't the manifestos.

Naturally, the political classes are having a field day. The performative Left is currently hyperventilating into their organic cotton sleeves, using the arrests as proof of a "rising tide of fascism" to justify more censorship and more bureaucratic overreach. They love a good Nazi scare; it’s the only thing that gives their own vacuous moralizing a sense of purpose. On the other side, the moronic Right will either mumble about "freedom of speech" while ignoring the actual crimes, or they will pretend these militants have nothing to do with the rhetoric they’ve been peddling for years. Both sides are intellectually bankrupt, feeding off the same rotting carcass of a society that has forgotten how to produce anything of value except polarized conflict.

Ultimately, these arrests change nothing. The state has cleared out a few more attics, and the militants have secured a fresh batch of martyrs for their digital echo chambers. The void they left behind will be filled by something equally moronic by next Tuesday. We are trapped in a loop of performative extremism and performative justice, orchestrated by people who couldn't lead a parade, let alone a civilization. The world isn't being saved; it's just being rearranged by people who are too stupid to realize the building is already on fire.