Dear reader

Dear reader: This article has been circulating around the Internet recently. I have seen four (!) other similar articles about me, and it is getting tiresome. Someone is using a lot of time to try to smear me. It is time to set the record straight.

So, without further ado, I give you the great exposé of the secret life of Didrik Søderlind, with comments straight from the secret agent’s mouth:

We send you, the Neo-Form forum members this important message to inform you who belive in freedom of artistic expression and freedom of speech, that there is an imposter in the cultural scene often referred to as darkwave/neofolk/martial etc. ( we'll leave the discussion about definitions of genres for later ;) This imposter name is Didrik Söderlind and his main objective is to expose waht he defines as nazis, rightwingers, but first and foremost people he believe have a political uncorrect agenda. What is particular about this guy is his twofaced role:

Hello, Didrik here again. I prefer the Norwegian spelling of my surname: Søderlind. But then, as I am an impostor, I might work under a thousand different names and deliberately try to confuse you...

The Norwegian Didrik Søderlind is known to most in the industrial/neofolk scene because he wrote a book with Michael Moynihan about black metal music.

Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Moynihan & Didrik Søderlind, (Feral House [1], ISBN 0922915482 original, ISBN 0922915946 revised and enlarged edition).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moynihan_%28journalist%29

This is true. I consider myself honoured to call Michael a friend, even if we don’t agree about everything. But then I can’t think of any of my friends, colleagues or family members that I agree with about everything. This is as it should be.

Didrik Søderlind is also on myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/didrik

Right on! This is me. Notice how I use my full name and the same nickname that I use on all other forums I am a member of. Some impostor, or what? The reason for it will be evident to anyone who has ever met or mailed with me: I am terribly bad at hiding who I am or what I believe in. I hope I will get better at it, so that other people can get a word in for a change.

Didrik Søderlind give the impression outside of Norway as a libertarian and neofolk enthusiast with a secret fascination for fascist aesthetics.

I am absolutely a neofolk enthusiast, and have been so for 15 years. But if anyone has an impression of me as a Libertarian, I’d like to clarify. Though I am interested in Libertarianism, and might have called myself such for a couple of months back in my teens, I am not myself a Libertarian. I am simply not in favour of unchecked Capitalism, though I agree with Libertarianism’s principle about people being allowed to run their own private lives. Furthermore, there is nothing secret about my interest in Fascism or its aesthetics. I have written chapter for books, articles and held lectures about the subject.

With this background it is a bit surprising to learn about Didrik Søderlinds political and journalistic endeavours in Norway.

1. Didrik Søderlind is working for the Norwegian anti-racist magazine Monitor. They can be compared to the Southern Poverty Law Center in America.

http://www.magasinet-monitor.net/

Wrong. I do not work for Monitor. I sometimes disagree with their conclusions. However, I have open lines of communication with them. Anyone who has followed neofolk for some time will have seen how strange political misunderstandings have caused a lot of trouble for the scene. I think they will also agree that it is in everyone’s interest to clarify things. The only people who stand to lose from this openness are people who actually have something to hide. Like the mysterious author, perhaps?

Comparing Monitor to the SPLC is very, very strange. A more accurate comparison would be the English magazine Searchlight, a magazine I also sometimes disagree with. In fact, I would prefer the policy of the SPLC, who also list Black and Jewish organizations among its hate groups. Extremists are extremists, whether white, black or Jewish.

2. Didrik Søderlind is a member of Human Etisk Forbund (Humane ethical alliance *Vomit*) which is the number 1 politically correct organization in Norway.

http://www.human.no/templates/Page____2067.aspx

I am certainly a member of The Norwegian Humanist Association. But for the record, I tend to have a more positive view of religion than most members of the organization. Also, I am drawn to the darker and more pessimistic Humanism of thinkers like Georg Henrik von Wright and Georg Klein. Calling The Norwegian Humanist Association a politically correct organization depends on your perspective. Sure, certain people will think that arguing for freedom of (and from!) religion and human rights is something to “vomit” over. But I don’t lose much sleep over that.

3. Didrik Søderlind is cooperating with Norsk Forening Mot Antisemittisme (Norwegian Association Against Anti-Semitism), NFMA, which is a pro-Zionist and anti-revisionist organisation that could be said to be the Norwegian equivalent of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in America.

Comparing the NFMA with the ADL is very, very strange. The two organizations are very different and NFMA have a policy of not cooperating with organizations like the ADL. There are two possible reasons for this comparison by the mysterious author: Either he is ignorant of political realities, or he subscribes to a worldview where all who speak out against anti-Semitism have the same political agenda. Compare this with the references to “Jewish interests” later in the article and draw your own conclusions.

Didrik Søderlind has written lengthy and extensively about the issues that interests him: combating Holocaust Revisionism and anti-Semitism.

http://www.nfma.no/

Partly true. I have written about a dozen articles about these subjects. That averages out to about one article a year as long as I have been publishing things. In comparison, I guess I produce about a hundred articles a year. But yes, I do think Holocaust denial (I don’t like the word “revisionism”, as that is not what these people do) is stupid, and see anti-Semitism as an attack on people close to me. I am also planning to join the NFMA.

http://home.online.no/~ol-enge/a05/05-3Holocaustbenektelse.htm

This link is to an article written about me by someone who obviously sympathises with Holocaust deniers. The style is very, very strange and hard to understand – even for Norwegians. Though it is interesting that the mysterious author would see this article as an appropriate source for information about me.

http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2005/mars/1112097684.28

This is an interview with a Norwegian history professor. He is of my favourite Norwegian historians, both because he has a great sense of humour (he once wrote a review of the Necronomicon…) and because he rejects Marxist understandings of history. Interestingly, in the interview he says that Holocaust denial is not a big deal in Norway. He argues that leftist denial of genocides perpetrated by Stalin, Pol Pot etc. is a bigger problem for a proper understanding of history. I agree.

http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2005/mars/1112097970.37

An article about the arguments used by Holocaust deniers. Meat-and-potatoes stuff.

http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2005/april/1113475517.69

In this article I argue that Holocaust deniers should be allowed full freedom of speech, but that this freedom does not entail that others have a duty to print their articles. For the record, my position on the subject is this: History writing about the Holocaust should be constantly revised, reinterpreted and rewritten. This is also what is happening among serious scholars. The so called “revisionists” (“deniers” is a better term) might in theory have something to contribute to this. But as they deny the existence of the very thing that is being studied, they have about as much to contribute to the study of the Holocaust as someone who denies that Napoleon existed will have to contribute to the study of the Napoleonic Wars.

In this article Didrik Søderlind even attacks the left for being anti-Semitic in disguise:

http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2003/juni/1055424417.96

The article is about the historical tradition of anti-Semitism on the left and its recent resurgence. This is a well-documented phenomenon. I do not say that the left is anti-Semitic in disguise. That would be a total lie. Henrik Bachner, the person interviewed, also clarifies the difference between legitimate criticism of Jews and Israel (something he himself engages in) and anti-Semitism.

Didrik Søderlinds closest associate, Terje Emberland, is the chairman of the NFMA organisation and tries to prove that Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophy movement are crypto-Nazi. Emberland also wants to psychologize the National Socialist-movement.

http://www.magasinet-monitor.net/artikler/demokratene270505.htm

This article, not written by me (as I do not write for Monitor) is about the Norwegian party The Democrats, who argue that military force should be used against religious minorities in Norway. They also want to end freedom of religion in Norway. The article does not claim that The Democrats are National Socialists.

To my knowledge, Terje has never claimed that Steiner and Anthroposophy are “crypto-Nazi”. If he did, I would be offended by it, because I have grown up around Anthroposophists. However, Terje has pointed to Steiner’s race theories and his similarities to Völkisch thinkers.

This have been written because everybody in the industrial/neofolk scene has the right to know that Didrik Søderlind is a committed Nazi-hunter, within the scene, who is working to expose perceived enemies of "Jewish" interests, real or fictional.

Being a “Nazi-hunter” sounds very glamorous, so I won’t even try to deny that! Do I get a cool uniform or smart trench coat and dark glasses? About the accusation that I am working for “Jewish interests”: Sure, if that means the right of Jews to be Jews. I support freedom of religion. I even support the right of the nation of Israel to exist and defend itself, even if I don’t always agree with what Israel or Israelis do. But one gets the feeling that “Jewish interests” is intended to mean something else.

What is even worse is that he gives the impression of being a free spirit and then lead open minded people into thinking that he can be trusted, whereas he feeds information to sources and authorities which goal is to break any free spirit opposing the mindless void of the contemporary.

This accusation is so strange that it is impossible to relate to. What is a “free spirit?” Can I be one even if I believe that the Holocaust happened? Who are these authorities whose “goal is to break any free spirit opposing the mindless void of the contemporary?” David Icke’s lizards from space? The Zionist Occupational Government? The Illuminati? The Communist Conspiracy? The mind boggles. I leave it up to the reader to decide whose “spirit” is most “free” or who is most “open minded”: Mine, or the mysterious author.

Didrik Søderlind