Crafting While Everyone Else Was Busy Saluting the Flag
A brief history of crafters annoying fascists by simply existing
Fascism loves:
uniforms
efficiency
obedience
sameness
straight lines
marching
Craft loves:
chaos
time
individuality
skill
“no actually this row is supposed to look like that”
So yes. Historically?
Crafters have been a problem.
Fascism: “Everyone Must Look the Same”
Crafters: “Anyway, here’s a weird regional stitch”
Authoritarian regimes always try to control culture.
Language. Clothes. Symbols. Hair. Art.
And then some woman in the corner is like:
Cool story, I’m still crocheting the pattern my grandmother taught me in 1912.
That alone is subversion.
Handcraft preserves:
regional identity
banned symbols
religious markers
cultural memory
All the things fascism wants neatly erased and replaced with ✨approved vibes✨.
“It’s Just Knitting / Crocheting” …Famous Last Words
During WWII, knitting circles weren’t just about socks.
They were:
information exchanges
supply networks
cover for organizing
occasionally coded communication systems
Turns out when the state assumes women are harmless little domestic creatures, those women get excellent operational freedom.
Whoops.
Textile Workers: Chronically Uncooperative Since Forever
Fascism hates labor unions.
Textile workers historically love unions.
Unfortunate matchup.
Women in spinning, weaving, and garment trades resisted by:
slowing production
“losing” materials
teaching skills off the books
refusing productivity quotas
Skill-sharing creates independence, and independence is poison to authoritarian control.
If you can make your own things, you are harder to own.
Fascism Wants Decorative Women. Crafting Produces Dangerous Ones.
Fascist ideology wants women:
silent
decorative
reproductive
replaceable
Craft requires women to be:
skilled
patient
resourceful
opinionated
extremely aware when something is wrong by one stitch
A woman who knows how things are constructed is much harder to gaslight.
Ask any pattern tester.
Craft Is Slow on Purpose (And That’s the Point)
Fascism worships speed and scale.
Craft says:
No ❤️
Handmade objects say:
this took time
this required knowledge
this wasn’t optimized
this wasn’t mass-produced
this wasn’t approved
Every stitch is a tiny refusal to become a cog.
Which is why authoritarian systems always try to industrialize, sanitize, or aestheticize craft until it stops being threatening.
Why Crafters Keep “Accidentally” Resisting
Because they’re underestimated.
Craft is coded as:
feminine
domestic
unserious
apolitical
Which historically means:
ignored
dismissed
left alone
And that’s exactly where culture survives.
The Real Threat Isn’t Protest Signs
It’s Memory With Hands
Fascism can survive anger.
It can survive violence.
It cannot survive people who remember how things were made before it showed up.
Craft carries:
memory
identity
continuity
skill that doesn’t need permission
Every handmade object quietly says:
I do not require the system to exist.
And that is deeply inconvenient for anyone who needs you standardized, obedient, and replaceable.
Final Huskyberry Take
Crafters don’t overthrow fascism by accident.
They do it by:
refusing uniformity
passing down skills
making themselves less dependent
and stubbornly continuing to exist in ways the system finds inefficient
Which, historically speaking, is exactly how you outlast it.
Also - if you still support what is happening in the US as of January 2026, we are not compatible - buh bye.