I'm not a Heathen myself, though I did seriously consider it a few years back after doing a ton of background research on the Norse/Germanic religion and the modern-day attempts to revive it, and consider myself to be an amateur scholar on comparative religions, FWIW. So take the following with a hefty grain of salt.
On that first bit:
"Racist hate group" today has mostly devolved into a neoliberal establishmentarian, thought-stopping slur-word for any human endeavor in the contemporary West that strays too far from the imperial orthodoxy of pseudo-cosmopolitan globalism. Yes, there are some historical groups that are deserving of this term (like the KKK, Nation of Islam, ect.), but the self-appointed "hate watchers" of today massively overstate the influence of a few selected examples over today's affairs, and of course has zero shame in conflating other, more currently-relevant groups when them; when in fact they usually have nothing much at all to due with historic "hate groups." As our gracious host as pointed out on several occasions, "hate" is to today's comfortable classes what "sex" was to the Victorian middle classes. "Hate-watching" has become the new form of heresy-hunting for those eager to score brownie points within those circles.
On AFA in particular:
To me, they seem magnitudes less hateful than their (very loud) detractors from the left/progressivist side of Germanic Neopaganism. From what I've seen, the average AFAer just wants to do their thing and be left alone. Sure, AFA's web site proclaims wignat (white nationalist) sorts of views on race (which I personally find rather cringe, but to each their own) and see their form of Heathenry as being foremost an ethnic religion. But so what? If someone doesn't agree with their views, there's plenty of other Heathen groups for them to choose from. Why can't people just do their own thing and leave others alone?
It does seem like AFA is one of the few modern pagan groups in the US who has successfully (besides maybe ADF) built local pagan communities and has actually established brick-and-mortar places of worship. Perhaps there's some envy going on, coming from the terminally-online type of pagan who can't even set up a proper temple in their living room, much less in a public place.
I think primarily, leftist Germanic pagans hate AFA and similar groups with such zeal because AFA membership tends to be comprised primarily of ordinary, working class white people, which is the primary demographic that is very fashionable and permissible for the affluent/comfortable classes to hate on in the current year. Leftist/Prog pagans OTOH tend to come from the latter classes. As per usual these days, most of the genuine hate seems to comes from those who are shouting the loudest and accusing everyone else of being hateful bigots.
On the Folkish ideology in general, I find it to be rather lacking philosophically, among other things. Like practically all of the alt-spirituality that emerged out of the 1960s counterculture, these movements are based a ton more on emotionalism, sentimentalism, and a sense of resentment against the Christian overculture, rather than any set of reasoned, systematic views on the Divine. Some Folkish views on the gods seem to border on atheism; like the notion that the gods are merely a product of the ethnic groups that worship them. The seems to reduce the Divine to mere anthropological and sociological phenomena (this rivals the "archetypalist" view embraced by other types of neopagans). The massive time-discontinuity of practice and belief between pre-Christian peoples and today is probably a major factor at play, and something that has plagued all the forms of "authenticity"-seeking modern paganism in general.
Having said all of that, if you happen to work in a PMC-adjacent career field or swim in that sort of social circle, public knowledge of you associating with a group like AFA could become a seriously liability to your reputation.
I do find it pretty sad that there isn't much of a middle-ground, third option between the woke/wignat binary that plagues much of Heathenry today. There is however a marginal "sect" of Germanic paganism, Theodism, which might be to your liking if you don't mind very pedantic reconstructionism with an exclusively Anglo-Saxon focus. They do seem to do a very thorough job keeping ALL politics out of their public materials and group functions, which is a refreshing (IMO) thing to see in this current year.
Re: Asatru Folk Assembly
On that first bit:
"Racist hate group" today has mostly devolved into a neoliberal establishmentarian, thought-stopping slur-word for any human endeavor in the contemporary West that strays too far from the imperial orthodoxy of pseudo-cosmopolitan globalism. Yes, there are some historical groups that are deserving of this term (like the KKK, Nation of Islam, ect.), but the self-appointed "hate watchers" of today massively overstate the influence of a few selected examples over today's affairs, and of course has zero shame in conflating other, more currently-relevant groups when them; when in fact they usually have nothing much at all to due with historic "hate groups." As our gracious host as pointed out on several occasions, "hate" is to today's comfortable classes what "sex" was to the Victorian middle classes. "Hate-watching" has become the new form of heresy-hunting for those eager to score brownie points within those circles.
On AFA in particular:
To me, they seem magnitudes less hateful than their (very loud) detractors from the left/progressivist side of Germanic Neopaganism. From what I've seen, the average AFAer just wants to do their thing and be left alone. Sure, AFA's web site proclaims wignat (white nationalist) sorts of views on race (which I personally find rather cringe, but to each their own) and see their form of Heathenry as being foremost an ethnic religion. But so what? If someone doesn't agree with their views, there's plenty of other Heathen groups for them to choose from. Why can't people just do their own thing and leave others alone?
It does seem like AFA is one of the few modern pagan groups in the US who has successfully (besides maybe ADF) built local pagan communities and has actually established brick-and-mortar places of worship. Perhaps there's some envy going on, coming from the terminally-online type of pagan who can't even set up a proper temple in their living room, much less in a public place.
I think primarily, leftist Germanic pagans hate AFA and similar groups with such zeal because AFA membership tends to be comprised primarily of ordinary, working class white people, which is the primary demographic that is very fashionable and permissible for the affluent/comfortable classes to hate on in the current year. Leftist/Prog pagans OTOH tend to come from the latter classes. As per usual these days, most of the genuine hate seems to comes from those who are shouting the loudest and accusing everyone else of being hateful bigots.
On the Folkish ideology in general, I find it to be rather lacking philosophically, among other things. Like practically all of the alt-spirituality that emerged out of the 1960s counterculture, these movements are based a ton more on emotionalism, sentimentalism, and a sense of resentment against the Christian overculture, rather than any set of reasoned, systematic views on the Divine. Some Folkish views on the gods seem to border on atheism; like the notion that the gods are merely a product of the ethnic groups that worship them. The seems to reduce the Divine to mere anthropological and sociological phenomena (this rivals the "archetypalist" view embraced by other types of neopagans). The massive time-discontinuity of practice and belief between pre-Christian peoples and today is probably a major factor at play, and something that has plagued all the forms of "authenticity"-seeking modern paganism in general.
Having said all of that, if you happen to work in a PMC-adjacent career field or swim in that sort of social circle, public knowledge of you associating with a group like AFA could become a seriously liability to your reputation.
I do find it pretty sad that there isn't much of a middle-ground, third option between the woke/wignat binary that plagues much of Heathenry today. There is however a marginal "sect" of Germanic paganism, Theodism, which might be to your liking if you don't mind very pedantic reconstructionism with an exclusively Anglo-Saxon focus. They do seem to do a very thorough job keeping ALL politics out of their public materials and group functions, which is a refreshing (IMO) thing to see in this current year.