I have wondered about how much of the commentary from the responsible right about neo-nazis was boilerplate, a stating of the obvious in a rather weary manner of "Do I really even have to say this? Oh well then, if I'm to be routinely accused of being a secret supporter if I don't mention my abhorrence every time I put pen to paper, then here it goes again: their ideology is vile."
But I have detected in the Althouses and Powerlines and PJ Media and NRO's, and perhaps even more strongly in some of the wilder sites, an undertone of "This time we can really do it! We can discredit this movement forever now that it has dared raise its head! One last push against all this nonsense and it will topple!"
Am I catching this undertone of right writers correctly?
It doesn't work that way. Trump rose to power with very few wholehearted supporters, but a whole lot of people who thought his opposition (specific and general) must be stopped, who became even more certain they would vote for him every time he was attacked unfairly. Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and their related groups have grown out of the previously moribund romanticism of the old revolutionaries of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and farther back to the noble old lefties who were (wink, wink) really commies in the 30's-50's. They draw power from the growth of the nazis, which is why they seek them out. They need to show that the alt-right is very big and very dangerous, which is what makes them necessary. Admittedly, stunts like Obama having his picture taken in front of a Che memorial in Havana haven't helped that.*
Wait. Have those groups grown up in that soil, or nursery? I just realised that is an assumption of mine for which I have only a narrative, not data. Maybe they have sprung from somewhere and something else.
*Forgotten that one, hadn't you? How is that not much worse, much more inflammatory than anything Trump is doing?
4 comments:
Virtue signaling is a defining characteristic of conservatives.
Something I've been thinking about is that the Unite the Right protesters were mostly Gen Y/Millennials that are influenced by the men's movement from MGTOW to Neil Strauss' "The Game." They've been taught the proper response to "sh!t testing" is to agree and amplify. Call Trump a fascist Hitler? No, he's the God Emperor! Call them a Nazi? They will sieg heil you just to watch you get triggered. Agree and amplify is the first part.
The second part is that they have as much concern for the Holocaust as Mexicans or the Chinese. Which means virtually nil. Only WASPs cared about Jews and I think they will rue having pushed to make America non-WASP.
Finally, the white nationalists don't care how they get to their genetic nation. If it takes socialism then they are okay with it. It isn't as if they haven't been indoctrinated into it their entire education. And what has modern conservativism given them? A society in which their views are supported by the majority but crushed by the power structure.
As an afterthought, our society has become feminized while Nazi aesthetic is very masculine and militaristic. They can appreciate their style (or tactics) without adopting their philosophy.
I had not thought to connect the neo-nazis with PUA's. There may indeed be significant overlap there. Kevin Williamson at NRO agrees with you, at least in part.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/450501/white-nationalists-alt-right-vague-grievances-what-do-they-want
Antifa actually has its roots in a couple places.
First, Germany. 1933:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/antifascist-movements-hitler-nazis-kpd-spd-germany-cold-war
Next, '80s England (Anti-Fascist Action) and '80s US (Anti-Racist Action). At this point, Neo-Nazi groups were using events such as "Rock Against Communism" as fronts to push Fascist ideology.
Thanks for the link. I thought Williamson was rather dismissive of the men and women at the rally who are the same age as our soldiers fighting for us. And the appropriate response to Williamson is that they just want what Israel has and why is that so wrong?
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