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Title : Trump won't condemn Nazis because he IS a Nazi
link : Trump won't condemn Nazis because he IS a Nazi
Trump won't condemn Nazis because he IS a Nazi
I'm still angry.
I'm so angry that I probably should not try to write a post. My original was to embed a clip from last night's John Oliver episode and let it go at that.
But the writing bug has taken hold, so I'm going to make a few observations -- and if this essay seems unorganized or ill-considered, apologies.
For years -- ever since Trump got involved with birtherism -- we've wondered: Does this guy really believe in this nonsense or is he simply using right-wing conspiracy theories for the purposes of self-promotion? I think the answer is clear now: Trump really IS a fascist at heart. He longs for the day when he can both talk the talk and walk the walk in an open fashion.
Yes, he finally denounced neo-Nazis who assembled at Charlottesville, but only when politically forced to do so. His words came far too late and his insincerity was obvious.
I believe that Trump slid into a fascist-friendly mentality the way so many others did -- by way of conspiracy theory. Psychologically, Trump is precisely the sort of person attracted to lunatic far-right paranoia: He's an ill-read, low-IQ blowhard who thinks that he's smarter than he actually is, and who remains perpetually resentful of those who possess greater brainpower.
I've met many guys like that, though of course the ones I bumped into never had money. There was a time when I foolishly tried to engage in conversation with that sort of person. Always a mistake. Once someone becomes assimilated into the ConspiraBorg, he's way beyond rational debate.
Many years ago, I became peripherally involved with the JFK assassination research community, taking a particular interest in JFK's far-right opponents -- Guy Banister, General Walker, the Birchers and so forth. Researching that subculture brought me into confrontation with the kind of people I had read about but never hoped to meet: Illuminati-spotters, Holocaust deniers, and racists who consider "mixmaster" to be the ultimate insult.
Not only that. I saw the JFK assassination researchers themselves -- the good ones, the liberals -- become doppelgangers of JFK's far-right opponents. I will always defend the memory of Jim Garrison, even though some Garrison fans share certain attributes with the followers of Willis Carto and Milton William Cooper. On both sides, there is the automatic presumption that anyone who disagrees must be operating in bad faith, coupled with a knee-jerk reliance on ad hominem argumentation -- particularly of the "spook-baiting" kind.
In short: Even the "good" conspiracy theorists may descend into a kind of fascism, even though they sincerely believe themselves to be staunchly anti-fascist.
On the far right, the F-word evokes mixed feelings. James Alex Fields -- the white supremacist who used his car as a lethal weapon -- has openly proclaimed his love for Hitler. Most nationalists, however, still prefer to argue that mainstream liberals and Democrats are the true fascists.
Personally, I'm sick of that kind of doubletalk. Give me the fascist who wears the t-shirt without shame or subterfuge. He may be evil, but at least he's honest.
Our fascist president remains a classic doubletalker, though he is not as effective as it once was, perhaps because age and job stress keep eroding his verbal skills (which weren't very impressive to begin with). Still, most of the country refuses to recognize Trump's fascism for what it is. The truth is simply too horrible to admit.
There's another problem. Too many people cannot get beyond the simplistic notion that one cannot be a fascist unless one openly demonizes Jews. Trump praises Israel and has a Jewish son-in-law. How can such a man possibly be a fascist?
Fascism ha always been a more complex ideology than most Americans realize. Mussolini invented fascism, yet he didn't hate Jews -- at least not in the virulent way that, say, Julius Streicher did.
As I keep reminding readers, Anders Brevik -- the neofascist Norwegian mass murderer -- remains an admirer of Israel. Modern Fascism is not like the Nazi party of 1940; the new beast is not the old beast. The current movement is split between old-schoolers still enthralled by a transcendent hatred of Jews and new-schoolers who consider Israel a valuable ally in the battle against Islam. For the followers of Alexander Dugin, the enemy is neither Judaism nor Islam: The enemy is anyone who believes in equality and democracy.
That said, only the most foolish Jews would ally themselves themselves with a modern fascist like Steve Bannon. Bannon always bleats about how much he loves loves loves Israel, as if such bleatings could bleach the F-word from his t-shirt. The old-school anti-Semites may be relatively quiet now, but they will make their voices heard in the future. I am convinced that if people who think like Bannon take full control of this country, no Jew anywhere will be safe.
Americans must understand that we have Nazi-influenced president who also happens to have a Jewish son-in-law and a daughter who converted to Judaism. It's a bizarre situation. But it is what it is.
The Russian connection. The pushback on Russiagate takes the form of two mutually exclusive lines of attack.
On one hand, we have a recent Nation article (I refuse to link to it) which claims -- insanely -- that the Democratic party is responsible for the leaks that deep-sixed Hillary Clinton. This truly evil piece of propaganda actually goes so far as to imply that the Guccifers (both 1 and 2!) were constructs of those hideous, scheming Democrats, especially the hideous, scheming DNC.
I need not offer a detailed counterargument. If you are the sort of person who can take that inane claim seriously, even for an instant, find yourself another blog. A long time ago, I stopped arguing with Holocaust deniers, just as I stopped letting Jehovah's Witnessess get a foot in the door. Fanatics are beyond debate. I'm not going to be sealioned by some nutjob who thinks that the DNC created Guccifer 2.0.
(In due course, we will look at The Nation's current links to both Russia and the BernieBros.)
Then we have the second line of attack: That Obama was warned about Russian interference as early as 2014. The Politico article at the other end of that link is worth reading. Unfortunately, rightwingers have seized upon this line of investigation to argue that Russian interference is really all the fault of those hideous, scheming Democrats. This absurd claim has already flavored some of Trump's tweets.
Needless to say, Propaganda Claim 1 and Propaganda Claim 2 cannot be reconciled. One can say that Russiagate is imaginary or one can say that Russiagate all the fault of Barack Obama. One cannot say both things at the same time.
How does the Russian connection link up with American neofascism? First and foremost, I'd point to this tweet from David Duke:
White man... your enemy isn't Russia -Duke adorns this sentiment with the hashtags #TeamWhite and #MAGA.
#TheScaryThingIs your enemy is those telling you Russia is your enemy, believe me.
From there, you may want to proceed to a piece published just a few hours ago in the Observer: "Richard Spencer and His Kook-Right Ilk Are Agents of Russian Influence."
Our extreme right, with very few exceptions, are super-fans of the Russian president, in whom they see a strong, traditional leader who runs the world’s only white nuclear-armed great power. Their websites brim with adulation for Putin as a demigod who resists the Western social justice agenda with more than words.This article was written by John Schindler, whom I do not trust -- although in this instance, his claim can be verified independently.
After that, one may follow the research trail takes into the strange landscape ruled by Alexander Dugin. It would be a mistake to regard Dugin as a kind of Marvel comics supervillain; he symbolizes a much larger phenomenon.
Since the 1950s, one faction of the post-war international fascist movement has had a love affair with Russia -- and after the fall of the Soviet Union, many Russians have reciprocated. If the previous sentence seems unfathomably strange to you -- "Didn't Hitler invade Russia? Wasn't there a really horrible siege of Leningrad?" -- I can only direct your attention to Kevin Coogan's important work Dreamer of the Day, which offers a detailed, scholarly investigation of certain little-known developments within the world of post-war fascism.
Coogan's book focuses on an influential fascist writer named Francis Parker Yockey. In the 1950s, Yockey decided that Communism was a temporary affliction, and that the day would come (once the Marxist menace withered away) when Russia would prove an ideal homeland for a new "white power" movement.
Allow me to republish a section of an earlier post:
While doing some research into Robert Spencer, the neo-Nazi who pals around with Steve Bannon and Pam Geller, I found some statements which led me to suspect that Spencer has read Frances Parker Yockey's Imperium. This post-war Nazi "Bible" remains unfamiliar to most Americans.
Have I read it? Of course. I've also read Dreamer of the Day, Kevin Coogan's remarkable biography of Yockey. Although hard to locate -- try inter-library loan -- this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand post-war fascism.
Yockey's Imperium attempts to prove that, in ancient times, the white race -- that "hardy band of adventurers" -- traveled the world, initiating every great intellectual leap made by the human race. Pyramids in Egypt, printing in China, formal logic in India, the wheel, cuneiform writing, fire: Thank Whitey. The so-called "Aryans" did all of these things and so much more.
According to Yockey, creativity is a purely Aryan "thing." Many Aryans do not understand this truth about themselves because they've been deceived by a group which Yockey calls the "culture distorters." And just who are they? Yockey usually plays it coy when it comes to identifying these people, although you may be able to hazard a guess.
If you're thinking that Yockey joined up with the American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell, you're wrong. Rockwell could not tolerate Yockey's obsessive hatred of America. Surprisingly, Yockey favored Russia. That's right: An American post-war fascist sided with Russia in the middle of the Cold War -- not many years after the battle of Stalingrad!
Although Yockey had no love for communism, Marxism was, in his view, just a temporary affliction. More important, he felt, was the fact that the Russian people eschewed racial mixing, Yockeyism's great sin. They were also more chary of those pesky "culture distorters." Near the end of his life, Stalin's drift toward anti-Semitism made many American hate-mongers rethink their attitudes toward him.
Yockey worked within with the first American fascist movement of the post-WWII era: The National Renaissance Party of James Madole. (The NRP also published the works of Eustace Mullins, who later became very popular with conspiracy buffs on both the right and the left.) Yockey's greatest champion was Willis Carto, founder of Spotlight magazine -- a formative influence on the American conspiracy buff subculture.
(Intriguingly, some theorists have speculated that Carto had a hand in Yockey's mysterious death.)
For five decades, Yockeyism has been the "secret ingredient" laced into the giant pot of stew served up by America's conspiracy buff subculture. Is it any surprise to see Trump's conspiracy-addled entourage spouting riffs that sound like passages from Imperium?
Yockey's most radical ideas can be stated simply: Russia = good. Join forces with Russia. Unravel the power of those evil Wall Street culture distorters who run America.
That's pretty much the message of the Trump campaign, isn't it? Allow me to offer a tentative prediction: Before we are done with the Trump movement, we will see the boldest Trumpers endorse Imperium openly.
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