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What Next? White Supremacists in Suits and Ties in Washington

What Next? White Supremacists in Suits and Ties in Washington
Wed, 11/23/2016 - by Lacy MacAuley
This article originally appeared on Common Dreams

Nazi salutes. White people demanding a white “homeland.” A speaker talking about how women like to be assaulted. Glowing remarks about Adolf Hitler. Reporters getting booed for asking tough questions. This was the scene inside a conference held at a downtown Washington DC government building this past weekend and at a local restaurant.

White supremacists drank champagne this weekend in our nation’s capital to celebrate Trump’s presidential victory. The mostly-male group, part of the “alt-right” movement, wore suits, ties, and dubious smiles. I wondered if any of them also had white robes at home.

I was outside the building with a crowd of about 500 protesters. Our chants included, “Racists eating creme brûlée? You’re still the KKK,” and “Fascists, we will shut you down.” We also chanted, “Love will prevail.” It was a diverse group of people from many backgrounds, identities, and ideologies. We held a dance protest on the sidewalk outside the restaurant hosting their meet-and-greet on Friday, after about 30 people protested inside the restaurant. We also occupied the street in an energized, spontaneous march outside of their conference on Saturday.

The conference was organized by the blandly-named “National Policy Institute,” a white supremacist organization that has been designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It featured many white guys, such as neo-Nazi “academic” Kevin MacDonald, anti-immigration writer Peter Brimelow, and the head of the institute, professional racist Richard Spencer. Also, former TV personality Tila Tequila.

The institute’s flashy, meme-heavy materials call for a moratorium of up to 50 years on immigration from countries that are not European or white enough. They promote forced sterilization, which they’ve creepily called “programatic” contraception for "positive, eugenic effect," to deny people of color the choice to have children. Their might-makes-right approach blends with their sexist views of a patriarchal society. They hype a whites-only nation, so that no white person will need to see a person of color. Their materials discuss eugenics and false, debunked science that is supposed to show the genetic superiority of people who are white. Their website reviews books written by actual Nazis. This organization and its members are fully fascist, fully racist, and not hiding it.

If anyone were looking for overt signs that fascists are coming out of the closet, this is it. The white supremacists celebrated Trump’s victorylast week, and are taking a threatening victory lap. We are living in a dangerous time when they feel comfortable enough to bring their ideology of hate straight into our government buildings. And now that they have “fascie” haircuts and aren’t using so many slurs, have acquired some minor graphic design skills, and are trying their best to dress sharp, they are getting profiled by news outlets from Mother Jones to Rolling Stone. News outlets such as Vice News to The Atlantic were present for the conference.

These white supremacists may have new haircuts, but their thinking is old and tired.

During the weekend conference, I had a cringe-worthy encounter with Spencer, head of the institute, and two other conference attendees. The three, accompanied by a small entourage, had burst out the doors of their Friday night event in the same way a gunslinging band of cattle thieves walks into a saloon in a cowboy movie. They were looking for a fight. What ensued was a ridiculous argument of sorts. They proceeded to call all of us communists (some of us were, some weren’t). They insisted that I was “self-hating” because I, a white woman, don’t want to live in an isolated whites-only world. They yelled over us, mostly, pausing only long enough to catch a phrase or two so that they could jump to their conclusions.

Richard Spencer, whose name is often accompanied by the fact that he has a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, was displaying tactics he likely learned bullying other children on the playground, not in his graduate classes. (I suppose news outlets think it is fascinating that he is a white supremacist with a college education? They didn’t pause to consider the credentials of the protesters outside. I personally could have referred them to several people standing with me with master’s degrees and two with PhDs.) After the three had yelled and yelled for several minutes, as playground bullies are inclined to do, they insulted the physical appearance of all of us, calling us fat, ugly, or both, declared that they had “won,” and walked away. We laughed it off, but it was an interesting encounter that only illustrated the brutal ideology of force that we are up against.

I had started organizing the weekend’s protests months ago with a small group of committed antifascists. None of us thought then that we would be facing a Trump presidency. None of us thought then that a person who was so openly racist and sexist could be elected. None of us would have expected that Steve Bannon, who has said that his website Breitbart has been a platform for the "alt-right, could wind up a close advisor to president. None of us expected this deplorable conference to be some sort of celebration of victory. But now, that is what we’ve got.

Now, more than ever, the alt-right, the white supremacists, and the fascists, are coming out of the woodwork to try to gain currency in the policy circles in Washington DC.

And now, more than ever, we must stand up to oppose them.

Standing up to fascism means standing for a world in which we celebrate diversity. We embrace the awesome symphony of differences that make the world a beautiful, colorful, engaging place to be. We do not wish to live in a world in which all of us are the same, because that is not only oppressive, it is boring. We wish to live in a world of creative expression, openness, and support for each other.

The philosophy that the National Policy Institute promotes sounds to me like the worldview of an antisocial, insecure hermit. Spencer, who coined the term alt-right, promotes separating people based upon their identity, as if he were sorting laundry. The worldview he articulates is one of genetic determinism. It is a view that says that people who identify as white have genes that are somehow better than those of people of color. Using previously-debunked science on IQ test results and racial identity, books promoted on the institute’s site claim that white people are more intelligent than people of color. An article by Spencer on his own site depicts white culture as embattled, and says that “white culture” should have “the right to maintain its traditions, culture, and heritage.” And, in his own words, Spencer proposes doing all of this by force.

I’ve never seen anyone in the alt-right mention the rights of American Indians or previously-enslaved black Americans, who were unwilling participants in the “American experiment.” The alt-right seems to feel threatened by the freedom of the people who they previously enslaved. They seem to ignore the rights of indigenous people who have borne the brunt of imperialist foreign policy, who by the way are often the ones who immigrate here.

I have also never seen any discussion of how many cultural contributions people from other societies actually made to the cultures that surround us in the US. The food, technology, entertainment, and other cultural practices that the white boys of the alt-right grew up in have been a product of a cultural milieu of globalization for a long time now.

Their meat and potatoes? Those potatoes were originally indigenous to the Andes mountains. Their salt and pepper? That pepper came from south India via the Mediterranean spice trade. Their numbers? Invented by Persians. Their bluegrass music? Developed by African slaves and indentured Celtic servants. Their aspirin? A medicine adopted from American Indians. Their Fourth of July fireworks? China. Their corn? Mexico. And the list goes on.

It is a fallacy that “white culture” was developed in a vacuum in the first place. But Spencer’s organization wants to pretend that genes made our culture, not the interconnected reality that we all exist in.

But like the self-entitled white boys that they are, the alt-right wants to make a grab for a country that they think they built, that they think they own. No. We immigrants, we women, we artistic culture-makers, we are the ones who built our communities. And our communities

And if racist imperialism weren’t enough, these white supremacists have plenty of sexism to deliver up. The movement has strong ties to the so-called “manosphere,” which holds the false, ugly notion that women actually want be dominated by men because of genetics. Many “manosphere” adherents don’t think a woman should have a right to divorce. When a reporter from The Guardian asked about the lack of women present at the conference this past weekend, the crowd booed. Then they cheered when Spencer responded with some comments about how women want a “strong” man.

Gross. He has also said, “At some part of every woman's soul," he said, "they want to be taken by a strong man.” What gives him this wisdom? He actually cited romance novels as evidence: “I’ve looked at a lot of romance novels that women read and I’ve noticed a distinct pattern,” Spencer said, according to The Guardian.

He also animatedly told Rolling Stone, "I love empire, I love power, I love achievement,” and admitted to getting a “boner” when reading about Napolean.

So women, definitely don’t get stuck alone in an elevator with this person, especially if he has imperialist literature tucked under his arm. Or a romance novel that I am sure he is just looking at for research.

Womens rights are in a sad state of affairs in our country when the men who think they are qualified to make our policy — Trump, Bannon, and lurking predators like Spencer — don’t even show respect for a woman’s agency over her own body, let alone our agency in the government we are subject to. As a survivor of sexual assault and violence, I empathize with women who are triggered and bewildered right now by the state of our nation.

That is why we need to oppose fascism now. We all stand to lose our freedom if this hateful movement goes any further.

Their worldview holds that people have an innate fear of each other, especially those that are different, and that the politics of power are the only way. They believe that people should live in isolated communities in which everyone looks the same, acts the same, and has the same culture. I don’t think so.

I believe in the part of the human spirit based on love, inclusion, and acceptance. I believe in that impulse that all of us have, of compassionate curiosity towards each other. I believe in our shared humanity and our ability to find common ground. I believe that, in the end, we all want to live in a world of collaboration, not competition. I believe that we all want to live in a world of kindness, caring, and celebration of difference.

Many of us learned of the Holocaust and thought, “If I had been in Nazi Germany, I would have stood up against injustice.” Well, now is our chance to do that in the real world. All of us are needed to counter their fascist agenda. This kind of wild-eyed fascism will not go away by magic. It will go away thanks to you, your shoes marching for freedom, your voice speaking up for justice, and your words helping build political will. You cannot leave this to someone else. This is your problem too. Now is the time to get involved and start meeting in person to stand up for freedom.

After all, what did our cultural heroes Indiana Jones, Captain America, and Superman all have in common? They all fought Nazis. So be a hero, and join us.

Originally published by Common Dreams

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Comments

FASCISM, AMERICAN STYLE. Labeling is often misused to evoke an exaggerated image. A term like “fascism” should be used judiciously. I do so here in stating that Amerika Inc. is moving in the direction of what has historically been portrayed as fascism, in effect a new face of fascism. The classic cases of fascism are Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco´s Spain, and Imperial Japan. The regimes came about in essentially a dual context from the early twentieth century through World Wars One and Two. One context was the very strong assertion of class struggle and socialist movements in Europe and the Russian Revolution. The other context was the competition of nations for empire. Great Britain, France, and Belgium became challenged by Germany and Italy, leading to both world wars, and Japanese militarism and expansionism rose to take on European colonialism in Asia and the American sway over the Pacific region.
The main features of fascism were. 1) A highly authoritarian state which used extreme repression to liquidate all challenges to the existing order. 2) A political regime that uncompromisingly represented the interests of the economically dominant class. 3) A violent assertion of expansionist ambitions for control of territory. 4) The mobilization of civilian goon squads to deal with dissidents and create an environment of fear. 5) Ideological proclamation to create a conception of nationalism as the superiority of the Nation and its people over all other nations and peoples; as a corollary to nationalism, racist conceptions of manifest destiny to suppress, conquer, or eliminate inferior races. Fascist movements were evident throughout Europe during the 1930s, in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England especially. Today, these movements are still alive in the form of extreme right-wing anti-immigrant forces throughout Europe, especially in France, Austria, and Eastern Europe. Germany still has its neo-Nazis. The British exit from the European Union was in good part inspired by nativist demagogues. The main political/military force in the Ukraine today is neo-Nazi.
Fascism was not confined to Europe and Japan. There are the numerous post-world war II regimes of an extremely brutal nature, the South American military dictatorships for example. The term “clerical fascism” was applied to the post 1979 Iranian regime with its imposition of Islamic rule. However, the Iranian Revolution was to demolish the prior regime of the Shah and its business associates, not to cement the power of a dominant economic class. Moreover, it is clear that Iran has moved away from clerical rule toward greater secularism and democratic forms of governance. One wonders if the current Islamic extremist elements, such as ISIS with the violent imposition of religious fundamentalism, might also be considered fascist in nature, although most of the features of classic fascism are absent. Apart from the United States, the closest proximity to classic fascism today is Israel. Given the historical oppression of Jews and Nazi extermination it is really, really sad to have to recognize that the historical victims of fascism have become victimizers and purveyors of similar doctrines. Indeed, Zionism is racism. The Israeli state oppresses Arab populations within Israel, practices apartheid, colonizes and occupies neighboring territories, threatens other countries, repeatedly resorts to violence and official terrorism, and declares war on its neighbors. (42) So how does the United States measure up to the features of fascism?
The authoritarian state and repression. FBI surveillance, infiltration of dissident organizations, framing leaders and other machinations, is sustained and effective. The FBI spent $5.3 billion, 54% of its budget in 2015, in War on Terror activity. The Agency engaged in 440 “terror disruptions” in 2015, but there were only 60 terror-related arrests. Presumably where terrorists don’t actually exist they have to be invented then “disruputed.” Given that Homeland Security the National Security Agency and other police forces also endlessly search out terrorist ghosts and keep tabs on dissidents this is a formidable repressive activity. Comparable to the Nazi Gestapo? No, at least not yet. Perhaps one cannot say the same for the CIA and its renditions and torture programs. Beyond violent repression, all fascist regimes had their propaganda ministry attacking any and all opponents and intelligence and security forces staying on top of the population. In America Inc. we have the State of National Insecurity. The technology of the Security Apparatus is much more efficient than the Nazis could even envision, but is not yet used for the extremes of repression. The main difference is that the Nazis faced serious challenges in consolidating power from communists, socialists, and democrats of moderate persuasion, so they unleashed violent repression against all enemies of the state. Given that the internal opposition to the American state is at this time not a mobilized and serious threat, there is no present need to have a Gestapo or let loose the Militias, but the 2016-2017 political climate is moving in that direction. Trumpism has elements of the main features of an incipient fascism and one is “law and order,”the strengthening of the repressive forces.
A political regime that reflects the interests and pursues the policies of the economically dominant class. What else is the rigged formal democracy of America Inc. than unrestrained Plutocracy, the political rule of capital? For now only weakly challenged. Classic fascism expounded that the state is the embodiment of a national spirit and stands above society to impose the dominant class´s idea of what is good. This appears to be how plutocracy views the role of the state in today´s America Inc. Those who question American Exceptionalism and America First, or who lack enthusiasm for “Make America Great Again” are Un-American enemies of the State. The greater the degree of system impingement on the situation of the population, the more social privilege is eroded, the greater the culture of fear and scapegoatism is promoted, we can only expect that resistance will be labeled as seditious and the forces of official and extra-official repression unleashed.
Capitulation by Obama and the Democrats (delete, and most likely the future President Hillary Clinton, may ease) eased a bit the proximate danger of an American style fascism that the privileged interests would impose when and if necessary. Why be nasty when you can get a nice guy or, were Clinton elected, a compliant lady to do what you want him or her to do by proper grooming and intransigence if he or she steps a bit out of line? Most Democrats represent no progressive ideas, so plutocratic interests are better served by less extreme means. But that current of know-nothing extremism in defense of indefensible interests is ever present. (Delete And) Many plutocrats don’t think rationally about what might make America great again. Some are hesitant about Trump, but incipient fascism can only be dealt with by a resurgence of social and political movements demanding justice, decency, and real change to a system that fosters injustice, indecency, and violent repression on a world scale. Still, the resurgence of a popular movement as it gains strength may in fact precipitate escalating repression, even perhaps the formation of Death Squads. The Justice Department, the Alcohol, Tabaco, and Firearms Agency, and the FBI will likely not seriously investigate intimidation and killings of movement people, and like other crimes the state fosters or tolerates, the perpetrators will be immune to prosecution. The FBI may well, as in CONTERINPOL of the 1960s, be part of organizing violent repression. In other parts of the world American agencies of state actively promote Death Squads; it is not improbable that they may decide to bring the war home. The Movement must act proactively and militantly to defeat fascism before it is fully upon us.

Expansionist Ambitions. The Nazis invaded Europe, the Italians North Africa, the Japanese Asia and the Pacific with the ends of challenging competing imperialisms and occupied vast territories. Since the end of World War II, the United States as supreme world power has engaged in endless interventions and war throughout the world. It continues that interventionism today with invasion, occupation, or meddling throughout the oil rich Middle East. A main purpose of the State of National Insecurity is the pursuit of empire by whatever means necessary. This is militaristic expansionism unparalled since WW2. Official terror and war are always there to back the world-wide institutional control of capital with its globalization power of neoliberal policy. (delete “and trade treaties like TPP.”) Trump and Putin it appears have a mutual admiration pact. If so, this might cool down the Cold War. But armed interventions in the Mid East will continue on most likely a wider scale, and perhaps be extended to Venezuela.
Right-wing social movements, domestic violence and fear. Today´s Republican Party is evidently inextricably tied to what it considers its base in extremist elements such as the Tea Party, anti-abortion groups, fundamentalist Christians, right-wing libertarians, white supremists, violent hate groups, and all manner of groupings of an extremist character. Exit polls at rallies indicated that many Trump supporters are middle and higher income middle class white males, although the media cite white working class people as adherents.
What is ever present is a cultivated culture of fear, as examined in detail in Chapter Four. Fear is generalized through the War on Terror and by media controlled by plutocracy. This incites the social base of these groups that espouse a more classic fascist ideology. There is evidently a split within the power block forging capital´s hegemonic project to fully consolidate and institutionalize the unquestioned rule of capital. The lineup of Republican candidates all aspired to be Der Fuhrer with racist, chauvinist, xenophobic tirades that appeal to the white privileged and those losing their privileges by the workings of the System. This worries some of the Establishment ideologues who used to control the Republican Party and successfully subordinated Democrats to their policy guidance. (delete “As of this writing”) The moderate Republican elite (if indeed there is such a grouping) have not been able to control the outcome of Republican presidential candidate selection. The publicity given by all the media to Trump and the inability of a supposed Republican moderate establishment to promote an acceptable candidate, leads me to the conclusion that plutocracy was pursuing a dual strategy--promote and mobilize an extremist, essentially fascist base, while being quite willing to accept a trustworthy Hillary Clinton. Plutocrats (delete “will”)put their money in Congressional races to retain Republican obstructionism to any domestic progressivism. (delete “while keeping Clinton within the war policies she has always pursued) . The right-wing militias are reputed to be organized mainly to violently resist government tyranny as in the Oklahoma federal building bombing--domestic terrorism by “Vanilla ISIS” and “Yáll Qaeda” groupings. They may act as government Goon Squads at some point and Movement activists can expect to be victimized by vigilantes filled with hate and out to defend the system with violence.
Ideology, nationalism, and visions of superiority. In this realm indeed Amerika Inc. resides well within the legacy of fascism. This legacy in turn derives from many centuries of “scientific based” ideologies that have guided ignoble purpose in making history and doing evil. The genetic inferiority of women and people of color, the extension of evolutionary theory to the social Darwinist doctrine of the survival of the fittest in human society, manifest destiny and the white man´s civilizing burden…all have their long histories and contemporary extensions. The Nazi view of the essence of Man´s nature was a propensity for violence, as annunciated in a long Germanic philosophical tradition. Violence was a means to an end, but also an end it itself because it brings Man closer to his inner essence, war being an extension of human nature. Our rulers in America Inc. certainly have a propensity for violence and war, but this is attributable to class interests, not human nature. Their myth becomes the most twisted part of their consciousness. Nazi conception of Arian supremacy lead to the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and others considered inferior beings and was the crudest of racism. In the United States today Black people are not sent to the gas chambers, but shot down on the street daily and sent massively to prison. Immigrants are scapegoated, blamed for the ills of America, rounded up and placed in internment camps, all Muslims are maligned, and with even more repressive policies advocated by Trump. (delete ‘all the 2016 Republican candidates.”) Black, Brown, and Red people suffer discrimination in employment and institutions and are victimized by racism nurtured by extending the idea of privilege to the white-skinned population. Well beyond the entrenched racism of American society is the mystification enshrined by all the ideological apparatuses. Plutocracy becomes democracy, exported worldwide by intervention and force to save humanity, together with diffusion of the superiority of Western White Christian Civilization over barbarism, the myth of American Exceptionalism and American First and Trump´s version of decline from Exceptionalism “Make America Great Again!”, Social Darwinism, the cult of individualism, the superiority of private enterprise and all the other tenants belabored in previous analysis.
Today´s Republican Party with its dual base in a mobilized extremist grass roots on the one hand and the moneyed elite on the other hand approximate the main features of fascism. The base of the party that voted for Trump shows definite fascist characteristics. Research has indicated that Trump supporters, with an average income of $72,000, are mainly white middle class and most likely disproportionally male, but other sources say that there is a lot of white working class support for Trumpism. But I am not sure that we should label Donald Trump as a resurrected Mussolini or that this incipient American fascism will be able to mature. But the Movement must be intransigent at every turn in this direction. (Delete --With the 2016 elections, political office will likely be in the hands of corporate Democrats who will continue to serve plutocracy with similar policies to the Obama Administration resisting the extremes of the right-wing demands but held in check from doing anything progressive by Republican intransigence.)

These Nazis need to be DNA tested and shipped back to their original European country. They talk of conquering others as they proved by devastating the Natives of North America. DNA test the criminals in jail right now and ship them and refill those cages with these useless pieces of shit until we can test them. That and these are the kinds of actions that give the 'people' piece of mind.

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