The Alt-Right’s Favorite Meme Is 100 Years Old
November 17, 2018 7:40 AM   Subscribe

 
> “Where you obtained power, you expropriated the rights of white men and gave special privileges to feminists, blacks, gays, and the like.”

Well, I was happier not knowing of the existence of William S. Lind, but I guess I have to give credit where credit is due; he doesn't even attempt to disguise the fact that everything he stands for is about preserving (increasing, really) the power that straight, white men hold (he also seems obsessed with the military and police, but FOR SOME REASON never signed up for the front lines of either).
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:52 AM on November 17, 2018 [10 favorites]


The most fantastic thing that happens when right wing nutters (who are now the mainstream) get on a real tear is when they start name-dropping Hegel and Adorno. Maybe the best reason why philosophers should strive for simplicity and clarity is to avoid being so imprenetrable that, in 150 years, some guy on youtube can convince himself that a passage from the Science of Logic which even academic philosophers struggle with is actually a secretely coded outline of the Illuminati's plan to put all the whites in concentration camps.

Maybe civilization was a mistake.
posted by dis_integration at 7:56 AM on November 17, 2018 [20 favorites]


Maybe civilization was a mistake.

For this reason, in the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy, the apes are the obvious protagonists.
posted by mikelieman at 8:48 AM on November 17, 2018 [7 favorites]


I saw the title of this post, and I was like, 'Pepe is 100 years old? What? Is this some obscure bit of Windsor McCay trivia I don't know about?"
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:00 AM on November 17, 2018 [9 favorites]




Wikipedia entry: Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory.
posted by doctornemo at 10:50 AM on November 17, 2018


If they try to hijack the Classics, eventually they're going to run smack into Foucault, and then they'll learn.

Oh, yes- they'll learn.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:59 AM on November 17, 2018 [12 favorites]


It's a bit of a derail from the specifics about cultural marxism as a term but following on from Donna Zuckerberg's article, on twitter she also linked to this thoughtful piece, "Black Athena, White Power: Are We Paying the Price for Classics’ Response to Bernal?", about how "classicists’ response to Black Athena helped supply the grounds for white nationalism’s current appropriations of the ancient world".

It makes a good case that those alt-right shits with twitter avatars of marble busts are essentially stepping into a void created in part by academic classicists abrogating their responsibility to seriously engage with race after feeling burned during the debate about Martin Bernal's book, Black Athena. Even twenty years after its publication, when I studied archaeology, the lasting lack of self-examination and occasional barely veiled vitriol on the part of definitely-not-racist academics was striking. Leaves a neat vacuum for facist shits to waltz in and make a public claim for the classics.
posted by ocular shenanigans at 11:27 AM on November 17, 2018 [6 favorites]


From the Wikipedia link above: Lind and Weyrich's writings on this subject advocate fighting what they perceive as Cultural Marxism with "a vibrant cultural conservatism" composed of "retroculture" fashions from the past, a return to rail systems as public transport, and an agrarian culture of self-reliance modeled after the Amish.

This is not surprising, and it means they have a lot more in common with the romanticism which critical theory is based on (according to the same link). The anti-government inventor of bitcoin was also a train fanatic. Though the obsession with trains and autism is known and thought to be about predictability of motion, the obsession with anti-modernity can be assumed to be a similar search for a clear path without distractions. It explains why nationalists are obsessed with defining freedom with every slogan, as a desperate attempt to address and contain it to their understanding.
posted by Brian B. at 11:43 AM on November 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


obligatory Contrapoints link.

Good news, boys. You no longer have to be some fluffy fuck riding the escalator at IKEA thinking about how much you hate your job is a marketing and communications associate. Because the Sun has risen on the day wherein you take your father's Claymore in hand and defend Voltaire and adorable blond children against black civil rights. You know, just like the Vikings did.
posted by eustatic at 11:44 AM on November 17, 2018 [27 favorites]


Donna Zuckerberg

She should tell her brother about the downsides of Caesar.

name-dropping Hegel and Adorno

It’s dumb memes
posted by Apocryphon at 12:13 PM on November 17, 2018


> The Red Pill community has been using Greek and Roman antiquity to bolster their credibility

How is it possible to bolster that which does not exist?
posted by HillbillyInBC at 12:35 PM on November 17, 2018 [5 favorites]


The Red Pill community has been using Greek and Roman antiquity to bolster their credibility

It always kills me when white nationalists fall back on Southern Italians as the epitome of "white". And God help them with the Greeks.

The wholesale absorption of Greek and Roman antiquity by Northern Europe happened only in the last few hundred years, but somehow they’ve both become white by association.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:50 PM on November 17, 2018 [17 favorites]


"retroculture" fashions from the past, a return to rail systems as public transport, and an agrarian culture of self-reliance modeled after the Amish

I like steampunk as much as the next guy but I really think this is going a step too far.

I will, however, consider wearing all natural fibers if it means I get to be a dirigible captain.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:10 PM on November 17, 2018 [3 favorites]




tldr: "Here's yet another term that means 'Jews.'"
posted by neroli at 2:44 PM on November 17, 2018 [21 favorites]


It always kills me when white nationalists fall back on Southern Italians as the epitome of "white". And God help them with the Greeks.

The wholesale absorption of Greek and Roman antiquity by Northern Europe happened only in the last few hundred years, but somehow they’ve both become white by association.

About a year ago I was re-reading Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, which discusses, among other things, how 18th and 19th century scholars idealized "classical" India while despising "modern" Indians. The latter were portrayed as degenerate descendants of a once-proud but now corrupted civilization. Northern European classicists often had the same view of "classical" versus "modern" Italians and Greeks. They could believe in, idealize and appropriate the strong, wise, disciplined (and very white) "classical" Romans and Athenians (or Spartans if they preferred) while despising and demonizing the actual Italians and Greeks* of their own day as weak, stupid, cowardly, and racially ambiguous.

The Classical world has always been one of the big pillars around which ideological factions in the West do battle. I don't think it's tremendously surprising that the alt-Right are aiming for the same cultural landmarks. But also insofar as the main narrative of Classical history is one of "a golden age followed by decline", it fits the embattled mentality of the alt Right. They want to see themselves as the men of Marathon fighting off the Oriental hordes, or the last noble Romans trying to rally their lolling, effete countrymen against the savage barbarians pouring over the Rhine.

*The modern Greeks did get their moment of being identified with their ancestors by Byron and the rest of the romantics during the Greek War of Independence against the Turks, but it didn't last that long.
posted by AdamCSnider at 3:23 PM on November 17, 2018 [8 favorites]


neroili--jews and queer folks, i reckon
posted by PinkMoose at 4:14 PM on November 17, 2018


Shaun is another youtube channel scouring alt-right classical-abuse youtube bs so you don't have to
posted by eustatic at 5:24 PM on November 17, 2018 [4 favorites]


jews and queer folks

Jews and queer folks, feminists and disabled people, PoC and leftists, probably a couple more I'm missing.

They're intentionally conflating everyone they're opposed to. They're also very intentionally conflating their enemies (leftists, feminists etc) with their targets. The overlap between targets and enemies is not complete by any means, but it's very useful for them pretend it is so. They need to neutralise opposition in order to succeed in eradicating their targets.

It is essential for fascists to take the truth that the state is run abysmally for regular people and modify it so it's not the fault of capital, but of an other that is secretly conspiring and in control. Our societies are built on injustice and are corrupt and immoral, which is why their rhetoric appeals to people. Which is why responses which don't acknowledge that aren't effective. People know they're being lied to, so if you tell them they're not... they don't trust you. We need to be able to tell them that they're right to feel the world is wrong, they're just wrong about why.

Go back to Mein Kampf. They do their weird faith ignore reality thing to such an extreme extent that they convince themselves that Marxism is a creation of a Jewish conspiracy. They need to incapacitate Marxists to succeed, so it's in their interest to believe that to be the case. They need to do so a. because organised workers with good politics are a threat and b. because it gives lie to their arguments. It's the rebuttal that they need as few people as possible to hear.

This is a key way centrists enable fascism. They pretend the world is actually fine, they hit left by default, and in doing so they sow the seeds of fascism and hobble those who can offer alternative understandings.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 12:07 AM on November 18, 2018 [6 favorites]


Is this the same as the "Crypto Marxism" theory that Jordan Peterson promulgates? My layperson understanding of that theory is that Soviet spies secretly promoted homosexuality and leftist views in America to undermine capitalism, and my first thought on hearing that was, isn't that exactly what some nutballs thought in the 50's? Or even earlier in regards to Anarchists? It seemed like such an old, tired, and frankly crazy idea to have been given new life.
posted by xammerboy at 3:13 AM on November 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


It's crazy that this can get more attention that the resurgence of (no adjective) Marxism in the UK Labour Party, the US Democratic Party and presumably other center-left parties of government in the Western world. The right gets wrapped up in cultural issues that put it on the wrong side of demography, while the capitalists who support the center-left parties because the right is so darn uncool are selling the rope that will hang them.
posted by MattD at 6:15 AM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Marxism is hardly a force in the UK or the US - actual Marxists are the fringe of the fringe of the fringe. What we're actually seeing is a resurgence of social democracy/New Deal liberalism, which looks like "Marxism" to people raised in the remarkably conservative/freemarketeer political atmosphere of the past thirty years.
posted by AdamCSnider at 6:36 AM on November 18, 2018 [15 favorites]


They could believe in, idealize and appropriate the strong, wise, disciplined (and very white) "classical" Romans and Athenians (or Spartans if they preferred)

I’ve often wondered how much they were helped down that path by the fact that the paint had come off all of the busts and statues. The major images they had of people from that era were very white indeed.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:21 AM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Voice of the 'Intellectual Dark Web' - "Claire Lehmann's online magazine, Quillette, prides itself on publishing 'dangerous' ideas other outlets won't touch. How far is it willing to go?"
posted by kliuless at 8:08 AM on November 18, 2018


It is the same stuff as Jordan Peterson, that's why he gets called a fascist thinker. It is much older than the 50s though, it goes back almost to the origins of fascism as we know it. USSR agents are just an extension of the theory, but as article and others have said, there's this whole Judeo-Bolshevism belief that goes back to at least the 1910s, and for all I know decades before that.

As to whether Marxists are a force... Not like in pre-fascist Italy or Germany, sure. They're not dead and gone though, the DSA is Marxist for a certain value of Marxism.
I wouldn't disagree that it's actually more liberalism that fash mistake or call Marxism, but that's also a consequence of many liberals adopting Marxist ideas.
Marxists are a part of the political landscape most places, but because of red scares and the like, I would say their influence isn't always apparent.

Corbynites aren't all Marxists by any means, but a subset are, and they're out at his rallies and events supporting some of his ideas, and working to seed others into the movement. The number of entryists is always hard to judge, and their effectiveness is debatable, but we certainly can't call Marxist influence dead anywhere.

The Greens here aren't a Marxist party by any means. They're environmental progressives, sometimes just inner-city NIMBY neolibs at worst. There's also way more Marxists in the party than people realise though. The young Greens especially. Watermelons, we call them. To the casual observer, Marxists are irrelevant here too, till you look more closely at the union leaderships, at the shop delegates, at the people who actually organise most things, who builds rallies, draws media attention and makes the political arguments that end up informing wider discussion.

Yes there's more of a resurgence of social democrats and the like. Where they grow though, Marxists grow as well. Reformists will always outnumber the hard left, but they're susceptible to pressure. As they try things and fail, more and more will abandon idealism for concrete politics which recognise power.

This is an optimistic view, I guess, but if I didn't believe it to some extent, I wouldn't have much hope left at all.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 8:56 AM on November 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


of course the USSR invented their own anti-Semitic codeword too: "rootless cosmopolitans"
posted by thelonius at 9:21 AM on November 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


And here I thought that "cultural Marxism" was a useful description for a useful thing. Marx (and some of his followers) had perceptive insights into the interactions between culture and power. Insights you can learn from. What's wrong with that?

It seems weird for the left to distance itself from cultural Marxism, just like it seems weird when Jordan Peterson distances himself from patriarchy. Dude: You wrote a book saying that order needs to tame chaos, and men are order and women are chaos, and chaotic women secretly want a strong man to impose order on them, and that it's all biologically pre-determined. You're not only saying that patriarchy exists, you're saying that it's good and natural and inescapable.

I guess that for both cases, as the article points out for "cultural Marxism", they're historically loaded terms which might allow an opponent to score a "gotcha" on you.
posted by clawsoon at 9:27 AM on November 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


I've not seen the left distance themselves from cultural Marxism. Like, it's obvious nonsense, and people have varying opinions on Gramsci and the effectiveness of a cultural approach, but it depends what you mean by distance?

Mostly I see it as like a reclaimed joke label thing. Things like, sure, go ahead and call us cultural Marxists lol, shibboleth away, why not call us commie pinko queer degenerates as well while you're at it. Yes we are planning on destroying the country as you know it, why, did you want to help?
posted by AnhydrousLove at 9:35 AM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I’m not sure Foucault is quite the black pill people think it is.

Foucault’s vision of biopower feeds right into the Nouvelle Droit’s idea of the oppressive nature of the state, and actually animates a lot of this “alt-right” thinking.

It’s ironic, but the same critical theory that people use to deconstruct ideas actually reinforces them.

Part of the genius of Foucault I would argue.
posted by Middlemarch at 10:54 AM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


It seems weird for the left to distance itself from cultural Marxism

Seems right to me. Like Freud, he was correct about some things, but importantly mistaken about others, and should remain an influence on newer ideas, but not a foundational dogma to employ as pure and true. Marx was also the public face of the worst regimes of the twentieth century and they freely used his name in their slogans. So it is not just a public relations problem to claim Marx, but a nostalgic one that is in denial of the collapse. If someone can't achieve results without selling failed Marxian prophecy first, I would say they are selling misanthrope instead of whatever Marx was promising (and he denied he was utopian, so selling that from Marx is a fraud). Main rule in politics is to not let your enemies define you. Marxism carries the exact same baggage as claiming Hitler for the right. It means, to most people, that all barbaric acts were justified and implies that those followers are either ignorant or bloodthirsty. Here's another angle: the well was poisoned for Marxism in the extreme. One would have to give everyone a wizard of Oz degree in Marxism before they overcame the fear of drinking the water. But that's where it fails for some of us too, on paper, beginning with that naive garbage about trading idealism for materialism from Hegel. In my experience, it usually comes down to the religious background of Marxist adherents, who claim that we need more faith, which is something they borrowed from Sunday School.
posted by Brian B. at 11:34 AM on November 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


What we're actually seeing is a resurgence of social democracy/New Deal liberalism, which looks like "Marxism" to people raised in the remarkably conservative/freemarketeer political atmosphere of the past thirty years.

This is probably mostly true, but there certainly is a bit of a resurgence of people on the Left being interested in the ideas of Karl Marx and his intellectual progeny. Whether this means a resurgence of "Marxism" gets into a tiresome debate about who exactly is a Marxist.
posted by atoxyl at 7:46 PM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


"Cultural Marxism" mostly just seems like an intellectually lazy conflation of various ideas the Right doesn't like, even though their actual adherents haven't necessarily ever been that friendly with each other. And yeah, it also calls back to the idea that Marxism is a Jewish plot.
posted by atoxyl at 7:49 PM on November 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


Hi everyone looking for anti alt-right youtubers which seriously tackle the ongoing facist culture war, recommend checking out not just contrapoints and Shaun (linked already), but also hbomberguy, cuck philosophy and r/breadtube.

Proving in their small way that Youtube doesn't have to just be a garbage cess pool of racist talking points.
posted by litleozy at 9:41 PM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Marxism carries the exact same baggage as claiming Hitler for the right.

I may be misunderstanding your point here (it appears to be something about the left ditching Marxism as a branding strategy?).

But while contrasting twentieth-century Marxism with Fascism makes some degree of sense, comparing "claiming" Marxism with "claiming Hitler" is absurd - Marx didn't arrange for Stalin's purges or Mao's cultural revolution or the various other "baggage" regularly attributed to Marxism.

Various groups latched onto the revolution proposed by the Communist Manifesto for their own ends, but the bulk of the man's work was pretty dry economic history. He died stateless at the end of the 19th century, after articulating a number of political/economic ideas that are largely still held to be inescapable, even by those who profoundly disagree with their conclusions.

This is all really only a public relations problem in the US, where people have some profoundly stupid ideas about Communism. Here in the 21st century most people who identify as Marxist or Marxian . . . aren't exactly the Red Guard, shall we say? I suppose I could see arguing that Leftists don't necessarily help our cause by identifying as Marxists.

If you're actually equating identifying as a Marxist with identifying as a Nazi, then I'm not going to bother arguing.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:55 PM on November 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


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