Monthly Archives: June 2022

The Alt Right

Origins of the term

White supremacistRichard Spencer, who is President and Creative Director at the National Policy Institute, a tiny white supremacist organization, coined the term alternative right in August 2008 in an article in Takis Magazine, a far-right publication.

At the time, Spencer was using alternative right to refer to people on the right who distinguished themselves from traditional conservatives by opposing, among other things, egalitarianism, multiculturalism and open immigration. That same year, Paul Gottfried, a Jewish paleo-conservative, employed the term alternative right when he gave a speech entitled, The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right, at the H.L. Mencken Clubs Annual Meeting in November 2008. For this reason, some sources credit Gottfried with originating the term.

Spencer further popularized the term when he chose Alternative Right as the name for an online publication that debuted in 2010. Spencer shut the website down in 2013, but it was soon re-launched by Colin Liddell and Andy Nowicki, former writers forAlternative Right. Spencer went on to found another journal,Radix. BothAlternative Right (rebranded as Affirmative Right)andRadixare forums for racists, antisemites and others who identify with the alt right.

What is the ideology of the alt right?

Alt right adherents identify with a range of different ideologies, all of which center on white identity. Many claim to be Identitarians, a term that originated in France with the founding of theBloc Identitairemovement and its youth counterpart,Generation Identitaire. Identitarians espouse racism and intolerance under the guise of preserving the ethnic and cultural origins of their respective counties. American Identitarians, including Richard Spencer, claim to want to preserve European-American (i.e., white) culture in the U.S.

As Michael McGregor, a writer and editor forRadix,wrote in February 2015, Identitarians want the preservation of our identity--the cultural and genetic heritage that makes us who we are. Identitarians reject multiculturalism or pluralism in any form.

Others in the alt right identify as so-called radical traditionalists, people who want to preserve what they claim are traditional Christian values but from a uniquely white supremacist perspective. Some inthe alt right identify as white nationalists who want to preserve the white majority in the U.S., claiming that whites losing their majority status is equivalent to white genocide. They issue mendacious propaganda on subjects like immigration and black crime as evidence of whites imperiled status.

Another segment of the alt right refers to themselves as neo-reactionaries (those who reject liberal democracy and ideas associated with the Enlightenment. Some neo-reactionaries refer to their theories as the Dark Enlightenment.) Others call themselves race realists or alternately HBD advocates, a reference to human biodiversity (a belief that ones race governs traits such as behavior and intelligencewith non-whites being inferior to whites). However they define themselves, alt righters reject egalitarianism, democracy, universalism and multiculturalism.

Many alt righters are also blatantly antisemitic and blame Jews for allegedly promoting anti-white policies such as immigration and diversity.

In 2015, alt righters began disparaging members of the conservative movement with the derogatory termcuckservative, a combination of conservative and cuckold, that is used by white supremacists to describe a white conservative who putatively promotes the interests of Jews and non-whites over those of whites. The alt right also refers disparagingly to the mainstream conservative movement as Conservatism, Inc. or Conservative, Inc., in an effort to highlight its associations with wealthy donors (whom the white supremacists dismiss as pro-immigration globalists whose policies undermine white nationalism in America).

Who makes up the alt right?

The alt right is an extremely loose movement, made up of different strands of people connected to white supremacy. One body of adherents is the ostensibly intellectual racists who create many of the doctrines and principles of the white supremacist movement. They seek to attract young educated whites to the movement by highlighting the achievements and alleged intellectual and cultural superiority of whites. They run a number of small white supremacist enterprises, including organizations, online publications and publishing houses. These includeNational Policy Institute, run by Richard Spencer; Counter Currents Publishing, run by Greg Johnson; American Renaissance, run byJared Taylor; and The Right Stuff, a website that features numerous podcasts with a number of contributors.

Alt righters use terms like culture as substitutes for more divisive terms such as race, and promote Western Civilization as a code word for white culture or identity. They tend to avoid explicit white supremacist references like the14 words,a slogan used by neo-Nazis and other hardcore white supremacists. While alt righters share the sentiment behind the 14 words theyre more inclined to talk about preserving European-American identity.

The Groypers are the latest alt right group to grab media attention. This loose network of alt right figures want to normalize their racist and antisemitic views, and are undertaking an organized effort to publicly lambast mainstream conservative organizations like Turning Point USA (TPUSA) for failing to promote an America First agenda and for not being adequately pro white.

The subculture of the alt right

The alt right also has its own subculture and language and both tend to attract young, white men. Many of these young men are active in the Chan world, including 4Chan, 8Chan (now defunct) and Reddit. These message boards, where most people post anonymously, are a key source of internet memes and trolling efforts, which often target women and minorities. For example, it is common to find memes that belittle the Holocaust and depict well-known Jewish figures, among others, being gassed. The memes creators hold that bigoted humor and irony help attract new followers to the alt right.

Another aspect of the alt right subculture is its connection to the online world of misogyny known broadly as the manosphere. Men in this movement believe they are being stripped of power by women and pro-feminist social structures. They also are hostile to women on a personal level, with some believing that women are objects to be possessed and used for sexual gratification, while others resent women for their own inability to attract them or to form meaningful relationships with them.

One incident that preceded the advent of the alt right but anticipated its misogyny was Gamergate. In 2014, males in the gaming community expressed hostility and resentment toward certain female gamers and attacked and threatened them online. This pushed a number of women to leave that community. Gamergate showed alt right adherents the effectiveness of online harassment campaigns against their perceived enemies.

Alt right vs. alt lite

In 2015 and 2016, a number of people who considered themselves part of the alt right were not white supremacists, but held certain views that aligned with white supremacist ideology: they were anti-immigrant, anti-globalism, anti-feminism and believed that the left and/or liberals are actively working to destroy American culture.

These people became known as the alt lite. In late 2016, the alt right and alt lite definitively split when people associated with the alt lite, including Mike Cernovich and Lucien Wintrich, began to distance themselves from the negative publicity surrounding the alt rights white supremacist views. The split became very clear after Richard Spencer and some of his followers were caught on video giving Nazi salutes during a National Policy Institute conference shortly after the 2016 election.

The Charlottesville Backlash

The 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a peak moment for the alt right. The event brought together between 500 and 600 white supremacists, including Klan members, neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. A torchlit rally the night before the event was attended largely by alt right adherents, and the next days gathering was the largest public white supremacist event in decades.

The alt rights moment of triumph was cut short, however, when a white supremacist named James Fields used his car to murder counter-protester Heather Heyer, and wound many others.

The repercussions were immediate for the alt right, and for the larger white supremacist community. Scores of them were doxxedtheir real identities exposed and as a result, some were fired from their jobs, had to leave their universities, or were rejected by their families or romantic partners. Many white supremacists social media accounts and websites were taken off line and some were kicked off popular crowdfunding websites, eliminating a key income source.

More than two years after Charlottesville, efforts to deplatform white supremacists continue, even as many have migrated to newer, less-scrutinized platforms like Discord and Telegram.

Alt right groups have also turned away from large rallies and have focused on distributing white supremacist propaganda, particularly on college campuses, and holding small flash demonstrations and private events.

In addition to criminal cases, Unite the Right organizers, including alt right leaders, have been dogged by civil lawsuits at both the state and federal levels, and are accused of conspiring to plan the rally and promote violence in Charlottesville.

Lawsuits are not the only irritant affecting white supremacists since Unite the Right. In July 2018, Richard Spencer was refused entry into Europe while en route to Sweden to speak at an alt right conference. Jared Taylor was banned from Europe in March 2019 and Greg Johnson was deported from Norway in May 2019.

Meanwhile, alt right leader Spencer, who helped spearhead the events in Charlottesville, has become increasingly unpopular in the alt right due in part to the perception that he failed to capitalize on the energy generated by Unite the Right.

See more here:

Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy

On June 7, Tehama County voters will decide whether Dave Kain or Chad Parker is their next county sheriff.

Kain is currently employed as a Captain by the Tehama County Sheriffs Office. He has won numerous awards.Parker formerly worked for the Tehama County Sheriffs Office, but left his position in 2018 to take up a job as an investigator with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Both men have had long careers as Tehama County law enforcement officials.

On his campaign webpage, Kain proposes to expand the Tehama County Jail, implement new technology to enhance criminal investigations, create alternative custody programs, and designate a special deputy for rural areas. If elected, Parker also plans to combat rural crime with the creation of Rural Crime Deputies.

Dave Kain and Chad Parker.

Parkers campaign slogan is Moving Forward With Trusted Local Leadership and he claims on his campaign webpage to want to restore public trust in the Tehama County Sheriffs Office. However, his close ties to Red Bluffs alt-right community may alarm Tehama County voters, even in a heavily Republican county where around 65% of the population voted for Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections.

If elected, Parker proposes to name Dave Greer, a retired sheriffs deputy, the leader of his management team. Greer has 35 years of experience working in Tehama County law enforcement. He is a founding member of the nonprofit group Christian Peace Officers of Tehama County.

On its Facebook group page, the Christian Peace Officers of Tehama County claims its mission is to recognize Jesus Christ as their leader and that the written guidelines in the Bible shall be subject to and secondary to the laws of California. The mission statement also says it is important for law enforcement officials to seek out people who are lost and help them with the message of Jesus Christ.

The administrator for the Christian Peace Officers of Tehama County page is Rob Brinton. Brinton graduated from West Valley High School in the early 1980s and is an Air Force veteran. He worked for 28 years as a law enforcement official in Tehama County for several agencies before retiring. In 2018, he made an unsuccessful run for Tehama County Sheriff.

Brinton is currently employed as a real estate agent in Cottonwood. He is also the Northern California ambassador for the Code 9 Project, a national organization dedicated to educating, training and advocating for the prevention of PTSD and suicide for all first responders and their families.

Brinton has publicly shared a variety of extremist far-right content on his Facebook page, all of which appeared after he retired from the Tehama County Sheriffs Office. In April of 2021, Briton called U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) a Fucktard for supporting the defunding of the police in St. Louis. He subscribes to a selective far-right version of Christianity as a member of the Christian Peace Officers of Tehama County.

After Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in May of 2020, Brinton took to Facebook to share his unhappiness regarding the protests for justice sweeping across the country. He tagged Chad Parker, as well as former Shasta County Sheriff Eric Magrini, and other North State law enforcement officials in the Facebook post.

I stand behind my brothers and sisters. NO ONE STANDS ALONE. Im retired but not dead ill bring the fight to you and stand beside you until my last breath or drop of blood you are my family I love you and I WILL STAND BESIDE YOU. LETS BRING THE FIGHT TO THEM YOU FUCK WITH ONE OF US . YOU FUCK WITH ALL OF US..

Rob Brinton Facebook post about Black Lives Matter protests

Parker, and numerous others, liked Brintons Facebook post. One individual who commented under the Facebook post said protesters would explode like a tube of toothpaste if they decided to play frogger with motorists.

Rob Brinton Facebook post on U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).

Brinton, like Parker, is friends on Facebook with Woody Clendenen. Clendenen lives in Tehama County, is a well-known member of the Cottonwood Militia, and owns a barber shop in Cottonwood which occasionally flies a Confederate flag

Clendenen also participates in Red, White and Blueprint podcasts and docuseries episodes, along with two of the co-owners of the alt-right propaganda media company, Jon Knight and Carlos Zapata.

Top: Recent profile pictures used by Woody Clendenen on Facebook; Bottom: Screenshot from a short documentary about the Cottonwood Militia.

The Confederate flag flying outside of Woody Clendenens barbershop in Cottonwood.

Red, White and Blueprint advertisement featuring Jon Knight (black shirt with yellow logo) and Woody Clendenen (gray shirt with red logo.

Screenshots from a Red, White and Blueprint Facebook story which shows the company filming scenes for the next docuseries episode at Clendenens property. Carlos Zapata stands in the middle of the group while looking toward the camera in the image on the right side.

Since the Feb. 1 recall of Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Leonard Moty, journalists working for national media outlets have lined up to get a glimpse of Clendenen in his barbershop environment which doubles as an alt-right man cave for him and his clientele.

Chalk the relationship between Clendenen, Parker, and Brinton up as yet another connection between the Tehama County Sheriffs Office and the North States alt-right community. As I reported in an A News Caf piece last August, Clendenen is also friends with Bill Derbonne. Derbonne is a former Tehama County Sheriffs deputy who is working as an investigator for the Tehama County District Attorney.

Derbonne is alleged to have illegally sold guns and gun supplies out of the back of his patrol car and on city property when he was employed as the chief of police in Asotin, Wash., before accepting a position with the Tehama County Sheriffs Office.

On May 10, Dave Greer, the retired law enforcement official Parker plans to put in charge of his team if elected as the sheriff of Tehama County, posted a statement on his Facebook page complaining about being told at a local candidates event in Red Bluff the he does not act like a Christian. Greer said the attendee told him this because of Greers political positions and who he supports.

Our Country, State and local government are in need of one person, Jesus, wrote Greer. I have come to a point in my life that I take time to seek His guidance in most big decisions I make in my life.

I think as Christians, we need to pray before we vote, continued Greer. I am in no way telling anyone who to vote for, but I am saying, lets take time to bend a knee before we select a name on the ballot. Seek His guidance and personally see where the candidates stand with respect to Jesus.

Dave Greers Facebook post regarding the claim that he does not act like a Christian.

Greer ended his Facebook post by writing that county residents should vote for candidates who will be bold in their faith and stand for Christian values. Greg Phelps, the youth pastor at the Cavalry Chapel in Red Bluff, liked Greers Facebook post and supports the election of Parker as county sheriff. Content shared on Phelps Facebook page shows he is against COVID-19 mandates and the vaccine, and does not believe President Biden won the 2020 election. Phelps has also shared homophobic and anti-transgender content on his Facebook page.

Screenshots from Greg Phelps Facebook page, including his profile picture.

Dave Greers wife, Shawn Greer, is Parkers campaign aid. According to Parker, she is a wealth of knowledge for me. Shawn Greer is the leader of an alt-right activist group named Tehama County Citizens for Freedom, and she has published an extensive collection of material filled with misinformation and far-right commentary on the groups webpage. Greer also runs a group known as Tehama County Citizens for Trump, and manages pages for that group, and for Tehama County Citizens for Freedom on Facebook and Telegram. She goes by Shawn Marie on Facebook.

Chad Parker stating on his Telegram page that Shawn Greer is a wealth of knowledge for me.

Left: Shawn Greers profile picture on Facebook (shes standing with Dave Greer); Top Right: One of Shawn Greers social media profile pages; Bottom Right: Dave Greers Facebook profile picture.

When Berrendos Middle School teacher Stacy Pearce went viral for wearing a yellow Star of David to compare COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Jewish Holocaust in a brazen display of anti-Semitism at a protest in Red Bluff, Dave and Shawn Greer came to her defense. They, along with Parker and Calvary Chapel pastor Greg Phelps, signed the petition supporting Pearce on the Tehama County Citizens for Freedom webpage.

In addition to signing the petition to support Pearce, Shawn Greer also doubled-down in her support for the sentiments displayed by the teacher on the Tehama County Citizens for Freedom webpage by repeating and defending the toxic false equivalence between the Jewish Holocaust and COVID-19 mandates in Californias public schools.

Shawn Greer believes COVID-19 is a hoax and that President Bidens election in 2020 was not legitimate. Greer and other members of Tehama County Citizens for Freedom have shared several pieces of content on various social media platforms that supports Red, White and Blueprint, and the broader alt-right community in Shasta County.

Facebook post on Tehama County Citizens for Freedom Facebook page made by Shawn Greer which celebrated the recall of Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Leonard Moty in February. The post included a picture of Jon Knight, Carlos Zapata, and Lani Bangay of Red, White and Blueprint.

Greer has helped organize several anti-COVID-19 mandate medical freedom anti-Covid-19 rallies, including the School Walkout in October and the recent convoy rallies that took place on Red Bluffs 1-5 Adobe overpass.

At the convoy rallies, Greer and fellow activists wave the Gadsden Flag with the famous saying, Dont Tread on Me and homemade signs that exclaim statements such as Trump Won. At the most recent overpass protests, an old Chevy truck pulled up to display several signs. The largest one read A (Hole) C And the Squad, followed by Pathetic and God Bless America. At a convoy rally last summer, one attendee wore a T-shirt with a large Q superimposed over the United States flag signifying his support for the QAnon movement.

Photographs of recent far-right protests in Red Bluff shared on the Tehama County Citizens for Freedom webpage.

Photographs of recent far-right protests in Red Bluff shared on the Tehama County Citizens for Freedom webpage.

Elissa McEuen, one of the leaders of the movement to recall Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Leonard Moty, attending a medical freedom rally in downtown Red Bluff last summer.

In addition to organizing far-right protests in Red Bluff, Shawn Greer is also a QAnon believer. The QAnon movement emerged in far-right circles during the Trump presidency. It pushes a variety of false claims which include the belief that a cabal of cannibalistic sexual abusers of children, who worship Satan and operate a worldwide child sex trafficking ring, are conspiring against Donald Trump.

QAnon beliefs are rooted in anti-Semitism, and followers of the movement, which many call a cult, claim that Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, and others, are part of the so-called cabal. QAnon followers participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington D.C.

Greer does not openly support QAnon on Facebook, but she has posted a significant amount of pro-QAnon material on the Tehama County Citizens for Trump Telegram page. Perhaps Greer does not want to share her believe in QAnon conspiracy theories on Facebook because it is a more popular platform, unlike Telegram, which is mostly used by people who follow far-right conspiracies and extremist movements.

A considerable amount of debate surrounds the identity of Q, the leader of the QAnon movement. Greer has gone as far as to post on Telegram that President Trump is actually Q. On May 2, Greer published a statement on Telegram claiming President Trump gave an AirQ to a live crowd at an event said he makes them during every rally speech.

Content posted by Shawn Greer on Telegram which shows her belief in the QAnon movement.

Over the course of the last few days, Greer has spent her time publishing material on the Tehama County Citizens for Freedom social media pages and webpage that tells voters to not vote early and to take their time and pray about how God wants you to vote. Greer has also been actively pushing disinformation about how mail-in voting is not safe, and that in 2020 mail-in ballots in Tehama County were unable to be scanned by the tabulator so the elections office duplicated every single one.

Carlos Zapatas comments on Facebook about the Proud Boys who attended his arraignment.

July 2021 Proud Boys photo by Doni Chamberlain.

In addition to the activism in the Red Bluff area, Greer also communicated with a self-proclaimed member of the Proud Boys who claimed he attended Carlos Zapatas July 2021 arraignment at the Shasta County Court House for his role in the May 4 assault of Nathan Pinkney. Zapata shared on Facebook at the time that he supported the Proud Boys. Allan Stellar of the Daily News newspaper claimed the members of the Proud Boys allegedly visited his Palomino Room bar and restaurant in the city.In a conversation with someone who identified as Tristan, Greer shared the trial court date and said that Zapata needed to be supported because he was becoming quite the political leader in Shasta County. Zapata was later found guilty of disturbing the peace while fighting. Zapatas two friends who joined him, Christopher Meagher and Elizabeth Bailey faced the same conviction as Zapata in addition to battery.

Unlike the arraignment, members of the Proud Boys did not show up at Zapata, Meagher, and Baileys trial.

Shawn Greers conversation with a self-proclaimed Proud Boy about Carlos Zapata.

Chad Parkers ties to the alt-right extremist community should alarm voters in staunchly Republican Tehama County. Parker claims to want to restore public trust in the Tehama County Sheriffs Office, but his campaign aid and the spouse of the man he would like to put in charge of his management team, if elected, is a far-right activist who believes a wide variety of conspiracy theories and supports the Proud Boys. On top of this, Parker is part of a network of Christian nationalists and county sheriff deputies who maintain ties to the Cottonwood Militia.

Tehama County has an important decision to make this summer. Will voters go the way of far-right Christian nationalists, QAnon believers, Carlos Zapata and the Proud Boys, or will they meet in the middle and cast their vote for Kain?

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Will Tehama Sheriff Candidates Ties to Alt-Right Extremists Alarm ...

The belief that immigrants arrive in the United States with the intent to "steal" has been ubiquitous in right-wing politics for decades: Immigrants have been accused of stealing jobs, stealing tax dollars, and stealing benefits. But lately, some of the GOP's most stalwart voices have drummed up a more explicit accusation that immigrants are here to steal the very essence of America and replace it with something foreign an idea plucked directly from far right wing media.

This week, Fox News' Tucker Carlson, who frequently promotes white supremacist talking points, made an adamant declaration during the Fox News Primetime show that Democrats were using immigration as part of a plan to "replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World" and that no one should "sit back and take that." It was the most explicit endorsement of the "great replacement" theory in Carlson's long history of white nationalism, and the segment drew an immediate backlash, including a statement from the Anti-Defamation League calling for Fox News to fire Carlson.

In the face of public backlash and advertiser boycotts Fox has encouraged advertisers to move their money from the opinion shows to Fox's other programming, branding their non-primetime and "news" shows as "safe" from the public relations nightmare of their "opinion" shows. Carlson's raving about great replacement took place not on his own show but on Fox News Primetime, where several companies that had previously pulled or refused to run ads on Tucker Carlson Tonight, aired ads that very same night.

The following night, Carlson doubled down on his remarks as white nationalists celebrated the broadcast and endorsement of their long held conspiracy theories on the most-watched cable news channel in the country.

The white nationalist "great replacement" conspiracy theory was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2012 book Le Grand Remplacement. Often intermingled with a "white genocide" conspiracy theory, it proposes that a variety of factors, such as an influx of nonwhite immigrants, multiculturalism, and falling birthrates among white Europeans, will result in white populations losing their position as the dominant demographic.

The conspiracy theory creates a dangerous dynamic in which believers view immigrants and nonwhite citizens as an existential threat to their communities. And the theory is not a purely academic endeavor; it seeks to mobilize believers into action against their supposed "replacement." This mobilization manifests itself in various ways, including political activism against immigration, efforts to encourage white women to have more children to bolster demographic growth, and, in an extreme form, deadly violence against immigrants and communities of color.

The theory has reared its head in violent outbursts such as the murder of 51 people at the Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand, the killing of more than 20 mostly Hispanic shoppers in El Paso, Texas, and the screams of angry young men who shouted "Jews will not replace us; you will not replace us" at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where antiracist demonstrator Heather Heyer was murdered by neo-Nazi James Fields Jr. Field's online behavior before Unite the Right indictes support for Nazi ideology and white racial purity. There is a clear link between the rhetoric broadcast to viewers via mainstream shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and the beliefs espoused by mass shooters motivated by the theory; in some cases, the language overlaps with striking parallels.

Elements of the "great replacement" conspiracy theory have also recently appeared in the statements of prominent conservative politicians. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) recently appeared on Fox News' Justice with Judge Jeanine and said that Black Lives Matter protests were part of "an attempted cultural genocide going on in America right now." Gaetz claimed that "the left wants us to be ashamed of America so that they can replace America," a message he later repeated on Twitter:

It's no coincidence that Gaetz echoed the "great replacement" talking points on Fox, as the network has played a role in promoting the conspiracy theory to American conservative audiences for years.

Fox News is home to a near-constant stream of claims that America is being subjected to an immigrant "invasion." Hosts and contributors including Brian Kilmeade, Stuart Varney, Pete Hegseth, Tomi Lahren, and Mike Huckabee have repeatedly fear mongered about a supposed "invasion" of the United States' southern border by migrants seeking asylum.

The vitriolic talking point has become ubiquitous in Fox's lineup; a Media Matters study last year found that Fox made over 70 on-air references to an "invasion" by migrants over the seven months leading up to the El Paso mass shooting, in which the perpetrator said he was responding to a "Hispanic invasion of Texas."

In addition to the open racism of its "invasion" talking point, Fox News regularly pushes the claim that Americans are being replaced by immigrants in order to benefit Democrats at the ballot box. On The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham warned in 2018 that Democrats "want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants." This May, Ingraham boosted an article from the white nationalist website VDare that attempted to link immigration to coronavirus hotspots.

Carlson tried to alarm audiences in July 2018 by saying that "Latin American countries are changing election outcomes here by forcing demographic change on this country." In January 2020, he declared that the "long-term agenda of refugee resettlement is to bring in future Democratic voters, obviously."

With the entrance of a new administration, Carlson and Fox have doubled down on hysterical claims and misinformation around immigration, particularly at the southern border.

This year Carlson has claimed the immigrants currently in America "devalue your political power as a voter" and "subvert democracy itself." He declared asylum-seekers "a human tragedy for everyone involved and a tragedy for those of us who live here," warning that immigration will "change your country forever, possibly for the worse." Carlson regularly tells viewers that allowing immigrants to settle in the United States is a way to "punish" the people who already live here.

And the rhetoric isn't limited to Carlson. The replacement theory is now a staple in right-wing media's coverage of immigration.

Fox host Jeanine Pirro got to the crux of the "great replacement" theory last August when she claimed: "It is a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals who will vote for the Democrats."

And this sort of racist conspiracy theorizing extends beyond Fox.

Following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Ingraham broadcast an unhinged rant claiming immigrants were the real insurrectionists.

Podcast host Bill O'Reilly warned that undocumented immigration would cause "traditional America to vanish."

Conservative writer David Horowitz accused the left of waging a "war on America's sovereignty" through immigration.

Longtime conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh stated in 2018 that immigration from Latin America was intended to "dilute and eventually eliminate or erase what is known as the distinct or unique American culture. ... This is why people call this an invasion."

On Sean Hannity's radio show, Bill O'Reilly warned that undocumented immigration will cause "traditional America to vanish"

Far-right author Ann Coulter titled her 2015 anti-immigration book Adios America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole.

Radio host Michael Savage said America was "being invaded by a far more virile people" and called for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a US citizen, to be deported "for what she's done in this country." The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles accused the left of attempting to "radically change American culture" through immigration in order to "flood this country with people who will -- are more likely to support them politically."

As the language of "great replacement" has become commonplace throughout right-wing media, the rhetoric has also made the leap from commentators to policymakers. President Donald Trump himself retweeted proponents of the theory even before the 2016 election, and in 2018 he directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate the baseless conspiracy theory that genocide is being committed against white farmers in South Africa -- a policy that originated in a segment on Carlson's prime-time Fox News show.

Last November, a trove of emails leaked to the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed the extent of White House adviser Stephen Miller's sympathies for white nationalism. Miller repeatedly spoke of immigration in a way that would be recognizable to proponents of the great replacement theory, often referring to demographic changes in the context of immigration.

In one email to former Breitbart Editor Katie McHugh, Miller lamented the effects of the Hart-Celler Act, which eliminated race-based immigration quotas, writing that in modern politics "immigration is something that we can only vote to have more of immigration 'reform' is a moral imperative but it's impossible, evil, racist to reverse immigration."

From Carlson's nightly broadcasts to Matt Gaetz's national stage to the local politics of Florida's state Senate, conservative figures are now cheering on policies using language evoking the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, and their promotion of these talking points as an electoral issue means the hawkish anti-immigrant rhetoric that used to live primarily in fringe conservative media spaces is now a staple of conservative politics.

Allowing immigration policy, and our national discourse surrounding race relations, to be shaped by white nationalistnativist conspiracy theories that have already proved deadly both in the United States and abroad endangers the well-being of everyone in the United States. Right wing media and the conservative establishments' failure to stamp out racist, conspiratorial rhetoric from their midst has emboldened bad actors and legitimized a hateful ideology couched in white supremacy.

Nikki is a researcher at Media Matters for America, she can be found on Twitter @NikkiMcR.

Original post:

Racist Great Replacement Conspiracy Went From Alt-Right to Mainstream

Picture a split screen on your TV. On one side a parade of prominent Republican officials in the Trump administration, in the Trump family, in the Trump Justice Department, in the Trump 2020 reelection campaign are spilling the beans about Jan. 6. Finally, Americans are hearing the truth about Trumps Big Lie from his own people. And they pull no punches.

The defeated president knowingly deceived millions in the country about an election he lost. He pursued what he knew was an illegal plot to stay in office. He understood the criminality of his malfeasance but plowed ahead anyway. Thats what Trumps senior advisors, White House counsel, campaign manager, attorney general, daughter and others testified under oath.

On the other side of your split TV screen are 2022 Republican midterm candidates. Almost to a man, they dismiss the explosive truths dropping on the Jan. 6 half of the screen. These pols intentionally reinforce what they know is false about a stolen election that wasnt, and the need to restore integrity to elections based on massive fraud that wasnt.

They know there is no evidence supporting either claim but repeat them anyway. Again, key Republicans in the Trump orbit reaffirmed there was no there, there about Trumps declaration that he won but for the cheating. But there is a mountain of evidence that the former president deliberately violated the law and, as a federal judge deemed probable, corruptly attempted to obstruct Congress. New, damning revelations about the nefarious lengths Trump went to stay in power are jaw-dropping.

Yet campaigning Republicans continue to parrot Trumps Big Lie without regard for the electoral damage inflicted. So, heres a question for general election voters in Ohio Republicans, independents, Democrats: How can candidates who are asking for your vote in November be trusted if theyre willing to lie to win favor from a likely criminal still conning the country about an election his own cybersecurity chief called the most secure in American history?

Every Republican running for federal office in Ohio has pledged allegiance to a man with no allegiance to the rule of law, as witnessed by his team of Republican enablers who drew the line at insurrection. In every congressional race, in every GOP gerrymandered district, proud defenders of an indefensible crook who watched the violent attack at the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power and did nothing for hours have the gall to pitch themselves as principled politicians.

Please.

Noble these Trumpian toadies are not. Consider five Republican incumbent congressmen seeking reelection who voted, baselessly, to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after the Capitol was rampaged by a bloodthirsty Trump mob chanting Hang Mike Pence! One of those lawmakers, ranking Trump sycophant Jim Jordan from Ohios 4th U.S. Congressional District, is directly implicated in the presidents lawless scheme to seize a second term.

A participant in the Jan. 6 rally and a QAnon proponent whose devotion to the would-be dictator was splayed across his lawn with a giant painted Trump sign campaigns for Congress in the 9th District as someone who can unify our communities. You cant make this stuff up. But J.R Majewski, who also suggested that every red state should secede from the union, is in a toss-up district in a predicted red wave election year with a Trump endorsement.

That could be all it takes to unseat Democrat Marcy Kaptur, a 20-term incumbent with nearly four decades of public service.

The Ohio GOP candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat, is an elite coastal venture capitalist and carpetbagger. J.D. Vance moved back to Ohio to buy political prestige with Big Tech billions and strategically morphed from a Never-Trumper to an Ultra-Trumper. But Vances craven adulation of a man he once described as noxious and reprehensible was enough to snag a last-minute nod from the incorrigible fraud and win the Republican nomination.

Now the nominee shamelessly champions Trumps deceit as gospel. The 2020 election was stolen. Large-scale fraud. Joe Biden is a fake president. Vanity Fair wrote about an interview Vance did on a far-right podcast where he practically drew a blueprint for a successful coup in 2024. After winning (or losing?) Trump would declare himself absolute ruler, dare the courts to enforce constitutional order and unilaterally wipe out the institutions of the left in a kind of de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.

Before you panic about brownshirts clicking down Pennsylvania Avenue, be empowered to act. Be inspired by the real patriots investigating the Jan. 6 carnage and warning of the clear and present danger an unaccountable Trump presents. Be categorically unwilling, as an American, to surrender your democratic birthright to alt-right demagogues who a spin a violent insurrection to overthrow a free and fair election as legitimate political discourse.

And be repelled by those campaigning to represent you who defiantly stand with the only president in our history who trashed the peaceful transfer of power, cracked a fundamental pillar of our government and threatens to do it again. On your split TV screen one side is fighting for the rule of law and accountability. One is openly marching lockstep with a narcissistic fascist who knowingly tried to steal another term.

Nov. 8 will decide whether truth wins.

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Trump and his mob tried to overthrow American democracy and threaten to try again - Ohio Capital Journal

For me, John Lennons mega-hit Imagine was always a song popular for the wrong reasons. Imagine that the world will live as one is the best way to end in hell.

Those who cling to pacifism in the face of the Russian attack on Ukraine remain caught in their own version of imagine. Imagine a world in which tensions are no longer resolved through armed conflicts Europe persisted in this world of imagine, ignoring the brutal reality outside its borders. Now its the time to awaken.

The dream of a quick Ukrainian victory, the repetition of the initial dream of a quick Russian victory, is over. In what looks more and more as a protracted stalemate, Russia is slowly progressing, and its ultimate goal is clearly stated. There is no longer any need to read between the lines when Putin compares himself with Peter the Great: On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it He was not taking away anything, he was returning He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well.

More than focus on particular issues (is Russia really just returning, and to what?) we should read carefully Putins general justification of his claim: In order to claim some kind of leadership I am not even talking about global leadership, I mean leadership in any area any country, any people, any ethnic group should ensure their sovereignty. Because there is no in-between, no intermediate state: either a country is sovereign, or it is a colony, no matter what the colonies are called.

The implication of these lines, as one commentator put it, is clear: there are two categories of state: The sovereign and the conquered. In Putins imperial view, Ukraine should fall into the latter category.

And, as it is no less clear from Russian official statements in the last months, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Finland, the Baltic states and ultimately Europe itself fall into the latter category.

We now know what the call to allow Putin to save his face means. It means accepting not a minor territorial compromise in Donbas but Putins imperial ambition. The reason this ambition should be unconditionally rejected is that in todays global world in which we are all haunted by the same catastrophes we are all in-between, in an intermediate state, neither a sovereign country nor a conquered one: to insist on full sovereignty in the face of global warming is sheer madness since our very survival hinges on tight global cooperation.

But Russia doesnt simply ignore global warming why was it so mad at the Scandinavian countries when they expressed their intention to join Nato? With global warming, what is at stake is the control of the Arctic passage. (Thats why Trump wanted to buy Greenland from Denmark.) Due to the explosive development of China, Japan and South Korea, the main transport route will run north of Russia and Scandinavia. Russias strategic plan is to profit from global warming: control the worlds main transport route, plus develop Siberia and control Ukraine. In this way, Russia will dominate so much food production that it will be able to blackmail the whole world. This is the ultimate economic reality beneath Putins imperial dream.

Those who advocate less support for Ukraine and more pressure on it to negotiate, inclusive of accepting painful territorial renunciations, like to repeat that Ukraine simply cannot win the war against Russia. True, but I see exactly in this the greatness of Ukrainian resistance: they risked the impossible, defying pragmatic calculations, and the least we owe them is full support, and to do this, we need a stronger Nato but not as a prolongation of the US politics.

The US strategy to counteract through Europe is far from self-evident: not just Ukraine, Europe itself is becoming the place of the proxy war between US and Russia, which may well end up by a compromise between the two at Europes expense. There are only two ways for Europe to step out of this place: to play the game of neutrality a short-cut to catastrophe or to become an autonomous agent. (Just think how the situation may change if Trump wins the next US elections.)

While some leftists claim that the ongoing war is in the interest of the Nato industrial-military complex, which uses the need for new arms to avoid crisis and gain new profits, their true message to Ukraine is: OK, you are victims of a brutal aggression, but do not rely on our arms because in this way you play in the hands of the industrial-military complex

The disorientation caused by the Ukrainian war is producing strange bedfellows like Henry Kissinger and Noam Chomsky who come from opposing ends of the political spectrum Kissinger serving as secretary of state under Republican presidents and Chomsky one of the leading leftwing intellectuals in the United States and have frequently clashed. But when it comes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both recently advocated for Ukraine to consider a settlement that could see it dropping claim to some land to achieve a quicker peace deal.

In short, the two stand for the same version of pacifism which only works if we neglect the key fact that the war is not about Ukraine but a moment of the brutal attempt to change our entire geopolitical situation. The true target of the war is the dismantlement of the European unity advocated not only by the US conservatives and Russia but also by the European extreme right and left at this point, in France, Melenchon meets Le Pen.

The craziest notion floating around these days is that, to counter the new polarity between the US and China (which stand for the excesses of western liberalism and oriental authoritarianism), Europe and Russia should rejoin forces and form a third Eurasian block based on the Christian legacy purified of its liberal excess. The very idea of an Eurasian third way is a form of todays fascism.

So what will happen when voters in Europe and America, faced with soaring energy costs and broader inflation driven by sanctions against Russia, might lose their appetite for a war that seems to have no end, with needs that are only expanding as both sides head for a protracted stalemate? The answer is clear: at that point, the European legacy will be lost, and Europe will be de facto divided between an American and a Russian sphere of influence. In short, Europe itself will become the place of a war that seems to have no end

What is absolutely unacceptable for a true leftist today is not only to support Russia but also to make a more modest neutral claim that the left is divided between pacifists and supporters of Ukraine, and that one should treat this division as a minor fact which shouldnt affect the lefts global struggle against global capitalism.

When a country is occupied, it is the ruling class which is usually bribed to collaborate with the occupiers to maintain its privileged position, so that the struggle against the occupiers becomes a priority. The same can go for the struggle against racism; in a state of racial tension and exploitation, the only way to effectively struggle for the working class is to focus on fighting racism (this is why any appeal to the white working class, as in todays alt-right populism, betrays class struggle).

Today, one cannot be a leftist if one does not unequivocally stand behind Ukraine. To be a leftist who shows understanding for Russia is like to be one of those leftists who, before Germany attacked the Soviet Union, took seriously German anti-imperialist rhetoric directed at the UK and advocated neutrality in the war of Germany against France and the UK.

If the left will fail here, the game is over for it. But does this mean that the Left should simply take the side of the west, inclusive of the rightist fundamentalists who also support Ukraine?

In a speech in Dallas on 18 May 2022, while criticizing Russias political system, the ex-president Bush said: The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. He quickly corrected himself: I mean, of Ukraine, then said Iraq, anyway to laughter from the crowd, and added 75, referring to his age.

As many commentators noted, two things cannot but strike the eye in this rather obvious Freudian slip: the fact that the public received Bushs implicit confession that the US attack on Iraq (ordered by him) was a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion with laughter, instead of treating it as an admission of a crime comparable to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; plus Bushs enigmatic continuation of his self-correction Iraq, anyway what did he mean by it? That the difference between Ukraine and Iraq doesnt really matter? The final reference to his advanced age doesnt affect in any way this enigma.

But the enigma is dispelled the moment we take Bushs statement seriously and literally: yes, with all differences taken into account (Zelenskiy is not a dictator like Saddam), Bush did the same thing as Putin is now doing to Ukraine, so they should be both judged by the same standard.

On the day I am writing this, we learned from the media that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges extradition to the US has been approved by the UK home secretary, Priti Patel. His crime? Nothing other than to render public the crimes confessed by Bushs slip of tongue: the documents revealed by WikiLeaks revealed how, under Bushs presidency, the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan, while leaked Iraq war files showed 66,000 civilians had been killed, and prisoners tortured. Crimes fully comparable with what Putin is doing in Ukraine. From todays hindsight, we can say that WikiLeaks disclosed dozens of American Buchas and Mariupols.

So while putting Bush on trial is no less illusory than bringing Putin to the Hague tribunal, the minimum to be done by those who oppose Russian invasion of Ukraine is to demand Assanges immediate release. Ukraine claims it fights for Europe, and Russia claims it fights for the rest of the world against western unipolar hegemony. Both claims should be rejected, and here the difference between right and left enters the stage.

From the rightist standpoint, Ukraine fights for European values against the non-European authoritarians; from the leftist standpoint, Ukraine fights for global freedom, inclusive of the freedom of Russians themselves. Thats why the heart of every true Russian patriot beats for Ukraine.

Slavoj iek is a philosopher. He is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities of the University of London

The rest is here:

Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine - The Guardian