Too Close for Comfort: The Fascist Potential of the U.S. Right

Politics & Social Sciences

Lyons, Matthew N.

Berlet, Chip

Politics & Government

South End Pr

Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort

Right-wing militias and other antigovernment organizations have received heightened public attention since the Oklahoma City bombing. While such groups are often portrayed as marginal extremists, the values they espouse have influenced mainstream politics and culture far more than most Americans realize. This important volume offers an in-depth look at the historical roots and current landscape of right-wing populism in the United States. Illuminated is the potent combination of anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating that has fueled many political movements from the colonial period to the present day. The book examines the Jacksonians, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of Cold War nationalist cliques, and relates them to the evolution of contemporary electoral campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, the militancy of the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity movement, and an array of millennial sects. Combining vivid description and incisive analysis, Berlet and Lyons show how large numbers of disaffected Americans have embraced right-wing populism in a misguided attempt to challenge power relationships in U.S. society. Highlighted are the dangers these groups pose for the future of our political system and the hope of progressive social change. Winner--Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America

History

Americas

The Guilford Press

Matthew N. Lyons takes readers on a tour of neonazis and Christian theocrats, by way of the patriot movement, the LaRouchites, and the alt-right. Supplementing this, thematic sections explore specific dimensions of far-right politics, regarding gender, decentralism, and anti-imperialism. His final chapter offers a preliminary analysis of the Trump presidential administration relationship with far-right politics and the organized far right’s shifting responses to it. Both for its analysis and as a guide to our opponents, Insurgent Supremacists promises to be a powerful tool in organizing to resist the forces at the cutting edge of reaction today.

Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right’s Challenge to State and Empire (Kerseplebedeb)

PM Press

This booklet addresses the origins and rise of the so-called alt-right, the fascistic movement that grabbed headlines in the months leading up to the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. The first essay, Matthew Lyons's "CTRL-ALT-DELETE," is a thorough survey of the origins of the alt-right, a look at its constituent parts and beliefs at the present time, as well as observations about how its future relationship with the Trump administration may play out. Of particular interest, Lyons draws attention to the importance of sexism and misogyny within this movement, to its long-term metapolitical strategy, as well as to the tensions between the disparate groups that have found their home under its banner. Supplementing "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" is an essay written by comrades from the Its Going Down website, "The Rich Kids of Fascism." This is a view from activists currently involved in opposing both the far right and the state, on the streets. As its title would imply, "Rich Kids" focuses on the elitist class politics of the alt right, and how that sets it apart from other far right phenomenon like boneheads or militias. Looking at the alt-right's fortunes over the past few years, IGD show the role played by both the media, and white racist fears about the ongoing struggles of Black people and immigrants, in feeding this threat. An appendix, "Notes on Trump," by Bromma, serves not so much as a counterpoint, as a contextualization. Not directly addressing the alt-right itself, Bromma's "Notes" posit that the election of Trump and the rise of the far right are not simple accidents of history, nor the result of some single failure on our side or success on theirs, but are conjoined expressions of a deep shift within the world economy. As he argues, "What's coming into view, semi-hidden underneath the frenzied soap opera of reactionary populism, is that the tide of globalization has crested and started to recede." The alt right in one expression of this reactionary moment. We must oppose them, but also prepare ourselves to oppose what might come next. Understanding one s enemy can only help in this regard, and indeed a thorough understanding of an opposing political force can also help us prepare for future far right iterations. That is why this booklet is being offered now. A tool for work that needs doing. Let s get started.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete: An Antifascist Report on the Alternative Right

Kersplebedeb, K.

It's Going Down

Bromma

Kersplebedeb Publishing

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