Descent into depravity: Evolution in fascism from the Nazis to American neo-Nazis and the US foreign policy establishment
Fascism has morphed over the generations. Our own racist and segregated society provided inspiration to Hitler that eventually resulted in the Holocaust. That inspiration has come full circle and has provided inspiration for American Neo-Nazis. Hitler praised American restrictions on naturalization, such as the United States Immigration Act of 1924, which set national quotas for immigrants. He found inspiration in California’s forced sterilization program of undesirables and used it as the basis for “the Nazi Sterilization law of 1934.” Additionally, his government experts looked to the “blood fraction” or “one drop” laws in the American south, used to prevent marriage between black and white, to prevent marriage between (so-called) Aryans and Jews. American neo-Nazism combines traditional American racism and xenophobia that was exported to the Nazi regime and then imports inspiration from the Nazi’s execution of their policies. Not only is genocidal ideology present within fringe groups, it has guided recent US foreign policy at the highest levels.
Last weekend, neo-Nazis specifically targeted Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin. They shouted homophobic, racist and antisemetic slurs on and off the UW campus, in front of the state house and outside the Gates of Heaven, the 4th oldest synagogue in the United States.
Dressed in red with black face coverings and carrying black flags with white swastikas, a couple dozen members of the Blood Tribe, the self-proclaimed furthest out there American Nazi group participated in the march, following their leader Christopher Alan Pohlhaus.
The Blood Tribe is following a vein of Nazism similar to that of traditional American neo-nazis/skinhead types: Idolization of Hitler and nazi antisemetism, mixed with old fashioned American KKK-style anti-black racism, overall white supremacy and homophobia.
The Blood Tribe infuses this traditional American neo-nazism with Esoteric Hitlerism, a deification of Adolph Hitler. They also are said to engage in blood ritual with a spear for admission.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), throughout the course of this year, the Blood Tribe has demonstrated multiple times. All events up to this point have been LGBTQ+ events; they are now spreading their demonstration into more Jewish-targeting, no doubt feeling emboldened by growing anti-Israel sentiment as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.
This group is currently small, quantified by number of accounts on Telegram. Per the ADL, there are believed to be 7 chapters in the US and 2 in Canada, totaling dozens of members. Though some are likely law enforcement and, at least on Telegram, information-gathering operations such as the ADL or Southern Poverty Law Center, there are probably still dozens of organic Nazis drawn to the group. And despite their reported shit talking of less superior white supremacist groups, they are said to be coalescing with other far-right, antisemetic and white nationalist groups as part of a greater movement. As more people become more economically disaffected due to failures and decay of neo-liberal capitalism and corrupt oligarchic plutocracy, including offshoring, automation and monetary manipulation, and as clever propaganda pushed by these various groups and the overall movement tells them who to blame for this, it will be easier for these types of groups to gain members.
Many people have been raised to be this way and have become emboldened in their views into their adulthood, but many have not and through various sets of life circumstances, have or will find their way to this ideology. It is important to understand what might draw an ordinary person to these belief systems and offer alternatives, such as political organizations, ideologies and counter-propaganda that address the socio-economic condition or feeling that leads some who were not already fringe racists down the alt-right pipeline, and rhetoric that focuses on unity among a diverse population not division of the masses. The alternative organizations need to point legitimate anger in a constructive direction instead of a destructive one.
While the group is small, the concern is the potential for growth as well as the unity on the alt-right and willingness to overlook minor differences in the various individual fascist ideologies in sight of a common goal. Other groups include the more established militant, right-wing accelerationist Atomwaffen Division and the leaflet propagandists Goyim Defense League.
While it is a first amendment right to demonstrate, even for those with abhorrent, fringe views, it is not their right to say things like ‘there will be blood, blood, blood’ while carrying a swastika flag in front of a synagogue, as that is a pretty clear threat, which is not first amendment protected speech. Per encyclopedia Britannica, as confirmed by a 1969 Supreme Court case, unprotected speech includes incitement, defamation, fraud, obscenity, child pornography, fighting words, and threats. They do have a right, with limitations, but it is our right and responsibility, as the non-Nazi majority, not just to tell them to get fucked, but to understand the threat. The American neo-Nazi movement is the worst of the worst and they are telling us who they are and what they want. For this and other potential threats, people should prepare accordingly. People should conduct themselves in their lives and within their communities in the manner they deem appropriate for safety and survival, following applicable laws.
I grapple with what to say in the above paragraph because where do we draw the line between being prepared for violence to protect ourselves and others from threats including neo-Nazis and being a bunch of peace and diplomacy-loving hippies? I have spent the last month plus writing about how we need to have peace and diplomacy, even with terrorists. So what is the difference between an ISIS-style Islamic Jihadist who wants to kill non-Muslims and establish a Caliphate and Esoteric Nazis who want to kill and/or remove non-whites and Jews and establish a white ethnostate? Both are irrational, both choose violence to achieve their goals. I guess I don’t really know other than while being aware and prepared, acknowledge that they too are human, acknowledge that while people are programmable, they are also de-programmable and be careful not to fall into similar traps of generalization.
While abhorrent in their views and objectives, American neo-Nazis are a familiar type of fascist that nobody is contesting is fascist. As fascism developed and evolved from Mussolini to Hitler and Franco, and also coexisted in their separate forms, there can be many co-existing, sometimes somewhat contradictory forms of fascism at play at once, which brings me to my second example of recent, fascist depravity in New York City, coming in a very different package, the personification of US foreign policy.
Last week, at least 3 cell phone videos went viral showing 3 separate occasions of a man harassing a halal food truck worker, making vitriolic anti-Islamic remarks, like “do you rape your daughters like your prophet Muhammad did?”, “what do you think about people who use the Quran to toilet?” and “4000 dead Palestinian children is not enough, we need to kill more” (which by the time of this writing, we have killed many more), threatening to report the worker to immigration and threatening his family with torture by Egyptian intelligence. If you have not seen them, you should watch the videos below, 2 of them are 2 minutes and the other is 1.
Video 1, scroll down for video 2: https://twitter.com/itslaylas/status/1727059850725872010
Video 3: https://twitter.com/itslaylas/status/1727080775516819782
The man was quickly identified by Vice, as 64 year old Stuart Seldowitz. Stuart Seldowitz is not just any ordinary New Yorker, he is an ex-Obama administration National Security Council Advisor, as well as Deputy Director of US State Department’s Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Office from 1999–2003. He is a three time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and a longtime member of the non-elected foreign policy/national security administration that carries on between administrations. No wonder there is no peace, no wonder everything is so fucked up. This person, with these awful, abhorrent views and absolute inhumanity, worked on at least 3 presidential administrations, administrations that all played their own part in genocidal anti-Arab operations before and after 9/11.
Here, Seldowitz is pictured with Clinton Administration Secretary of State Madeline Albright at the United Nations. It is to be assumed that Seldowitz worked with her during the time that she characterized US sanctions on Iraq that led to the starvation of 1 to 1.5 million civilians, 500,000 of them children, as ‘worth it’ and that he probably shared those sentiments.
I just know we are better than this and it is shameful, embarrassing, very telling and unsurprising that the US foreign policy establishment is made of people like this. Certainly this is not true of all of them and I am certain that there are people there for the right reasons and with the best intentions, but sociopaths definitely seem to rise to the top.
When you look at the brazenness of Seldowitz’s hatefulness towards this food truck worker and you look at the fucked up sadistic smile on his face as he tells the worker we haven’t killed enough kids and you then consider the level of horror that the US foreign policy establishment has inflicted, particularly on the Muslim world, you have a hard time ignoring its unmistakable evil, an evil that is spreading domestically, alongside antisemitism.
This weekend, 3 Palestinian students were shot in Burlington Vermont, two of them with serious wounds, for the apparent crime of wearing Palestinian Keffiyehs and speaking arabic. The shooter is at large and as of this writing, there is not much information about this incident and it is unclear whether authorities are treating the shootings as a hate crime. One of the victims’ cousins tweeted about the shooting, including “Dangerous performative rhetoric from US pundits and politicians as well as constant dehumanization of Palestinians has a real life cost.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Blood Tribe leader Christopher Alan Pohlhaus has said of his group’s demonstrations, “We go to the enemy, scream at them, give them PTSD and leave.” That sounds a bit like Mr. Seldowitz’ visits the local halal truck. This behavior should be condemned no matter the source as people should not be attacked or intimidated based on race, religion, sexual orientation/identity or otherwise.
