David Neiwert defines right-wing populism in America as being predicated on something called “producerism.” You have the “producers” in America that are beset by the nefarious elite that suppress them from above and the parasitic underclass that is reliant on government handouts. The underlying forces have been waiting for the right kind of figure to emerge – one that is charismatic and fearlessly bombastic. And then we had the 2016 elections, and you know the rest.
The Southern Poverty Law Center documented an upswing in hate groups and extremist organizations in 2008 through 2013 and then noted a decline starting in 2013. The evidence appears to indicate a migration to the Internet, where one can operate more anonymously. He calls these groups as being in an alternative dimension “beyond fact or logic, where the rules of evidence are replaced by paranoia.” In this book he welcomes us to Alternative America or Alt-America for short. He sees the beating heart of this alternative version of America as “the ancient drumbeat of white identity politics, a fear of nonwhite people who speak foreign languages and follow alien creeds.” In this alternative reality we had false flag operations carried out by New World Order agents – think the Boston Marathon bombing and the 2014 Paris massacres, for examples.
It is noted that these people are not stupid or unlettered, but they appear to be oddly gullible to latch on to any fact that supports their worldview. Of course, the official explanations of mainstream media narratives are the real gullible fools or “sheeple” according to them. These people operate in the same universe as everyone else, which is why they can seem so normal and likable at times. That is, until their worldview bangs up against ours and they need to assert their ideas. Any authority with even a tint of mainstream liberalism (Obama, Clinton, the Democratic Party) is viewed as illegitimate and needs to be vehemently opposed.
Conspiracy theories are a leitmotif throughout the book. These theories offer an explanation as to why our country is not the way they wished it should be. There are deeper truths about our world. These deeper truths can be reinforced by putting themselves in “an epistemological bubble that insulates them from facts, logic, and reason.”
The author covers a lot of ground going back to the incidents of Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Freemen standoff, and through the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff. In reading this, we see another recurring theme – the New World Order (NWO). The NWO uses “false flags” to justify neutralizing Patriot’s and other groups. In 2007, Ron Paul announced his candidacy for president and managed to unite nearly the entire far right behind himself. His declared goals were typical far-right populism: fighting the NWO, eliminate the Federal Reserve, eliminate the IRS and most federal agencies, get out of the UN, end gun controls, and reinstate the gold standard. Of course, Obama won, and then we see the rise of the Tea Party. In time the Patriot movement began to meld with the world of Fox News watchers and the Tea Party and the author sees this as the first outline of Alt-America appearing on the horizon.
An entire chapter is devoted to the Bundy incident with the Bureau of Land Management and how this became “a last-gasp fight for American freedom against federal tyranny. I heard about it in the news, but the author provides much more detail. Another chapter is devoted to the Malheur incident, and again, the author gives us all the details. We then segue into the gamer gate controversy. Here I learn some new terminology, such as cultural Marxism, social justice warrior, and flaming. In time, especially after the 2008 election of the first black president, we see a “gradual coalescence of the alternative-universe worldviews of conspiracists, Patriots, white supremacists, Tea Partiers, and nativists,” according to Neiwert. This union ultimately gave birth to the alt-right.
Eventually, we see the rise of Donald Trump, who enjoyed the general support of the alt-right movement. They certainly weren’t going to support Hillary. Right-wing extremism has always been woven into the fabric of society, but Trump “had the charisma to become a national-level coalescing figure for these many threads, and for the first time united them under one banner – his banner.” With Trump’s election to the presidency, the alt-right was claiming victory.
The book concludes with a discussion of fascism, noting that Trump does not fit the definition, but rather Trump’s ideology and rhetoric are more in line with the European populist right movements of recent history, such as Marie Le Pen’s National Front. It was interesting to note that right-wing populism is actually self-defeating. Those who primarily benefit from this ideology are the wealthy. This is why they are willing to underwrite it.
What we need to do now is put ourselves in other people’s shoes even if that is not comfortable –for our sake as well as theirs. Empathy is called for here, for we can’t slide down the slippery slope that might lead to fascism. The author sees it as vital for “liberals, progressives, moderates, and genuine conservatives to link arms in the coming years and fight back against the fascist tide.
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