NSM, Fascism, White Nationalism

Searching the news, I discovered that the National Socialist Movement is on the move again. This time four NSM members protested an “anti-white supremacy workshop” in Minneapolis. The Neo-Nazis squared off against two hundred counter protesters who pelted them with tomatoes. After thirty minutes of abuse, the NSM called it a day and retreated to the internet to celebrate. Photos of the Belleville Protest are now up on the NSM website.

Saturday, I had a few drinks with some Occidental Dissent readers and the NSM became a topic of conversation. The general sentiment (with which I agree) was look at these guys, what are they doing, they are repulsive to middle class White Americans, their activism perpetuates liberal stereotypes of White Nationalism, everything about them screams “fringe group” to the masses. As seen below, the NSM boneheads understand nothing about the aesthetic allure of fascism:

Personally, I wouldn’t put the NSM in the same genus of fascism, although several scholars would disagree. Instead, I would argue that their roots can be traced back to the counterculture and avant-garde tradition of shocking the bourgeoisie. The NSM shares the comic book expressive individualism that animates a much broader cross section of the American public. Most of these groups lean to the Left; a few like the NSM gravitate to the Right. In the case of the skinheads, they merge in a shared music scene.

The academic literature about fascism (Paxton, Griffin, Payne, Mosse, Benjamin) is quite interesting. In recent years, the polarization that followed the WW2/Cold War years has faded and some serious scholarship has been done on the subject. Fascism is no longer dismissed as the last gasp of reactionary capitalism, but as a revolutionary movement in its own right. Most scholars of fascism agree that (generic) fascist movements share a number of distinct characteristics:

1.) They promise a cathartic national rebirth from a period of decadence.
2.) They are anti-liberal, anti-communist, and anti-conservative.
3.) They promise a social, political and ethical revolution.
4.) They usually advocate an authoritarian state.
5.) They are revolutionary, populist, and cross class lines.
6.) They aestheticize politics.

White Nationalism shares 4/6 of these criteria. A few groups reach 6/6 and can legitimately be described as “fascist” in nature. Although fascism is now a dirty word, one that I shrink from using, it is clear that White Nationalism owes much to that political tradition. It is a mixture of indigenous racial nationalism and foreign anti-liberalism.

Something new is brewing amongst disillusioned, middle class, college educated Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers. It doesn’t yet have a name. The sentiment hasn’t been channelled into a formal organization either. These people don’t want a Duce or a Fuhrer, but they yearn for a “national rebirth” of sort. One day it will scare the powers that be.

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7 Comments

  1. Well said Daniel. Our movement, if it ever actually materializes, will be based on shared ideas and principles, not upon the discipline imposed from above by a ‘fuhrer’. Yet given that, some mediation of egos is necessary, as espirit de corps is essential.

  2. “Well, it is hard to say. People that are playing dress up and runing around town in regalia probably are closer to mental disorder than being useful to our movement”

    The light is starting to flicker, just a little bit.

    “but they are still our people and can still be a fertile recruiting ground.”

    Speak for yourself, they may be your people.

    They’re useful as a media spectacle against us and for lower class entertainment on Jerry Springer.

  3. Mark,

    There was a point in my life that I didn’t know any better. A point at which, I thought that black people were still horribly repressed and the white man was irredeemably guilty for his past. People are sometimes raised in an enviorment that fosters retarded neo-nazism and I’m saying we give them a chance. That is all. A chance. The same chance I needed and the same information that I needed to come around.

    I’ve already conceded that, chances are, they won’t wake up and that they are psychological damaged and past some sort of point from which it is hard to return. However, that doesn’t mean they can not return, that they can not make the journey back over to our side.

    I try not to be overly judgmental but judge we must. I’m not saying that we give the defective a platform from which to spew mindless vulgarity and I’m certainly not advocating that we allow them to represent us, however, we can still recruit from them as well as we can recruit from amongst the ranks of the totally unenlightened.

  4. Yet given that, some mediation of egos is necessary, as espirit de corps is essential.

    Hopefully, what lies encoded within us and a substantial amount of self discipline will produce amongst the ranks the necessary checking of ego spontaneously.

    If it doesn’t materialize, we can start cracking skulls then…

  5. “Friedrich, your degree from a prestigious university is a hint why you went native and advocate reconciliation with the jews.”

    Collaboration with the Jewish people has an interesting history. Note, however, a couple of absurdities. The mother says that she was buried alive and captured 7 times by the Nazis and, just like the road runner, always survived! Those super duper Nazis couldn’t shoot straight, it turns out! Or maybe they just ran out of gas those days, who knows? These Holocaust survivors are wonderful story tellers! The Nazis tried to kill every Jew in Europe, yet there were well over 1000 Jews in Berlin alone at the end of W.W.II. Wonderful!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenstrasse_protest

    1933: Zionists sign a deal with Hitler – The Transfer Agreement

  6. Please do not take this as an endorsement of groups like the NSM, but perhaps some of the Younger Whites are drawn to it by the rebellious, masculine imagery. Really, what do young White males have these days to identify with? The ‘metrosexual?’ The ‘wigger?’

    I’m not advocating donning brown shirts and swastikas, but I imagine, in its day, an SS uniform not only sent a clear, strong message of manhood, but also sent a message of alpha-male to the rapidly beating heart of many a German girl.

    Young White males have been emasculated to such a degree. I have two nephews who spend more time shopping for clothes than my wife. We may need a bit of toughness, besides the intellectual acuity.

    Just my two cents.

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