Thread by @UrbanAchievr

My latest @BulwarkOnline examines the Civil War 2 fetish on the right, and its ties to white nationalist race war fantasies. 1/
thebulwark.com/its-time-to-st…

In researching the piece I read “The Turner Diaries,” probably the most influential book about an American race war. It tells story of white terrorists who overthrow the US government and launch a global nuclear war that leads to racial domination. 2/

Most people know “The Turner Diaries” from its role in inspiring Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. I was surprised to discover many of its themes being echoed on today’s far-right. 3/

It opens with the passage of the “Cohen Act,” a federal law banning private gun ownership in America. Compare to the controversy when Ted Nugent posted an anti-Semitic meme about Jews promoting gun control. He apologized but still sits on the NRA board. 4/

It was even more disturbing to find many aspects of “The Turner Diaries” explicitly replicated in Townhall columnist @kurtschlichter's books. 5/

The parallels are unmistakable. Schlichter’s “Kelly Turnbull” series, which is promoted in every one of his Townhall / Salem Media Group columns, tells the story of a US red state/blue state “national divorce” that descends into a violent race war. 6/

In The Turner Diaries, gun raids are performed by “Negroes” taken from welfare rolls. In Schlichter’s books, black “barely trained welfare cheats” are deputized for gun raids. One officer declares ““I’m gonna shoot me some redneck, ride their asses back here tied to my hood.” 7/

Both the Turner Diaries and Schlichter’s books depict an oppressive, left-wing government that asks citizens to report racists to the authorities. /8

In both books, insurgents use a truck-borne fertilizer bomb to attack government buildings. 9/

Both Turner Diaries and Schlichter’s books hold the race traitor in contempt. In Turner Diaries, elites who “betrayed” their race are executed on a “Day of the Rope.” Schlichter’s villain falsifies minority background, had “white boy dreadlocks” in college and supports BLM. 10/

Schlichter's books indulge heavily in white genocide paranoia. Before an insurgent burns down a government building, he notices “a poster depicting ‘a cartoon crew of multicultural children dancing on some prostrate Scandinavian-looking guy.’” 11/

Worshippers in a small Indiana town are massacred by a black government militia led by a man named Do-Rag. 12/

Later in Schlichter's book, a leader with the Jewish-sounding name “Darin Kunstler” announces plans to exterminate white civilians while letting “oppressed” people survive. Compare to the Jewish newscaster in the Turner Diaries who calls for white racists to be wiped out. 13/

Schlichter’s depictions of violence can be just as brutal and racist as The Turner Diaries. Note Schlichter’s description of a black man, “Skinny”, whose “bladder and legs were *freed from their slavery* to his faraway brain.” Skinny then dies in his own mud-soaked urine. 14/

Schlichter describes his hero killing another militia leader by shooting a hole through his rap t-shirt. 15/

These books aren’t just celebrating killing oppressive state agents. Take his depiction of two hapless thieves, Blackie and Whitey (Whitey is “Latinx”). The addicts steal hero’s gun, but it’s disassembled (and they can’t put it back together), so they plan to sell it instead. 16/

The hero (whose name, Turnbull, seems to be an allusion to Turner) finds the thieves and executes them. Turnbull’s sidekick says he wouldn’t have killed the thieves. “No, you probably wouldn’t have. That’s your problem,” is the reply. 17/

Kurt Schlichter is a fill-in host on Hugh Hewitt’s national radio show. His “Kelly Turnbull” books have been promoted by conservative luminaries like Jim Geraghty of National Review and Salena Zito of Washington Examiner. 18/

But this article isn’t just about one author and his enablers. Conservatives need to wake up to the threat of white identitarian populism. Frustrations that the culture war is being lost have boiled over, and reactionaries are becoming radical revolutionaries. 19/

The “national divorce” temptation shows that some on the right are giving up on politics, and that’s dangerous. It’s up to elites and conservative leaders to say there’s no place in our movement for insurrectionists. This shouldn’t be hard for the party of Lincoln. 20/end