This is a thread on Paul Gottfried, whose book on Leo Strauss was on Michael Gove’s bookshelf along with David Irving, Alaine de Benoist and other fascists. (HT @libcomorg for the photo and @FalkHjalmar who spotted Gottfried before me.) 1/14 
Gottfried is one of the architects of “paleoconservatism” and a key influence on the “alt-right” (in fact he coined both terms, the latter with his protégée Robert Spencer) theconversation.com/the-seeds-of-t… 2/14
Gottfried helped launch the alt-right/paleocon antisemitic conspiracy theory about “cultural Marxism”, which has been taken up by some of Gove’s fellow Tories, such as Suella Braverman. brockley.blogspot.com/2019/11/dont-l… See @DavidNeiwert’s account of that hoax: dailykos.com/stories/2019/1… 3/14
As well as Braverman, pro-Brexit Tory thinktank the Bruges Group promote the “cultural Marxism” hoax vice.com/en_uk/article/… vice.com/en_uk/article/… @simonchilds13 4/14
Gottfried now works for ISSEP, Front National dynast Marion Maréchal’s far right institute politico.eu/article/france… 5/14
One link between the fascist scene & mainstream conservatism is Taki’s Mag, where Gottfried has been a regular contributor, founded by Taki Theodoracopulos, known for writing racist articles published by Boris Johnson at the Spectator. (See @OsitaNwanevu: slate.com/human-interest…
Taki’s Mag was previously managed by alt-right leader Richard Spencer.
Closely associated is the HL Mencken Club, founded by Gottfried is 2008, and was a major forum for pseudo-intellectuals of the white nationalist scene from the start. See @splcenter: splcenter.org/hatewatch/2008…
Closely associated is the HL Mencken Club, founded by Gottfried is 2008, and was a major forum for pseudo-intellectuals of the white nationalist scene from the start. See @splcenter: splcenter.org/hatewatch/2008…
Gottfried is a regular contributor to the fascist website Unz Review (see @LouisProyect1: louisproyect.org/2018/09/04/mee… ) 8/14
Although Gottfried is Jewish, he dabbles with antisemitism, constantly castigating Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants and their children for percerting American values. Here’s what he wrote about “neoconservatives” in 2003:
And this is him in the Unz Review in 2018, citing disgraced raciologist Kevin MacDonald, as well as white nationalist blog Occidental Dissent (see @splcenter on them both: splcenter.org/fighting-hate/… / splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…) 10/14
Gottfried is obsessed with neoconservativism, and did a lot to make the term popular, including as an antisemitic code word. The book on Michael Gove’s shelf is his 2011 take on philosopher Leo Strauss, a key figure in paleocon & LaRouchite demonology in the 2000s. 11/14
Here’s one academic review of the book, which makes it look pretty shoddy and polemical tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.108… 12/14
Who knows why Gove was reading Gottfried, and it’s unlikely he’s a fan. 13/14
But the problem is that—via the Spectator under Johnson’s editorship, via Tory eugencists like Toby Young & Gove’s pal Dominic Cummings’ advisor Andrew Sabisky, via his fellow MP Braverman, via the Bruges Group—there are ugly links between Gove’s world & Gottfried’s fascist scene
Apologies for all the typos in this thread. PS Read my longer take on antisemitism in the Tory Party, from November https://t.co/7l9HaaSfid
CORRECTION: I meant RICHARD Spencer in 2/14 of this thread, not Robert https://t.co/qRlfb8Zvxk
—> @libcomorg on why Gove’s bookshelf matters libcom.org/blog/whats-mic…
