"The great replacement is very simple," its originator has said. "You have one people, and in the space of a generation you have a different people." This equates immigration with genocide, which logically REQUIRES genocidal violence in response. It calls out for terrorism. 2/19
When @ADL called on Fox to #FireTuckerCarlson for invoking racist/antisemetic "Great Replacement" conspiracy, Fox refused, falsely claiming he "decried and rejected" it. But he didn't. He denied using it, reframing it as concern with "voting rights" (of white's, of course) 3/19
Here's a key passage where Carlson articulates his sanitized version--whites losing voting power & thus losing "America": 4/19
But conservative WaPo columnist @MJGerson saw through Carlson's thin disguise: "Nearly every phrase of Carlson's statement is the euphemistic expression of white-supremacist replacement doctrine." 5/19 washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
But it's also a much darker conspiracy theory to stand in for the evidence-less voter fraud conspiracy theory Republicans have been pushing for ~20 years: 6/
This week, Carlson attacked welcoming Afghan refugees by again invoking "The Great Replacement": nefarious elites importing nonwhite foreigners to replace white citizens, deceitfully taking advantage of their generous nature: 7/
But Carlson is merely a transmitter of these ideas forming a whole worldview whose modern origins can be found in a 1973 book—The Camp of the Saints—with several variations, explained by ex-intelligence analyst @4GWDOTDOTDOT in an earlier interview: 8/19 salon.com/2020/09/26/beh…
The underlying "Camp of the Saints" worldview "is widespread in right-wing media, think tanks & political parties," @4GWDOTDOTDOT told me. "There is very little difference between the rhetoric of right-wing media and the rhetoric of right-wing terrorists or mass murderers." 11/19
In Europe, this evolved via 3 stages described by @ArunKundnani in "Blind Spot? Security Narratives and Far-Right Violence in Europe," icct.nl/app/uploads/do… referring to how rightwing terror had "had begun to absorb significant elements from official security narratives" 12/19
.@ArunKundnani's phrase, "the identity of Western liberal values," should set off alarm bells, coming from neo-Nazi-affiliated political activists. It's an example of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) [which I've written about before]: 13/19 salon.com/2016/07/16/don…
I asked @4GWDOTDOTDOT whether racist right-wingers claiming to be defenders of Western values offer a paradigmatic example of 4GW & he agreed: 14/19
But one last point: this worldview entails a "Great Replacement" of conservative ideas. Some elements (such as free trade) are dropped, other retained, but related in different ways, with new deeper significance & voter suppression *expresses* a core value. 16/19
If "invading hordes of immigrants" are the enemy and falling white birthrates are key to the problem, then the right's misogynist agenda & its xenophobic agenda are much more tightly linked than ever before. As is Christian nationalism per @ndrewwhitehead & @socofthesacred 17/19
In short, it's a much more unified worldview than Buckley or Reagan ever imagined, even encompasssing voter suppression as a core ingredient: 18/19
Thus, "The Great Replacement" is not just a conspiracy theory, but a conservative mythos. So the Great Replacement that has actually taken place is the replacement of the ideas, ideals and mores of conservatism.
19/19
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Me at @Salon: Trump's Six Gaslighting Keys To Victory:
Climate denial, Great Replacement theory, the myth of mass voter fraud, his gaslighting Roe, being "great for the economy" vs Dem disaster & thus, Dems as threat to democracy, Trump as savior. 1/11 salon.com/2024/11/09/six…
Calling the MSG hatefest "a lovefest" is #gaslighting, A guide:
Lying is deceiving people about the state of the world
#Bullshitting is deceiving people about one’s motives.
#Gaslighting undermines people’s entire sense of reality & imposes an invented reality in its place 2/11
Several progressive journalists highlighted episodes of Trump's #gaslighting in 2016. I cited them in my own story building on @leahmcelrath's brilliant dissection of Trump's #gaslighting "apology" for the Access Hollywood tape, a template for how he rolls: 3/11
“When we fight, we win!” Kamala Harris has made that the clarion call of her campaign. But the judicial tyranny of SCOTUS stands in the way. It CAN be defeated with jurisdiction-stripping & more. It's a fight we can no longer avoid. 1/28 salon.com/2024/08/31/how…
SCOTUS granting Trump (who else wants it?) king-like powers in Trump v US highlights how un-American/anti-democratic SCOTUS has become. Dobbs made its anti-freedom agenda personal. But those are just 2 examples of a wide array of decisions overruling the will of the people. 2/28
So it's one thing for Dems to win in Nov, it's another to overcome judicial tyranny blocking anything they might do--including Roe restoration. A SCOTUS that makes up law out of thin air can surely find ways to sabotage that. Unless... 3/28
Donald Trump and JD Vance: Decoding a double dose of right-wing racism. Even if they're defeated, forces behind them have joined. New from me at with help from @DavidAstinWalsh & @Annaleen whose recent books illuminate each: 1/24 Salon.com salon.com/2024/08/18/don…
Trump most makes sense to me as a champion of the far right aka paleocons, as traced by @DavidAstinWalsh in “Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right,” my author interview here: 2/24bookshop.org/a/2464/9780300… salon.com/2024/04/20/a-p…
Vance & his Silicon Valley backers further the 1990s neocon "Bell Curve" race science @Annaleen describes in "Stories Are Weapons" my author interview here: 3/24bookshop.org/a/2464/9780393… salon.com/2024/06/16/ann…
“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,” the lying, thieving, covetous adulterer Donald Trump trumpeted in all caps on his Twitter knock-off site. He loved it as branding & the Louisiana's version was a Cecille
B. DeMille Hollywood production. via @Salon 1/22 salon.com/2024/07/07/ten…
In this story you'll learn: 1) The law's text was promoted by Hollywood 2) It edits out blatantly un-American text 3) Gov Landrie's justification contained 3 lies 4) the bible's account of the 10 Commandments is self-contradictory...
and MUCH more. Let's begin! 2/22
The law itself follows from the Project Blitz playbook (first described here in 2018: ), one architect of which, pseudo-historian David Barton, claimed credit for helping to pass it: 3/22 salon.com/2018/04/29/onw…
SCOTUS decisions & the debate got you down? Take a step back with a broadview story of untapped democratic possibility being developed in LA from @RandomLengths 0/21
Democracy's under worldwide threat but there's a answer: an Athenian model of jury-like deliberation, used over 700 times but still little-known in the US. Activists in LA vow to change that: 1/21
"Athens In LA: Working Towards A Rebirth of Democracy" randomlengthsnews.com/archives/2024/…
Known as civic or citizen’s assemblies, they use sortition — jury-like selection by lot — to convene a representative sample of a city, state or nation to engage in factually-based deliberation to achieve consensus on a path of action. 2/21
My latest at Salon: A 3-part glossary provides a guide to the dominionist threat in America. Biden's Gaza policy may be horrific, but these folks think Armageddon is a good thing. We damn sure need to understand them in order to stop them. 1/15 salon.com/2024/05/26/cra…
The glossary's first section, "Preliminary Terms" lays the foundations for understanding dominionism today. White "Christian nationalism" for example (the belief that America was founded as—and was intended by God to be—a Christian nation) has been around much longer: 2/15
"Christian Zionism," around since the 19th century, is key to understanding MAGA "support for Israel" that's actually destructive to both Jews & Palestinians: 3/15