In 1968 a group called the National Youth Alliance circulated this document on college campuses. It complained about left wing indoctrination by professors and a progressive student culture that stifled the free speech of more conservative students.
The organization was committed to 4 central propositions. 1) defending the heritage of Western Civilization. 2) what its defenders today would call "race realism." 3) a rejection of liberalism. 4) a willingness to take action to fight against America's enemies.
Once one dug a bit deeper into who the NYA was, one would discover that they were neo-Nazis. The guy who wrote The Turner Diaries got his start in the NYA.
Note the language in this undated (but probably 1970-1) fundraiser from the NYA. "Help us combat the tyranny of the left!" Reading this as an innocent outsider, one would be hard-pressed to tell that this was a literal neo-Nazi outfit.
Only you, "the silent majority" can save "our civilization" from "the tyrannical left" and the Marxist professors who train them! Do it in the name of nationalism and common sense!
Not everyone who uses rhetoric like that is a neo-Nazi. But the fact that the neo-Nazis used rhetoric like that should, one would hope, give some pause to those who would use it today.
This was the group’s advisory board. Byers was an organizer for “Youth for Wallace.” The Marines currently has a scholarship named after del Valle, a lifelong fascist.
The professor on the list wrote a book defending anti-semitism from the anti-anti-semites of his day who he considered a dire threat to America and Western Civilization.
Oliver was the sort of professor who would get admiring letters from white nationalist grad students who felt like academia was an oppressive place where they couldn’t openly voice their complaints about white women pushing strollers of "n--r babies" through their neighborhood.
Here’s Oliver in a 1970 film explaining how young people who seek to aggressively “defend the west” will be called fascists or Nazis or anti-semites but that’s just because they’re the brave ones who resist liberal brainwashing.
In 1971 Oliver paid a friendly fundraising visit to Countess Guardabassi who lived in this humble abode about 4 miles north of Mar-a-Lago. He knew she’d be a receptive and remunerative host since she’d funded a bunch of far right, antisemitic groups for years.
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The GOP campaign to delegitimize US elections includes a huge array of people, from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who supplied the muscle on Jan 6, to the cynical operatives like Roger Stone, to the suit and tie anti-democrats at the Heritage Foundation. propublica.org/article/no-dem…
Funny story about the Heritage Foundation. They currently have a fellowship funded by & named after the son of Countess Guardabassi, who got that title from Mussolini & who generously funded America’s leading antisemites and neo-Nazis in the 1960s and 70s. heritage.org/staff/ken-mcin…
Highly recommend this story about Democrats in rural America. It's about DuBois, Pa. I grew up about 60 miles south of there in a similarly small town. I know many folks who still live there, and this account rang very true to me. politico.com/news/magazine/…
While polarization is a key part of this story, it's important that we recognize the *asymmetrical* nature of that polarization. I talk about that a bit in this thread about the FB pages of the Dems and the GOP in the County I grew up in.
Irrationally hating Democrats (even when they're their neighbors or friends) has become an increasingly central feature of the identities of many small town white Americans. It's perhaps Trump's greatest gift to the GOP and they have learned the lesson well.
With RT in the news, it’s a good time to talk about how populists across the political spectrum can allow their skepticism about “the MSM” to curdle into naïve credulity. This thread is about the devolution of Ed Schultz, from heartland populist to anti-democratic propagandist.
Might be a time to reflect on the folks on the left who either credulously fell for or opportunistically amplified this transparently cynical and fabricated “story” back in 2019 and 2020.