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Seth Cotlar, mostly now at the other places Profile picture
Seth Cotlar, mostly now at the other places
@SethCotlar
Teaches US History at Willamette Univ. Working on a book about the long history of the US Right. Come join me on Blsky which is far less friendly to fascists.
83 subscribers
Oct 5, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
In 1978 the chair of the Oregon Republican Party was a conspiracy-obsessed, Holocaust denying white Christian supremacist with longstanding ties to neo-Nazis and right wing domestic terrorists. I'll admit, he was a bit of an outlier. But he campaigned hard for Goldwater in '64, was a Reagan delegate in '76, '80, and '84, and was a huge fan of Dan Quayle and Pat Buchanan in the 90s. Image
Oct 1, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
I think I may have found the most perfect illustration of that common variety of American centrist journalism that attributes agency and responsibility only to the left and never the right. It's from the Atlanta Constitution, 12 August 1970. For context.... Image The columnist notes that there is a far right, grassroots movement that was working to take over the historically moderate Oregon Republican Party. I've been researching that illiberal and anti-democratic insurgency for a couple years now.
Sep 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I've become a bit of a collector of these obits of wealthy "conservatives" like Robert Olney. Unmentioned is the fact that by 1966 Olney thought the Jews had turned the US into a Communist country that could only be saved by a violent coup led by Christian Patriots like himself. Image In the mid-1960s Olney was corresponding with Pedro del Valle about the Continental Congress they were setting up with white nationalists & antisemites like John Crommelin, Richard Cotten, & William Potter Gale. The idea was that the US Gov't was illegitimate & it was 1776 again.
Sep 20, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Few things more convincing than “rules and standards matter” bloviating about how wearing shorts in the Senate will be the downfall of Western Civilization from the party of President “grab em by the p*ssy.” Image Real clear eyed sense of proportion from the party who nominated the guy who opened his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists.
Sep 15, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Highly recommend this discussion of Bill Buckley's very bad book, God and Man at Yale. I have one friendly amendment to add that makes Buckley look even worse! The hosts talk about how Buckley was reading the batshit conspiratorial rantings of Lucille Cardin Crain as they appeared in a short-lived periodical called Educational Reviewer. You'll never guess who was the main funder for it. William F. Buckley, **Sr.**
Sep 14, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
When did the "MAGA doom loop" cycle inside the GOP begin? There's no single "right answer" but in this thread I will propose in June 1962, inside the Multnomah County (OR) GOP. I'm only slightly kidding...bear with me as I try to explain. In June 1962 a grassroots far right insurgency tried to take over the Multnomah Co GOP. These two fairly pablum stories from The Oregonian at the time are just a barrage of names, all of which I'll bet you've never heard of. But let me introduce you to some of them.
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Sep 6, 2023 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
In May 1957, a monthly publication called The Virginian devoted an entire edition to rebutting the smears the ADL had thrown at them. The Virginian, a white supremacist and antisemitic publication edited by a neo-Nazi, was livid that the ADL called them racists & antisemites. Image The Virginian sought to expose the ADL as an enemy to freedom of speech because that organization had accurately criticized the content of The Virginian. Image
Sep 5, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If I've got this right, today Elon admitted that his ad revenues are down 60% because companies don't like how he's platformed & amplified so much antisemitic and racist hate, so now he's blaming that loss of revenue on the Jewish org that drew attention to this raging bigotry. It's so hard to figure out why the ADL might consider it a good idea to keep an eye on hate groups that use media propaganda to attract recruits to their violent political projects organized around the idea that certain types of people should be treated as inferiors.
Sep 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It turned out to be a bad idea to have the most powerful communication platform in history fall under the megalomaniacal control of someone with the cultural, emotional, and historical understanding of a goldfish. Image As someone who researches the modern right, I think Musk’s political instincts are pretty easy to identify.
Sep 4, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
If Elon is looking for any more hot takes on the ADL and the anti-white "controlled media" I can save him some time by sharing some of the material from the "Jews" folder of Walter Huss, the chair of the OR GOP in 1978. This is from the neo-Nazis at the National Vanguard.
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Image There's a long history of right wing white people having a negative obsession with the ADL...and almost all such people have been, like Walter Huss, sympathizers with Nazis.
Aug 26, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
This whole "abortion up until birth" talking point making the rounds on the right is so mind-numblingly stupid. Do they think women carry a fetus for 30+ weeks and then just decide to abort it for no reason? Also, guess how many abortions happen each year that are after 21 weeks. 5200 abortions per year that are 21 weeks or more. That's it...and almost all of them happen earlier than 30 weeks (which is still not full term). So much verbiage for such a vanishingly small number of medical procedures. Talk about "gov't overreach." kff.org/womens-health-…
Aug 24, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Woke up feeling like it’s worth talking a bit about the history of how America has tended to produce an over abundance of 2nd generation immigrants who become ladder pulling reactionary monsters. 2nd generation immigrants are in the position of having signaled to them two things in tension with each other--a) you're not really "one of us" because you don't have those default white Christian "traditions" that "we" do and b) you too can become truly American like "us!"
Aug 22, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
A 1943 pamphlet advising communities on how to deal with a racist or antisemitic "rabble rouser" who comes to town. digital-collections.csun.edu/digital/collec…
Image Don't be scared or pretend he doesn't exist. Make a plan of action.
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Aug 20, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If I was a Christian conservative who came of age in a Louisiana where the majority of whites voted for David Duke, I’d choose not to celebrate illuminated crosses towering over state houses, but I’m weird like that I guess. Image I mean. Image
Aug 20, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
In 1968, the Arizona Republic ran an incredible, 8-part series on the danger of far right extremism in Arizona. This was notable because that newspaper was a VERY CONSERVATIVE paper. The first Democrat it ever endorsed was Hillary in 2016.
79th Year, No. 108 Minutemen Arizona Links Told First Of A Serles By PAUL DEAN A circular, cross-haired device 11- Justrating this story represents a sniper's view through a telescopic rifle sight. • It serves as arrogant and intimi dating punctuation for the slogan "Traitors Beware." Together, motto and emblem are a trademark of terror adopted by the Minute men, a small group of superpatriots, a tiny, volunteer, underground army of citizen guerrillas pledged to protect this nation against what they consider to be a Communist- riddled U.S. government. For almost a decade, the Minu...
Image This is the passage that most stood out to me. There is no evidence that large numbers of Arizonans have flocked into the organization. Indeed, there is good evidence that Minuteman membership nationwide amounts only to an infinitesimal handful. BUT THE potential for mischief of these clandestine extremists is measured not by their numbers but in-stead. by the fanaticism of their propaganda appeals which are aimed at & much broader segment of Ameri can society and are designed by the perversion of patriotism to create a reservoir of "sympathizers" many times larger than the organization it-self.
Aug 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Interesting story from AZ about a group of heavily armed and highly litigious "patriots" who gathered to hear a conservative actor talk to them about the threat of illegal immigration and the need to arm themselves against the IRS and other deep state gestapo. The year is... Speaking was Ty Hardin, a former movie actor who now spends most of his time directing the counterestablishment activities of the Arizona Patriots in the Prescott area. "This is a call to arms for all patriots," Hardin was saying. "Our borders are being covered by sub-versives, by tyranny. The government has allowed a constant flow of aliens into our nation. We're becoming so mongrelized that the effectiveness of our Constitution is being diminished. "The Gestapo movement started with the IRS. The government is training SWAT teams to put down patriots. So the purpose of ... 1985. In case you've been wondering how long a political culture conducive to the likes of Gosar, Masters, Lake, Rogers, "chemtrail" Ward, etc. has been percolating in that state. Image
Aug 9, 2023 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
The aggressive cultural counter-offensive the right is mounting today is premised upon a fundamental misunderstanding of how cultural norms/mores change. They think these "unnatural" ways of being have been "forced on us" by an elite cabal of [fill in the blanks]. Thus... They think that if they just fund enough counter-programming like Matt Walsh films or Stephen Crowder podcasts or Candace Owens appearances at Young GOP events then they can totally "stop the cultural madness" and "degeneracy" they think they see around them. But meanwhile...
Aug 5, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Re-upping this thread from four months ago when we were having a conversation about what sort of exclusionary political commitments "anti-woke" identitarians like Richard Hanania (and this coffee guy) often have. Once we get past the "gotcha" moment of feeling like we've uncovered the "real" politics behind the "anti-woke" branding, I think there's more complexity to these sorts of situations that is worth exploring. sethcotlar.substack.com/p/thats-nazi-c…
Jul 30, 2023 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Weird how this keeps happening.
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Image The last time this happened.
Jul 28, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Reading a 1980 newsletter that has 12 bumper stickers for sale.
1. Support your local police.
2. Clean up our X-Rated schools
3. America First
4. Deport Illegal Aliens
5. Want to take my gun? Come & take it
6. God, Guts, & Guns made America free, let's keep all three

It is....? The KKK.
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Jul 26, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
The recent talk of Nazis operating comfortably inside the GOP apparatus sent me looking back to what I’d said about this topic previously. I think this pre-J6 thread from 4 years ago has unfortunately aged well. Five years ago I ran some numbers on how many GOP primary voters had pulled the lever for Nazi candidates.