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February 17, 2023

Conspiracy Theory Dictionary

conspiracy theories, disinformation, and fake news

Conspiracy Theory Dictionary: From QAnon to Gnostics

In half a decade we’ve gone from Jeb Bush making a serious run for president to Marjorie Taylor Greene running unopposed and winning a House seat in Georgia. QAnon came seemingly out of nowhere, but taps into a much deeper and older series of conspiracy theories that have surfaced, resurfaced, and been remixed throughout time.

Essentially, QAnon is a recycling of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy theory that drove the Nazi ideology and led to the genocide of over 6 million Jews, gypsies, gays, and others who made Hitler mad. It’s a derivative of the global cabal conspiracy theory, and is riddled with the kind of conspiratorial paranoia that led to the deaths of over 75 million people in World War II.

The spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory greatly benefits from historical memory, getting a generous marketing boost from sheer familiarity. It also benefits from an authoritarian mentality growing louder in America, with a predilection for magical thinking and a susceptibility to conspiratorial thinking.

Tales as old as time

Conspiracy theories have been around much longer even than the Protocols — stretching back about as long as recorded history itself. Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? In an increasingly complex world brimming with real-time communication capabilities, the cognitive appeal of easy answers may simply be stronger than ever before.

Anthropologists believe that conspiracy theory has been around for about as long as human beings have been able to communicate. Historians describe one of the earliest conspiracy theories as originating in ancient Mesopotamia, involving a god named Marduk and a goddess called Tiamat — both figures in Babylonian creation mythology.

According to the myth, Marduk defeated Tiamat in battle and created the world from her body — but some ancient Mesopotamians at the time thought that the story was not actually a mere myth, but a political cover-up of a real-life conspiracy in which the followers of Marduk secretly plotted to overthrow Tiamat to seize power.

This “original conspiracy theory” was likely driven by political tensions between city-states in ancient Mesopotamia, although there are very few written records still around to corroborate the origin of the theory or perception of the story at the time. Nevertheless, the Marduk-Tiamat myth is regarded as one of the earliest known examples of widespread belief in conspiracy theories, and it points to the relative commonality and frequency of false narratives throughout history.

Whether deployed purposefully to deceive a population for political advantage, created to exploit people economically, or invented “naturally” as a simple yet satisfying explanation for otherwise complicated and overwhelming phenomena, conspiracy theories are undoubtedly here to stay in culture more broadly for some time to come. We had best get the lay of the land, and understand the language we might use to describe and talk about them.

Conspiracy Theory Dictionary

Term	Definition	Notes
4chan	A notorious internet message board with an unruly culture capable of trolling, pranks, and crimes.	alt-Right
8chan	If 4chan wasn't raw and lawless enough for you, you could try the even more right-wing "free speech"-haven 8chan while it still stood (now 8kun). Described by its founder Frederick Bennan as "if 4chan and reddit had a baby," the site is notorious for incubating Gamergate, which morphed into PizzaGate, which morphed into QAnon -- and for generally being a cesspool of humanity's worst stuff.	alt-Right
9/11 truthers	People who believe the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001 were either known about ahead of time and allowed to happen, or were intentionally planned by the US government.
alien abduction	People who claim to have been captured by intelligent life from another planet, taken to a spaceship or other plane of existence, and brought back -- as well as the folks who believe them.	UFOs now real, nbd
American carnage	Evocative of "immense loss" in the Nazi mythology
Antifa	Antifa is anti-fascism, so the anti-anti-fascists are just fascists wrapped in a double negative. The real cancel culture -- and a dangerous one.
Anti-Semitism	One of history's oldest hatreds, stretching back to early biblical times	Referred to as "the oldest hate," anti-Semitism is also inherently anti-feminist, because Jewish societies were once matrilineal.
Biblical inerrancy
birtherism	One of Donald Trump's original Big Lies -- that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S. and therefore, wasn't a "legitimate" president.
Black Lives Matter	A social movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.
blood libel	A false accusation or myth that Jewish people used the blood of Christians, especially children, in religious rituals, historically used to justify persecution of Jews.
child trafficking	The illegal practice of procuring or trading children for the purpose of exploitation, such as forced labor, sexual exploitation, or illegal adoption.
Christian Identity	A religious belief system that asserts that white people of European descent are God's chosen people, often associated with white supremacist and extremist groups.
climate change denial	The rejection or dismissal of the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and that human activity is a significant contributing factor.
The Confederacy	Refers to the Confederate States of America, a group of 11 southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861, leading to the American Civil War, primarily over the issue of slavery.
contamination	The presence of an unwanted substance or impurity in another substance, making it unsafe or unsuitable for use.
cosmopolitanism	Another term for globalist or internationalist, which are all dog whistles for Jewish people (see also: global cabal, blood libel)
Crossing the Rubicon	A phrase that signifies passing a point of no return, derived from Julius Caesar's irreversible crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BC, leading to the Roman Civil War.
cultural Marxism	Anti-semitic conspiracy theory alleging that Jewish intellectuals who fled the Hitler regime were responsible for infecting American culture with their communist takeover plans and that this holy war is the war the right-wing fights each day.
deep state	The idea of a body within the government and military that operates independently of elected officials, often believed to manipulate government policy and direction.
DVE	(Domestic Violent Extremism): Refers to violent acts committed within a country's borders by individuals motivated by domestic political, religious, racial, or social ideologies.
fake news	Information that is false or misleading, created and disseminated with the intent to deceive the public or sway public opinion.
GamerGate	A controversy that started in 2014 involving the harassment of women in the video game industry, under the guise of advocating for ethics in gaming journalism.
George Soros	A Hungarian-American billionaire investor and philanthropist, often the subject of unfounded conspiracy theories alleging he manipulates global politics and economies.
Hollywood	The historic center of the United States film industry, often used to refer broadly to American cinema and its cultural influence.
Illuminati	A term often associated with various conspiracy theories that allege a secret society controlling world affairs, originally referring to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society.
InfoWars	A controversial far-right media platform known for promoting conspiracy theories and misinformation, hosted by Alex Jones.
JFK assassination	The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, an event surrounded by numerous conspiracy theories regarding the motives and identities of the assassins.
John Birch Society	The QAnon of its day (circa 1960s), this extreme right-wing group was theoretically about anti-communist ideals but espoused a host of conspiracy theories and outlandish beliefs
lamestream media	Derogatory term for any media that isn't right-wing media.
leftist apocalypse	A hyperbolic term used by some critics to describe a scenario where leftist or progressive policies lead to societal collapse or significant negative consequences.
Makers and Takers	A right-wing economic dichotomy used to describe individuals or groups who contribute to society or the economy (makers) versus those who are perceived to take from it without contributing (takers).
micro-propaganda machine	MPM: Refers to the use of targeted, small-scale dissemination of propaganda, often through social media and other digital platforms, to influence public opinion or behavior.	the “micro-propaganda machine” — an influence network that can tailor people’s opinions, emotional reactions, and create “viral” sharing (��LOL/haha/��RAGE) episodes around what should be serious or contemplative issues
motivated reasoning	The cognitive process where individuals form conclusions that are more favorable to their preexisting beliefs or desires, rather than based on objective evidence.
New World Order	A conspiracy theory that posits a secretly emerging totalitarian world government, often associated with fears of loss of sovereignty and individual freedoms. (see also, OWG, ZOG)
nullification	A constitutional "theory" put forth by southern states before the Civil War that they have the power to invalidate any federal laws or judicial decisions they consider unconstitutional. It's never been upheld by the federal courts.
One World Government	The concept of a single government authority that would govern the entire world, often discussed in the context of global cooperation or, conversely, as a dystopian threat in conspiracy theories. (see also: NWO, ZOG)
PizzaGate	A debunked and baseless conspiracy theory alleging the involvement of certain U.S. political figures in a child sex trafficking ring, supposedly operated out of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria.
post-truth	Refers to a cultural and political context in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored.
PR	public relations
propaganda	Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.
Protocols of the Elders of Zion	Forged anti-semitic document alleging a secret Jewish child murder conspiracy used by Hitler to gin up support for his regime.
PsyOps	Psychological operations: Operations intended to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.
QAnon	A baseless conspiracy theory alleging that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Q Drops	Messages or "drops" posted on internet forums by "Q," the anonymous figure at the center of the QAnon conspiracy theory, often cryptic and claiming to reveal secret information about a supposed deep state conspiracy.
reactionary modernism	A term that describes the combination of modern technological development with traditionalist or reactionary political and cultural beliefs, often seen in fascist ideologies.
Reichstag fire	An arson attack on the Reichstag building (home of the German parliament) in Berlin on February 27, 1933, which the Nazi regime used as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government.
Rothschilds	A wealthy Jewish family of bankers, often subject to various unfounded conspiracy theories alleging they control global financial systems and world events.
sock puppets	Online identities used for purposes of deception, such as to praise, defend, or support a person or organization while appearing to be an independent party.
"Stand back and stand by"	A phrase used by former U.S. President Donald Trump during a presidential debate, which was interpreted as a call to readiness by the Proud Boys, a far-right and neo-fascist organization.
The Storm	Within the context of QAnon, a prophesied event in which members of the supposed deep state cabal will be arrested and punished for their crimes.
WikiLeaks	Within the context of QAnon, a prophesied event in which members of the supposed deep state cabal will be arrested and punished for their crimes.
ZOG	ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government): A conspiracy theory claiming that Jewish people secretly control a country, particularly the United States, while the term itself is antisemitic and unfounded.

May 17, 2022

Great Replacement Theory

Great Replacement Theory is a conspiracy theory animating the radical right wing that claims non-white immigrants are being brought to the U.S. and the west to “replace” white voters with their woke political and cultural agenda. Those who believe this white supremacist ideology see routine immigration policy as a white genocide and extinction of the white race. They also point to low birth rates among white europeans and the promotion of multiculturalism, or “wokeness,” as responsible for the alleged effects.

Promoters of this derivative of Nazi ideology (the claim is that Jews are responsible for this immigration plot) claim that the United States must close its borders immediately to immigration. Many advocate isolationism (“America First!”), white nationalism (and/or forms of nationalism more broadly), and claim that violence may be necessary to keep America under the control of white men.

🚨 🚨

NEW WHITEBOARD

The racist terrorism in Buffalo is a direct extension of the long history of violence & propaganda used to advance white supremacy.

And…that’s exactly what those censoring history and banning books don’t want people to know. It all ties together.

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/uwiTjKS88K
— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) May 16, 2022

History of Great Replacement Theory

The term “Great Replacement” was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement.” According to Camus, the alleged replacement is a result of the European elites intentionally allowing mass immigration and promoting multiculturalism to undermine national identity and traditional Western culture.

The Great Replacement Theory has been widely discredited and criticized by experts, as it is based on misinformation, selective data, and biased interpretations. It is important to note that this theory often fuels xenophobia, bigotry, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, and has been linked to a number of far-right extremist attacks worldwide.

Demographic changes in Western countries are driven by a complex interplay of factors such as economic migration, political instability, globalization, and changing birth rates. These factors are not part of any orchestrated plot, but rather reflect broader social, economic, and political trends. Unfortunately, it’s in the interest of the right-wing to keep its rabid base riled up — and the Great Replacement Theory conspiracy is an effective tool for generating anger and injecting vitriol into the broader political discourse.

March 22, 2022

Radical Right

The radical right is a fervent anti-government strain of Libertarian ultraconservative, emerging out of the anti-New Deal ideology of the 1930s. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, from fiscal conservatives to Christian nationalists, the radical right contains some of the most extreme ideologies in the right wing.

Conservative ideology has gotten more and more extreme over the past few decades — as well as being mainstreamed within the Republican Party. Formerly moderate Republicans are referred to as “RINOs” (Republican In Name Only) and are being pushed out of the party, whether by primary defeat or ostracism by the right-wing base.

Only those who pass the utmost purity tests are allowed to remain amid, and especially atop of, the right-wing political establishment in recent years. They persist in holding some truly debunked, thoroughly delusional “explanations” for phenomena in the real world.

Radical Right myths and beliefs:

Government assistance makes people weak and lazy.
Unemployed people don’t want to work.
FDR and the Democrats destroyed our system of free enterprise.
Wealthy people are job creators and we must do more to preserve their wealth.
Cutting taxes creates jobs — aka Trickle Down Economics
Hierarchy and the maintenance of a de facto caste system — despite the nation’s founding ideals of Equality
Strict Father Morality — adherence to rigidly traditional gender roles and the absolute power of authority
Originalism — the idea that we cannot fundamentally make new laws; that all we can do is peer into the past and try to imagine the original intent of the Founders when writing the Constitution
Independent State Legislature Theory — so-called “states’ rights” by another name, taken to a more extreme twist in which only the state legislature — unchecked by executive power or judicial review — can have any say in the state’s election procedures
- nullification
- anti-federalism
New World Order old conspiracy theory & the Illuminati
anti-UN
Communist spies in the government
Communists in Hollywood
Fear of creeping socialism
Anti-social security
“Second Amendment remedies” and other thinly-veiled calls to political violence
Coming to “take our country back”
right-to-work laws — to break unions
anti-abortion
anti-LGBT
anti-feminism
anti-liberal
anti-immigrant

January 24, 2022

Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians, a Summary

Professor Altemeyer has studied authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality since 1966. He first published a refinement of Theodor Adorno’s work on authoritarian personalities, known as the Right-Wing Authoritarian Scale in 1981. In 2006, Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians was slated to be his last work pending retirement — but in 2020 a new work co-authored with Watergate whistleblower John Dean titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers aimed to warn America about the dangers of Donald Trump’s personality to unleash the very worst in the very worst sorts of individuals.

Meanwhile Bob has made The Authoritarians available free of charge here, and I absolutely encourage you to read it — it’s fascinating stuff and he’s an entertaining as well as informative writer. In this post I’ll do my best to summarize the main points of the book, because I know people are busy and not everyone has time to read a whole book much less scrape together hours to volunteer and do activist work.

Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians

Dr. Altemeyer defines authoritarianism as “something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves.” Followers submit blindly to the leaders and give them too much free rein to do anti-democratic, brutal, and tyrannical things. Power corrupts absolutely, and power seems to corrupt authoritarians most of all.

He classifies the authoritarians into three primary groups:

Authoritarian followers — typically this group follows the established authorities in their society, including government officials, clergy and traditional religious leaders, business leaders, and self-appointed gurus of all stripes. They tend to have a “Daddy and Mommy know best” approach to the government, believing that authorities are above the law. Psychologically, authoritarian followers exhibit a high degree of submission to authorities they accept as legitimate, high levels of aggression in the name of those authorities (if so called upon), and a high degree of conventionalism and conformity. They tend to be bigots, with prejudices against many types of groups.
Authoritarian leaders — tend to be Social Dominators, who long to control people and affect others’ lives. They are overall highly prejudiced and bigoted, do not believe in the American value of equality, and feel justified in wielding great power over society with little qualification and even less self-reflection. They believe the world is divided into wolves and sheep, and they have no qualms fooling the sheep into opening the pasture gate so they can eat. “Might makes right” is their personal motto.
Double Highs — about 10% of any given sample score highly on both the social dominance test and the right-wing authoritarian scale, which is odd given the social dominator’s otherwise reluctance to be submissive. They exhibit extra prejudice and extra hostility — beyond either the social dominators or the RWAs. They tend to be the “religious” social dominators, who had a fundamentalist upbringing, or had a conversion experience as an adult (George W. Bush, e.g.) and now tend to believe in some form of Strict Father Morality.

More traits of authoritarian followers

They tend to feel more endangered in potentially threatening situations that most people do (think: Dick Cheney‘s descent into bunker mentality after 9/11)
More afraid than most people; they tend to have overactive amygdalas
Were raised by their parents to be afraid of others — both parents and children have told researchers so
More likely to issue threats than low authoritarians
Most orthodox — were raised fundamentalist and are highly repressed
Most hardline
Believe “whatever I want is right”
Paradoxically, want to “be normal” very badly — they tend to get tugged by the people around them

Authoritarian aggression

Authoritarians prefer not to have fair fights out in the open — they tend to aggress when they believe their hostility is welcomed by established authority, or supports established authority. They also often aggress when they have an obvious physical advantage over the target — making women, children, and others unable to defend themselves as ideal targets. These cowards have the gall to feel morally superior to the innocent victims they assault in an ongoing asymmetrical warfare between supremacists and marginalized groups.

To make matters worse, authoritarians do their dirty deeds in the shadows and scream bloody murder at anyone who dares try and expose their dark secrets to the light. Their theatrical and performative self-righteousness is just an act to avoid accountability and responsibility for what they do — even unto themselves.

Moreover, authoritarians are extra punitive against lawbreakers they don’t like (though exceedingly permissive for lawbreakers they *do* like, which is infuriatingly hypocritical), because they believe fervently in the value of punishment. Many advocate child corporal punishment — spanking and worse — for children as young as 1 year old. Authoritarian followers tended to report feelings of “secret pleasure” when hearing of the misfortunes of high school classmates who had misbehaved, believing they got what they deserved in life.

It would be accurate to think of authoritarians as “little volcanoes of hostility,” almost heat-seeking their way into authority-approved ways to erupt and release their pent-up anger. Many of them do not, and will not ever realize that their fundamentalist upbringing has sadly left their brains underdeveloped, and ill-equipped to navigate the modern world with its rapid changes, accelerating inequality, advancing climate change, and political instability.

Lethal Union

When a social dominator becomes an authoritarian leader, and leads his authoritarian followers down malevolent roads from informing to threatening to vigilanteism, researchers refer to this state of affairs as a “lethal union.” It’s a highly dangerous and volatile time for a democracy, one warranting caution and vigilance from concerned citizens.

Throughout history, these are the situations that tend to devolve further into aggression, political violence, civil war, genocide, and worse. We need to be very damn careful about who we elect as our leaders — we cannot allow our government to be captured by special interests and the narrow, quixotic delusions of old billionaires outshining daddy and staving off death.

More books about authoritarians

If you’ve already read Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians, or you’re just looking for more resources on authoritarianism — here’s a list to get started:

Authoritarianism Books

More resources on authoritarianism

Essential thinkers on authoritarian personality theory ↗

The authoritarian personality is characterized by excessive strictness and a propensity to exhibit oppressive behavior towards perceived subordinates.

Authoritarianism Dictionary ↗

This dictionary collects definitions and charts the rise of language, ideology, tactics, and historical movements of American authoritarians.

Koup Klux Klan: The authoritarian movement trying to take over America ↗

We are facing an unprecedented crisis of democracy under attack by a roster of extremists, hardliners, theocrats, plutocrats, and others of their ilk.

September 12, 2021

Safety Blanket Theory

For all their angry rhetoric and now, overtly political violence, I maintain that it is the right wing that is profoundly insecure, anxious, and in need of soothing. They are panicking at the idea that the world can possibly change without their approval, and deprive them of their stolen superiority — they do not want the party to end for white male dominance of this entire planet.

Right-wing authoritarian adults latch on to symbols and ideologies and demagogues as “surrogates” for the childhood safety blanket they once needed — these are the “adult-acceptable” pablum substitutes.

August 4, 2021

American Fascists & the Global Right 😈

It feels like the 1930s all over again — and with good reason. The rise of American fascists and right-wing extremism around the world has been a known trend for decades, and America’s past flirtations with fascism had been largely swept under the rug by the then anti-semites who tried to put a stop to FDR‘s New Deal and prevent the U.S. from getting into World War II.

They fought against labor unions and labor organizers, often using private militia as henchmen to do their dirtywork with plausible deniability for themselves. The Ku Klux Klan — the principle paramilitary organization formed during Reconstruction to undo egalitarian gains from the Civil War — was just one of many instruments put to use in service of plutocratic aims to quell any “communist awakening” amongst their workers, lest they get any uppity ideas for themselves. They fell for the popular conspiracy theories of their time, which included Hitler’s bogus assertion that Jewish bankers controlled the world and had to be stopped before they destroyed the white race.

Fascist revanchism

Those fascists, butthurt over America’s overwhelmingly popular decision to enter the war and stop Hitler from exterminating the Jews, seethed with jealousy at the post-war “liberal consensus” that flourished alongside the booming US economy, propelled first by the war effort and later by the peacetime success of the New Deal‘s long shadow and the burgeoning of the American middle class.

The American fascists turned into the John Birch Society, and the McCarthyites, and the Libertarians, and the Moral Majority, and the Gingrich Revolution, and the Tea Party, and the MAGA / QAnon stew sloshing around mass media. The kooks on the far right — the kind of ilk so cray cray that even William F. Buckley excommunicates you from the Republican Party — have taken over the hen house now. Outrage sells, as Facebook well knows — and as two-bit dictators around the world have bribed Mark Zuckerberg to brainwash the masses using the most inanely illogical propaganda prolefeed, the world tilts dangerously towards authoritarianism and the end of our democracy as we know it. And with it, all hope for truth and light into the future for some time to come — the equivalent of a political meteor hitting the Earth.

The American fascists are still around, and now they have tools of propaganda that Goebbels could never have even wet dreamed of. They’re more powerful and more well-connected — to other sociopaths, malignant narcissists, and other pathological cult-leader types who might be of transactional service to each other from time to time. Many of them cling to ideas of Christian nationalism and Strict Father Morality. We’d be wise to keep an eye on these folks.

Name	Type	Location	Known for
Greg Abbott	Politician	Texas	The 48th governor of Texas since 2015 who has presided over multiple energy grid disasters, a self-induced economic fiasco at the border, and ghoulish vigilante legislation designed to terrorize women seeking abortion services, and a perversion of the child sex trafficking apparatus to instead target and tyrannize trans youth
Roman Abramovich	Foreign agent		Russian oligarch close to both Putin and Trump
ACU Strategic Partners	Foreign agent		A company seeking to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East in partnership with a sanctioned Russia company; Mike Flynn was working for them without having disclosed it to the US government as required.
Sheldon Adelson	Businessperson	Las Vegas, NV	CEO billionaire of the Sands Corp casino empire (died, 2021)
AggregateIQ	Corporation		Canadian data firm connected to Cambridge Analytica parent company SCL Group that played a role in spreading Brexit propaganda
Roger Ailes	Media personality	Deceased	Primogenitor of Fox News whose downfall came over dozens of women testified to his decades of sexual assault and blackmail behaviors
Todd Akin	Politician	Missouri	Politician who lost his Senate race to Clairse McCaskill in 2012 when he made the comment on TV about women having a way to "shut the whole thing down" to avoid becoming pregnant if raped.
Nelson W. Aldrich
Ali Alexander	Extremist		One of the primary organizers of the Stop the Steal rally on January 6 that turned into and/or attempted to mask a coup attempt
Samuel Alito	Judge	Washington, DC	Supreme Court Justice who penned a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, riddled with Christian nationalist tropes and arbitrary Originalist interpretations
American Energy Alliance	Non-profit		A tax-exempt nonprofit that advocated for corporate-friendly energy policies. Koch's Freedom Partners donated $1.5 million in 2012.
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)	Non-profit		Corporate-funded nonprofit that writes legislation for Republican legislatures, including spearheading the efforts to wrest partisan control over election results in 49 states.
Americans for Prosperity	PAC		The Koch Brothers' Libertarian political advocacy arm
Philip Anschutz	Businessperson	Colorado	CO oil and entertainment billionaire and founder of Qwest Communications
Michael Anton
Lee Atwater	Political Operative		Infamously brutal Republican strategist for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who promoted the "abstraction" of racism via Southern Strategy and ran the infamous Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis in 1988.
Michele Bachman	Politician	MN	Minnosota Republican politician who was the first woman in her state to be elected to the House of Representatives, she is known for her extremist Dominionist views
Steve Bannon	Media personality	Houseboats	Former Breitbart provocateur who joined the Trump administration as a key advisor and dark propagandist for Trump intent on sowing chaos
Ross Barnett
William Barr	Public Sector		Donald Trump's Attorney General who shielded him from public awareness of his crimes, corruptions, and compromises during the 45th presidency.
Maurice Barres	Author	France	French nationalist author in the early 20th century who introduced Great Replacement theory
Louis Beam	White Supremacist
Roy Beck	White Supremacist		Executive Director of NumbersUSA, member of the white supremacist Tanton Network
Andy Biggs	Politician	AZ	House Republican subpoena'd by the January 6 Commission for his role in the attempted coup
Black Legion	Extremist	Michigan	Secret society of black-hooded terrorists working in MI against labor unions and labor organizers in the 1930s. Legionnaires talked of staging a coup to oust FDR and imposing a fascist regime in the United States
David Bogatin	Oligarch	NYC	A top figure in the Russian mafia who bought 5 luxury condos in Trump Tower to launder money, he admitted in 1987.
Jacob Bogatin	Oligarch		David Bogatin's brother, and a partner of notorious Russian mob moss Semion Mogilevich
John Wilkes Booth	Criminal	Deceased	Stage actor and Confederate sympathizer who shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head in April 1865, a few months after his re-election in 1864.
L. Brent Bozell	Extremist		BFF of William F. Buckley and author of Conscience of a Conservative to support Barry Goldwater's candidacy in 1960.
Harry and Lynde Bradley	Kochtopus		Midwesterners who built their wealth on defense contracts
Andrew Breitbart	Media personality		Founded both Brietbart and the Huffington Post
Anders Breivik	Extremist	Oslo, Norway	Mass murderer who killed 77 people in Oslo, Norway as inspired by the white supremacist ideology of Great Replacement theory
Mo Brooks	Politician	Huntsville, AL	House Republican from Alabama subpoena'd by the January 6 Committee for his role in the attempted coup
Brother's Circle	Criminal		Organized crime gang pursued by then-FBI head Robert Mueller circa 2011
Michael Brown		Ferguson, MO	Unarmed black man killed by the police in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking a series of riots in the city.
Pat Buchanan	Politician	Washington, DC	Politician and paleoconservative who worked for presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan before running against incumbent George H.W. Bush in 1992; widely considered a bigot, racist, and antisemite.
William F. Buckley Jr	Media personality
Doug Burley	Political Operative		Founding and leading both The Family and the National Prayer Breakfast of right-wing power brokers
Cambridge Analytica	Corporation	London, UK	Data firm implicated in the propaganda campaigns of both Brexit in 2015 and Donald Trump in 2016 that stole hundreds of millions of Facebook profiles and mined the treasure trove of information for weaknesses to manipulate in attempts to persuade
Renaud Camus	Author	France	French writer and critic who created the recent 2011 formulation of the Great Replacement Theory
Tucker Carlson	Media personality	NYC	Fox News evening opinion anchor and fish stick heir who promotes the Great Replacement conspiracy theory to his primetime audience of older white men.
Doug Casey	Businessperson		Ayn Rand devotee and "anarcho-capitalist" who specializes in how to profit from turmoil
Michael Catanzaro	Lobbyist		Partner at the CGCN Group lobbying firm who headed "energy independence" for the Trump transition team.
Cato Institute	Think Tank
Madison Cawthorn	Politician	NC
Center to Protect Patient Rights	Kochtopus		Dark money group funded by the Kochs to attack the ACA with fearmongering and vitriol
Mike Cernovich	Media personality
CGCN Group	Lobbyist		Lobbyist for the Koch brothers
James Chaney	Activist	Neshoba County, MS	One of 3 civil rights activists murdered by local white supremacists when engaging in non-violent civil disobedience, along with Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman
Jeremy Joseph Christian	Extremist	Portland, OR	stabbed 3 people who tried to intervene while he was hurling anti-Muslim slurs at 2 young women in Portland, OR
Chris Christie	Politician		Former governor of NJ and former Trump supporter and transition team lead who became a Trump critic
Michael Cohen	Businessperson	NYC	Donald Trump's personal lawyer, sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for felony crimes, including campaign finance crimes
Steven A. Cohen	Businessperson		Finance (SAC Capital Advisors)
Roy Cohn	Political Operative	Deceased	Lawyer who represented Senator Joseph McCarthy in the infamous televised 1954 hearings, and later went on to become a mafia-connected fixer in NYC and mentor to budding real estate developer Donald Trump
Competitive Enterprise Institute	Think Tank	Washington, DC	A Washington think tank that had been bankrolled by fossil fuel industries, particularly the Kochs.
Continental Resources	Corporation	Oklahoma	OK-based shale oil company with a large and profitable fracking operation
Coors brewing family	Koch Investor	Colorado	The Coors gave money to Oliver North to fund the Iran-Contra operation
Council of Conservative Citizens (CoC)
Ted Cruz	Politician	Texas
Jefferson Davis
Kim Davis	Public Sector	Kentucky	Former county clerk of Rowan County, KY who defied a US federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in 2015
Devos family	Koch Investor		Founders of the Amway marketing empire; Betsy DuVos was the Secretary of Education under Trump
Amadou Diallo		New York	a West African immigrant mowed down by 41 shots from police when leaving his apartment on February 4, 1999.
James Dobson	Media personality		conservative talk-show host and fundamentalist Christian who strongly advocated spanking and corporal punishment be applied liberally to children
Chester Doles			Former KKK leader who runs the white supremacist American Patriots USA. Nearly beat a Black man to death in 1993. Marched in 2017 in Charlottesville.
Rod Dreher	Extremist		Benedict Option author and traditionalist
Dinesh D'Souza	Media personality		Conservative gadly who alleged that Obama was "African" in outlook rather than American, absorbing his "radical" views from his Kenyan father
Doug Ducey	Politician	AZ	Governor of Arizona
Aleksandr Dugin	Extremist	Russia	Russia's primary fascist political philosopher and originator of Eurasianism conspiracy theory
David Duke	White Supremacist
John Eastman	Political Operative		Ran against Kamala Harris in 2010 for California AG, then showed back up in 2020 to write an outrageous op-ed that Newsweek for some reason actually published, that claimed that she was "secretly" not a US resident and therefore not eligible to be the VP! Now the Kamala Harris birther
Myron Ebell	Political Operative		Outspoken climate change skeptic, who headed the Trump transition team for the EPA
Election Integrity Project California	Extremist		Election fraud group working with Leonard Leo
Larry Ellison	Businessperson		Gave $5 million to Marco Rubio
Cassandra Fairbanks
Jerry Falwell, Jr	Televangelist
The Family	Lobbyist		Shadowy DC group with tremendous sway in Congress and around the world, following a distorted "strongman Jesus" version of Christianity.
The Federalist Society	Extremist
Scott Fitzgerald	Politician	WI	House Republican
Michael Flynn	Cult Leader
For America	PAC
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Fox News	Corporation
Free Congress Foundation
Freedom Caucus	Politician
Freedom Partners	Kochtopus		The Koch Brothers' secretive donor club.
FreedomWorks	Extremist
Matt Gaetz	Politician
Kevin Gentry	Kochtopus		VP of Special Projects and VP of the Koch Foundation
Greg Gianforte	Politician		body-slamming Guardian reported Ben Jacobs while running for a GOP House seat in Montana
Newt Gingrich	Media personality
Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet	White Supremacist
Rudy Giuliani	Politician	NYC
GiveSendGo			"Christian" donation platform
Barry Goldwater	Politician	AZ
Seb Gorka	Political Operative
Billy Graham
Madison Grant	Political Operative		Close personal friend of Herbert Hoover who helped draft the exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924 -- the Stephen Miller of his day. His "Passing of the Great Race" was beloved by Hitler as "his bible."
Chuck Grassley	Politician		Senator
The Great Awakening
Marjorie Taylor Greene	QAnon	GA
Eric Greitens	Politician	MO
Harold Hamm	Kochtopus		Billionaire founder of Continental Resources, an OK-based shale company with large fracking business & one of the charter members of the Kochs' donor circle.
James Henry Hammond	Extremist
Warren G. Harding	Politician		Enthusiastically supported the white-supremacist work of Lothrop Stoddard et al
Billy James Hargis	Extremist
Orrin Hatch	Politician		Sen. Orrin Hatch raised concerns about funding certain entitlement programs. “I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything,” he said.
Josh Hawley	Politician	MO	Missouri Senator funded by Peter Thiel who gave the January 6 mob a fist bump on his way in to object to certifying the electoral count
Matthew Heimbach	Extremist		White nationalist and one of the founders of the Traditionalist Workers Party
Jesse Helms	Politician
Leona Helmsley
Diane Hendricks		WI	The wealthiest woman in Wisconsin at $3.6 billion
Heritage Foundation	Think Tank	Washington, DC
Honest Elections Project	Extremist		A conservative legal organization connected to Leonard Leo that files legal briefs to SCOTUS opposing mail-in ballots and other voting reforms that help more people to vote,
Herbert Hoover	Politician	Washington, DC	White supremacist and wealth supremacist, he was adamant about doing nothing to help people during the Great Depression.
Mike Huckabee	Politician
Laura Ingraham	Media personality		Fox News host
Andrew Jackson	Politician	Deceased	US President
John Birch Society	Extremist
Andrew Johnson	Politician	Deceased	US President
Chuck Johnson	Media personality		Alt-right super troll
Ron Johnson	Politician		Wisconsin Republican Senator who supported Donald Trump, promoted ivermectin for covid, and said he wasn't afraid of the January 6 mob because they were white people
Alex Jones	Media personality		Host of InfoWars, the 9/11 conspiracy show that put the genre on the map
Jim Jordan	Politician	OH	A long-time Tea Party hyena, the Congressman known as Gym once helped his buddy cover up decades of sexual abuse of young wrestlers in their care.
Judicial Education Project	Extremist		A legal group tied to Leonard Leo, working to advance conservative takeover of the judiciary.
Islam Karimov	Oligarch	Uzbekistan	Former Communist official who became the first president of Uzbekistan in 1991, and remained the country's dictator until his death in 2016.
Alex Kaschuta	Media personality		Right-wing podcaster
Brett Kavanaugh	Judge	DC
Dr. D. James Kennedy			creating a Dominionist "conversion" playbook
John F. Kennedy	Politician	Deceased
Robert F. Kennedy	Politician	Deceased
Anna Khachiyan
Martin Luther King	Activist	Deceased	Civil Rights leader in the 1960s, and enemy of Southern politicians
Charlie Kirk	Media personality
Walter Kirn	Author	MT	Up in the Air author and disaffected former member of the American intellectual class
KKK	White Supremacist
Bill Koch	Businessperson
Charles Koch	Kochtopus	Kansas	industries: pipelines, oil refineries, lumber and paper, coal, chemicals, commodity futures, etc.
David Koch	Kochtopus	Deceased	industries: pipelines, oil refineries, lumber and paper, coal, chemicals, commodity futures, etc. (now deceased)
Fred Koch	Kochtopus	Kansas	Father of Charles and David, Fred Koch was an early and fervent acolyte in the ultra-conservative John Birch Society
Frederick Koch	Businessperson	New York
David Koresh	Cult Leader	Waco, TX
Ku Klux Klan (see KKK)	White Supremacist
Kylie Jane Kremer
David Lane	White Supremacist		Member of the white supremacist group The Order who coined the 14-word slogan popular with Great Replacement adherents: "We must secure the exisatence of our people and a future for white children"
Ken Langone	Businessperson		Founder of Home Depot
Lyndon LaRouche	Cult Leader
Robert LeFevre	Kochtopus		Charles Koch's mentor, a quasi-anarchist, who said, "government is a disease masquerading as its own cure"
Leonard Leo	Extremist		Chairman of the Federalist Society, a legal organization working to pack the courts with conservative judges.
Marine Le Pen	Politician	France
Honor Levy
Liberty Counsel			Christian special rights group
The Liminal Order
William S. Lind	Political Operative
Kelly Loeffler	Politician	Georgia	Insider trading immediately upon arriving at her unelected Senate seat when her husband, President of the NYSE, found a way to have some money arrive at Brian Kemp, the Governor, who appointed her.
Dana Loesch	Media personality		NRA spokeswoman
Sen. Huey Long	Politician	Deceased
Thomas Mair	Extremist		Assassin of British MP Jo Cox, who was outspoken against the UK's Brexit campaign
Paul Manafort	Lobbyist
Clarence Manion
Blake Masters	Politician	AZ
John McAfee	Businessperson	Deceased
Sen. Joseph McCarthy	Politician	Deceased	Senator best known for his demagoguery against alleged Communist agents in the US government during the Cold War in the early 1950s
Kevin McCarthy	Politician	CA
Michael McKenna	Kochtopus		Lobbyist and President of MWR Strategies lobbying firm, who have the Koch brothers as clients
Timothy McVeigh	Extremist	Oklahoma City, OK	White supremacist McVeigh was a disgruntled former military guy who took up with the white power movement and executed the Oklahoma City bombing -- as inspired, he said, by enacting "revenge" for Waco.
Andrew Mellon	Businessperson
Rebekah Mercer	Oligarch		Daughter of NY hedge fund manager Robert Mercer; she helped guide the Trump transition team following the 2016 election, and funded right-wing social network Parler
Robert Mercer	Oligarch		Father of Rebekah Mercer and longtime right-wing donor
MicroChip			Pro-Trump bot-king
Stephen Miller	Extremist
Michael Milken
Cleta Mitchell	Extremist	OK	Lawyer who represented various right-wing entities including the NRA, and was considered the "fringe of the fringe" -- at age 70 she "represented" Trump during his telephone call to Brad Raffensperger asking him to find ~11,000 votes
Semion Mogilevich	Criminal		Notorious Russian mob boss
Stefan Molyneux	Media personality		Alt-right troll
Sun Myung Moon	Cult Leader		Leader of the Moonie cult and self-proclaimed deity, Mr Moon served time in federal prison for tax fraud, among other charges.
Roy Moore	Politician	AL	Trump-backed politician and pedophile who narrowly lost the Alabama Senate race to Doug Jones in 2018.
JP Morgan	Businessperson
Rupert Murdoch	Oligarch		Fox News owner famous for his amoral media
Jack Murphy
Benito Mussolini
MWR Strategies	Kochtopus		Lobbying firm for the Koch brothers
Dasha Nekrasova
neo-Nazis	Extremist
Terry Nichols	Extremist		Blew up the Oklahoma Federal Building with Timothy McVeigh
Richard Nixon	Politician
Ralph Norman	Politician		House Republican who skirted the metal detectors to enter the House floor after the January 6 insurrection
NRA	Extremist		National Rifle Association
NYPD	Public Sector		New York Police Department
Barack Obama	Politician	Chicago, DC, Los Angeles	The 44th President of the United States, and the first black person to hold the job. He was widely loathed by the Right despite his positive record.
John M. Olin	Kochtopus		Chemical and munitions company titan
Viktor Orban	Politician		Radical right president of Hungary and Putin supporter
The Order			White supremacist group
Candace Owens	Extremist
Matt Parrott	Extremist		Co-founder with Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Workers Party
Laszlo Pasztor
Norman Vincent Peale	Businessperson		Christianity as a business man's religion
Mike Pence	Media personality		Donald Trump's VP
Rick Perry	Politician
Scott Perry	Politician		House Republican who skirted the metal detectors to enter the House floor after the January 6 insurrection
Jordan B Peterson	Academic		A sort of hero figure to the incel crowd
William Pierce
Pioneer Fund			A white supremacist group set up for "race betterment" in 1997 at a private club.
Jeanine Pirro	Media personality		Fox News host known for having a bit of a drinking problem and a brash on-air personality
Mike Pompeo	Public Sector		Sec of State after the firing of Rex Tillerson; former CIA Director; former Republican congressman from KS and largest recipient of Koch campaign funds in all of Congress
Jack Posobiec	Media personality
Lewis Powell	Businessperson		Wrote a 1971 memo that rallied the largely white and male business community around a plan to dismantle the New Deal and the liberal consensus
Sydney Powell	Political Operative		Also Associates with UFO believers and anti-vaxxers
Proud Boys	Extremist		Militia group involved in the January 6 coup attempt
Thomas Pyle	Businessperson		president of the American Energy Alliance, funded by Exxon and the Kochs
QAnon	QAnon		Conspiracy theory about Democratic pedophiles that recycles Nazi ideology
Jean Raspail	Author	France	French author of the 1973 Camp of the Saints novel about migrants organizing to take over France; the racist fiction inspired the white power movement of the 1980s, Steve Bannon, and a host of other fascist movements in Europe, America, and around the world
Nancy Reagan	Media personality	Deceased
Ronald Reagan	Politician	Deceased	Actor and Republican who became the 40th President from 1981 through 1989
Kyle Rittenhouse
Pat Robertson	Televangelist
Dylann Roof
George Romney
Mitt Romney	Politician	UT
Murray Rothbard	Extremist
Dave Rubin
Richard Mellon Scaife	Koch Investor		Heir to the Mellon banking and Gulf Oil fortunes, and Koch donor
David Schnare	Political Operative		"Free-market environmentalist" who accused the EPA of having blood on its hands, who joined climate change denier Myron Ebell on the Trump transition team for the EPA
Stephen Schwarzman			Finance
Rick Scott	Politician
Jeff Sessions	Politician	AL
Marc Short	Political Operative		Ran the Koch Brothers' secretive donor club, Freedom Partners, before becoming Mike Pence's senior advisor during the 2016 presidential transition
Sinclair Broadcasting Group	Corporation
Paul Singer	Koch Investor		Finance (Elliott Management hedge fund). Supported Rudy Giuliani.
SNCC	Non-profit
Social Contract Press	White Supremacist		A racist publishing company, part of the Tanton Network, that published the white nationalist novel Camp of the Saints
Richard Spencer	White Supremacist
Balaji Srinivasan	Businessperson
State Policy Network	Kochtopus		Funded in part by the Kochs
Dan Stein	White Supremacist		President of Tanton Network organization FAIR
Lothrop Stoddard	White Supremacist		Author of the 1920 book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
Roger Stone	Lobbyist
Richard Strong	Businessperson		Strong Capital Management Mutual Fund
Sen. Robert Taft	Politician
John H. Tanton	White Supremacist	Michigan	White nationalist who organized The Tanton Network of 13 anti-immigrant organizations
Tea Party	PAC		Intensely antitax group
Peter Thiel	Businessperson	Los Angeles, CA	Eccentric Silicon Valley billionaire and pocketbook for the New Right project
Clarence Thomas	Judge	Washington, DC
Ginni Thomas	Political Operative	Washington, DC
Three Percenters	Extremist		Militia group who had a heavy presence at the January 6 attempted coup
Traditionalist Workers Party	Extremist
Turning Point USA	Extremist		Charlie Kirk's right-wing PR organization
Unabomber	Criminal
Unification Church	Cult Leader
Unite the Right	Activist	Charlottesville, NC	Charlottesville, NC event in 2018 where white supremecist groups marched with tiki torches, and activist Heather Hyer was killed by a right-wing extremist who drove his car through the crowd.
University of Texas at Austin	Academic	Austin, TX
JD Vance	Politician	OH	Venture capitalist and Peter Thiel acolyte running for Senate in Ohio
Ricky Vaughn
Ruben Verastigui	Criminal	DC	Former RNC and other GOP offices staffer who made social media ads for the Trump campaign and was later arrested with child porn on his phone after a DHS sting.
John Vinson	Extremist		Head of the Tanton Network-backed anti-immigrant hate group American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF)
George Wallace	Politician	Alabama
Joe Walsh	Media personality
Kelli Ward	Politician	AZ	GOP Chair
Ron Watkins	Extremist		Identified as the most likely suspect to be Q of QAnon
Randy Weaver	White Supremacist	Naples, ID
Vicki Weaver	White Supremacist	Naples, ID
Weev	White Supremacist		Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer
Paul Weyrich	White Supremacist		Arch-deacon of the New Right ultraconservative movement and hugely influential figure who founded the Heritage Foundation, Council for National Policy, and ALEC.
White Citizens Councils	White Supremacist
Geert Wilders
Darren Wilson	Public Sector		Police officer who brutally killed a Black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, MO in 2014.
WikiLeaks	Foreign agent
Milo Yiannopoulos	Media personality

July 20, 2021

Trump is driving Evangelicals from the flock

It’s been said that the devilish ways of pedophiliac liberal Democrats are killing Christianity in America, but the numbers tell a different story. Following the 2016 Armistice in the War on Christmas, Donald Trump yet managed to drive 1 in 7 Evangelicals from the fold, according to data from Pew and PRRI.

Far from the surge in True Believers prophesied by the right wing, the religious right’s deal with the proverbial and/or literal devil seems to have driven members away. Trump is losing Evangelicals, and really — should we be so shocked? If it doesn’t matter (to some) whether our leaders are serial philanderers and lifelong business cheats, or earnestly striving public servants spreading compassion — what use is their moral code, then? None. It is bankrupt.

Shrödinger’s Moral Leadership

The religious right can’t have it both ways — either moral leadership is important, or it isn’t. It can’t selectively be important *only* when a Democrat is in power. Evangelicals also need to make a choice between God and Caesar. Prosperity gospel is the latter and not the former, but many pretend otherwise or are fooled — after all, fool’s gold can still fool.

Cognitive dissonance upon dissonance continues to fall in the totally unraked forest of right-wing values. I’m aiming to continue pulling on a few threads connecting the religious right, and Evangelicals in particular, to the rise of political extremism in the Republican Party:

The pitch that winning the culture war is more important than God’s law is thin at best
Donald Trump is not a Christian
The “imperfect vessel” fails as moral justification
Jesus didn’t care about tax cuts
Christian leaders’ claims that politics is amoral ground beyond the reach of God’s teachings is self-evident nonsense
Christians are leaving their own moral house unguarded. No one is showing the living proof of Jesus’ teachings anymore — and it’s not the fault of the people on the left who weren’t doing it before.

June 7, 2021

Global Right-Wing Authoritarianism

It’s not just here at home in the US that fascism seems to have taken root in the population. There are many burgeoning nationalist movements resurrecting right-wing populism around the world, and as per many experts’ warnings, right-wing authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe.

Many of the right-wing populist thatches that have sprung up are at least in part, seeds planted by Vladimir Putin in his quest for Russian revanchism against the West following the end (or so we thought…) of the Cold War. Rumoured to be the richest man in the world by far, the former KGB agent was working in East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell, and has been pursuing his Lost Cause grievance ever since.

Learn more:

The right-wing authoritarianism movement is global

Given how seemingly easy it is for Charles Koch to buy American elections as the 15th richest person in the world, imagine what someone far wealthier and less provincial could accomplish. Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France took campaign cash directly from The Kremlin, Viktor Orban’s Hungary is Vladimir Putin’s strongest ally in the EU, the Belarusian dictator is propped up by Putin, who still occupies Ukraine’s Crimea, and the UK’s Brexit campaign acted as the canary in the coalmine for later disgraceful invasions of other nations’ sovereignty — perhaps most notably, election interference in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 US elections.

As such, it would be foolish not to see what’s happening here in America as part of a broader wave of right-wing populism and authoritarian fever that is very dangerous. We need to find out a lot more information about how all these puzzle pieces fit together, and get to the bottom of the real conspiracy clearly going on — if we can find it through all these smokescreen conspiracy theories clogging the propaganda waves.

Here’s a list of some of the extreme right-wing parties on the rise around the globe:

Country	Flag	Party	Abbreviation
Austria	🇦🇹	Freedom Party	FPO
Belgium	🇧🇪	Flemish Block	VB
Britain	🇬🇧	UK Independence Party	UKIP
		Britain First
		National Front
Czech Republic		Freedom and Direct Democracy	SPD
Denmark	🇩🇰	Danish People's Party	DPP
Finland	🇫🇮	True Finns
France	🇫🇷	National Front	FN
Germany	🇩🇪	Alternative for Germany	AfD
		Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West	Pegida
Greece	🇬🇷	Syriza
Hungary	🇭🇺	Movement for a Better Hungary	Jobbik
		Fidesz
Italy	🇮🇹	Northern League
		National Alliance
Japan	🇯🇵	Nippon Kaigi
The Netherlands	🇳🇱	Party for Freedom	PPV
		Liveable Netherlands
		Pim Fortuyn's List	LPF
Norway	🇳🇴	Progress Party
The Philippines	🇵🇭
Poland	🇵🇱	Law and Justice party
Portugal	🇵🇹	Popular Party
Serbia		Serbian Radical Party	SRS
Spain	🇪🇸	(Catalonian secession)
Sweden	🇸🇪	Sweden Democrats
Switzerland	🇨🇭	Swiss People's Party	SVP
United States	🇺🇸	Republican Party	GOP

January 9, 2021

Ghost skins

Ghost skin is short for ghost skinhead. It refers to a white supremacist who hides his racist beliefs in order to blend into wider society, with the goal of remaining undetected and covertly continuing his Nazi agenda.

Over at least the past 2 decades, white supremacists have been specifically infiltrating law enforcement. Going into the police is an attractive career option to begin with, for someone with controlling tendencies, an interest in power, and often an incentive to use the badge as a shield for one’s own crime schemes.

Ghost skins are rebranded Nazis

White supremacy has a long and brutal history in America. This original stain not only hasn’t been washed clean, but is seeping outwards once again. It’s expanding outward through QAnon and conspiracist fear-mongering on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, the -chans, etc. It’s what resulted in the January 6 deadly siege on the Capitol building where Congress was counting the electoral college votes and certifying Joe Biden’s presidency.

Part of the larger swell of fascism in this country, ghost skins have allowed neo-Nazis and a motley assortment of thugs, violent criminals, and authoritarian personalities to hide out in the fabric of society, waiting to strike when the time is right. When The Storm comes. When it is time, the President tells them, to take their country back.

January 5, 2021

Titushki

Titushki (or titushky) are paid street thugs sent to act as provocateurs, who provoke clashes or destroy property to tarnish peaceful protests and blame the left for “violence.”

The concept is from Ukraine, where it was first employed by later ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. He hired street hooligans in civilian clothing to perform illegal acts including street beatings, carjackings, kidnappings, and murders. Their purpose was both to intimidate the opposition against his government and create pretexts for arresting pro-democracy protestors.

During the events of Euromaidan in 2013-14, Yanukovich’s Party of Regions paid titushki about $100 per day to blend into peaceful crowds and start picking fights. After violence broke out, mass arrests would disperse the gatherings and round up protestors — and the titushki were again used as either “witnesses or “victims” for the show trials of these ginned up “crimes.”

Titushki in the U.S.?

During the George Floyd protests in summer 2020, city officials in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and elsewhere reported a pattern of out-of-town agents provacateur escalating peaceful protests and instigating aggression, incitement, and property damage. A Ukranian immigrant family in Idaho with no prior political activity organized one of the most important pro-Trump demonstrations of the summer in Portland, out of nowhere. There was umbrella man. He may be more likely aligned with the white nationalist groups who were also id’d as instigating violence and who also have an undercover plot against America going on so, you know, strange bedfellows!

June 20, 2020

Authoritarian Personality Traits: Deference to a higher power

Sociologist Theodor Adorno created the “F scale” in a 1950 seminal work entitled The Authoritarian Personality, in order to rank the level of predilection to fascism in an individual, which became desirable both during and shortly after World War II. According to Adorno and his cohort, the defining authoritarian personality traits of the Platonic fascist (or the ur-Fascist as Umberto Eco would later call them) include the following:

conventionalism — following the rules; “this is how we’ve always done things”; fundamentalist thinking; dogmatic philosophy; intolerance of ambiguity (and intolerance in general)
authoritarian submission — follow the Ruler; the Ruler is always right, no matter how obvious the lie or big the myth. only ingroup authority figures matter, though.
authoritarian aggression — “send in the troops,” “when the looting starts the shooting starts,” “dominate the streets”
anti-intellectualism — distrust of experts; paranoid politics; intellectualism is unmasculine
anti-intraception — a dislike of subjectivity and imagination: “the fact is…”; black and white thinking; dislike of flamboyant self-expression; monoculture
superstition — conspiracy theory; anti-vaxxers; QAnon
stereotypy — racism, sexism, classism, ageism, all the isms; bigotry, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, all the phobias
power and “toughness” — obsessed with dominance and submission; rigidly pro-hierarchy; solves problems with violence; values physical strength
destructiveness — dismantle the Federal government; remove environmental regulations; pull out of international alliances; weakening America’s place in the world, abandoning the EU, and kowtowing to dictators around the world
cynicism — “both sides do it,” whataboutism, all politicians are bad, conscience (non)voters
projectivity — everything is Obama‘s fault, almost literally; claims Biden is corrupt; Hillary’s email server (though they all used and continue to use private email servers, every single one of them); claim that the Clinton campaign started the birther controversy; accuse everyone else of lying
exaggerated concerns over sex — anti-abortion; homophobia; pedophilia; excessive taboos; excessive shame

We are seeing all of these traits today. We see the rise of authoritarianism — we see it in our leadership, we see it in our communities, and we see it surging around the world.

We see it in a much larger percentage of our populace than many of us might have imagined. Research by Karen Stenner and others shows that across populations in the developed world, about a third of a given population will be prone to authoritarian tendencies. People of good character far outnumber the Right-Wing Authoritarians, but they can be subjugated, emotionally manipulated, strong-armed, abused, intimidated, made cynical by the RWAs. And the RWA personality is driven to actively hate outgroups in many outrageously twisted and depraved ways, from pettiness to genocide.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Refined by professor of psychology Bob Altemeyer (The Authoritarians, et al) in 1981, the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale (RWA) addresses some of the limitations of the F scale and exhibits more predictive power in identifying individuals exhibiting authoritarian personality.

The RWA personality is associated with all of the following traits, beliefs, actions, patterns, and signs of authoritarianism:

extreme obedience
unquestioning respect for and submission to a chosen authority
repression
forceful insistence on hierarchy
striving for dominance in social hierarchies
supremacy
wolves vs. sheep worldview
Manichaean struggle
punitiveness; vengefulness; malignant envy
destructiveness
extremism
subordination to the collective
tribalism
cult of personality
cults
traditionalism
conservatism
fundamentalism
less openness to experience
aggression towards minority groups
resistance to change
justification(s) for social inequality
Libertarianism
police brutality
psychological abuse; emotional predation
hypocrisy
projection
magical thinking
disciplinarian
control freak
mass surveillance
repression
a primary drive to achieve relief from uncertainty, even at the cost of individual freedom

Democracy vs. Authoritarianism

Maybe we could offer up the RWA test as a “good faith” gesture, if one is interested in participating in civic discourse with credibility and authenticity. It would help us identify those individuals who are going to be unlikely to play by the rules of the game or have no intention of behaving fairly. It would help us draw authoritarianism and totalitarianism out of the proverbial closet and into public discourse so we can refute it vehemently in a proper forum.

Although we have bot tests, we don’t really have great ways of measuring and identifying human beings with deceptive agendas to help us in this battle of democracy vs. autocracy. If we could screen people as authoritarians via “honorable challenge,” we could save so much time by not wasting it on the lost causes whose power trip runs so deep it can never be exposed. It could serve as a way to drag out into the light any number of intolerable, anti-democratic sentiments masquerading as “strict Constitutionalism.” We can pry open the doublespeak and arm ourselves with the secret decoder rings of understanding RWA dogwhistles.

And maybe we can finally change the conversation by more easily identifying friendlies from foes from the start, without having to wade through every minefield.

Just maybe.