The Real Culture War...

Survivalists

After my piece last week about my time in the Survivalist Community. I thought it was necessary to expand my analysis and look at the ill fated ideas of creating a coalition between the extreme right and the left in any fashion. And thankfully my inside source into the Survivalist Community has just sent me a juicy a packet of images and postings that really outline my fears. It seems that after cloistering themselves and increasing the security of the site, their volume for crazy has been turned to 11 to quote Spinal Tap. But more importantly they now feel free to speak their mind openly—now that I’m no longer around. However, I’ve cultivated a few of the more moderate members as sources and they’ve supplied me with screenshots of material that outlines many of the members as being sympathetic at best with separatist ideology if not separatist themselves.

And yes, it is important for the left to understand these types of people. They are the ones that have certain ideological similarities or at least superficially speaking that make them attractive for some on the Left to speak of coalition building with them over issues like Anti-War and Imperialism. But, make no mistake these survivalists, extreme libertarians, anti-government separatists, and so on are not our allies. As much as people like Chris Hedges, Nick Brana (the People’s Party Movement scam), Jimmy Dore, Max Blumenthal , or Aaron Mate—these people will never be your allies in anything at all. The libertarian party and its off shoots are fundamentally an oppositional ideology to all things Socialist. Where they see anti-War and Imperialism is bad isn’t because it enslaves people to corrupt corporations headed by Hierarchical structures of capital—they see the negative in that these institutions bring with them governmental roles that require larger Governments.

Lately, Chris Hedges has been determined to tell the left that they need to embrace their brothers on the right in the following articles: The Donald Trump Problem, There Are No Permanent Allies, Only Permanent Power, and Lynching the Deplorables. Hedges in each of these articles makes the same sort of argument for the Left to get into bed with Right and to form a coalition against our greatest Enemy the Corporate Slow Motion Coup D’etat that is currently happening and reverse the rise of right-wing fascists. It sounds very reasonable-the right and the left have a common enemy: the corporate interests of the socioeconomic and political elite class that have corrupted the system to serve only their needs. Furthermore Hedges has spent a significant amount of time attempting to produce the narrative that Democrats and Republicans will turn the January 6th Riot into an all out attack on civil liberties; The only problem this has already occurred in 2020 with the BLM movement. Remember , that in 2020 many unmarked vans with Federal Agents were rounding up protesters in cities like NYC, DC and Portland? Yes, this was under the abused Trump Regime.

Here is some of Chris Hedges’ logic trying to explain how the January 6th trials will come back to haunt the left unless we fight to support the very people that want nothing to do with the left. Hedges, never once manages to get into the details about Donald Trump’s left suppression in this passage he quotes from Joseph D. McBride Esq.:

“Power is going to change hands,” he warned. “The Democrats are not going to be in power forever. When power changes hands, that precedent is going to travel with it. If somebody else from the other side gets in and starts to target the people who are in power now, their families, their businesses, their lives, their freedom, then it’s over. America goes from being a free democracy to a tribalist partisan state. Maybe there’s not ethnic-cleansing in the streets, but people are cleansing each other from the workplace, from social media, from the banking system and they’re putting people in jail. That’s where we’re headed. I don’t know why people can't see what’s on the horizon.” (Lynching The Deplorables)

This passage would have the readers believe that Left aren’t targets of the extreme right wing. That Donald Trump wasn’t accused by the ACLU and Black Lives Matter Movement of specifically targeting peaceful protests in Washington, DC with extreme force in 2020. Furthermore Hedges fails to disclose the fact that Joseph D. McBride, Esq. is also a major Trump supporter posting this on twitter March 18th, 2023:

Tweet from McBride, Esq.

It is hard to not get the impression that Hedges who extensively quotes Mr. McBride in the first half of his article as a civil rights lawyer that has been fighting for the rights of the oppressed—didn’t do his homework as News Week reported in February of 2023 that McBride made many comments about religion being at the heart of the Jan 6th prosecutions and support for Trump. The above quote of Mr. McBride and should make anyone shutter to support his claims as being completely truthful about the events of Jan 6th. But that’s not the only shoddy part of Hedge’s reporting in this article here is another example of Hedges trying to tell the left that basically the Right-Wing is our ally and doing the same types of protests as you on the left yourself are doing:

“The Jan. 6 protestors were not the first to occupy Congressional offices, including Nancy Pelosi’s office. Young environmental activists from the Sunrise Movement, anti-war activists from Code Pink and even congressional staffers have engaged in numerous occupations of congressional offices and interrupted congressionalhearings. What will happen to groups such as Code Pink if they occupy congressional offices with Republicans in control of the White House, the Congress and the courts? Will they be held for years in pretrial detention? Will they be given lengthy prison terms based on dubious interpretations of the law? Will they be considered domestic terrorists? Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?” (Chris Hedges)

The problem with this that Hedges presents again the notion that an alliance can be built between the right and the left, that some how will negate the very fact that for more four decades now the Right Wing political spectrum has been promoting violence against leftist movements. In Charlottesville ,Va a right-wing supporter ran his car into a peaceful demonstration (NYT Article ). In Portland Oregon during the protests in 2020 the amount of Tear Gas used by the Police so concentrated that it posed a significant long term health risk. Also during the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests, CNN report that an independent study by a Black Lives advocacy coalition known as The Movement for Black Lives, found that the Federal Government targeted 300 protestors and prosecuted them in Federal Court—90% of these cases could been charged in state courts. “and that in 88% of those cases, the federal charges carried more severe penalties than similar state charges”(CNN). Further more during the same period Donald Trump sent more than 1,600 National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C. in response to the BLM protests of 2020. There can also be strong contrast drawn between the results of the killing protestors for the Right Wing assailants compared to their left wing counter parts. Texas Governor Abbott has just pardoned a US Army Sargent for the killing of a BLM protester in 2020. Where as the left wing protester that was suspected of killing a right-wing protester was shot while being apprehended in Oregon by law enforcement in 2020. Not to mention the fact that in states like Oklahoma , Iowa, Texas, and Florida the Republican Governors have gone out to of their way to make Protesting illegal with laws criminalizing the blocking of streets and immunizing the intentional running over of protestors once you claim self defense. All of these little things were left out of Hedge’s plea to understand the Right-Wing’s grievance mythology and accept them as an ally against the Government and Corporations is in my opinion greatly misguided. The forces on the right of our our political spectrum have been more than willing to present propaganda and false views that paint the struggle between the left and right as dire conflict at the existential level. This passage I was sent from a source of Survivalists shows how the average right winger I feel views anything remotely socialistic in nature:

Survivalists From Survivialist Website

Survivalist From A Survivalist Website

It has dawned on me that Hedges probably doesn’t actually interact with these types of people all that much. I know Hedges loves to talk about his extreme-right wing family in the hinterland of Maine—but, that doesn’t mean real and meaningful interactions. Hedges’ belief that some how the left and right can come together and stand as one against the modern Corporate Capture of the Government is as optimistic as the early socialists of 1848-9 when they revolted in Europe. A revolt that was torn asunder by the fact the working class and the petit Bourgeois fundamentally had a completely different world view and thus saw themselves not even as allies of convenience but the working class was merely the cudgel the Bourgeois could employ to muscle their way into the halls of power. And the same is true for the modern equivalent the Libertarian party. The problem is that Hedges is constructing a new meta-narrative for the left and the right— one where even the most egregious ideas of the of the right-wing can be over looked and even white washed by claiming the that fault is born not by the actor but the government. As Hedges does in this passage in his article “Lynching the Deplorables”:

“Even the charges against Rhodes, who faces 20 years in prison, and other militia leaders of groups such as the Proud Boys are problematic. The New York Times reported that, “despite the vast amount of evidence the government collected in the case — including more than 500,000 encrypted text messages — investigators never found a smoking gun that conclusively showed the Proud Boys plotted to help President Donald J. Trump remain in office.” The government has relied on the testimony of a former Proud Boy, Jeremy Bertino, who is cooperating with prosecutors to build an “inferential case” against Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, the five defendants in the current Proud Boy case. Bertino, on cross-examination, admitted that in previous interviews with the government, he repeatedly told investigators that the Proud Boys did not have an explicit plan to halt the election certification and that he did not anticipate acts of violence on Jan. 6. The FBI had as many as eight informants in the Proud Boys that included its leader, Enrique Tarrio, during the storming of the Capitol, raising the very real possibility of entrapment.” (Chris Hedges)

This sort of argument here is interesting because Hedges claims that a direct link between the problematic Proud Boys and then President Trump must exist to conclude, that the Proud Boys plotted to install Trump for a second term in the Oval Office. And that is true if you want to prove that Trump was complicit with the Proud Boys’ operations. However, if you want to prove only that Proud Boys’ wanted to alter the out come of the January 6th Presidential Election results; than it is not at all necessary that the conspiracy includes the President. However, even if the majority of the Proud Boys members at the Jan 6th Protest were well intentioned others weren’t like Zachary Rehl who is now being tried for sedition in Federal Court wrote this text to his mother:

"I'm so f---ing proud," Rehl wrote, saying "our raid" of the Capitol had set off events across the country. (Zachary Rehl, Proud Boy)

Evidence like this changes the tenor of the Proud Boys defense, that the January 6th Riot was a spontaneous event unrelated to the protest planned for the same day. Not to mention the Oath Keeper’s leader tweeted out the following statements during the lead up to the protest:

He[Trump] wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying,” Oath Keepers chief Kelly Meggs wrote in a Facebook message. (CBS Reporting)

It is clear that message was received loud and clear by Trump’s intended audience that they were to make their grievances felt in public. One must remember that the impetus of this protest was driven by the false myth that Trump had rightfully won the election. And this same stolen election myth continues to this day and is growing with each new election. An inside source I’ve cultivated on a survivalist-dating site has supplied me with these screen shots showing how persistent this mythology is on the extreme right:

“The left has become largely irrelevant in the U.S. because it is incapable of working with the right,” said Nick Brana, chair of The People’s Party, which organized the rally with libertarians. “It clings to identity politics over jobs, health care, wages and war, and condemns half the country as deplorables.”( Chris Hedges)

Hedges’ beliefs are essentially mainstream views in the extreme right that the Democratic Government is unjustly persecuting not only Trump, but Trump followers as well. This is coupled to views about what exactly has been occurring in our society over the last 30 years with a shift towards Socialism. The irony is that Hedges has maintained himself that he would not organize with these types of people:

“This does not mean that there are no red lines: I would not join a protest that included neo-Nazi groups such as Aryan Nations or militias such as The Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.” (Chris Hedges)

But, can we take Hedges seriously at this point? Hedge’s new tactics reminds me when the LaRoche Movement (which is also part of the New Libertarian Movements and was part of the rally “Rage Against The War Machine Rally in February of this year) decided to join forces with a Klu Klux Klan and other white supremacists to win over the day.

Lyndon LaRouche And The New American Fascists , By Dennis King

Dennis King wrote an excellent book [Lyndon LaRouche And The New American Fascists, Double Day ] about the history of the LaRouche movement in 1989, this passage taken from the chapter “The Jewish Question” highlights the dangers of accepting a so-called tactical alliance with ultra-right wing groups. King outlines that LaRouche sold the project with same rhetoric Hedges and people like Nick Brana have as a policy to“cooperate with the Right to defeat this common enemy”; but all to often the process ends with the right wing groups coopting their more trusting and sincere left-groups instead of fighting against the perceived common enemies. In Hedges’ case at this point in time I’m not certain that Hedges’ isn’t very sympathetic to these right-wing groups in some bizarre way.

There was much in the anti-war movement that he [Hedge’s Father] and other members of the religious group opposed, from the Yippies — who put forward a 145-pound pig named Pigasus the Immortal as a presidential candidate in 1968 — to groups such as the Weather Underground that embraced violence. He and the other clergy disliked the widespread drug use and propensity of some protestors to insult and bait the police. They had little in common with the Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists and Trotskyites within the movement. Daniel Berrigan, one of the most important anti-war activists in American history who was constantly in and out of jail and spent two years in federal prison, opposed abortion — a stance that today would probably see him deplatformed by many on the left. These clergy understood that the masters of war were their real enemies. They understood that the success of the anti-war movement meant forming alliances with people whose ideologies and beliefs were far removed from their pacifism, abstemious lifestyles and Christian faith. (Chris Hedges)

The irony of this statement from Hedges about is father is that Rage Against The War Machine Rally actually wasn’t so much about anti- war as it was about Anti-US policy towards the Ukraine. One of the promoted speakers was Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard (US. National Guard , active) who just within the last 2 years has come back from a deployment in Africa with a glowing report about it. Others that were talking about their quasi-involvement in the rally was this genius:

On a right-wing podcast and YouTube account called Patriotic Socialist Front on Youtube Matt Hemibach and other Neo-Nazis talked about how they had moved on from conventional Neo-Nazism to produce something that looks more inclusive in their ideology—but, really isn’t. They frequently made references to things like “White Families” and “The Fourteen Words” all or which indicate to me that their miraculous transformation from White Supremacists to happy Socialists is more talk than any thing else . In many ways it is no different than the nonsense YouTuber and Substack author Haz Al Din aka Infrared has created with “MAGACommunism” that presents itself as also being a more inclusive version of the right-wing ideology for the current working class discontent.

The word Fascism today, means malign sovereignty: Sovereignty that is misaligned, unaligned, or even nonaligned with the American unipolar global system. The malign individual is an outlaw, a criminal. The malign sovereign is a Fascist, because their sovereignty used in an illegitimate way. Sovereignty is really a funny word today. Its reality contradicts its technical meaning. The sovereign is not the supreme power. It is subordinated to the open society, or globality. [What Is MAGACommunism Haz, Infrared ]

However, in the end Hedges manages to align himself with members of the extreme-right who are never going to accept anything remotely appearing to be socialist because of his fear of Left Weakness. Hedges’ falsely tries to compare the ideologically different Libertarians and Extreme-Right Wing of the US Political Spectrum as anti-war which is also debatable with the collations of Religious Anti-War protestors and more extreme left anti-war protestors. Or as Chris Richards wrote in his substack “The Eclectic Radial”: “Chris Hedges is comparing the decision of religiously motivated anti-war protesters to join the left-wing peace movement despite disapproving and disagreeing with the anticapitalists on many issues to attending a Nazi rally and supporting Nazi organizations.” There is a clear logic to Richard’s statements that we cannot deny— that for decades the extreme right has been calling anything related to anti-capitalism or socialism as being in fact a form of NAZISM—that must be destroyed. Ironically, I too agree that Nazism must be stomped out of existence— I just believe that people like Haz Al Din and his likes are the ones trying to resurrect this belief system from the fringes of the political spectrum and turn it into a main stream idea by subverting the meaning and goals of real socialism. That is why to me these people on the right-wing have been for decades indoctrinated in an ideology that is designed to seek out and destroy any ideology that desires to build an inclusive society. The new Right Wing movement deep inside has been taught to think that Socialism is Nazism and in some strange Double Speak straight out 1984 by Orwell.

The problem is that Hedges is not only giving cover to this double speak about Nazism being freedom and Socialism being Slavery—but, Hedges has spent a good amount of time and digital processing power writing about Trump’s crucifixion. Trump is at the core of this present incarnation of Right-Wing Extremism. As I discovered in my sojourn into the belly of the beast—people that identify as being politically right-wing that are also libertarian feel that Trump is being attacked by a conspiracy being driven by George Soros and others:

Survivalist

Hedges further helped to legitimize these views and even helped to produce sympathy for these extremist with this quote:

We are exacerbating the growing tribalism and political antagonisms that will increasingly express themselves through violence. We are complicit, once again, of using the courts to carry out vendettas. We are corroding democratic institutions. We are hardening the ideology and rage of the far-right. We are turning those being hounded to prison into political prisoners and martyrs. We are moving ever closer towards tyranny. ( Lynching the Deplorables)

I cannot accept the false dichotomy that Hedges’ pretends we on the left must accept for change between: Political Martyrdom of the Right Wing Extremists or A Police State. This capitulation to the right is a product of a deep pessimism in the power of the left to organize. Instead Hedges presents this paradoxical argument that presents Trump in many respects as a heterodox presidency:

Donald Trump — facing four government-run investigations, three criminal and one civil, targeting himself and his business — is not being targeted because of his crimes. Nearly every serious crime he is accused of carrying out has been committed by his political rivals. He is being targeted because he is deemed dangerous for hiswillingness, at least rhetorically, to reject the Washington Consensus regarding neoliberal free-market and free-trade policies, as well as the idea that the U.S. should oversee a global empire. He has not only belittled the ruling ideology, but urged his supporters to attack the apparatus that maintains the duopoly by declaring the 2020 election illegitimate.(The Donald Trump Problem)

This quote grossly miss leads the audience into believing that essentially the core of the Right Wing’s extreme positions about Trump being this anti-Political figure are in fact true. That essentially the greatest crime of Trump’s isn’t fraud or other corruptions—but that he wasn’t part of the overall Washington D.C. political establishment. That somehow Trump was going to destabilize these carefully cultivated Washington D.C. power structures with his brash and bold governing style. Nothing further form the truth could be stated: 1) Trump’s free trade policies were exactly what the Government wanted, a conflict with China since a report from World Economic Forum declared US dominance over by 2030; and 2) Trumps attacks on the ruling ideology is also incorrect at no time did Trump challenge US Hegemonic World Dominance if anything the trade war with China was an attempt to restore much of it along with Trump in 2019 ushering in a Defense Spending Budget of $738 Billion.

The slogan “Make America Great Again” was in fact about making America a truly hegemonic power player again even if Trump himself only superficially grasped the full intent of the meaning. And the reason Trump only grasped a small percentage of the meaning of the slogan is that the slogan is not Trump’s creation, but a remake of Reagan’s 1980’s jingoistic call to arms” Let’s Make America Great Again”, for the American Conservative. A call to arms for all of those that felt for too long Liberal Americans, have allowed the nation to fail. These is no doubt that the 1950’s vision that American Conservatives hold onto as being the golden age of modern America, is wrapped up in this slogan. It’s full of understanding that the white citizenry is superior to the minorities, that American Geopolitical Power is absolute, and God has a special place in its heart for Americans. Which is why when one attacks Trump—One is also attacking the avatar of this mythical Colombia personification of America now embodied in the person of Trump.

Which is why Hedges’ defense of Trump being the fighter against the duopoly of power in America plays so well for the extreme right. They already believe that Trump and in extension themselves are persecuted members of society. That a vast liberal conspiracy that underpins their ideological goals has been present since the FBI and ATF’s mishandling of the Ruby Ridge and Branch Dividians events. These two events have done more to motivate and recruit members to the fringe right extremes than anything else up to the January 6th riot. As these comments I was forwarded form a source in a survivalist community about the attack on Waco more than 25 years ago demonstrate:

Member of a Survivalist Community

Trump played these anti-Government grievances brilliantly in his first campaign to energize the extreme fringe of American politics with open sexism, racism, anti-immigration, and American Bravado. These were rallying cries to a certain sub-set of groups in the political spectrum that have been languishing in obscurity for decades since the Civil Rights Movement put a nice veneer of civility on our society. These groups like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and more have been successful in infiltrating our state, local, and Federal political candidates—such as the Alaskan Rep. David Eastman who was on trial recently due to his involvement with the Oath Keepers and his support of the Capitol Riot in 2020. Furthermore, Hedges neglects to speak about the overarching problem of these groups being a core element in the Trump Problem. Instead Hedges makes sure to feed these masses with their favorite brand of liberal conspiracy:

The Manhattan district attorney has been investigating the $130,000 Trump used to pay off the porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom Trump allegedly had a sexual relationship. This payment was misreported in the Trump Organization’s records as a legal retainer in violation of campaign finance laws. (The Donald Trump Problem)

And

Last year, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC agreed to pay a fine of $8,000 and $105,000 respectively, for mislabelling a $175,000 expenditure on opposition research, namely the long-discredited “Steele Dossier,” as “legal expenses.” The improper retention of classified documents has typically resulted in a slap on the wrist when other powerful politicians have been investigated. Clinton, for example, usedprivate email servers instead of a government email account when she was secretary of state. The FBI concluded that she sent and received materials classified as top secret on her private server. Ultimately, FBI director James Comey declined to prosecute her. Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence and Biden also had classified documents at their homes, though we are told this may have been “inadvertent.” The discovery of these classified documents, rather than triggering outrage in most of the media, initiated a conversation about “overclassification.” Former CIA director David Petraeus was given two years probation and a $100,000 fine after he admitted to providing highly classified “black books” that contained handwritten classified notes about official meetings, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and the names of covert officers to his lover, Paula Broadwell, who was also writing a fawning biography of Petraeus. (The Donald Trump Problem)

In each of these passages by Hedges the core message is the same that Trump while problematic is functioning in the same fashion liberals are are doing. That the cases as being treated as equivalent in nature is extremely problematic. First off Hedges goes to a great deal to make sure the reader sees “Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign” and “The DNC” as being equivalent to Donald Trump who is being personally linked to the campaign filling errors that have lead to a fraud case. This is huge difference in the first case we are looking a broadly a the party and the campaign as a whole or more specifically to the linked documents one Elizabeth Jones as Treasurer of the Campaign is the only person named in violation of any code in this statement that Hedges Provides:

This is in reference to the complaint you filed with the Federal Election Commission on September 2, 2018, concerning the above-captioned respondents. After conducting an investigation in this matter, the Commission found probable cause to believe that the DNC Services Corp./Democratic National Committee and Virginia McGregor in her official capacity as treasurer (the “DNC”) violated 52 U.S.C. § 30104(b)(5)(A) and (b)(6)(B)(v) and 11 C.F.R. § 104.3(b)(3)(i). The Commission further found probable cause to believe that Hillary for America and Elizabeth Jones in her official capacity as treasurer (“HFA”) violated 52 U.S.C.

§ 30104(b)(5)(A) and 11 C.F.R. § 104.3(b)(4)(i). On February 17, 2022, signed conciliation agreements with the DNC and HFA were accepted by the Commission. (Federal Election Commission)

This is important because further creates the sense of conspiracy on the part of the Clintons’ [I’m not a supporter of] which has been a cottage industry on the right for three decades now to malign the left-movement(which the Clintons’ are not part of ) with everything from Pizzagate to the Clinton body count conspiracy of Linda Thompson. And while I agree with Hedges we need to prosecute more political figures for corruption on any any scale to the fullest extent of the law. I don’t believe we should even be continuing to go down this dangerous road he does with feeding into the political right’s over zealous need to construct these elaborate conspiracies that will only in the end be used to justify movements like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

No, I disagree with Hedges completely here that trying to create this false equivalency between the deeds of Trump and the Clintons are equal will only further flame these extremists with no rewards for the left. Hedges most dangerous statement in all of these quotes is the following: “Clinton, for example, used private email servers instead of a government email account when she was secretary of state. The FBI concluded that she sent and received materials classified as top secret on her private server. Ultimately, FBI director James Comey declined to prosecute her” (Hedges). This statement plays into the already perceived notion that the government is captured by leftist groups as presented in this screenshot of comments by survivalists who identify as libertarians:

At this point I am not at all convinced that Hedges couldn’t as easily fit his brand of politics nicely into community survivalists I wrote about in my last article “Beware Of Land Mines”; where I detail my attempt to see what right-wing libertarian survivalists can and will allow in their online communities. I can tell you this most of what Hedges has written in these articles dovetails nicely with these extremists positions about government, Trump, and the January 6th Riot. And for Hedges to present these sort of arguments as cogent is extremely surprising to me. I would have hoped he would have seen the potential of the Trump prosecution as being a watershed moment for anti-corruption District Attorneys to use as a means to root corruption at all levels of government for present or former officials. However, that is not the case. And instead we get Hedges pretending that we should embrace these individuals even though they would rather see the left destroyed and an oppressive right-wing government installed.