Yesterday, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch ran an article by journalist Alexander Zaitchik exploring the close connections between fringe history and hate, notably the way that white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and anti-Semites have incorporated claims as wide-ranging as ancient aliens, lost civilizations, and Bible giants into a narrative designed to promote a racist agenda. Zaitchik quotes me as an expert in fringe history’s darker themes, and I am pleased that he made good use of much of the information that I provided about some of the many ways hate groups have employed fringe history to craft narratives of racial supremacy. In lieu of a blog post today, I want to encourage you to read Zaitchik’s article. Much of it will be familiar, but the narrative gains power when so many of the themes we have discussed separately here come together in one place. Benjamin Radford of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry also appears in the article, and he is, if anything, much blunter about the connection between pseudo-history and racism: “Pseudo-histories feed the self-importance and aggrievement of neo-Nazis and alt-right folk. … They feel their rightful place in the world has been denied them — by ‘Big Archeology', by Jews, by an oppressive government.” This echoes quite nicely the article I am currently working on for a British magazine covering the anti-Semitic themes in conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds—conspiracies that also tend to fall along the axis of alt-right and Neo-Nazi supporters, and conspiracies that also cross over into feelings of being disempowered by a vast conspiracy of shady power brokers. The best part must be the discussion of Patrick Chouinard, an advocate of the “ancient Aryan” version of the lost civilization theory. He is torn between his white nationalist beliefs and the fringe’s growing focus on the ancient astronaut theory as the centerpiece of an alternative worldview: “The Jews,” writes Chouinard, “are using … the ancient alien camp to confound our race to the point that we deny our own accomplishments. The White race did not need ancient aliens to build our ancient civilizations, or to found other civilizations in remote corners of the Earth. Our race is capable of so much more.” Given the origins of the ancient astronaut idea in racist Victorian efforts to deny Native people credit for their own cultures and works, there is more than a little irony in a white nationalist trying to stop the ancient astronaut theory from doing the same to white people. Alt-history has become an ouroboros eating its own tail.
16 Comments
Joe Scales
1/4/2018 10:08:03 am
"Zaitchik quotes me as an expert in fringe history’s darker themes, and I am pleased that he made good use of much of the information that I provided about some of the many ways hate groups have employed fringe history to craft narratives of racial supremacy."
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E.P. Grondine
1/4/2018 11:00:05 am
The Nazi belief in a pure Aryan race with a glorious ancient past and distinct genetic history was central to a transatlantic
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Americanfastneutron
1/4/2018 12:59:23 pm
"They need to get their facts straight, as the devil is in the details."
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Americanegro
1/4/2018 04:45:30 pm
The SPLC is itself a hategroup and should be aborted. Remember that guy in DC?
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Butlins holiday
12/30/2018 04:56:51 pm
So what they are saying is wrong then? Is your logic either:
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David
1/4/2018 08:46:43 pm
I think you are right Jason. There is a distinct smell of racism and intentional misrepresentation in the alternative media. Listen Gaia TV producer Jay Weidner singing the praises of President Trump on the Jeff Rense show touting Trump along with Wilcock who has a show on Gaia. Then there is Scott Wolter twisting Native legends to suit his agenda.
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Denise
1/5/2018 03:54:26 pm
I just had a flashback. Waaay back in the 1980s pre-internet, when it seemed that mainly white people reported being abducted. My Friend "Big Ed" gave me this take on it: "Basically Denise all this abduction stuff is mainly rednecks in trailer homes, I believe that it is based in White man's fear that will do to use what we did to the Africans and Indians" His words not mine, but I always wondered if he had something there.
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Denise
1/5/2018 04:08:55 pm
correction: "...white man's fear that aliens will do to us what we did..."
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Americanegro
1/5/2018 11:49:28 pm
Betty and Barney Hill you ignorant sloot.
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Denise
1/6/2018 01:05:12 pm
Notice I said mainly, and the idea was my friend's not mine. 1/5/2018 08:06:26 pm
"notably the way that white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and anti-Semites have incorporated claims as wide-ranging as ancient aliens, lost civilizations, and Bible giants into a narrative designed to promote a racist agenda."
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Butlins holiday
12/30/2018 05:01:16 pm
Who cares what you say without citation? You’re making an unsubstantiated and therefore worthless counter claim.
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Naive
1/6/2018 01:23:22 pm
Are all races equal in every way?
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Butlins holiday
12/30/2018 05:04:24 pm
There is no such thing as race as a way of meaningfully differentiating different interbreeding populations, look up the word ‘deme’ - it’s a valid concept used in population genetics, as opposed to race, which is a political/social construct that reflects economic and social divisions, not biological ones.
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Bezalel
1/6/2018 08:54:40 pm
Choinard....so ignorant. He doesn't yet realize his particular ancestry makes him a descendant of aliens. It is his race who inherited the glory derived from the mighty works of old.
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Indrid Cold
1/9/2018 03:38:42 pm
Great article
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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