“Screw the optics,” and other dangers of the anti-“cultural Marxism” crusade

It is always easy to say that all groups have their fringe and we should not pin the blame for the lone wolf on a whole movement. When, however, the movement lives with its lit match right by the fuse, eventually the game of “optics” will blow up in its face.

This is what has happened for many alt-righters and their cohorts in the conservative Christian world with their fiery crusade against “cultural Marxism,” the “Frankfurt School” conspiracy theory, “Social Justice,” and related themes.

Regular readers will recall our expose on interracial marriage this Spring, as well as my opposition to the fundamentalist-led “Statement on Social Justice.” I have, of course, been widely pilloried by predictable characters and their followers for presenting these views.

Those same characters are all predictably silent now.

Whether we are talking about self-styled missionary Peter Hammond (from my first article) or some of the alt-right proponents behind the anti-“Social Justice” movement, the most common current of thought among most of them and their followers is the “cultural Marxism” and “Frankfurt school” conspiracy theory.

Readers need to be warned that this theory runs deep and wide. This is true in terms of both its scope among these particular movements and the grip with which it can take hold of individual adherents. These realities are included in the very reasons I wrote these exposés. These views are highly emotionally charged. They exacerbate racialist, ethno-nationalist, and cultish tensions. They are ever in danger of lighting the fuse of the next tragedy.

This weekend, we witnessed just how serious it can get. A highly-charged adherent of these views stormed a synagogue and murdered 11 of what he perceived to be co-conspirators in the vast assault on “my people” while shouting, “All Jews must die.”

(Some people think this perpetrator is not an alt-Right conservative because he said he hates Trump. This is not a logical connection. While many alt-Righters and racists would approve of certain policies of Trump, many of the same ones would also categorize him generally as part of the pro-Jewish, bankster, socialist establishment, and see him as part of the larger problem.)

Readers need to know that the “cultural Marxism” and “Frankfurt school” conspiracy theories are at root—one may almost say “by definition”—antisemitic beliefs.

A column in an Australian news outlet places this event in its proper context—a context, you will recognize:

The “Cultural Marxism” thesis is a conspiracy theory concerning an alleged plot supposedly conceived by predominantly Jewish academics associated with the Frankfurt School of social theory and philosophy, who sought to undermine and destroy European Western culture. This plot is said to be achieved through the promotion of equality, human rights, civil rights, feminism, homosexual rights, abortion, multiculturalism, secularism and internationalism. In this way, “Cultural Marxism” is portrayed as the ideological weapon by which “traditional” Western societal values are being undermined, and the resilience of “white people” to stand up for their own traditional culture is being diminished.

In similar fashion, the related concept of “White Genocide” is an allegation of a Jewish plot to “destroy” the European races. The mythology is that the Jews ― along with their lackeys, in the form of other non-whites and leftists ― are plotting a form of racial dilution cum extinction through mass immigration of people of non-European background into “white majority” countries. Those who subscribe to the theory of “White Genocide” believe that in this way, people of ethnic European background will become a minority group, outnumbered and dominated in the countries of Europe, North America and Australasia where once they were a majority of the population. This is the kind of feared replacement that the marchers at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina, in August 2017 were evoking when they chanted, “Jews will not replace us!”

The original popularizer of the label “cultural Marxism” and of the appeal to the alleged dangers of the Frankfurt School is paleoconservative thinker William S. Lind. Among other things, as a regularity in his main lecture on the topic, Lind would make sure to insert that most members of the Frankfurt School of social thought were in fact Jews.

During the Cold War, and before, not only were many Americans overt racists, many of these had integrated their racism with anti-Communism. Race-mixing to them was de facto Marxism. Marxism meant the erasure of all distinctions. This included the necessary mixture of all peoples into one global people. This was seen as an international communist plot. Likewise, anyone who desired in any way to weaken “national” (read: ethno-national) borders was de facto Marxist as well. Many saw “international socialism” as primarily a Jewish plot. This plot, they saw, must be opposed at all costs, even the imposition of a competing socialism that was not internationalist but specifically Nationalist.

Some of these proponents were actually sympathetic with Hitler—and to various degrees. Theoretically, one may say that any version of ethno-nationalism that fights against Communists should be supported. Others may claim Hitler as simply a great Nationalist leader, while giving at least lip-service condemnation to his eugenics and genocide. Still others yet secretly agree that the Jews really are the problem Hitler said they were. They may not agree with the Final Solution, but they want some solution. Some, however, do secretly agree.

Some are also not so secret, or at least like Robert Bowers, they crack, and the secret gets spilled, along with a lot of blood. “All Jews must die” was accompanied by a social media post that said, “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

“Optics” here refers the public façade. The reference is to his compatriots who believe like he believes, but keep up a politically correct (enough, anyway) façade, and use code language to keep their secret. Bowers, however, snapped: screw the façade, it’s time for some solution, at least. He was tired of hiding his antisemitic hate behind acceptable conservative and Christian labels. He was tired of playing that game. Fighting “Cultural Marxism” within the system had to give way to some real solution to the real problem.

This is the danger of theological and ideological movements (and their associations) such as I have described and called out in the links above. They are tied to historical and social realities that are far more dangerous than the façade indicates. There is chaos just below the surface. These movements are flirting with fire right near the fuse, and the leadership is either blind or does not care. Both are recipes for a tragedy.

One of the telling (to me) evidences of how widespread these feelings may be is the unimaginable silence against them among so many key conservative Christian leaders. This very well may be an indication that there is some knowledge that many among the donor base of many organizations still hold anti-miscegenation, racist, or anti-Jewish sentiments. Speaking out against these topics would mean a blow to the flow of funds from so many traditionally conservative readers.

Hitting close to home

When I published on interracial marriage last March, one of the secondary goals was to alert readers to the views of Peter Hammond because he would be speaking at a conference I had attended the previous year. Both attendees and organizers of the event needed to know about this. The organizers nevertheless dug in their heels and made no change. It seems now in hindsight that they were not only aware but comfortable with his views. But it gets worse.

Since last March, it has become common knowledge that in addition to his anti-miscegenation views and anti-cultural Marxism rants, Mr. Hammond shares much more deeply in that code-worded universe and worldview. He has for some time now been a regular guest on openly Neo-Nazi podcasts, and speaks largely in concert and agreement with them. Jews are bad; Hitler was not such a bad guy.

Here is an excerpt from one such podcast:

Host: “White people want strong leaders, and they want leaders that do what they say they are going to do.”

Peter Hammond: “Yeah.”

Host: “From what I can see, the only guy that we’ve had in the last hundred years who’s done that has been Adolph Hitler.”

Hammond: “That is why he is the most hated . . . oh . . . he’s the second-most hated person in the world. The person that the Jews hate the most is Jesus Christ. I mean, he gets blasphemed in how many Hollywood films morning, noon, and night. But Adolph Hitler has got to be the second-most hated person in all of history—by the Jews, that is—because their media puts so much effort into fighting Adolph Hitler, and depicting him in a real caricature without any regard to his real accomplishments.”

Hammond laments the fall of the West from being “Anglo-Saxon dominated” to a multicultural “mess.” This is the result, in his mind, of a crusade led by Jews:

You can see the birth rate of Europe has plummeted because the promotion of everything that the Jews are involved in, like pornography, prostitution, immorality, homosexuality, the whole deal, all the sterilizations, abortions, and so on. . . .

These people who crucified Christ, let’s face it, and have been the biggest persecutors of Christian through the ages, are also the biggest promotors of pornography and of the homosexual lesbian agenda and of the New World Order. And you think, why? . . . They say, ‘We hate Christ. We hate the Church. We hate Christians. We think that, you know . . .’ They’ll particularly say, you know, ‘You Nordic, Anglo-Saxon bitches, we want to. . . .’ and they use all their swear words because what they want is they want to defile the Western Christian culture and they want it all to become debased.

And you can see this even in what is written in the Talmud, and many Jewish publications about Jesus. They use words like this: he is the bastard son of that whore Mary, and worse, I mean, I’m not even going to quote all of it. That’s the mentality: they hate Christ. They hate Christians. They hate the white western people.

And so the amount of white, western Christians who are falling over themselves to try and make friends with the Jews, they kind of missed the fact that it doesn’t matter what you do, until you commit suicide, they are not going to be satisfied. They want you to fall off the face. . . . and then, they don’t just want you dead, they want you in hell. They talk about Jesus being burned in boiling excrement in hell forever. And that’s what they want to see. That’s their picture of Christ. They want to see him burning in boiling excrement in hell forever. And that’s what they want of us.

They don’t just want to damn your country, your heritage, your history, defile you. They want to damn you for eternity. That’s how intense the hatred is of these enemies of western Christian civilization.

(For a longer, more detailed expose on these and other points, go here.)

Again, the “they” in all these charged rants are “the Jews.” Understand this type of unhinged conspiratorial nonsense and you can easily understand Robert Bowers. You will immediately understand the theological, social, and psychological forces that drive antisemitic, racist, serial killer-terrorists. The only thing between this worldview and a Robert Bowers is, “Screw your optics. . . .”

The optics, by the way, are provided by the “almost there” Christian leaders who invite the likes of Hammond to speak at their conferences, justifying themselves with a dozen folds of the façade. He’s not that bad. The critics are “bullies” trying to intimidate us. They’ve sold out to “cultural Marxism.” Don’t they know about the “Frankfurt school”? Hasn’t our guy said he disapproves of violence? Isn’t that enough for you? Let’s not be intimidated by liberal propaganda. We stand firm. We won’t be pushed around. Don’t force your “white guilt” on us.

These and much more make up the “optics.” At some point, someone within the ranks will snap. They will lash out and kill those they believe are the conspirators. It’s a step away; and it is the obligation of all of us Christian leaders—especially those closer that worldview—do draw clear lines publicly and denounce the hateful doctrines at the root of the problem. Otherwise, how can you escape some responsibility before God?

This is also the great danger with movements against undefined labels like “Social Justice,” polarizing and demonizing those who fall under your condemnation. When the day comes that your match gets too close to that fuse, you have some responsibility in the mess that follows.

I never saw how widespread and deep a problem this truly was until I wrote The Problem of Slavery in Christian America. Not only did I learn quite a bit about it while writing, but the nature of the negative response to that book has only piled evidence upon evidence. I have been informed that, among other things, the entire transatlantic slave trade was a Jewish plot, as was all the resulting turmoil on both sides of the Civil War. That’s just the antisemitic stuff. Since then, I have been awakened to how broadly it really goes. Again, when will more Christian leaders speak out?