Updated: Breivik's Core Thesis is White Christian Nationalism v. Multiculturalism
Since bean-counting matters:
Breivik in his Manifesto, incorporates whole sections of other authors' work. The Manifesto is a compilation and compendium with Breivik's comments, text, and a self-interview included. According to Dennis King, the original party line in the LaRouche cadre organization was set in an essay by LaRouche himself in 1977, "The Case of Walter Lipmann". A long examination of LaRoucher's conspiracy theory appeared as "The New Dark Age: The Frankfurt School and `Political Correctness'" in Fidelio, Vol. 1, No. 1, Winter 1992 (KMW Publishing, Washington, DC). Fidelio was LaRouche's culture and arts magazine. But since LaRouche considers himself an extension of Marx, Marxism itself is not critiqued, but a plot by the Frankfurt School ideologues to create a "New Dark Age" which crushes Christian nations. LaRouche wrote a book: The Science of Christian Economy, and other prison writings, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., 1991, 506 pp, which expanded the framework for the attacks on the Frankfurt School theoreticians. According to scholar Martin Jay, the Frankfurt School has long been a scapeoat for right-wing conspiracy theorists complaining about "political correctness." See: Martin Jay, 2011, "Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe," Salmagundi, 169, (Fall 2010-Winter 2011) in which Jay traces the history of this mania including a discussion of the LaRouche connection. Sarah Posner shows "How Breivik’s 'Cultural Analysis' is Drawn from the “Christian Worldview”The U.S. Christian Right project against Secular Humanism spearheaded by Lind, Weyrich, xenophobic demagogue Pat Buchanan and Christian Right conspiracist Tim LaHaye appears to be aimed at the political Left and US Democratic Party liberals, but dig deeper and it invokes antisemitic tropes among some readers. At first this Christian Right conspiracy claim was linked to godless communism as the puppet-master of secular humanism; and recently it has shifted to a primary linkage with liberals, the Democratic Party, and Islam as a false religion. According to historian of religion George Marsden, the shift in focus from communism to a more generic secular humanist demon: “revitalized fundamentalist conspiracy theory. Fundamentalists always had been alarmed at moral decline within America but often had been vague as to whom, other than the Devil, to blame. The “secular humanist” thesis gave this central concern a clearer focus that was more plausible and of wider appeal than the old mono-causal communist-conspiracy accounts. Communism and socialism could, of course, be fit right into the humanist picture; but so could all the moral and legal changes at home without implausible scenarios of Russian agents infiltrating American schools, government, reform movements, and mainline churches.”[Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, p. 109.] Popular theologian Francis A. Schaeffer helped develop the philosophical arguments for Christians to challenge secular humanism, but he didn’t make it a conspiracy theory. That was the task of Christian Right ideologues such as Tim LaHaye, who wrote series of books in the 1980s that elaborated on the liberal secular humanist conspiracy and how conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists had to become politically active to stop the plot.
So we see whole sectors of the Christian Right seeking political power through various forms of dominionism, and in some cases pursuing a zealous form theocracy. But few conservative Christian evangelicals really want a theocracy, so for us the issue is to find a way to reframe the public political debate to provide room for theological beliefs that we may disagree with, but to make transparent and public the problem of Christian Right leaders using dualistic apocalyptic beliefs and demonizing conspiracy theories as a narrative that trumps actual political debate in the secular arena provided under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. See Gorenberg: Left Behind series. A few years after the LaRouchite article, perhaps around 1997, William S. Lind and Paul Weyrich (unwittingly or wittingly) expanded on the thesis of LaRouche. Much of this discussion appeared on the website of the Free Congress Foundation, but has now been removed. An example of Lind's work is an essay on "What is Cultural Marxism?" According to Lind:
In a circa 1997-1998 essay, Lind writes:
This is almost identical to the core thesis of the Breivik manifesto. This version of Lind's views is currently (as of July 26, 2011) posted as an educartional resource at "The American Conservative Union Foundation: Conservative University: Transfering Conservatism to the Next Generation" as Unmasking Political Correctness by William S. Lind According to Lind, apparently refering to a longer document or periodical:
In February 1999 the late Paul Weyrich, founder of the Free Congress Foundation, wrote a short Manifesto in which he stated, "Those who came up with Political Correctness, which we more accurately call "Cultural Marxism," did so in a deliberate fashion...it is impossible to ignore the fact that the United States is becoming an ideological state [under the] ideology of Political Correctness, which openly calls for the destruction of our traditional culture." The Weyrich statement was mischaracterized as a retreat from the Culture Wars when in fact Weyrich was arguing that Christians stop trying to reform secular society and expand their creation of alternative social, political, and cultural institutions. A longer examonation of Weyrich's work on political correctness is in this post:<a href="http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/7/25/95054/6500/">Breivik 2011 Manifesto Echoes Weyrich 1999 Manifesto</a><br /> A speech by Lind in early 2000, "The Origins of Political Correctness" is posted on the website of Accuracy in Academia:
In his Manifesto's Glossary of Terms, Breivik includes a very large block of text to define in detail the concept of what he calls "Cultural Marxism/multiculturalism:"
In an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism, Tom Walker found that Breivik had actually plagiarised Lind:
Credit: Tom Walker, Ecological Headstand: "Confessions of a Cultural Marxist." I have provided more details on Breivik's reliance on Lind here: Breivik cited William S. Lind, Free Congress Foundation, & the LaRouchites Bits and pieces from a range of authors appear in the Breivik manifesto. In addition a number of authors are mention, quoted, or cited. For example, From the blogger "Fjordman" Breivik includes this sentence: Fjordman's essay is titled: "Who Are We, Who Are Our Enemies - The Cost of Historical Amnesia." And it is posted on Jihad Watch with this phrase: "A new essay from the superbly insightful Fjordman." http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/10/who-are-we-who-are-our-enemies---the-cost-of-historical-amnesia.html Jihad Watch is a project of notes Islamophobe Robert Spencer. According to his official bio on his website:
Islamophobes in the United States are significantly influenced by the late Samuel Huntington's book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The "underlying problem for the West" according to Huntington, "is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power." Samuel P. Huntington, 1997, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York, NY: Touchstone. Moderate Communitarian Amitai Etzioni described Huntington as a "systematic and articulate advocate of nationalism, militaristic regimes, and an earlier America in which there was one homogenous creed and little tolerance for pluralism." But the thesis proposed by Breivik predates the Huntingon thesis (first published in a 1993 Foreign Affairs essay). There are a series of essays about the Oslo terrorism--"Will the Norway Massacre Deflate Europe's Right Wing?" -- at the New York Times blogsite, in which I participated. Important Links, Articles, Updates Norway Terror Suspect Described as Far-Right Nationalist Islamophobe from Accuracy.Org. Has great links to several articles @ChipBerlet: Media lost in Norway suspect's posts. Cultural Marxism (Jewish plot)+White Nationalism+Islamophobia+US Christian Right conspiracy theories (Chip's Tweet) In Europe, Where's the Hate? | The Nation Really compelling article by Gary Younge in 2007. Predictive & sad. Via IREHR: Norway terror suspect "Breivik appears to be a fan of the Tea Party's favorite Islamophobe, Pamela Geller" This link will take you to a Google Translation page of Norway suspect Anders Behring Breivik's comments on Document.no @MaxBlumenthal: Max Blumenthal: Screed blaming Muslims for attack by @jrubinblogger is still up, uncorrected by Washington Post @MaxBlumenthal: Max Blumenthal Pam Geller, who initially blamed the gov of Norway (and Muslims) for oslo attacks, is now insisting that Breivik is not her Fjordman Bill Berkowitz: : Nightmare in Norway and the Threat of Fundamentalist Christian, Blonde, Blue-eyed Terrorists in Our Midst David Neiwert: Norway terrorist Breivik was an ardent subscriber to theories of 'Cultural Marxism' | Crooks and Liars ===============Thanks to several colleagues for sending me tips and links, especially Julie Ingersoll, Devin Burghart, and Bill Berkowitz. =============== [Note: Some sources questioned whether all the political posts circulated in Norway were by Breivik alone. I need to be cautious here, so I investigated and have not included material that is in dispute
Updated: Breivik's Core Thesis is White Christian Nationalism v. Multiculturalism | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
Updated: Breivik's Core Thesis is White Christian Nationalism v. Multiculturalism | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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