The Guardian has identified a trainee nurse and reported US air force reservist called Bailey Ross as the proprietor of a white nationalist publisher in South Dakota.
Ross was also a paid-up member of a white nationalist organization that marched at Charlottesville while enlisted in the United States Coast Guard.
Ross’s company, Agartha Publishing, is part of a wave of extremist publishers using mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon to sell lavishly repackaged fascist and anti-communist books.
The armed forces and police are lousy with racists and fascists. There is a culture in both professions of protecting racists and fascists from accountability.
From the light googling I did, the military is less bigoted and extreme than the general population. So, while I would never suggest there aren’t any fascists in the military, do you have any data that says there’s more than a representative amount compared to the rest of the country? If not, what makes you believe that the military is pro-fascism?
While I respect npr somewhat, I have to push back and say I personally don’t find it surprising that the military and other forms of institutionalized violence like the police are not prone to what the media, and by extension, the general public in the US term “extremism”.
Extremism is a relativistic term based off of what is socially accepted at the time. The less socially accepted an act or expressed thought is and the more challenging that act/thought is to the social paradigms in place, the more likely it is that said thought will be painted as extremism and thereby carry a negative connotation.
History repeatedly points to riots and militancy among protest movements as indicating symptoms of a society not representing the interests of particular communities, AND the socially acceptable means of changing their situation proving ineffective.
Militaries and police have historically AT BEST stood by while waiting for fascists/racists/homophobics/nationalists or antifascists/socialists/anarchists to throw the first blow BECAUSE their interests lie only in “maintaining order” and “preserving the peace.”
HOWEVER, I might point out that fascists are far more likely to engage in violence than antifascists. And more poignantly fascists are often prone to using the rhetoric of the police and military, often referring to themselves as wanting to restore order and claiming to only desire.
This is not a mistake. They are courting, often successfully, the police and military to their cause.
Indeed I’d argue that fascism is the immune response of capitalism dating back to its proto-inception when former white slave holders became indignant at the federal laws no longer reflecting their values, and failing to legally protect their right to their “property”. I’d expound on this, but this post is already obviously overly lengthy, so I’ll get to the point.
The police and military are the only institutions our society imbues with socially acceptable and legally defended violence. They supposedly are there to protect the people of a society and the institutions that ensure the longevity of that society, aka the nation. But I’d posit that the police and military have NEVER been in place to protect the people, nor its institutions, even from their earliest inceptions in ANY nation.
Instead they are here to protect and fight for PROPERTY, which capitalists have historically overtly seen PEOPLE as property. One might argue that it is less overt today, but even if that were true, that is a PROBLEM that capitalists want to SOLVE. Because if a PERSON claims they are NOT property, then of what use are they to the capitalist?
So when the police and military AT BEST sit idly by while fascists infect societies across the globe, in all aspects of life, and paint those who are ACTUALLY standing up to them as extremists, I personally would say that the military and police have not failed their people, but that’s only because they were never here for the people in the first place.
To be very clear, I personally think that if you’re a fascist or a fascist sympathizer, then you should not be afforded any rights under the law. Your beliefs are so toxic to society, they are a cancer, and the treatment is nothing short of a death sentence. And if the police and military are unwilling to be part of the cure, then they are part of the cancer.
This is a very, very troubling stance. Imagine, for a moment, that some unnamed, but generally orange-hued person was president and the law of the land was that fascists and fascist sympathizers were not afforded any rights under the law. Holy hell.
Do you really hold this view, or are you just being dramatic?
I actually hold this view. Time and again fascists have infected societies the world over and because capitalism thrives on oppressing some people (usually minorities and immigrants), fascists have been happy to have capitalists simply point a finger to the soon to be opressed, and the military and police, themselves beneficiaries of capitalism, are incentivized to go along.
Oh, I see now. Capitalism.
Do you consider yourself an extremist?
I think the general society I live in today would consider my viewpoints extreme, but I would not label myself an extremist, no. I don’t think most people think their own ideologies as being extreme.
Isn’t society in general the best judge of what is or is not extreme, considering that, as you say, it’s a relative description?
That depends on whether “best” is moral, which are often conflated as being the same thing. Antifascists were considered extremists in Nazi Germany and Italy by the general society, but for hopefully obvious reasons, you can see that Antifascism was a moral and logical response rooted in the survival of those they were persecuting.
I think we’re dealing with semantics here.
The military prefers and encourages authoritarian sympathies.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
The uniforms, standing in lines, getting yelled at, yes sir no sir, saluting superiors, following orders.
That’s the authoritarian state of mind. A lot of people find comfort in being told what to do. The military molds recruits to respect and follow authority.
Have you been in the military? You are describing boot camp and movies, from my experience in the Navy. Maybe it’s different in other branches but I suspect not.
Also, none of that has anything to do with authoritarianism.
Well I guess you don’t know what the word authoritarian means because the military is an authoritarian institution by definition and in practice.
This is the part where you define what you think authoritarianism is, and how that equates to using titles and wearing uniforms.
Nah I’m not your daddy or your teacher. I did my time.