Key Thinkers of the Radical Right

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by Mark Sedgwick (ed)


  forge relationships and ways of living that embody their principles. This

  involves some efforts to make its communities economically and finan-

  cially self- reliant. The Wolves has little or no interest in political activism

  in the conventional sense.48

  Conclusion

  Through his writings, his organizational activities, and most recently his

  aggressive use of his own physical image, Jack Donovan has contributed

  an important strand to right- wing politics. His doctrine of male tribalism

  evokes powerful themes of violence and community, of embracing and

  overcoming danger, of reaffirming manhood and restoring it to domi-

  nance. Male tribalism offers a critique of the status quo and a vision of

  the future that is just as sweeping and systematic as the Christian Right’s

  gender ideology, and that is complementary to white nationalism but not

  dependent on it.

  Donovan’s work is part of a long- term rightist backlash against the

  rise of feminism. In the past, many rightists accommodated elements of

  feminist politics within a patriarchal framework to help them mobilize

  women, but Donovan, the Alt Right, and the manosphere embody a re-

  cent, harsher trend to vilify women’s political agency or exclude them alto-

  gether. This has been coupled with moves among some rightist networks

  to accept or even welcome homosexual men, and to emphasize secular

  and pagan ideologies over Christianity. All of these trends echo elements

  of classical fascism, and they illustrate the capacity of the Right’s new

  thinkers to rework old political themes in creative ways.

  Notes

  1. Jack Donovan, “The Tribal Mind” (video), speech at National Policy Institute

  Conference, October 31, 2015, YouTube, https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=

  TNrsXtQWRJM.

  2. Some passages in this chapter appear in different form in Insurgent Supremacists: The

  U. S. Far Right’s Challenge to State and Empire (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2018);

  “Ctrl- Alt- Delete: The Origins and Ideology of the Alternative Right,” Political

  Research Associates, January 20, 2017, http:// www.politicalresearch.org/ 2017/

  01/ 20/ ctrl- alt- delete- report- on- the- alternative- right/ #sthash.59B4l69h.1JRopEJI.

  dpbs; or “Jack Donovan on Men: A Masculine Tribalism for the Far Right,” Three

  25

  Jack Donovan and Male Tribalism

  255

  Way Fight (blog), November 23, 2015, http:// threewayfight.blogspot.com/ 2015/

  11/ jack- donovan- on- men- masculine- tribalism.html.

  3. “About Jack Donovan,” Jack Donovan (website), archived May 10, 2011, https://

  web.archive.org/ web/ 20110510212918/ http:// www.jack- donovan.com:80/ axis/

  bio/ .

  4. See bibliography for a list of Donovan’s books.

  5. Chip Smith, “The First Rule of Androphilia: An Interview with Jack Malebranche,”

  The Hoover Hog, January 2009.

  6. Jack Donovan, “A Time for Wolves,” Jack Donovan, June 14, 2014, http:// www.

  jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2014/ 06/ a- time- for- wolves/ ; “The Wolves of Vinland: A Fascist Countercultural ‘Tribe’ in the Pacific Northwest,” Rose City Antifa,

  November 7, 2016, http:// rosecityantifa.org/ articles/ the- wolves- of- vinland- a-

  fascist- countercultural- tribe- in- the- pacific- northwest/ .

  7. Smith, “First Rule of Androphilia.”

  8. Jack Donovan, The Way of Men (Milwaukie, OR: Dissonant Hum, 2012), 3.

  9. Ibid., 19.

  10. Ibid., 139.

  11. Ibid., 138.

  12. Jack Donovan, “No Man’s Land: Masculinity Maligned, Reimagined,” Jack

  Donovan, 2011, http:// www.jack- donovan.com/ axis/ no- mans- land/ .

  13. Jack Donovan, “The Brotherhood,” A Sky Without Eagles (Milwaukie,

  OR: Dissonant Hum, 2014), 153– 167; quotations are from pages 161, 162,

  and 158.

  14. Ibid., 156.

  15. Ibid.,166– 167.

  16. Jef Costello, review of A Sky Without Eagles by Jack Donovan, Counter- Currents,

  July 2014, http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2014/ 07/ jack- donovans- a- sky-

  without- eagles/ .

  17. Jack Donovan, “A Tribe Among the Trees: Ernst Jünger’s The Forest Passage,”

  Counter- Currents, June 30, 2014, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2014/ 06/

  a- tribe- among- the- trees/ .

  18. Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier, “Manifesto of the French New

  Right in Year 2000,” New European Conservative (website), undated, https://

  neweuropeanconservative.files.wordpress.com/ 2012/ 10/ manifesto- of- the-

  french- new- right1.pdf; Donovan, “The Moral Gear Shift,” in Becoming a Barbarian.

  19. Jack Donovan, “Paleofuturism for the Man; Archeofuturism for the People,”

  Counter- Currents, November 2013, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2013/

  11/ paleofuturism- for- the- man- archeofuturism- for- the- people/ .

  20. F. T. Marinetti, “The Futurist Manifesto” (1909), in Three Intellectuals in Politics,

  by James Joll (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960), 182.

  25

  6

  256

  E M E R G E N T T H I N K E R S

  21. Jack Donovan, “Anarcho- Fascism,” Jack Donovan, March 3, 2013, archived

  March 31, 2017, at https:// web.archive.org/ web/ 20170331060008/ http:// www.

  jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2013/ 03/ anarcho- fascism/ .

  22. Jack Donovan, “The Empire of Nothing” and “The Mother of Exiles,” in Becoming

  a Barbarian.

  23. Jack Donovan, “Becoming the New Barbarians,” Radix, December 23, 2013,

  archived February 9, 2014, at https:// web.archive.org/ web/ 20140209144417/

  http:// www.radixjournal.com/ journal/ becoming- the- new- barbarians.

  24. Jack Donovan, “The Bright Side of Illegal Immigration,” Jack Donovan,

  November 13, 2012, archived November 15, 2012, at https:// web.archive.org/

  web/ 20121115235941/ http:// www.jack- donovan.com:80/ axis/ 2012/ 11/ the-

  bright- side- of- illegal- immigration/ .

  25. Donovan, “Becoming the New Barbarians.”

  26. Donovan, Way of Men, 165, 158.

  27. Jack Donovan, “Long Live the Manosphere,” Jack Donovan, September 9, 2012,

  archived June 17, 2013, at https:// web.archive.org/ web/ 20130617174230/ http://

  www.jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2012/ 09/ long- live- the- manosphere/ .

  28.

  On Gamergate, see Amanda Marcotte, “Gaming Misogyny Gets

  Infinite Lives,” Daily Beast, August 22, 2014, http:// www.thedailybeast.

  com/ gaming- misogyny- gets- infinite- lives- zoe- quinn- virtual- rape- and-

  sexism; Stephen Totilo, “Another Woman in Gaming Flees Home Following Death Threats,” Kotaku, October 11, 2014, http:// kotaku.com/

  another- woman- in- gaming- flees- home- following- death- thre- 1645280338.

  29. Keyword searches for “Jack Donovan” performed on The Anti- Feminist (http://

  theantifeminist.com), Chateau Heartiste (https:// heartiste.wordpress.com/ ),

  The Counter- Feminist (http:// counterfem.blogspot.com/ ), and Vox Popoli (http://

  voxday.blogspot.com/ ) returned no results.

  30. Roosh V [Daryush Valizadeh], Comment on “Jack Donovan” thread, Roosh V

  Forum, November 16, 2012, https:// www.rooshvforum.com/ thread- 17870.html;

  Paul Elam, “What the Fuck is Wrong with Jack Donovan?” A Voice for Men,

  January 20, 2
011, https:// www.avoiceformen.com/ miscellaneous/ what- the-

  fuck- is- wrong- with- jack- donovan/ .

  31. Donovan, Way of Men, 169– 170.

  32. Quoted in Matthew N. Lyons, “AlternativeRight.com: Paleoconservatism for

  the 21st Century,” Three Way Fight, September 10, 2010, http:// threewayfight.

  blogspot.com/ 2010/ 09/ alternativerightcom- paleoconservatism.html.

  33. Matt Parrott, “Where the White Women At,” Traditionalist Worker Party

  (website), April 13, 2015, https:// www.tradworker.org/ 2015/ 04/ where- the-

  white- women- at/ ; Danielle Paquette, “The Alt- Right Isn’t Only about White Supremacy. It’s about White Male Supremacy.” Chicago Tribune, November

  25, 2016, https:// www.washingtonpost.com/ news/ wonk/ wp/ 2016/ 11/ 25/

  257

  Jack Donovan and Male Tribalism

  257

  the- alt- right- isnt- just- about- white- supremacy- its- about- white- male- supremacy/

  ?utm_ term=.273dff8917cb.

  34. “Pseudomen in White Nationalism,” West’s Darkest Hour (blog), March 26, 2012,

  https:// chechar.wordpress.com/ 2012/ 03/ 26/ pseudo- men- in- white- nationalism/ ; Ari Feldman, “Can The ‘Alt- Right’ Distance Itself from Neo- Nazis?” Forward,

  August 31, 2016, http:// forward.com/ news/ national/ 348366/ can- the- alt- right-

  distance- itself- from- neo- nazis/ .

  35. Greg Johnson, “Homosexuality and White Nationalism,” Counter- Currents,

  October 2010, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2010/ 10/ homosexuality- and-

  white- nationalism/ ; “The Homo & the Negro: Masculinist Meditations on Politics and Popular Culture, by James O’Meara” (book notice), Counter- Currents, 2012,

  https:// www.counter- currents.com/ the- homo- and- the- negro/ ; “A Chorus of Violence: Jack Donovan and the Organizing Power of Male Supremacy,” Southern

  Poverty Law Center, March 27, 2017, https:// www.splcenter.org/ hatewatch/

  2017/ 03/ 27/ chorus- violence- jack- donovan- and- organizing- power- male-

  supremacy; Hunter Wallace [Brad Griffin], “Review: 2014 American Renaissance Conference,” Occidental Dissent, April 28, 2014, http:// www.occidentaldissent.

  com/ 2014/ 04/ 28/ review- 2014- american- renaissance- conference/ .

  36. Jack Donovan, “No One Will Ever Make America Great Again.” Jack Donovan,

  July 7, 2016, http:// www.jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2016/ 07/ no- one- will- ever- make-

  america- great- again/ ; on the Alt right’s responses to Donald Trump, see Lyons,

  “Ctrl- Alt- Delete.”

  37. Jack Donovan, “Mighty White,” Jack Donovan, December 18, 2011, http:// www.

  jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2011/ 12/ mighty- white/ .

  38. Jack Donovan, “Why I Am Not a White Nationalist,” Jack Donovan, May 31, 2017

  (updated August 19, 2017), https:// www.jack- donovan.com/ axis/ 2017/ 05/ why- i-

  am- not- a- white- nationalist/ .

  39. Greg Johnson, “A Reply to Jack Donovan,” Counter- Currents, June 2017, https://

  www.counter- currents.com/ 2017/ 06/ a- reply- to- jack- donovan/ .

  40. Donovan, “Why I Am Not a White Nationalist”; Richard Spencer, “What It

  Means To Be Alt- Right,” AltRight.com, August 11, 2017, https:// altright.com/

  2017/ 08/ 11/ what- it- means- to- be- alt- right/ .

  41. Donovan, “Time for Wolves.”

  42. Maureen O’Connor, “The Philosophical Fascists of the Gay Alt- Right,” The Cut,

  April 30, 2017, https:// www.thecut.com/ 2017/ 04/ jack- donovan- philosophical-

  fascists- of- the- gay- alt- right.html.

  43. “The Wolves of Vinland.”

  44. “Greg Johnson Interviews Paul Waggener,” Counter - Currents, February 2016,

  https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2016/ 02/ greg- johnson- interviews- paul-

  waggener- 2/ .

  45. Donovan, “Time for Wolves.”

  258

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  46. “Greg Johnson Interviews Paul Waggener.”

  47. “Wolves of Vinland.” See also the Operation Werewolf website at http:// www.

  operationwerewolf.com/ and the Jack Donovan website at http:// www.jack-

  donovan.com/ axis/ , as well as Jack Donovan’s author page on Facebook at

  https:// www.facebook.com/ author.jack.donovan/ .

  48. “Greg Johnson interviews Paul Waggener.”

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  Daniel Friberg and Metapolitics

  in Action

  Benjamin Teitelbaum

  D A N I E L F R I B E R G S P E N T most of his early career as a background figure

  in European white nationalism. If you study an anti- immigrant political

  party, militant organization, think tank, retail outlet, or festival in 1990s

  and early 2000s Sweden you are likely to find his hand in it, and projects

  for which he was centrally responsible later became mainstays for rad-

  ical rightists throughout the globe. Then, as Brexit and the rise of Donald

  Trump focused global media attention on the Right, Friberg emerged

  as one of its international faces. His name began appearing in North

  American and European white nationalist media like Counter- Currents

  and American Renaissance, and he was profiled in mainstream outlets in

  his native Sweden as well as in international publications like International

  Business Times, Buzzfeed, and the Wall Street Journal. The coverage came

  not because of any sensational act or statement on his part, but instead

  due to his slow- moving, steady, and effective efforts to promote antiliberal

  culture and intellectualism. He had assembled a media, literature, and

  music empire whose expansion seemed exponential, always with the goal

  of cultivating a new generation of rightists with tools to challenge the Left

  at the level of ideas. The content of those ideas varied throughout Friberg’s

  career and across his initiatives: for him it is method, rather than ideology,

  that matters most.

  And it has been a particular type of method, one called “metapolitics.”

  The method figured into the activism of many Western antiliberals during

  the early twenty- first century, and for that reason it has been mentioned

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  E M E R G E N T T H I N K E R S

  frequently throughout this book. Defined by Guillaume Faye as the “social

  diffusion of ideas and cultural values for the sake of provoking profound,

  long- term, political transformation,”1 metapolitical campaigning diverges

  from standard activist dualisms of party politics versus militancy. It is

  based on the assumption that meaningful political change originates in

  education, media, and creative expression; parliamentary or revolutionary

  initiatives succeed only when they build upon existing cultural sympathies

  forged in those arenas. Though rooted in the thinking of neo- Marxist

  Antonio Gramsci, metapolitics as a theorized concept entered the radical

  Right via the French New Right.2 Daniel Friberg, however, emerged as its

  foremost strategist and implementer.

  This chapter traces Friberg’s life, thought, and activism. It investigates

  a plurality of initiatives and projects rather than a single opus.

  Metapolitical activism typically strives to saturate multiple discursive

  arenas, subcultures, and expressive forms with its radical message, and,

  following that logic, Friberg’s work cannot be jus
tifiably localized to any

  one format or product. I trace in broadly chronological order his creation

  of magazines and newspapers; literature and music production firms; on-

  line communities; blog and media portals; annual seminars and festivals;

  online encyclopedias; and his own authored literature. To help make sense

  of these projects and to gain a broader view of their trajectory and signif-

  icance, I highlight those instances where Friberg describes his broader

  strategy. Seldom have those statements come in formal settings: as he

  told me once, “metapolitics works best when people don’t know you’re

  shaping the way they think.”3 Instead, I find this material in interviews

  he held with journalists and colleagues, as well as with me. And we have

  spoken often. I have followed Friberg’s career since I began conducting

  ethnographic research on Nordic nationalists in 2010, and have come to

  know and enjoy him personally— and this despite major differences be-

  tween us.4 I have dined, drunk, and lived with him. Such contact can be

  corrupting; it may make it less likely that I provide a dispassionate account

  of the person, if not the career. But it also provides me uncommon access

  to his criticisms and reflections, which in turn add a dialogic element to

  my account— a feature I welcome as a contrast with the often reflexively

  monophonic nature of commentary on the radical Right.

  Although this chapter discusses the actions of an individual, Friberg’s

  story is in embryo that of the Western radical Right at the turn of the

  twenty- first century. In his journey we find the transition away from a cul-

  tural model based on skinheadism, the strengthening of digital activism,

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  Daniel Friberg and Metapolitics in Action

  261

  the diffusion of French New Right concepts and methods, and the emer-

  gence of a new topography in which activists organize themselves based

  more on medium, forum, and tactic than ideology. But in order to under-

  stand Friberg’s career and how it relates to the broader radical Right, we

  must first explore the practice of metapolitics and the ways it has been

  conceived and implemented as activism.

  Metapolitics

  The emergence of metapolitics as a named, self- conscious practice within

 

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