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Who are Breivik’s fellow travellers?
By Daniel Trilling Published 18 April 2012
It would have been a lot neater, and no doubt a lot more comforting, if Anders Behring Breivik had been declared too insane to stand trial. The survivors of his massacre would have been spared the sight of Breivik saluting the TV cameras on his way into court and he would not have been able to use the international attention to promote the doctrine that he claims justified the killings.
In a short film played to the court on the first day of the trial, Breivik set out his theory that western civilisation was under attack from multiculturalism, an “anti-European hate ideology” orchestrated by “cultural Marxists”, who had encouraged the Islamic “colonisation” of Europe in order to destroy traditional Christian values.
Taken in isolation, his views do seem like a paranoid delusion – and that is perhaps why an initial psychiatric report declared Breivik to be suffering from schizophrenia. Yet if the beliefs he claims to hold really are delusional, then the frightening thing is that they did not spring forth from a single, deranged mind: they represent a far-right ideology shared by groups across Europe and the US.
Breivik claimed to be part of the “counter-jihad” movement, a network of bloggers and political activists who believe that Muslim immigrants threaten not only violence but “demographic jihad”, simply by living here and having children. These ideas have inspired a new wave of far-right movements, chief among them being the English Defence League.
The leaders of this street protest group, which emerged in 2009, are Breivik’s ideological cousins: its principal spokesman, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who goes by the pseudonym “Tommy Robinson”), has distanced himself from Breivik’s methods but was quoted in an interview praising his “cunning”. Last year, in the aftermath of the Norway killings, Yaxley-Lennon predicted similar events in Britain if people did not “listen” to the EDL.
Dark origins
The “cultural Marxism” that Breivik blamed for Europe’s Muslim takeover is a conspiracy theory that was born in the US. It contends that a small group of Marxist philosophers associated with the Frankfurt school of critical theory plotted to destroy western civilisation by encouraging multiculturalism, homosexuality and collectivist economic ideas.
Although many don’t realise it today, the theory is anti-Semitic in origin and its early proponents emphasised that these philosophers were all Jewish. Breivik’s lengthy “manifesto” devotes an entire section to profiling Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and other Frankfurt school thinkers.
A threat to ethnic purity; betrayal by corrupt elites; the presence of a foreign invader – these are familiar themes for the far right. But the ideology of the “counter-jihad” movement marks a shift from neo-Nazism, whose followers believe above all in the international Jewish conspiracy – and that immigration is a Jewish-led plot to dilute European racial stock.
The difference here is that Breivik’s themes have widespread mainstream credibility. Islamophobia is rampant across western Europe, while Britain’s press leads the field with its drip-feed of anti-Muslim coverage.
Even the idea of “cultural Marxism” has found its way into the mainstream, dovetailing with right-wing ideologues who would have us believe that liberal elites have foisted their agenda on an unwilling population. In the US, it was promoted by the likes of the late commentator Andrew Breitbart, while here it has been echoed by conservatives. Last September, the writer James Delingpole claimed that the BBC had fallen victim to a Marxist “plan to destroy western civilisation from within”. Earlier this month, a Daily Mail blogger even suggested that the New Statesman’s founders, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, were dedicated to the “destruction of traditional western civilisation” and that the London School of Economics, which they also founded, was a nest of Frankfurt-style subversion.
To think that every cultural conservative is a secret extremist or a killer-in-waiting would be another kind of paranoid fantasy. But the point about far-right ideology is that it is parasitical on the mainstream.
The fascism of the 1920s and 1930s succeeded because it played on wider fears, winning the support of those who would never have thought of themselves as “extremists”. The Nazis used anti-Semitism because it already existed in German society. Their successors today use Islamophobia because it already exists in our societies. From a tiny grain of truth – the existence of Islamist terror – has been spun a whole mythology about the imminent collapse of western civilisation and, whether they realise it or not, conservative ideologues are helping spread the poison that enables the far right to grow.
Daniel Trilling’s “Bloody Nasty People: the Rise of Britain’s Far Right” will be published by Verso in September
Tags: Oslo Anders Breivik racism
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Daniel Trilling is an assistant editor of the New Statesman
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65 comments
So the systematic and continued destruction of societies based on assumption of inferiority is an African thing then.
The last 500 years of european hegemony is testimony to this, & while you may argue that this is is inspired by leftists I rather think its a lot more simpler than that, its called survival.
The Australian ABC (the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC) has an appalling record of censorship, malreportage, lying by omission and lying by commission (see "ABC censorship": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ ). The ABC Radio National has an "intellectual" interview program called Late Night Live that also has an appalling record of censorship of listener comments critical of racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel or the genocidal US Alliance (for a documented recent record see "ABC Late Night Live (LNL) censors listener comments e.g. those critical of US Alliance War on Muslims (12 million war-related deaths since 1990)": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-late-night-live-1 ). Below is a comment by me concerning the pro-Zionist philosophy of mass murderer Breivik that was disgracefully censored by the ABC Late Night Live (LNL).
On 24 April 2012 LNL broadcast an interview with American Bruce Shapiro reporting from Oslo re Breivik: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/bruce-shapiro... . My comments on the program (reproduced below) survived for a day but were then completely censored by the evidently pro-Zionist ABC:
“The extraordinary thing about Mainstream media coverage of the Breivik Atrocity and the Breivik Trial is that while this racist, genocidal, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, pro-Israel, pro-Zionist mass murderer has set out his views in a 1,500 page Manifesto, the pro-Zionist and evidently Zionist-beholden Mainstream media scrupulously ignore his pro-Israel, pro-Zionist and pro-genocide of the Palestinians position.
This Elephant in the Room reality could not be ignored in Apartheid Israel where the conservative, pro-Zionist Jerusalem Post reported Breivik's attacks on anti-racist Jews in particular (yes, the same decent, anti-racist Jews who are routinely sidelined, censored and grossly defamed in Australia and elsewhere under an appalling new anti-Semitic regime of Zionist-promoted anti-Jewish anti-Semitism applied to decent Jews critical of the genocidal crimes of Apartheid Israel). Google together the words pro-Zionist and Breivik and you will get as #1 out of 420,000 results the Jerusalem Post article entitled "Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views".
The recent ABC TV Four corners program made clear Breivik's anti-Muslim position but failed to mention his pro-Israel, pro-Zionist position, his hatred for anti-racist Jews and his desire to ethnically cleanse not just Norway and Europe of Muslims (genocide) but also Palestine, China, India and other countries. Also ignored by the ABC was that several days before this atrocity the Young Labor Norwegians rallied on Utoya Island with banners in support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel (for the key image of the event NOT reported by the ABC Google "Palestinian civil society expresses solidarity with people of Norway").”
The message from the Norway Massacre by pro-Zionist mass murderer Breivik is that all racists, including racist Zionists and pro-Zionists, need to be sidelined from public life, this already having happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.
What a ghastly, nonsensical anti-semitic rant. Please see your doctor and get help - quickly.
The article misses the Elephant in the Room reality that Breivik was a racist, genocidal, pro-Israel, pro-Zionist as recognized by no less than the pro-Zionist Jerusalem Post (see: "Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views", 24 July 2012: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=230762 ): "In the 1,500-page tome, which mentions Israel 359 times and “Jews” 324 times, Breivik lays out his worldview, which includes an extreme, bizarre and rambling screed of Islamophobia, far-right Zionism and venomous attacks on Marxism and multi-culturalism." Indeed the JP quotes Breivik stating : "“Jews that support multi-culturalism today are as much of a threat to Israel and Zionism as they are to us... So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists.”
Zionist influence is evidently involved in the Western media censorship of the Breivik-Zionism connection. Thus the following comment posted by me on the Australian university-backed and academic-based webzine The Conversation was acutely germane to this discussion but was censored out by The Conversation which has an appalling record of censorship of comments critical of genocidal racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel or neocon America (see: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by) :
"1. “The article as well as Western and Australian Mainstream media, including the taxpayer-funded ABC, have resolutely ignored the following 2 Elephant in the Room realities of the Norway massacre.
1. Several days before 69 Young Labor activists were murdered by Breivik they had publicly demonstrated for tougher Norwegian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel for its crimes against the Palestinians) (for details and a photograph see BDS, "Palestinian civil society expresses solidarity with people of Norway", 27 July 2011: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/solidarity-with-people-of-norway-7684#.T... ).
2. Neo-Nazi mass murderer Breivik was also a pro-Zionist extremist who set out in his 1,500 page Manifesto his demand for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims from Europe Turkey, China, India, Thailand, the Philippines and Palestine (see "Anders Breibvik": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik ).
Constraints on free speech in Neneocon American- and Zionist-subverted Murdochracy and Lobbyocracy Australia have prevented virtually any reportage of the above 2 huge realities which, in marked contrast, have been reported by outstanding anti-racist Jewish commentators such as Stephen Lendman (US), Gilad Atzmon (UK) and Uri Avnery (Israel) and also by pro-Zionist media (e.g. JTA and the Jerusalem Post).
For details censored in Lobbyocracy Australia of the mass murder of 69 anti-Zionist Young Labor Norwegians by the pro-Zionist mass murderer Breivik read "Palestine's Norwegians"(Counterpunch, 25 July 2011: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/07/25/palestine-s-norwegians/ ) by Professor Vijay Prashad (George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT; author of "The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World"" ) in which he states: "Breivik was certainly a right-wing militant, and without a doubt inspired by the Euro-fascism of Merkel-Sarkozy-Cameron. The press might be obsessed by their "lone gun-man" theory. They see things in the police’s terms, which is to say, in terms of who actually acted, and who provided material support for the action. The action in Utoya was not the act of a madman, and it was not a human tragedy. It was an act of political murder against people who had committed themselves to a convivial world not only for their beloved Norway, but also for those who live under Occupation elsewhere."
If genocidal racist and pro-Zionist Anders Breivik (killer of 75 people) was mad he was no more so than the genocidal racist Zionists responsible for the ongoing Palestinian Genocide involving 0.1 million Palestinians killed since 1936; 1.9 million Palestinian avoidable deaths since 1936 from invasion-, war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation, 7 million Palestinian refugees, 6 million Palestinians forbidden to live in Palestine, 4.3 million Occupied Palestinians highly abusively confined without human rights to what the Catholic Church has called the Gaza Concentration Camp or to ever-dwindling West Bank mini-Bantustans, 90% of Palestine ethnically cleansed, 100% of the Syrian Golan Heights ethnically cleansed, (see "Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and read the multi-author book "The Plight of the Palestinians": http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
If Breivik (killer of 75 people) is mad then he is no more mad than the leaders of the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims (since the US-complicit 9-11 - see "Experts: US did 9-11': http://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ - the War on Terror; Bush, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Sarkozy, Harper, Merkel, Howard, Rudd, Gillard and their subordinates ) that has so far been associated since 1990 with 12 million Muslim war-related deaths, the breakdown of violent deaths plus avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation being 4.6 million (Iraqi Genocide), 5.6 million (Afghan Genocide), 2.2 million (Somali Genocide" and 0.1 million (Libyan Genocide") (Google "Muslim Holocaust: and "Muslim Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ )."
"Islamophobia" is a nonsensical propaganda device, used as a term of abuse in order to silence very important and vital criticism of the growing threat of Islamic intolerance.
"Islamophobia" makes no more sense than "Naziphobia".
A phobia is an ill-based fear. Fear of Islam is anything but ill-based. It is entirely valid given what we see daily of the extreme intolerance and oppressiveness of Islam.
And in what sense is cricism of Islam right wing? Islam itself is the most right wing phenomenon in the world today.
I would suggest that many people in the world today have a healthy, well-justified fear of that highly aggressive and intolerant "Christian" nation, the USA.
"Islamophobia" is a nonsensical propaganda device, used as a term of abuse in order to silence very important and vital criticism of the growing threat of Islamic intolerance.
"Islamophobia" makes no more sense than "Naziphobia".
A phobia is an ill-based fear. Fear of Islam is anything but ill-based. It is entirely valid given what we see daily of the extreme intolerance and oppressiveness of Islam.
And in what sense is cricism of Islam right wing? Islam itself is the most right wing phenomenon in the world today.
"Islamophobia" is a nonsensical propaganda device, used as a term of abuse in order to silence very important and vital criticism of the growing threat of Islamic intolerance.
"Islamophobia" makes no more sense than "Naziphobia".
A phobia is an ill-based fear. Fear of Islam is anything but ill-based. It is entirely valid given what we see daily of the extreme intolerance and oppressiveness of Islam.
And in what sense is cricism of Islam right wing? Islam itself is the most right wing phenomenon in the world today.
"Islamophobia" is a nonsensical propaganda device, used as a term of abuse in order to silence very important and vital criticism of the growing threat of Islamic intolerance.
"Islamophobia" makes no more sense than "Naziphobia".
A phobia is an ill-based fear. Fear of Islam is anything but ill-based. It is entirely valid given what we see daily of the extreme intolerance and oppressiveness of Islam.
And in what sense is cricism of Islam right wing? Islam itself is the most right wing phenomenon in the world today.
Our towns, cities and countries are unrecognizable from 50 years ago, thank Christ!
I'd love to know what cultural Marxism is. Sounds like it might be interesting