White Pride World Wide
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White Pride World Wide A Contemporary History of Online, International Right-wing Extremist Ideology and Culture Turner Stone Jacobs Master’s Thesis, Peace and Conflict Studies Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History UNIVERSITETET I OSLO 20 May, 2015 White Pride World Wide A Contemporary History of Online, International Right-wing Extremist Ideology and Culture Turner Stone Jacobs Supervisor: Øystein Sørenson Master’s Thesis, Peace and Conflict Studies Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History UNIVERSITETET I OSLO 20 May, 2015 © Turner Stone Jacobs 2015 White Pride World Wide: A Contemporary History of Online, International Right-Wing Extremist Ideology and Culture Turner Stone Jacobs http://www.duo.uio.no/ Original Printing: CopyCat® Forskningsparken ABSTRACT Since 1995, advances in internet communications technology have led to more extensive interaction between right-wing extremists around the world. The wider extreme-right movement around the globe has become more homogenous, internationally- minded, and Americanized in recent years due to the rise of websites and forums such as Stormfront.org. However, ideological and cultural cleavages still remain as barriers to full cohesion between disparate strains of right-wing extremism. This study briefly outlines the history of international right-wing extremist ideology and culture, with a particular focus on developments in these areas after the establishment of Stormfront in 1995. Through the ideographical and inductive analysis of forum posts and website content, the intention of this thesis is to demonstrate that right-wing extremists in the contemporary period are part of an internationally-minded subculture which has been largely overlooked or misunderstood by scholars, politicians, and media outlets. Furthermore, this analysis seeks to underscore the threats to peace and coexistence posed by the violence and hatred inherent in this global subculture. ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, Bradford and Teri Jacobs, for their moral and financial support throughout the course of my studies. It was brave of you to let your firstborn move to a country halfway across the world for two years, and I am grateful for your love and encouragement. I hope that this thesis demonstrates that my time in Norway was well spent. I owe my sincerest gratitude to the members and donors of Norge-Amerika Foreningen (NORAM) for their financial support over the past two years. I hope that in the future I will be able to return the favor by aiding other young scholars in pursuing their academic dreams. Tusen takk, NORAM! I would also like to extend my thanks to the faculty, staff, and students of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of Oslo for welcoming me into an enriching academic environment. I have learned more than I could have imagined through my interactions with you. Especially to my fellow students: it has been a pleasure studying alongside you these past two years, and I wish you the best of luck with your thesis papers and careers. Thank you for all the memories, and stay in touch! To my friends outside of PECOS, thank you for being there to distract me from my thesis with concerts, board game and roleplaying marathons, jam sessions, radio broadcasts, and parties. Thankfully, none of you are interesting or exciting enough to have prevented me from finishing this thesis on time. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisor, Øystein Sørenson, for supporting my plan to wade into relatively uncharted academic waters. Your guidance was invaluable in formulating this thesis, and your faith in the validity of my ideas has been greatly encouraging. I hope that my thesis has been as interesting for you to supervise as it has been for me to write, and I hope that you find it to be a worthy addition to the wider literature on the subject matter. i ii ABBREVIATIONS 18 Adolf Hitler (AH) 88 “Heil Hitler” (HH) ADL Anti-Defamation League BNP British National Party BNSM British National Socialist Movement C18 Combat 18 DDoS Distributed denial of service attack KKK Ku Klux Klan KKKK Knights of the Ku Klux Klan NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NF National Front (England) NS National Socialist/Socialism NSDAP- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – Auslands- AO Organisation NSBM National Socialist Black Metal NSM National Socialist Movement NSWPP National Socialist White People’s Party PEGIDA Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West iii PLE Pioneer Little Europe RAC Rock Against Communism SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center SS Schutzstaffel URL Uniform Resource Locator WAR White Aryan Resistance WAU Women for Aryan Unity WUNS World Union of National Socialists ZOG Zionist Occupation Government iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 – Concepts and Literature...............................................................................5 Terminology and Conceptualization......................................................................5 Accounts of International Right-Wing Extremism............................................10 Source Material.....................................................................................................14 Chapter 2 – International Right-Wing Extremism Before 1995.................................17 Anglo-American Neo-Nazism and World Union of National Socialists...........18 Gerhard Lauck: the “Farm Belt Führer”..........................................................21 Influential Americans...........................................................................................22 William Pierce.............................................................................................23 David Eden Lane.........................................................................................24 David Duke.................................................................................................25 Tom Metzger...............................................................................................27 Nazi Punks: the Export of Skinheads.................................................................28 Chapter 3 – Stormfront.org and Extremism Online, 1995-Present.............................31 Stormfront..............................................................................................................31 Description and Form...................................................................................33 Other Websites, Minor Forums, and Online Stores...........................................36 Parties and Organizations.............................................................................37 Forums..........................................................................................................41 Webshops.....................................................................................................43 Other Media..................................................................................................45 Chapter 4 – Ideological Ties and International Culture...............................................49 Politics and Political Beliefs..................................................................................49 Racialism and White Nationalism................................................................50 Whiteness...........................................................................................51 White Genocide and White Homelands.............................................53 Racism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Islam.............................................55 Conspiracy Theories.....................................................................................59 Anti-Democratic Sentiment..........................................................................59 National Socialism.......................................................................................60 Violence.......................................................................................................62 v Contemporary Political Debates...................................................................64 The Middle East.................................................................................64 Ukrainian Crisis................................................................................66 Culture....................................................................................................................68 White European Culture and Identity...........................................................69 Visual Culture and Symbolism.....................................................................70 Nazi Imagery.....................................................................................71 Pagan and Occult Symbols................................................................73 Christian Symbolism.........................................................................75 Music............................................................................................................77 White Noise...................................................................................................77 NSBM and Folk/Viking/Pagan Metal................................................78 Religion...................................................................................................................81 Christianity...................................................................................................82