WINTER 2017 The Public Eye

In this issue: Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value • Birth of the Alt Right • Mobilizing Misogyny • Right Moves: Interview with Jason Stahl editor’s letter

BY FREDERICK CLARKSON After the November election, the growing concern among progressives about the “Alt THE PUBLIC EYE Right”—an ideology that draws together White supremacism, misogyny, antisemitism, QUARTERLY and authoritarianism in an irony- and meme-fueled movement—became a sense of emer- gency. Followers of the movement were Sieg Heiling in Washington D.C. hotels, and a spate PUBLISHER Tarso Luís Ramos of attacks against minority groups and people of color were reported across the country. It seemed as though the worst elements of President Trump’s base had emerged en masse to EDITOR mark their victory with virulent displays of intolerance. But as with confronting any threat, Kathryn Joyce effective response first requires understanding it. COVER ART Nansi Guevara In this issue, as well as in a rapidly-expanding list of online-exclusive reports, stories, and LAYOUT profiles, PRA is doing what it does best: digging into the fraught subject of the White na- Gabriel Joffe tionalist Alt Right with meticulous research and broad historical context. This edition of PRINTING The Public Eye includes two full-length features concerning the Alt Right. The first of these Red Sun Press is David Neiwert’s “Birth of the Alt Right” (pg. 4). Neiwert, who with journalist Sarah EDITORIAL BOARD Posner investigated the movement over the course of the presidential race, delves into the Frederick Clarkson • Alex DiBranco deep backstory of how the Alt Right came to be. Much of its origin story is found in the bow- Tarso Luís Ramos • Tope Fadiran els of the internet, where “Gamergaters” rose from a band of noxious online trolls to form a Kapya Kaoma • L. Cole Parke politicized mob that saw in candidate Trump a champion for their cause. A uniquely inter- net-age mass movement, Neiwert explains, the Alt Right has “effectively become a massive mechanism for the online radicalization of mostly young White Americans.” The Public Eye is published by While many media outlets are rushing to catch up on coverage of the Alt Right, most are Political Research Associates overlooking a crucial component of the movement: its grounding in sexism, gender poli- tics, and deep antipathy to feminism. In “Mobilizing Misogyny” (pg. 9), Alex DiBranco Tarso Luís Ramos examines how this profoundly important aspect of the movement has been overlooked as Executive Director part of a larger failure to recognize misogyny as a primary organizing principle of the Right. Sarah Burzillo Some of the Alt Right’s most fervent support has come from corners of the “men’s rights” Finance Manager movement and the associated online “manosphere,” which for well over a decade have Gabriel Joffe dedicated themselves to fighting the “scourge” of feminism. For years, this movement was Program Coordinator aided by a number of conservative “equity feminist” groups that sought to provide a right- Kapya Kaoma wing counterpoint to the women’s rights community; in a sad irony, the mass mobilization Research Analyst of anti-feminists under the banner of the Alt Right has left even equity feminists concerned L. Cole Parke about a new and far bolder “War on Women.” Research Analyst Shayna Parker Please also look online at politicalresearch.org for our continuing coverage of the Alt Right, Operations Coordinator which includes a new full-length report by Matthew Lyons, “Ctrl-Alt-Delete”; Adele Stan’s Jennifer Worden dispatch on what happened when Richard Spencer’s followers digitally descended on a Development Director Montana town; as well as a growing list of profiles of key Alt Right figures. Fellows Tope Fadiran • Frederick Clarkson The Alt Right isn’t the only right-wing movement emboldened by Trump’s win. Every Janu- Spencer Sunshine • Abby Scher ary the country celebrates Religious Freedom Day. For years, the concept of religious free- Mariya Strauss • Rachel Tabachnick dom has been overwhelmingly associated with the Christian Right, which has used it as justification for the violation of others’ civil rights. But just because the Right would like Interns to coopt the concept of religious freedom doesn’t mean that progressives should let them. Jess Conger-Henry • Conor Downey As PRA Senior Fellow Frederick Clarkson writes in “Religious Freedom Is a Progressive Board of Directors Value” (pg. 3), the concept is “one of the most powerfully democratic ideas in the history of Dania Rajendra, Chair the world” as well as “the stuff from which revolutions are sometimes made.” Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen In an author Q&A (pg. 17), PRA Fellow Rachel Tabachnick speaks with historian Jason Hamid Khan • Maria Elena Letona Stahl about his recent book Right Moves: The Conservative Think Tank in American Political Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa Culture Since 1945. The first full-length historical study of conservative think tanks, Stahl’s Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier investigation into the machinery of right-wing ideology leads him to believe that the rise of Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald Donald Trump is “the logical endpoint of a decades-long reorientation of what constitutes valid policy debate.” Founder Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. Finally, in Reports in Review (pg. 21), we look at United for a Fair Economy’s new assess- ment of economic inequality in State of the Dream 2017: Mourning in America.

The coming months and years will require diligence and courage from us all. PRA is proud to work in solidarity with frontline social justice partners and our friends most targeted 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 under the new administration. Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 -Kathryn Joyce [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2017 All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 89 www.politicalresearch.org commentary

BY FREDERICK CLARKSON

Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value

Tarso Luís Ramos Executive Director Sarah Burzillo Finance Manager Gabriel Joffe Program Coordinator Kapya Kaoma Research Analyst L. Cole Parke Research Analyst Shayna Parker Operations Coordinator Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo: DaKohlmeyer via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0. Jennifer Worden Development Director o read press coverage about it, ligious institutions, and to practice our and women’s equality, to oppose the Fellows one might think that religious beliefs free from the same constraints. Vietnam War, and eventually fight for Tope Fadiran • Frederick Clarkson Spencer Sunshine • Abby Scher freedom is a concern only for It’s no surprise that the first part of the LGBTQ civil and religious rights. Mariya Strauss • Rachel Tabachnick religious and political conser- First Amendment guarantees freedom Such coalitions aren’t always easy. nterns Tvatives, and not one of the most libera- of belief. The right to believe differently When North Carolina Disciples of Christ I Jess Conger-Henry • Conor Downey tory ideas in history. One would also from the rich and powerful is a prereq- minister Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, a 2 Board of Directors think religious freedom and civil rights uisite for free speech and a free press. leader in the progressive Moral Mondays 1 Dania Rajendra, Chair are at odds with one another. Indeed, Grounding our politics, journalism, and movement, was asked about squaring Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez U.S. history is filled with examples of scholarship in a clear understanding of religious freedom and marriage equal- Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen such competing claims, as resistance to what it means and where it came from ity, he looked to the lessons of history Hamid Khan • Maria Elena Letona everything from African American Civil could serve as both an inoculation and and the wisdom of his own religious tra- Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa Rights to marriage equality have been an answer to the distorted, self-serving Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier dition. Working within a coalition that Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald cast as matters of religious freedom. claims of the Christian Right. had long included LGBTQ advocates, But stepping back from the heat of our It was religious freedom that allowed Barber noted that the Christian Right

Founder political moment, there is a different, for Quakers, evangelicals, and Unitar- was trying to “divide our ranks by cast- Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. more fully accurate, story to be told, one ians to lead the way in opposition to ing doubt either among the LGBTQ com- I think that as progressives we need to slavery in the 19th Century. Religious munity or among the African American know and be able to tell. freedom also allowed Catholics and community about whether our moral Religious freedom is a powerful idea— mainline Protestants to guide society movement truly represented them.” the stuff from which revolutions are in creating child labor laws early in the In the last century the NAACP had 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144-1837 sometimes made. It includes the right of 20th Century, and later made it possible faced a similar challenge over the ques- Tel: 617.666.5300 individual conscience—to believe or not for religious groups and leaders to help tion of restrictions on interracial mar- [email protected] believe as we choose, without undue in- forge wide and evolving coalitions to riage. They ultimately opposed the © Political Research Associates, 2017 All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 fluence from government or powerful re- advance African American Civil Rights bans, he wrote, as a matter of uphold- ISSUE 89 Commentary, continued on page 20 www.politicalresearch.org WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 3 BY DAVID NEIWERT

Birth of the Alt Right

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play…They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argu- ment but to intimidate and disconcert. —Jean-Paul Sartre, “Anti-Semite and Jew,” 19441

ometime on October 10, 2014, of having “manufactured” the threats; politically correct American tech blog- feminist computer-game they advised their readers in memes to gers, [who] are terrorising the entire developer Brianna Wu began “incite as much butthurt as possible, so community—lying, bullying and ma- receiving a series of tweets on her don’t engage in civil reasoned debate. nipulating their way around the internet STwitter account from someone named Flame anyone who disagrees…” Two for profit and attention.”4 “DeathToBrianna”: years later, she continued to receive Yiannopoulos, who would parlay his threats at such a volume that she hired a Gamergate activism into a job as Breit- You just made a shitty game no one staff member to track them all.3 bart’s tech editor and later as a leader of liked. That’s it. No one wil lcare when The threats directed at Wu arose the emerging “Alt Right” phenomenon, you die. [sic] from her involvement in the so-called responded to the threats against Wu in a “Gamergate” controversy, a bitter online typically “not-my-fault-she-deserved-it” I hope you enjoy your last moments dispute that revolved around the inter- tweet: “Whoever sent those tweets de- alive on this earth. You did nothing nal politics of the video-gaming com- serves to be charged and punished,” he worthwhile with your life. munity. On one side were feminists and wrote. “It was vile. But I cannot be alone other liberals who argued for greater in finding the response distasteful.” If you have any kids, they’re going inclusion of games appealing to women. The controversy heralded the rise of to die too. I don’t give a fuck. They’ll On the other side were men who found the Alt Right: a world dominated by dig- grow up to be feminists anyway. such talk not merely threatening but a ital trolls, insanely unbridled conspira- declaration of a “culture war,” wherein cism, angry White-male-identity vic- Your mutilated corpse will be on the “social justice warriors” used the cudgel timization culture, and ultimately, open front page of Jezebel tomorrow and of political correctness to impose the racism, antisemitism, ethnic hatred, there isn’t jack shit you can do about values of multiculturalism. misogyny, and sexual/gender paranoia. it. The predominantly White men mak- A place where human decency and eth- ing these arguments, however, were ics are considered antiquarian jokes, I’ve got a K-Bar and I’m coming to your not content merely to debate their posi- and empathy is only an invitation to as- house so I can shove it up your ugly tions online. Instead, a whole army of sault. feminist cunt. them swung into action on social media and Internet chat rooms, harassing and TROLL LOGIC Guess what bitch? I now know where threatening feminists and liberals like The most influential aspect of the you live. You and Frank live at [her real Wu. rise of the Internet in the 1990s was address].2 One of the feminists’ chief online as- the liberation of information from the sailants was Milo Yiannopoulos, a young constraints of the mainstream media— Wu, the development chief at game- gay man living in London who wrote a something expected to further democ- maker Giant Spacekat, and her husband widely read column for Breitbart News. ratize the globalized economy. After all, called the police and moved out of their In a September 2014 piece he described the more information people had at their home that evening for several days, the anti-Gamergate faction as “an army fingertips, the thinking went, the more eventually hiring a bodyguard. Within of sociopathic feminist programmers they could be liberated by the truth. days, she was accused by her tormentors and campaigners, abetted by achingly Within a few years, however, it be-

4 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 BY DAVID NEIWERT came evident that there was a serious world. Increasingly, some people’s so- ers). The correlation of trolls with the downside to all this liberation: while the cial lives began increasingly to revolve last of these—sadism—was particularly constraints on information imposed by around chat rooms, email listservs, powerful.7 a top-down mass media had seemingly political and special-interest forums. “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic been lifted, one of the press’s impor- As social-media platforms such as Face- glee at the distress of others,” Buckels tant by-functions was vanishing as well: book and Twitter took off, this phenom- wrote. “Sadists just want to have fun ... namely, the ability to filter out bad infor- enon became not only widespread but and the Internet is their playground!” mation, false or badly distorted “facts,” profoundly consequential. And the more time a person spends and outrageous claims designed not just As media theorist Judith Donath ex- exclusively online (as opposed to in the to titillate but to smear whole groups plained in her groundbreaking 1999 material world) the stronger the connec- of people and to radicalize an audience study of trolling behavior: “In the physi- tion becomes, Buckels found. against them. The Internet, with its cal world there is an inherent unity to Buckels’ study also found that even easy anonymity and wanton disregard the self, for the body provides a compel- though trolls have an outsized influence of the rules of evidence and factuality, ling and convenient definition of iden- on Internet discourse, they comprise by the early 2000s had already become tity. The norm is: one body, one iden- only a small percentage of Web users— host to a swamp of conspiracy theories, tity ... The virtual world is different. It just 5.6 percent of the survey’s respon- false smears, and wild speculation. As is composed of information rather than dents said they enjoyed trolling, while Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons have ob- matter.”6 some 41 percent reported they don’t served, the 1990s Patriot/militia move- This helps explain why the introduc- engage with other people online at all. ment was the first right-wing movement tion of bad information—false or dis- Some trolled merely for fun, while oth- widely organized and promoted online.5 torted “facts” that creates an alternative ers were driven by personal motivations, And the same “anything goes” ethos “reality” for people largely detached including politics. applied doubly to people’s behavior on- from the real world—so profoundly toxi- As it happens, Buckels explained by line. No entity embodied this anarchical fies people’s worldviews, their -under email, there is, in general, a high corre- and deliberately destructive sensibility standing of news and current events, as lation of these “Dark Tetrad” traits with quite like the digital troll: the usually well as their interactions with others. another important mass-psychological anonymous creatures who lurk under The culture of trolling, by its very na- phenomenon known as “social domi- the bridges of our discourse, lobbing in- ture, quickly attracted some of society’s nance orientation,” or SDO. It’s based on sults, nonsequiturs, off-topic remarks, and racial or reli- gious incendiary grenades. Their chief tactic is called False or distorted “facts” create an alternative “reality” for people “flaming,” in which they mer- largely detached from the real world—profoundly toxifying people’s cilessly abuse their target, worldviews, their understanding of news and current events, as well substituting aggressive abuse for debate. as their interactions with others. “Trolling” which takes its name from the fishing tech- nique of dropping a lure on a long line most toxic elements: sociopaths, psy- the recognition that people orient them- and waiting for fish to take the bait, was chopaths, and sadists. And that, in turn, selves socially based on a kind of funda- initially considered a relatively benign, had a profound political effect. mental view: do they believe people are if juvenile, pastime. There was even a inherently equal, or unequal? Psycholo- kind of “positive” trolling in which the THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TROLLING gists have tested people accordingly, “troll” used fact-based questions to lead A disturbing study released in 2014 devising an “SDO scale” that measures a a target to a logical conclusion. How- by a team of psychologists led by Erin person’s level of preference for hierarchy ever, as “flaming” behaviors matured E. Buckels of the University of Manito- based on inherent inequalities within and spread, the resulting ethos created ba sketched out a personality profile of any social system, as well as the concur- a “troll” whose deportment came closely trolls, focusing particularly on people ring desire for domination over lower- to resemble the dreaded creatures who attracted to “antisocial” uses of the Web. status groups. dwelt under bridges and snagged un- Buckels’ results found that many trolls The original 1994 study that designed wary travelers of legend. Trolls are ul- share what psychologists call the “Dark the SDO scale asked participants wheth- timately engendered by a third kind of Tetrad” of psychological traits: Machia- er they favored ideas such as “increased consequence of the rise of the Internet: vellianism (willing deception and ma- social equality,” “increased economic namely, the ability of people in modern nipulation), narcissism (self-obsession equality,” or simply “equality” itself. society to construct their entire social and egotism), psychopathy (an utter Conversely, subjects were asked wheth- lives online, with only a nominal inter- absence of empathy or remorse), and sa- er they agreed that “some people are just action with the reality of the physical dism (enjoyment of the suffering of oth- more deserving than others” and that

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 5 “This country would be better off if we turalists.10 the decade wore on, the far-right con- cared less about how equal all people White nationalism quickly devolved spiracists fixated on the idea of “politi- were.”8 SDO trolls, by dint of their per- from its original claim—to be sim- cal correctness” as a form of what they sonalities, were often inclined not only ply promoting the interests of ethnic called “Cultural Marxism.” This idea to share but to act out right-wing politi- Whites—to, by the late ‘90s, demoniz- grew from a fundamentally antisemitic cal views, often of the extremist variety. ing non-Whites and LGBTQ people, as White nationalist theory: that a small “In short,” writes Robert Altemeyer, well as embracing far-right undercur- group of Jewish philosophers at Colum- a psychologist who’s studied authori- rents of antisemitism and conspiracism. bia University in the 1930s had devised tarianism, “in social dominators’ way of And indeed, many of the movement’s an unorthodox form of Marxism that thinking, equality should not be a cen- leaders displayed the kind of personal- aimed to destroy American culture by convincing mainstream Americans that White ethnic pride is bad, sexual libera- tion is good, and traditional American “family values” and Christianity are bigoted and reactionary. (Among the subscribers to this theory, circulating in far-right circles since the ‘90s, was the right-wing Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, who in 2011 slaughtered 69 children at a Norway youth camp after detonating a series of bombs in Oslo that killed eight.11) The audience for conspiracy theories, as Altemeyer observes, is often com- prised of right-wing authoritarians: people who are inclined to insist on a world in which strong authorities pro- duce order and peace, often through iron imposition of “law and order.”12 Highly ethnocentric, fearful of a danger- ous world, aggressive, dogmatic, and in- A sign at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, D.C. Photo: Mark Dixon via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). clined to extreme self-righteousness and poor reasoning, they are, as Altemeyer tral value of our society or a goal toward ity characteristics—lack of empathy, explains, “very dependent on social re- which we should strive. To high SDOs, manipulativeness and aggression, and inforcement of their beliefs. They think ‘equality’ is a sucker-word in which only hostility to femininity and equality—as- they are right because almost everyone fools believe.”9 sociated with people who score highly they know, almost every news broadcast In contrast to the trolls who played on the SDO scale. they see, almost every radio commen- the trolling game for its own sake, right- During the Bush administration years, tator they listen to, tells them they are. wing political trollers saw their activities White nationalists focused less on at- That is, they screen out the sources that as direct reflections of their politics. If tacking liberalism than on attacking Re- will suggest that they are wrong.”13 trolling was often rude and openly trans- publicans who they believed were failing gressive, so were their politics. to “stand up for White interests.” The A LETHAL UNION If any movement could be said to de- antagonism created a gulf in which the To understand the growth of the Alt scribe the manifestation of Social Domi- movement, rife with contentious would- Right, one must explore the relationship nance Orientation in the political realm, be leaders, struggled to reach new fol- between social dominators and right- it’s White nationalism. A far-right move- lowers. wing authoritarian followers. Alte- ment that took hold among “academic The White nationalists’ predilec- meyer, who conducted groundbreaking racists” in the 1990s, who contended tion for conspiracism, however, soon work on the psychological makeup of that racial genetics imparted inherent brought them the audience they sought. right-wing authoritarian (RWA) person- characteristics such as intelligence, The conspiracy theorists who’d first be- alities, explains that people with high White nationalists followed these argu- come mobilized through the 1990s an- SDO scores—“dominators”—correlate ments with a call for distinct ethnostates tigovernment Patriot movement found poorly with people who score highly on that could enable racial separation. new inspiration in the terrorist attacks the RWA scale. The two groups are dis- Moreover, the movement’s ideologues of September 11, 2001, which they por- tinct. Authoritarian followers lack domi- claimed, traditional White European trayed as an “inside job” perpetrated nators’ lust for power and they are gener- culture faced an onslaught from non- with assistance from the Bush adminis- ally much more religious; their hostility White immigration and liberal multicul- tration and its “New World Order.” As is rooted in fear and self-righteousness

6 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 in the name of authority, while domina- cartoons featuring everything from ul- of men and masculinity.”16 tors use hostility as a means of intimida- tra-cute kittens to horrifying monsters, Given the various communities gath- tion and control. and everything in between. ering at 4chan, it was unsurprising Though they are dissimilar in many The website’s owner, a then-15-year- when, in early 2013, all these forces con- ways, dominators and right-wing au- old New York City student named Chris- verged to create the “Gamergate” contro- thoritarian followers share an over- topher Poole, called it 4chan when he versy—an initially online phenomenon powering tendency towards prejudice launched it out of his bedroom in 2003. that crept over into the real world. against racial and ethnic minorities, His idea was to create an open forum “Gamergate” began when a feminist women, LGBTQ people, and religious where anyone could post images and game designer named Zoe Quinn was minorities as well as deeply conservative chat about anime and associated manga lauded for her woman-friendly online politics. comic-book culture. And it was an im- game “Depression Quest,” which guid- Altemeyer’s 2006 book warning about mediate success, drawing a million hits ed users through the trials and tribula- the rise of authoritarianism focused on in his first six days of operation. Soon it tions of a person suffering from clinical the special kind of chemistry that hap- had expanded into a massive operation, depression.17 Quinn’s creation, review- pens when right-wing authoritarian one of the Internet’s most influential re- er Adam Smith wrote at Rock, Paper, followers and social dominators come ferral sites.15 Shotgun, transformed computer gam- together. He called it the “lethal union”: Much of its original success was built ing from a mere exercise in conflict to When social dominators are in the on memes like “LOLcats,” featuring “’game’ as communication, comfort and driver’s seat, and right-wing authori- photos of cats over-scripted with funny tool of understanding.”18 tarians stand at their beck and call, un- phrases (the most famous of which, The positive coverage of Quinn’s cre- ethical things appear much more like- “I Can Haz Cheezburger,” went on to ation, however, attracted the ire of anti- ly to happen. True, sufficiently skilled spawn a million-dollar company hosted feminist gamers, livid at the success of social dominators served by dedicated at 4chan). 4chan also became known for a feminized game that was a stark de- followers can make the trains run on its trolling, with resident trolls creating, parture from “male” battle games. She time. But you have to worry about among other things, the long-lived In- soon found herself inundated with hate what the trains may be hauling when ternet prank known as “RickRolling.” mail and threatening social-media mes- dominators call the shots and high But 4chan was also the ultimate open sages. Someone mailed a detailed rape RWAs do the shooting.14 forum. People could register without threat to her home address. Then, in It was during the Obama administra- entering an email address, so most com- August 2014, a year after “Depression tion years, following the election of the menters posted anonymously. 4chan’s Quest” was released to the general pub- first Black president, that the gradual boards became host not just to gamers lic, a former boyfriend of Quinn’s pub- coalescence of the alternative-universe and hobbyists but also neonazis, White lished a nasty tell-all post about their worldviews of conspiracists, Patriots, supremacists, gay-bashers, and a flood relationship, complaining that her new White supremacists, Tea Partiers and of pornographic material. Trolling— boyfriend was video game journalist Na- nativists occurred. Fueled in no small of the nasty kind—soon became not than Grayson. At 4chan’s boards, this part by racial animus toward Obama, just the ruling ethos but a competition story quickly took on a life of its own, the Internet and social media became among peers at 4Chan. as Quinn’s critics began claiming that the ground on which this “lethal union” The “manosphere,” too, was a major Grayson had written a positive review could finally occur, after decades of in- presence at 4chan. An online commu- of “Depression Quest” as a result of their ternecine bickering among and mar- nity comprised of blogs, chat forums, relationship, even though, in reality, no ginalization of far-right factions. Those and Reddit sub-communities, the such review existed.19 same chat rooms and Facebook threads manosphere was generally dedicated In a glimpse of trends to come, though, where trolls gathered and harassed be- to the “men’s rights” movement, osten- that fact did not matter. The 4chan trolls came the places where far-right social sibly to defend men against feminism. were off and running, claiming they had dominators—many of them espousing In reality, the movement had quickly uncovered an ethical scandal within the openly transgressive worldviews such as become an open sewer of rampant mi- world of gaming journalism. Grayson’s neonazism and misogyny—could come sogyny and rape culture, particularly at supposed breach of standards reflected together with the right-wing authoritar- the “Men’s Rights Activists” (or MRA) what they claimed was a pro-feminist, ian followers whose ranks grew with ev- discussion boards at 4chan. Within this pro-liberal, anti-White-male bias grow- ery conspiracy-theory convert and wan- world, MRAs called feminism “a social ing within the computer-game indus- nabe Oath Keeper militiaman. cancer,” and asserted that, “Feminism try. Soon anyone who questioned their That “lethal union” ultimately gave is a hate movement designed to disen- interpretation of events was part of the birth to a new baby created for the 21st franchise and dehumanize men.” They conspiracy. Actor Adam Baldwin, highly century: the Alt Right. complained that women “cry rape” too active in right-wing circles, dubbed the easily, and, using Holocaust denialism controversy “Gamergate” in a Twitter THE ROAD TO GAMERGATE as a metaphor, claimed that feminists hashtag, and it spread like wildfire. It all began with people talking online had “created” the concept of patriarchy Quinn’s previous flood of hate mail about Japanese anime—the animated to justify abortion and “the destruction was dwarfed by the incoming tide of vit-

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 7 riol that now descended upon her. She and the threats that were flooding out to tion for “traditional values,” as well as was “doxxed”—her home address and women, LGBTQ folk, and people of col- gamers and online trolls, had coalesced personal contact information published or in the industry. It was a language of as a movement. And they continued online—and forced to flee her home.20 dismissal and belittlement. They called on as a community, talking now more Nor did the harassment end with their targets “special snowflakes” and about politics and conspiracies than Quinn. Anita Sarkeesian, a well-re- “cry bullies,” derided their websites as gaming, and how much they hated “sell- garded feminist cultural critic, endured “safe spaces” and their hope for civil dis- out” mainstream conservatives. They death and rape threats, as well as a course as “unicorns.” The targets of the reserved their most bilious outbursts for phoned-in bomb threat that canceled abuse, they claimed, were lying or exag- liberals, multiculturalism, gays and les- a speaking appearance, after she be- gerating; and even when the abuse was bians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Jews—es- came a public critic of the Gamergaters. factually substantiated, Gamergaters’ pecially Jews. That was followed shortly by the online usual response was that people on their Their growing community of like- threats against Brianna Wu.21 side were being abused too. minded defenders of the White race and Appalled by the wave of harassment The Gamergaters shared a predilec- “traditional values” had to have a name, emanating from their boards, the own- tion for conspiracism as well. Feminists, and so they gave it one: the “Alt Right.” ers of 4chan announced in September for example, were portrayed as a sub- 2014 that they would ban any further set within the larger “Cultural Marx- THE MOB IS THE MOVEMENT ism” conspiracy to In 2009, a young White national- destroy Western ist named Richard Spencer coined the civilization. But term “Alternative Right” while writing a what was once an headline for the paleoconservative Taki’s idea with limited Magazine, where he was an editor at the popular appeal was time.22 The headline was for an article gaining widespread by White nationalist Kevin DeAnna, circulation through describing the rise of a new kind of con- popular conspira- servatism— one hostile to neoconserva- cists like Alex tism and open to “racialist” politics. Less Jones, creator of the than a year later, in early 2010, Spencer massively popular founded his own webzine and named it conspiracy mill In- The Alternative Right. In short order, the foWars. At 4chan name of the movement it promoted was and 8chan, the shortened to “Alt Right,” and it stuck. threat of “Cultural The name was developed with public Marxism” became relations well in mind; after all, it per- the focal point of mitted White nationalists to soften their many discussions, image while drawing in recruits from first about Gamer- mainstream conservatism. When the gate, then, increas- movement rose to national prominence ingly, politics. A in 2016 in conjunction with the Trump common theme be- campaign, a controversy erupted over gan to emerge: that whether to use the movement’s pre- White men were ferred name or simply call its members being systemati- what many took them to be: “neonazis” cally oppressed by or “White supremacists.” (This mirrored White nationalist Richard Spencer is credited with coining the term “Alternative dangerous left-wing a similar discussion in the 1990s over Right” in 2009. Photo: V@s via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). forces, and that whether to call the Patriot movement mainstream conser- by its chosen name or other descriptors Gamergate discussions. However, a vatives, through their “weak” response such as “antigovernment” and “antidem- longtime 4chan user named Fredrick to multiculturalism, had “sold them ocratic.”) Brennan had, that previous October, al- out.” However, as researcher Matthew Ly- ready created a similar, competing web- Eventually Gamergate passed out of ons explains, the movement is much site called 8chan, because he believed the news cycle, and the controversy more complex than any of those simple 4Chan had become too censorious. subsided, to no one’s real satisfaction. terms.23 It incorporates elements not The Gamergaters at 8chan, on Twit- What had transpired in the process, only from White nationalists and su- ter and Reddit and other forums created though, was far more important. Ag- premacists of various stripes, but also a lingo of their own: mainly a range of grieved MRAs from the “manosphere,” misogynist anti-feminists, certain “neo- pernicious rhetorical devices designed White nationalists who shared their reactionary” activists who regard demo- to create a buffer between themselves virulent hatred of feminists and adora- cratic rule as a threat to civilization, as

8 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 well as some right-wing anarchist ele- ment’s roots in 4chan are evident in its view as getting “red pilled,” after the red ments. Identifying it as only one of those many anime-fueled memes, most of pill in the 1999 science-fiction film The elements is not only inaccurate, but ob- them showing cute cartoon girls wearing Matrix that enables Keanu Reeves to see scures the Alt Right’s peculiarly culture- various kinds of Nazi regalia, or sporting reality. Alt Righters see it as a metaphor savvy orientation and the strength of its openly misogynistic, racist, and antise- for what they consider to be the reve- appeal. mitic texts. Comic characters of various latory power of their ideology, which Take Pepe the Frog, for example. Pepe kinds are deployed to ironically promote cuts through the lies of “social justice did not begin life, as it were, as the mas- White nationalist ideas. warriors,” “Cultural Marxists,” and the cot of the Alt Right. His cartoonist cre- The Alt Right established itself primar- mainstream media they insist is actively ator, Matt Furie, a liberal Democrat, ily through its cultural agility—its abil- suppressing their views. drew the smiling character in 2005 as ity to stay at the forefront of part of an absurdist comic book; Pepe’s current events, themes, and panel featured the frog peeing with his ideas by adapting them to its pants down around his ankles, saying, own uses and then running “Feels good man.” wild with them. Spencer Pepe the Frog was one of the most Pepe’s catchphrase and image—big- explains that these memes popular memes on social media by eyed, large-lipped, cheerful—prolif- have “power” and are “a way 2014 before being hijacked by the erated and became a common part of of communicating immedi- Alt Right. memes. By 2014, he had become one of ately.” The movement takes the most popular memes on social me- pride in the inscrutability of dia. its memes and other cultural And then he was hijacked by the Alt markers—from the “echo” of Right. Already wildly popular among placing parenthesis around the far-right trolls at 4chan, Pepe’s im- the names of Jews (a tactic age came increasingly to be featured in since reclaimed by some Alt Right memes as the trolls spread to Jews), to the use of “Shit- other forums. Andrew Anglin, a former lord” as an honorific to -de skinhead who was one of the leading scribe Alt Right true believ- trolls at 4chan, featured Pepe’s visage ers—and revel in using them prominently at his neonazi blog The as a kind of secret hand- Daily Stormer; other Alt Right activists shake. The most pernicious followed. Soon regular users stopped us- of these is the #WhiteGeno- ing Pepe in memes out of fear that they cide hashtag that handily re- would be presumed to be racist White duces the White nationalist Image via clipartsgram.com. nationalists.24 “mantra” that “Diversity is a It was only a dumb cartoon, but what Code Word for White Geno- Pepe really represented to the Alt Right cide.” was something much more powerful: Many Alt Right memes tap irony. Unlike their historical forebears into popular culture: Taylor Swift’s im- “The Alt-Right is a ‘mass movement’ in the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Na- age pops up to promote “Aryan” beauty in the truest possible sense of the term, a tions, the leaders and followers of the standards; the new Star Wars films are type of mass-movement that could only Alt Right see themselves as smarter and mocked for including central Black and exist on the Internet, where everyone’s more sophisticated, their rhetoric of rac- female characters. Masculinity is a fixa- voice is as loud as they are able to make ism, violence, and open eliminationism tion for Alt Rightists, reflected in lingo it,” explained Anglin. “In the world of wrapped in more wit and humor, at least such as “cuck” or “cuckservative,” which the internet, top-down hierarchy can of a sort. characterize mainstream conservatives only be based on the value, or perceived As Anglin explained, “A movement as spineless cuckolds. They revel in na- value, of someone’s ideas. The Alt-Right which meets all of the [Southern Poverty ked racism for its transgressive value, re- is an online mob of disenfranchised and Law Center’s] definitions of Neo-Nazi flected in their term “dindu nuffin” (cari- mostly anonymous, mostly young White White Supremacism using a cartoon frog catured dialect for “I didn’t do nothing,” men. … The mob is the movement.”26 to represent itself takes on a subversive used to describe African Americans, And yet, by virtue of its spreading power to bypass historical stereotypes of especially Black Lives Matters protest- online presence, and the genuinely ex- such movements, and thus present the ers). The terms spawned social-media tremist nature of the ideology it promot- ideas themselves in a fun way without hashtags (#Cuckservative, #Dindu) that ed, the Alt Right was much more. It had the baggage of Schindler’s List and Ameri- spread the ideas behind them to a mostly become a massive mechanism for the can History X.”25 young and impressionable audience. online radicalization of mostly young Pepe is hardly the only cartoon figure Frequently, Alt Right activists de- White Americans. deployed by the Alt Right. The move- scribe the conversion to their point of

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 9 q & a

INTERNET RADICALS be fueling terrorist acts by Muslim “radi- ing that concern about Islamist radical- BY ALEX DIBRANCO In the wake of domestic terrorism at- cals” was occurring simultaneously in ization had produced such government tacks in the fall of 2015 in Chattanooga, a completely separate dimension of the efforts to combat the problem as the Tennessee, and San Bernardino, Califor- Internet: among the gathering White U.K.’s “Prevent” program, examined the nia, committed by non-Whites osten- male nationalists of the Alt Right. course of various Alt Right adherents as sibly motivated by Muslim extremism, How does online radicalization hap- they became increasingly vitriolic and various media pundits, experts on ter- pen? A number of different models have even violent in their views. “Reading rorism, and government officials began been developed for understanding the through the posting history of individ- raising concerns about the role of “on- phenomenon. Most of them, unsurpris- ual aliases,” she wrote, “it’s possible to line radicalization” in fueling such vio- ingly, have been geared toward examin- chart their progress from vague dissatis- lence. The massacre of 49 people at an ing Islamist radicals, but their findings faction, and desire for social status and Orlando gay nightclub in June 2016 by a fit remarkably well in explaining how sexual success, to full-blown adherence Muslim man who espoused beliefs from the same process works with White na- to a cohesive ideology of white suprem- radical Islam, seemingly picked up on- tionalism. acy and misogyny. Neofascists treat line, only intensified the conversation. One of these theories is called “iden- these websites as recruitment grounds. The massive media attention paid to tity demarginalization,” articulated by They find angry, frustrated young men these incidents, however, underscored psychologists Katelyn McKenna and and groom them in their own image. Yet how acts of terrorist violence related to John Bargh in a 1998 study. It attempts there’s no Prevent equivalent to try to the influence of White supremacism or to explain why some social groups are stamp this out.”32 other far-right ideologies rarely received more drawn to the Internet than others. Southern Poverty Law Center analyst Keegan Hankes, who devotes much of his time to monitor- ing the activities and growth Dylann Roof, for example, spent most of his days reading Alt Right of the Alt Right, explained websites. It was clear, but little noted, that the same phenomenon that the very shape of the movement’s discourse plays believed to be fueling terrorist acts by Muslim “radicals” was occurring an important role in its re- simultaneously in a completely separate dimension of the Internet: cruitment: People are first among the gathering White male nationalists of the Alt Right. exposed to their ideas by go- ing wildly over the top with jokes that celebrate Nazis or other kinds of ugly behavior the same treatment.27 When 20-year-old People with “concealable and cultur- designed to attract attention by its crazi- Dylann Roof murdered nine people in a ally devalued identities” were found to ness. Charleston church in a June 2015, both be more likely than people with main- “You know, people will laugh at these media accounts and law-enforcement of- stream identities to participate in and things, just because they’re so trans- ficials were reluctant to identify the act value online communities. McKenna’s gressive. And who is most susceptible to as domestic terrorism, despite the fact and Bargh’s study found that people who that? Young minds,” continued Hankes. that it more than adequately fit the FBI posted in online forums dedicated to “The idea is to attract young minds, and definition of such crimes.28 Similarly, concealable identities, such as being LG- of course, they are targeting the people when an anti-abortion extremist shot up BTQ or a neonazi, valued the feedback who spend the most time in these envi- a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and opinions of other group members ronments. This movement is very im- Springs in November 2015, killing three much more strongly than people who mersive, and people wind up building people, the crime was again not identi- belonged to forums focusing on eas- their whole lives around it.” fied as terrorism.29 And when a (White) ily perceivable marginalized identities, 31 militia gang was arrested for plotting to such as obesity and stuttering. David Neiwert is an investigative journalist bomb a Kansas Muslim community in “For the first time,” McKenna and based in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest October 2016, even though the plotters Bargh wrote, an individual exploring his correspondent for the Southern Poverty were ultimately charged with domestic or her marginalized identity in an online Law Center, as well as the author of numer- terrorism, there was relatively little me- environment “can reap the benefits of ous books, including the forthcoming Alt- 30 dia coverage of the case. joining a group of similar others: feeling America: The Rise of the Radical Right But all of these incidents had one less isolated and different, disclosing a in the Age of Trump (Verso Press, June thing in common: their perpetrators long secret part of oneself, sharing one’s 2017). were all motivated in large part by In- own experiences and learning from ternet communities. Roof, for example, those of others, and gaining emotional spent most of his days reading Alt Right and motivational support.” websites. It was clear, but little noted, The process of radicalization occurs that the same phenomenon believed to in steps. Journalist Abi Wilkinson, not-

10 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 BY ALEX DIBRANCO

Mobilizing Misogyny

nquestionably, President damental to U.S. history as White An- can be seen in how “the Right applies Donald Trump’s demonstrated glo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) nativism.2 race and class criteria that distinguish enthusiasm for catering to the The same patriarchal stance—combin- between the rights of white, middle- Christian Right on abortion— ing race, religion, and nativism—fuels class women and low-income women Uand obliterating their memory of his conservative Christian ideology on ap- of color.” This dynamic led to the 1990s pro-choice past—spells trouble for re- propriate gender roles. (Transgender stereotype of the “welfare queen,” and productive rights. But that’s not the only women and men and genderqueer in- welfare reform under Bill Clinton de- threat to women under Trump’s new or- dividuals also violate these designated signed to discourage women of color der. Trump’s campaign distinguished roles.) Especially in the last 100 years, as and immigrant women from having “too itself from those of other Republican some women have succeeded in pushing many” children.5) candidates by its attacks on women: reg- back against the sexist world they inher- But attacks on women’s reproductive ularly insulting women’s appearances or ited, social and political movements rights have often come wrapped in the behavior and defending physical and have emerged to defend traditional gen- guise of chivalry, framed as “moral is- sexual harassment and violence against der structures. sues” and “family values” rather than them. Sometimes, Trump’s threatening Amid Second Wave feminism, the misogyny. To gain wider acceptance, and offensive rhetoric directly targeted antifeminists Phyllis Schlafly (a Ro- the anti-abortion movement has adopt- his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rod- man Catholic) and Beverly LaHaye (an ed a framework of “protecting women,” ham Clinton, the first woman major evangelical) followed in this tradition vilifying abortion providers as preying party nominee for president, from call- when they organized a “pro-family” on weak women threatened by the phys- ing her a “nasty woman” to suggesting movement to stop the ratification of the ical and mental health consequences of there might be a Second Amendment 1972 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). abortion.6 That effort has made signifi- “remedy” in case of her election.1 Though themselves prominent activists, cant legislative progress in recent years, This rhetoric energized members of a LaHaye and the late Schlafly promoted with a slew of state anti-abortion bills in secular misogynist Right—such as the submission to husbands and attacked 2011. Despite this official strategy, clin- men’s rights movement and, more re- women seeking careers.3 ic protesters on the ground expose their cently, the “Alt Right”—that has flour- Abortion, contraception, and sexual- misogyny in calling women “murderers” ished online since the 1990s. And it ity education all threaten the enforce- and “whores,” and sometimes resorting found no pushback from a brand of con- ment of traditional gender roles. After to physical intimidation.7 servative, libertarian “feminism”—an- the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abor- In 2012, contraception came under other ’90s development—that provides tion in 1973, conservative evangelicals increased attack as immoral in the de- a dangerously legitimizing female face joined with the existing Catholic “pro- bate over healthcare reform. Anti-abor- for misogynist ideology centered on life” movement in the creation of the tion groups have long denounced the overt hostility to women and the prom- Christian Right, and abortion became “morning after pill” as an abortifacient, ulgation of rape culture. “a vital component of [the Right’s] fight yet had otherwise tended to avoid push- Effectively fighting mobilizations like to protect the bottom line of traditional ing an unpopular position against con- those emboldened by Trump’s election family values—the dominance of white, traception, largely considered a settled requires accurately understanding their male power and control,” as PRA’s Jean issue. When law student Sandra Fluke composition—one in which misogyny Hardisty and Pam Chamberlain ob- testified in favor of contraceptive cover- thrives alongside, and intertwined with, served. The anti-abortion movement age, Rush Limbaugh infamously ranted racism. drew together members of the Religious about her being a “slut” and a “prosti- Right and White supremacists and neo- tute” who should be required to post sex PATRIARCHAL TRADITIONALISM FROM nazis, who contributed to the rising videos online.8 WHITE SUPREMACY TO THE CHRISTIAN violence against clinic providers in the Set on proving that his “pro-choice” RIGHT 1990s perpetrated primarily by White days were behind him, during the 2016 Male supremacism, enshrined in the men.4 (The legacy of White supremacy, campaign Trump denounced Planned nation’s founding documents, is as fun- Hardisty and Chamberlain continue, Parenthood as an “abortion factory” and

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 11 selected hardline reproductive and LG- therefore opposes equal pay legisla- developing a male victimhood ideology BTQ rights opponent Indiana governor tion.12 In such respects, Christian Right to complement equity feminism’s rejec- Mike Pence as his running mate. In his ideology aligns with that of equity femi- tion of female victims. In 1988, War- eagerness, Trump unknowingly vio- nism and men’s rights. ren Farrell, who had once been involved lated the Christian Right’s strategic de- with feminist organizing of men’s con- ployment of a “kinder, gentler” image9 EQUITY FEMINISM AND MEN’S RIGHTS sciousness group, published the book when he announced that women who In 1991, “Women for Judge Thomas” Why Men Are the Way They Are, “depict- obtained an illegal abortion should face formed to defend conservative Supreme ing a world where women—particularly “punishment.” Although Trump back- Court nominee Clarence Thomas against female executives—wield vast influ- pedaled to mollify anti-abortion groups Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allega- ence. Even those women who are less tions. The following year this successful have ‘enormous sexual lever- group institutionalized itself age over men.’”19 as the Independent Women’s When men think about women’s Forum (IWF), under the prem- gains, Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Bar- ise that, as co-founder Anita nett write in The New Soft War on Wom- Blair declared, feminism en: How the Myth of Female Ascendance Is should have “declared victory Hurting Women, Men—and Our Economy, and gone home” by 1978.13 “There’s a tendency to circle the wagons, The idea that, at least in the to exaggerate how far women have come U.S., women have achieved and how far men have fallen.”20 Alarm equality underlies the secular over women’s advancement emerges re- libertarian philosophy of “eq- peatedly in U.S. history: as Danielle Pa- uity feminism” (also “individ- quette points out in the Washington Post, ualist feminism”).14 In 2009, 30 years prior to Farrell’s book, Harvard IWF’s then-president Michelle historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. wor- Bernard explained, “we have a ried over the trickle of wives into the philosophical belief that wom- 1950s workforce: “Women seem an ex- en are not victims… we believe panding, aggressive force, seizing new that free markets are really domains like a conquering army, while the great equalizer, and will men, more and more on the defensive, allow women to become truly are hardly able to hold their own and equal with men in areas where gratefully accept assignments from we still may be unequal.”15 their new rulers.”21 This ideology diverges from Farrell, dubbed the “father of the patriarchal traditionalism in men’s rights movement,” followed up applauding successful career in 1993 with The Myth of Male Power: Jack Donovan has advocated a system of patriarchy based on women (and holding varied Why Men Are the Disposable Sex, where “tribal” comradeship among male warriors. (photo: Zachary O. views on abortion), replacing he suggested that American (White) Ray via Wiki Commons). it with a sexism that blames men were the new “nigger,” threatened women’s continuing under- by women’s ability to cry sexual harass- that claim to protect women, his origi- representation in positions of influence ment and “date rape.” According to so- nal statement was characteristic of the on personal choices and intrinsic dif- ciologist Michael Kimmel, this became anti-woman vitriol of his campaign and ferences, and to protect this worldview, the movement’s “bible,” awakening may have appealed to the existing ha- frequently dismisses contradictory evi- men to their status as victims of wom- tred demonstrated by clinic protesters.10 dence.16 en’s ascendancy.22 Like White suprema- The Christian Right’s attack on wom- By offering a provocative dissident cist movements, men’s rights ideology en isn’t limited to reproductive issues. women’s voice, presenting “the other warns White men that they are losing Schlafly frequently argued that women side,” equity feminists can forego the their place in society. Where equity make false accusations of sexual assault grassroots organizing of Schlafly and feminism thrives among elite women and domestic violence—her grounds for LaHaye17 while benefiting from exten- with access to major communications opposing the Violence Against Women sive media dissemination of its ideas. platforms, the men’s rights movement Act (VAWA) and suggesting that there As former IWF Executive Director Bar- is a decentralized “netroots” movement exists a “war on men.”11 Concerned bara Ledeen put it, “You can’t have white that draws men who feel less privileged, Women for America (CWA), a major guys saying you don’t need affirmative especially those with employment trou- Christian Right group founded by Bev- action.”18 bles and failures in romantic relation- erly LaHaye, claims that the “wage gap” Of course, plenty of White guys have ships. results from women’s own choices and spoken out against affirmative action, Claiming rampant false accusations

12 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 of rape and violence is one of the most of advocating violence, writing that ties share adherents, though there is prevalent men’s rights and equity femi- women who go clubbing are “begging” also conflict among their competing nist talking points.23 Who Stole Femi- to be raped, and that “there are a lot of perspectives. nism?, a classic among conservative women who get pummeled and pumped The virulent misogyny promoted by “feminists” published the following year because they are stupid (and often ar- male supremacists, often couched as an- by Christina Hoff Sommers, similarly rogant) enough to walk [through] life ti-feminism and accompanied by racism argues that “gender” or “radical” femi- with the equivalent of a I’M A STUPID, and nativism, has serious repercussions nists lie about rates of rape and domes- CONNIVING BITCH—PLEASE RAPE ME that play out on a global stage. In 1989, tic violence. Speaking on campus sexual neon sign glowing above their empty Marc Lépine killed 14 women at an en- assault in 2014, Sommers, a scholar at little narcissistic heads.”27 gineering school in Montreal under the the conservative American Enterprise Another site Elam launched, Register- guise of “fighting feminism.”31 In 2009, Institute, repeated the same themes of her.com, allowed men to post personal George Sodini killed three women and “false accusations” and “[i]nflated sta- information for women they claim made then himself at a fitness class in -Penn tistics,” declaring, “I believe that the false accusations (or otherwise outraged sylvania, leaving behind a website that rape culture movement is fueled by ex- the movement) in order to target them complained about being rejected by aggerated claims of intimacy and a lot of for harassment. In 2011, feminist writ- women (and leading PUAs to coin the paranoia about men.”24 A spokesperson er Jessica Valenti fled her house under a term “going Sodini”).32 Anders Breivik for A Voice for Men (AVFM), one of the barrage of threats after her information murdered 77 adults and children in Nor- most prominent men’s rights organi- way in 2011, leaving behind a mani- zations, rejected rape “hysteria…as festo attacking “the radical feminist a scam” and baselessly claimed that agenda,” Islam, political correctness, sexual assault affects only about two and “Cultural Marxism” (see David percent of women—far from the Cen- Neiwart’s article in this issue).33 And ters for Disease Control and Preven- in May 2014, Elliot Rodger set out to tion’s one-in-five statistic.25 “slaughter every single spoiled, stuck- Although equity feminists reject up blonde slut” at the “hottest” soror- the existence of structural constraints ity at the University of California, San- on women, like Men’s Rights Activist ta Barbara, writing, “I don’t know why (MRA) they suggest that American you girls aren’t attracted to me, but I boys and men suffer at the hands of will punish you for it.”34 He ultimately gender feminists. In 2000, Sommers killed six people and himself, though wrote The War Against Boys: How Mis- he failed to make it inside the sorority. guided Feminism Is Harming Our Young The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Men, and a flurry of concern over boys’ Intelligence Report editor-in-chief, educational achievements in 2013 Daryush Valizadeh writes at the PUA site Return of Kings. Mark Potok, wrote, “Men’s rights ac- landed her in major outlets including tivists did not tell Rodger to kill—but The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and appeared on this site. in their writings, it seems like many of The Atlantic. Psychologist Helen Smith, Other strains of online male suprema- them wouldn’t mind doing some killing one of IWF’s “Modern Feminists,” sug- cism include pick-up artists (PUAs), who of their own. Rodger said as much in his gested in 2012 that “the deck is so advocate male sexual entitlement and manifesto, writing that PUAHate ‘con- stacked against men that they are ‘going give sexist advice on seducing women; firmed many of the theories I had about Galt,’” a reference to Ayn Rand’s novel the Red Pill, a community named for a how wicked and degenerate women re- Atlas Shrugged, an MRA favorite.26 Matrix reference that seeks to awaken ally are’ and showed him ‘how bleak and Equity feminism’s depiction of women men to the “reality” of dominant “femi- cruel the world is due to the evilness of as liars with “victim mentalities” dove- nist culture”;28 Men Going Their Own women.’”35 tails alarmingly with (and legitimizes) Way, which advocates cutting ties with Elliot Rodger’s story has parallels the online manifestation of the men’s women; and Jack Donovan’s “gang mas- with that of White supremacist ter- rights movement, which uses more vir- culinity,” which calls on men to form rorist Dylann Roof, convicted in 2016 ulent and hateful rhetoric to convey the warrior gangs to escape domestication of murdering nine Black congregants same argument. by women.29 Deviating from the online at a Charleston church.36 Though the movement’s predominantly secular na- media typically portrays such acts of MALE SUPREMACIST HARASSMENT AND ture are Christian masculinists, who, right-wing violence as perpetrated by VIOLENCE as Dianna Anderson writes at Rewire, mentally disturbed individuals37—so- Paul Elam has made attempts at a “have fused manosphere rhetoric with called “Lone Wolves”—as PRA contribu- respectable mainstream image, orga- what they see as ‘biblical’ gender roles tor Naomi Braine writes, “a decision to nizing the movement’s first in-person to envision a hierarchical, patriarchal act alone does not mean acting outside conference. But he also has a history ideal world.”30 These varied communi- of social movement frameworks, phi-

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 13 losophies, and networks.”38 Both young a talk at Utah State University after the hip”; their publication, they declared, men encountered inaccurate and hate- school received a threat to repeat Marc wouldn’t do “racists’ public relations ful rhetoric online that inflamed exist- Lépine’s massacre and demonstrate work for them.”50 ing dissatisfactions by depicting them “what feminist lies and poison have But nowhere in this statement from as victims.39 Thus, Lone Wolf violence done to the men of America.”46 While a major progressive news outlet exists emerges from a right-wing context “sys- circles of progressive female journalists a single reference to sexism or misogy- tematically erased” by media misrepre- took the movement behind Gamergate ny—a glaring omission given its signifi- sentation of these as isolated and irra- seriously, their voices were largely ig- cance to the Alt Right’s mobilization to tional actors. nored by the mainstream media.47 defeat the first woman to receive a major Some members of the male suprema- Through Gamergate, vocal misogynist party nomination for president.51 Some cist online movement hailed Rodger personalities such as Mike Cernovich, respected outlets and organizations, in- as a hero on PUAHate.com messaging associated with the pick-up artist com- cluding the Associated Press and SPLC, boards or Facebook fan pages.40 Others munity, and Milo Yiannopoulos, a Bri- described the movement’s misogyny, distanced themselves while defending etbart writer, expanded their online fol- but their recommended definitions ref- their own misogynist content, much as lowing, to be leveraged in future attacks erenced White nationalism, neglecting the Council of Conservative Citizens, the on feminism and women. Yiannopoulos to acknowledge male supremacy as a White nationalist group Roof cited in his had over 300,000 Twitter followers at core component.52 While some Alt Right manifesto, claimed to condemn Roof’s the time the social media platform final- leaders, such as former Breitbart News violence while blaming society for ig- ly banned him for offensive content in executive (now Trump administration noring White people’s “legitimate griev- 2016; at the time of this writing he has chief strategist) Stephen Bannon, hail ances.”41 Daryush Valizadeh (“Roosh more than 1.9 million Facebook likes from more racist corners of the umbrel- V”), a professional PUA and founder of and 568,000 subscribers on YouTube, la movement, others, like Yiannopoulos the site Return of Kings, argued, “Until in addition to his platform at Brietbart, and Cernovich, rose to prominence pri- you give men like Rodger a way to have where he has bragged about writing marily on their misogynist rhetoric. sex, either by encouraging them to learn headlines such as “Would You Rather These omissions aren’t surprising. In game, seek out a Thai wife, or engage in Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”48 a 2008 study, “The Absence of a Gender legalized prostitution…it’s inevitable for In “An Establishment Conservative’s Justice Framework in Social Justice Or- another massacre to occur.”42 Guide to the Alt-Right,” Yiannopoulos ganizing,” activist and consultant Linda Meanwhile, equity feminists stepped and co-author Allum Bokhari write, Burnham wrote, “All too many organiz- up to whitewash a clearly misogynist at- “The so-called online ‘manosphere,’ the ers and activists affirm a commitment to tack. IWF senior editor Charlotte Hays nemeses of left-wing feminism, quickly women’s human rights or gender justice wrote that calling Rodger’s violence a became one of the alt-right’s most dis- while having no clear idea of sexism as “product of sexism” was a “bizarre re- tinctive constituencies.” a systemic phenomenon with tangled sponse” by feminists.43 The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz historical, social, economic and cultural writes that Cernovich “developed a the- roots and multiple manifestations.” In VIDEO GAMES, MISOGYNY, AND THE ALT ory of white-male identity politics: men her interviews of activists, Burnham RIGHT were oppressed by feminism, and politi- found “the subordination of sexism as Video games might not seem like a cal correctness prevented the discussion a legitimate concern among ‘competing vital social justice battleground. How- of obvious truths, such as the criminal isms’”; antipathy to the feminist move- ever, as sociologist and gaming critic proclivities of certain ethnic groups.”49 ment (which is perceived as White); a Katherine Cross has pointed out, the In 2016, in tweets that received more feeling that “there’s already a level of virulence of online White male reac- than 100 million views, Cernovich fo- equity and there’s no need to struggle tions to increasing gender and racial cused on supporting “unapologetically over it anymore”; and a lack of tools diversity in game players and creators, masculine” Trump and attacking Hillary for structural analysis.53 (Groups with and to critiques of the industry’s sexism, Clinton with conspiracy theories regard- a better intersectional approach, Burn- indicates a problem with dismissing this ing her failing health and emails. ham footnoted, included reproductive as a trivial issue.44 Only a few months Following Trump’s election, main- justice organizations like SisterSong.54) after Rodger’s fatal 2014 attack, an in- stream and progressive media outlets Matthew N. Lyons, co-author of Right- cident dubbed “Gamergate,” ostensibly worried that using the movement’s cho- Wing Populism in America, further ar- about gaming industry ethics and media sen name, the Alt Right, helped euphe- gues that this heightened misogyny corruption, resulted in the Federal Bu- mize and normalize old-fashioned big- distinguishes the Alt Right from other reau of Investigation (FBI) looking into otry. As Think Progress’ editors wrote, White supremacist and neonazi mobili- the barrage of violent rape and death “[Alt Right Leader Richard] Spencer zations, which have practiced a “quasi- threats against women who criticized and his ilk are essentially standard- feminism” that viewed women as hold- video games’ sexist portrayals of women issue white supremacists who discov- ing distinct but complementary gender and lack of diversity.45 Anita Sarkees- ered a clever way to make themselves roles important to the movement. Es- ian, one of the primary targets, canceled appear more innocuous—even a little pecially since the 1980s, Lyons writes,

14 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 neonazi groups have increasingly laud- of the Alt Right, it’s the “gateway drug” spoke of bright prospects ahead for Hill- ed White women as “race warriors.”55 for the recruitment of disaffected White ary Clinton: “She is incredibly smart, Some early Alt Right writers did en- men into racist communities. David brilliant, an excellent campaigner, and courage their compatriots to do more Futrelle, a journalist who watches the I think her time will come.”64 to attract women and root out sexual men’s rights and other online misogy- However, misogynist and anti-femi- harassment.56 Now even that has dis- nist movements, told Vox that it’s “close nist Rightist ideologies have taken a toll appeared. Today the movement is bet- to impossible to overstate the role of beyond leaders’ control. Though during ter characterized by dismissive ideol- Gamergate in the process of [alt-right] the primaries IWF gave favorable atten- ogy like that of White male supremacist radicalization…Gamergate was based on tion to Carly Fiorina, the only female Matt Forney, who asserts in a 2012 “an- the same sense of aggrieved entitlement Republican candidate, a poll showed ti-feminist classic” post on Alternative that drives the alt-right—and many Trump leading the Republican pack Right that women are “herd creatures” Trump voters.” Within this narrative, among female voters. Historian Cath- who are “unimportant” to the men Futrelle said, they saw their harassment erine Rymph explained that the exodus who will make history. “Attempting to of women as defending “an imperiled of feminism and women’s rights advo- convince such flighty creatures to join culture,” moving into other online en- cacy from the GOP means that, among the alt-right with logical arguments is claves populated by neonazis and White those left, “voters, including women, like begging escaped inmates to please supremacists that recruited them for who don’t like Democratic feminism or pretty please come back to the insane “fighting against ‘white genocide.’”62 so-called ‘political correctness’ in gener- asylum.”57 Forney also argues that, “Ev- al may very well find refreshing Trump’s ery feminist, deep down, wants nothing 2016 ELECTION: WHERE HAS THIS MISOG delight in using language about women more than a rapist’s baby in her belly.”58 YNY LED US? that many find offensive.”65 When then- Lyons writes: In 2006, IWF Managing Director Car- Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly criticized Alt-rightists tell us that it’s natural rie L. Lukas wrote, “In the past, victims Trump’s misogyny while moderating a for men to rule over women and that of rape were made to feel that the crime 2015 primary debate, Trump respond- women want and need this, that “giv- was their fault. Many women around ed, to audience cheers, that “the big ing women freedom [was] one of man- the world still suffer this bias. Today in problem this country has is being po- kind’s greatest mistakes,” that women the United States, the pendulum has litically correct”—code for resistance to should “never be allowed to make for- swung too far in the other direction. A misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and ho- eign policy [because] their vindictive- man accused of rape often is convicted mophobia. Trump went on to call Kelly ness knows no bounds,” that femi- in the court of public opinion without a “bimbo” and imply she was menstru- nism is defined by mental illness and evidence.”63 Yet in Trump’s campaign, ating. After Trump’s continued attacks has turned women into “caricatures of that was far from the case. Multiple ac- on Twitter rallied online misogynists irrationality and hysteria.”59 cusations of sexual assault and harass- to further harassment, Kelly received Richard Spencer, the now-infamous ment against the Republican candidate death threats.66 White nationalist leader credited with were ignored throughout the campaign; For some equity feminists, it’s gone coining the term “Alt Right,” pro- when audio recordings exposing him ad- too far. IWF senior editor Charlotte Hays motes male supremacist rhetoric that mitting to sexual assault finally brought argues that Trump’s history of misogy- includes yet goes beyond traditional widespread attention to his treatment nist statements goes beyond “bucking arguments for women belonging in of women, he defended his comments political correctness.” In March 2016, the home. Along with his position on as “locker-room talk.” And those com- Hays worried, “If Trump is the nominee, women’s “vindictiveness” (quoted by ments did not ultimately cost him the the [Leftist claims of a] ‘war on women’ Lyons above), Spencer defended Trump election. will be back with a vengeance. And this against sexual assault accusations with While IWF and equity feminism, time there will be a degree of fairness the argument, “At some part of every like other libertarian ideologies, tend in the charge.”67 Sommers referred to woman’s soul, they want to be taken by toward the conservative side of the po- Trump as an example of “amoral mas- a strong man.”60 litical spectrum, there is more diver- culinity” that “preys on women.”68 She Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scien- sity there than among women in anti- joined conservative female media pun- tist who studies right-wing movements, feminist movements and the Christian dits in calling for Trump to fire his origi- describes the Alt Right’s assertion of Right. This allows the ideological tent nal campaign manager, Corey Lewan- women’s inferiority as “a sexist interpre- to include Democrats like Christina Hoff dowski, after Brietbart News reporter tation of xenophobia. It’s the same view Sommers, independents like former Michelle Fields charged him with physi- they have of immigrants and minori- IWF president Michelle Bernard, and cally assaulting her.69 Trump denied ties, that they’re threatening their way Republican women who might criticize Lewandowski’s culpability, only firing of life. A life where men are dominant. aspects of their party’s gender dynamics. him three months later after apparently A life where they have privilege in virtu- After applauding Sarah Palin for break- unrelated problems.70 And when former ally every domain.”61 ing free of sexist attempts to control Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed Vox writer Aja Romano argues that her image as the 2008 Republican vice suit against CEO Roger Ailes for sexual misogyny is not only a significant part presidential nominee, in 2009, Bernard harassment—which Kelly also reported

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 15 BY RACHEL TABACHNICK experiencing—Trump asserted that While Trump’s rhetoric reflects MRA incidents, more than double the next- Carlson’s accusations against his infor- vitriol, it is the long fight against femi- highest rate.83 In multiple incidents of mal advisor were “Totally unfounded.”71 nism by groups embraced in the main- harassment of women, assailants from Fields resigned from Brietbart, which stream, like equity feminists and Re- middle school boys to groups of adult Right Moves former executive and Trump senior strat- publican women, that legitimized the men parroted Trump’s boast that he can egist Stephen Bannon proudly called candidacy—and election—of an overt “Grab [women] by the pussy.”84 Historian Jason Stahl Opens a New Era of Scholarship “the platform for the alt-right,”72over misogynist who has bragged about sex- Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) originally the outlet’s inadequate response.73 Com- ual assault. claimed it was a “stretch” to “characterize on Conservative Think Tanks menting on the successive Alt Right [Trump’s comment] as sexual assault” online harassment of Fields, Kelly said, DEFENDING GENDER JUSTICE POST- (later backpedalling under questioning “This woman hasn’t done anything ELECTION during his confirmation hearing for U.S. wrong, anything, other than find her- Trump’s rhetoric shares more in com- attorney general).85 Before Trump was self on the wrong end of these folks, for mon with equity feminist and men’s even sworn in as president, his admin- whom she used to work.”74 rights ideologies than with “family val- istration’s threat to reproductive rights, Some equity feminists, like Sommers, ues” framing—and with the reality of protections addressing violence against may have expected their own elite con- Christian Right misogyny, such as the women and campus rape, and other servative colleagues to be taken serious- vitriol of clinic protestors and the anti- women’s equality programs had already ly, not realizing that the damage done in feminism of the late Phyllis Schlafly, a been made alarmingly clear.86 Under the disparaging other women would find its staunch Trump supporter. Trump-Pence administration, threats way back to them. In response to Som- It will be important to track the grow- will come from the Christian Right, con- mers’ criticism of Trump, Mike Cernov- ing connections between these secular servative secular and libertarian groups, ich disdainfully pointed out that she had and religious movements, bridged by an empowered White supremacist fig- previously “mocked women who played underlying misogyny, racism, and na- ures, and, of course, a President who’s the damsel in distress.”75 tivism, especially as individuals aligned shown his comfort with overt displays On the other hand, the apprecia- with the Alt Right, like Bannon, and eq- of racism, nativism, and misogyny. tion for Hillary Clinton’s political mer- uity feminism, like Conway, gain influ- This disturbing combination may now its seems to have disappeared under ence. The seeds are already there. The jeopardize a wider expanse of policies IWF’s new leadership, which got on libertarian Koch brothers, infamous reducing structural oppression that had board with Trump after his nomination. major donors to libertarian and conser- seemed settled. Trump hired IWF board member Kelly- vative causes, fund both IWF and CWA. But the fact of this combined threat anne Conway to replace Lewandowski Alt Right figures like blogger Matt For- may also bring more dissenters into a as his new campaign manager, which ney oppose reproductive rights, writing more holistic response. Loretta Ross, a followed the organization’s efforts to that pro-choice women have “evil” in longtime reproductive justice and wom- peddle palatable sexism under a female their souls and that “Girls who kill their en’s human rights leader, is optimistic face. IWF’s campaign affiliate, Indepen- own children despise life itself and will about the power vested in intersection- dent Women’s Voice (IWV), supported do their best to destroy yours.”79 Pick- al feminist organizing. “Now with the Trump’s campaign, with CEO Heather up artist communities advise members Women’s March on Washington using Higgins coming around to offer her full- to seek submissive wives who can eas- the ‘Women’s Rights Are Human Rights’ throated support in the general elec- ily be controlled, and oppose abortion call for mobilizations in 616 simultane- tion.76 and contraception as a means of weigh- ous marches worldwide,” she wrote at The men’s rights movement lacked ing them down with children.80 And, Rewire, “I believe feminists in the United these internal divisions over Trump’s extending “father’s rights” arguments States have finally caught up to the rest outright misogyny. Early in the primary within the men’s rights movement, a of the global women’s movement. I feel season, members of online male su- Missouri lawmaker proposed in 2014 like celebrating our inevitable progress premacist communities touted Trump a bill requiring paternal consent to an toward victory for equality, dignity, as an example of an “alpha” male given abortion.81 and justice, despite the reasons we are how “he insults and dominates women, The influence of ideology on the marching in the first place: to unite preys on their insecurities and refuses to broader population, outside of active to challenge the immoral and prob- ever apologize for it.”77 And as though movement participants, bears particu- ably illegitimate presidency of Donald he was directly channeling men’s rights lar importance with a president who Trump.”87 talking points, at a campaign rally in uses his platform to broadcast virulent May 2016 Trump declared, “All of the misogyny, racism, nativism, and Is- Alex DiBranco is a PhD Student in Sociol- men, we’re petrified to speak to women lamophobia.82 In tracking reported bi- ogy at Yale, studying social movements and anymore. …You know what? The women as-related incidents since Election Day, the U.S. Christian Right. She was formerly get it better than we do, folks. They get the Southern Poverty Law Center found PRA’s Communications Director and has it better than we do. If [Hillary Clinton] that perpetrators were most likely to ex- written for outlets such as Alternet, The didn’t play [the woman] card, she has plicitly reference Trump in anti-woman Nation, and Change.org. nothing.”78 attacks—82 percent of the 45 reported

16 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 BY RACHEL TABACHNICK Right Moves Historian Jason Stahl Opens a New Era of Scholarship on Conservative Think Tanks

he role of conservative think tanks in the modern resurgence of the Political Right has been a topic of interest to progressive Tactivists for decades. However, aca- demia had failed to produce a full-length historical study of conservative think tanks, according to author Jason Stahl. Stahl, a historian in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Min- nesota, corrected this oversight with his new book, Right Moves: The Conservative Think Tank in American Political Culture Since 1945. Stahl argues that there were three stages since 1945 in the “development of the think tank as a site of conser- vative political and cultural power.” First was the stretch between the end of World War I to the 1960s, when the Jason Stahl is an author and historian in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Develop- American Enterprise Institute, founded ment at the University of Minnesota. Photo: Pamela Butler. in 1938, struggled to be relevant in a liberal-leaning technocratic environ- constitutes valid policy debate. I did not agree with, but I was struggling ment. Second was the late ‘60s through Notably, Stahl also pays attention to to understand. the ‘70s, when AEI and newly emerging how historically liberal-leaning think I would see names mentioned, differ- think tanks like the Heritage Founda- tanks have also reacted to the success of ent monikers of these different insti- tion sought funding from wealthy con- conservative institutions like the Heri- tutions that were supporting the war. servative and libertarian donors for the tage Foundation by moving rightward. For example, George W. Bush spoke at purpose of countering what they viewed The chief example of this is the book’s the American Enterprise Institute in as a monopoly on public policy ideas by examination of the Democratic Leader- early 2003, giving this very high pro- “liberal academia” and the Brookings ship Council’s think tank, Progressive file speech covered by all the major net- Institution. Stahl describes the result as Policy Institute, and its role in helping works. I could find no coherent histories a “marketplace of ideas” in which public to “shift the parameters of the debate of these think tanks so that was the gen- policy was promoted to legislators and even more to the right in the 1990s.” esis of my efforts to learn more about the public on the grounds of ideological This November, on the eve of the elec- them and to understand why they seem appeal as opposed to its academic rigor. tion, Stahl spoke with PRA. to wield so much pull in policy debates. The third stage began in the ‘80s with the success of conservative think tanks What led you to this particular topic? There has been previous research and in effecting ideology and policy making This was first a dissertation and then writing on the impact of conservative on a wide scale. a book, so it was roughly a decade-long think tanks, including in this pub- Although Right Moves was written project. As any historian will tell you, lication, but very little published in prior to Donald Trump’s emergence as a we are often influenced by the events academia.1 Why is that, and what are presidential contender, Stahl views the around us and trying to historicize the the challenges of doing this research? president’s rise as the logical endpoint present. For me that meant the Iraq war Number one, I think at the time when of a decades-long reorientation of what and certain foreign policy decisions that I started writing my dissertation, to

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 17 the extent that historians were writ- ger the case. That’s not to say that this You warn readers at the opening of ing about conservatives and the Right rigorousness—which I and other histo- Chapter Four that you are about to Wing, they were writing about grass- rians talk about as a liberal technocratic make an abrupt shift. And you do. roots conservative movements. These ideal—didn’t have problems. It did. But You shift away from your focus on were historians who had come out of the what I argue in the book is that conser- self-described conservative and lib- ‘60s and ‘70s social history orientation, vatives, and particularly conservative ertarian think tanks like Heritage trained to study and trained by people think tanks, were integral in creating Foundation, AEI, and Cato Institute who studied social movements. Elite this shift in focus from technocratic to the response of some of the think conservative organizing was not really analysis to a focus on having an open tanks on the other side of the political the center of what historians were look- “marketplace of ideas.” As I try to say in spectrum. ing at. That’s really changed since in the the conclusion of the book, this market- So what I try to do in this chapter is past five or six years, and now you focus on institutions that were af- could argue that my book is part of filiated more with what we would a reorientation of the field. think of as American liberalism: The second reason I wasn’t find- those like the Brookings Institu- ing much in academia is that there tion and the Democratic Leader- is an archive problem. Historians ship Council’s (DLC) Progressive are trained to go to the archives Policy Institute (PPI). One might and dig through them as a sort of have expected them to take the lib- font of truth. And when you think eral pole and debate these growing about the type of people and orga- right-wing institutions in this new nizations I’m studying, the archives marketplace of ideas. I argue that just aren’t there as they are for so- they did not do that. Instead, they cial movements, for instance. So- said, You’re right and now what we cial movements would be much need to do is to make sure we are more interested in celebrating what internally balancing our own insti- they did and wanting to have open tutions. We need to be policing our- accessible archives. This is not the selves against being overly liberal. case with think tanks. I can’t go to the archive of the American Enter- So this helps to explain the his- prise Institute because there is not torical convergence that moved one. I can’t go to the archive of the the parameters of policy right- Heritage Foundation because there ward, as you describe it? is not one. Yes. The DLC and the PPI, in their Historians are immediately suspi- role of making this dynamic hap- cious if your work does not include pen within the Democratic Party, the traditional route of accessing effectively used a think tank struc- archives and this was challenging, ture to move the Democratic Party but there are ways to study these rightward, both rhetorically and on think tanks and other sources that matters of policy. I think that this is 2 can be used. Right Moves: The Conservative Think Tank in American Political in direct response to the formation Culture Since 1945 was published by The University of North Caro- and growth of powerful conserva- Your thesis is centered on the lina Press in 2016. tive institutions. It’s part and parcel idea that the 1980s and ‘90s of the key important dynamic in the growth of conservative think late ‘80s and 1990s. tanks changed the way that policy, place could have been a good thing. A domestic and foreign, is developed— range of voices could have allowed for a PPI repeatedly used the phrase “lib- from a more technocratic approach to more fruitful policy debate, but I argue eral fundamentalists” in their me- the marketing of policy to both politi- that’s not what happened. The market- dia to marginalize and disassociate cians and the public. place became about balancing existing themselves from both “new” social If there is a singular guiding argument liberal ideas with conservative ideas, movements and “old” labor-based so- of the book, it’s that. Without hearken- regardless of analytical rigor. I focus on cial movements. ing back to some golden age of think supply side economics as a key early ex- The corrosive part of DLC and PPI was tanks, I posit that there was a time not ample of this: an idea that had little re- a denigration of movement-based poli- too long ago, when there was a certain search foundation but was nevertheless tics, a suspicion of grassroots, move- kind of rigorousness in policy making enormously influential in changing tax ment-based politics. They accepted the and policy debate, and that is no lon- policy. pernicious framing of liberal/Left so-

18 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 cial movements that the Right had been in 1992 and even before that in the book? forwarding for years, that these rabble- 1980s, that the DLC was going to some- Some have argued that the book is rousing movements were out of touch how speak for a forgotten White work- about a Republican Party and conserva- and un-American. PPI used this moni- ing class—to speak for Bubba. At that tism that no longer exists, or even that ker— liberal fundamentalism—suggest- time you still have this core constitu- the book is now moot because of Donald ing that liberalism is more akin to a kind ency of White Southern Democrats. Fig- Trump. I would say exactly the opposite. of unthinking religious orientation and ures like Sam Nunn, Chuck Robb, and The marketplace of ideas, as I describe that this is the real problem of the Dem- others at the time latched onto DLC as it, is the belief that what you need in the ocratic Party. When you go down that representing the mainstream of Ameri- debate is a conservative view, regard- road of denigrating movement politics, can life, one that is equated with white- less of the rigor of that view. How can you are going down a disastrous elector- ness and counterposed to Jesse Jackson we not see Donald Trump as the logical al path, in my mind, regardless of your and his movement politics of the time. endpoint to that? If you say policy and politics. Later there was a change in moniker policy details, policy rigor don’t matter, I think the Democratic Party is largely from Mainstream Democrats to the New you are going to get a figure like Donald still torn about this very central ques- Democrats. That is where you have the Trump, who says, okay, they don’t mat- tion. How do people actualize politics? shift to the anti-social movement writ ter. I can get up on stage and just babble Not just policies, but what does it mean large. The New Democrats are to be a and not even be forced to confront de- to be a political being in the world, in a future-oriented party that is going to tails. It’s just accepted that he’s not go- nation state? Is politics a secluded realm focus on professionals—a new economy ing to do it. That doesn’t mean that if he in which you cast your vote and then go and the new actors in this economy. The was elected president, he wouldn’t find back home and live your private life? The New Democrats are not just against new people to write his policies. But in terms Democratic Party is still struggling with social movements, but embrace policies of actually being forced to debate and this. It’s what we saw in the primary. I like NAFTA that are against the old la- confront the details, or supposed details think Hillary Clinton moved in a much bor-based social movements and work- of his policies, it’s taken as a given that more liberal policy direction than her ing class interests. it’s not going to happen. And I think that husband, for sure, but she did not move is because of where the institutions that away from the suspicion of social move- One of the reactions to your book has I write about have taken the policy de- ments that the DLC and PPI bred within been a reexamination of the role of bates in this country. the Democratic Party.3 Jesse Jackson and his political mar- Trump is the natural endpoint of what Of course, Bernie Sanders was the ginalization by DLC/PPI. Was this I talk about in my book, the reorienta- counter pole to that, obviously saying unexpected?4 tion in thinking about and debating we need movement politics and here’s People forget how important Jesse politics. what movements can do. I thought that Jackson was—that post-1968 and all the this was the big missed point in the pri- way through the 1990s he is a central Rachel Tabachnick (PRA associate fellow) mary: the debate wasn’t all about policy, figure in American politics. For some researches, writes, and speaks about the it was also about the nature of what it reason, unless you lived through it and impact of the Religious Right on policy and means to be a politically-engaged citi- remember, people largely don’t get that. politics including civil rights, education, zen. Are mass movements necessary to Jesse Jackson figures prominently in economics, environment, foreign policy, a vibrant political life, and vibrant Dem- Chapter Four and I think that throws and labor. She produces presentations and ocratic Party, or not? That’s a question people a bit. At least the first half of the speaks on conservative infrastructure and that is going to continue for Democrats whole chapter is about race and the cen- the intersection of the Religious Right and regardless of what happens in the presi- trality of race in American politics and other sectors of the Right, including “free dential election. the centrality of debates over race in the market” think tanks. Rachel has been in- Democratic Party. Jackson, as a Black terviewed on NPR and other radio and print You quote a scholar from the Eco- political figure of a certain sort, is part media across the nation on topics including nomic Policy Institute as saying, of what the DLC wants to chop off of the the New Apostolic Reformation, Christian “For years the so-called New Demo- Democratic Party in order to create this Zionism, and education privatization. Fol- crats have been skewering the left for vision of the New Democrat. And so Jes- low her on Twitter at @RTabachnick. alienating Bubba by taking up elit- se Jackson is this person who is always ist social positions. Now when push held out by them as the personification comes to shove they are willing to of the old Democrat, as the personifica- trade Bubba for elitist economic po- tion of the movement politics that they sitions.” How did the “Mainstream want to be done with, this whole Rain- Democrats” become the “New Demo- bow Coalition. crats”? In the beginning there was the pre- What is one thing that reviewers or tense, obviously with Bill Clinton’s run readers are getting wrong about your

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 19 Commentary, continued from page 3 ing “the moral and constitutional prin- that courts, legislatures, or executive Then, for example, as John Ragosta ciple of equal protection under the law.” agencies narrowly tailor any exemptions writes in Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Faced with yet another fear-based tactic to address the need without diminishing Legacy, America’s Creed, “Marriages had today, Barber wrote, “our movement’s the efficacy of the law.6 to be consecrated by an Anglican minis- position had to be the same.” He found Religious freedom advocates of the co- ter, making children of dissenters who his response in the First Amendment, lonial era faced powerful entrenched in- failed to marry within the Church of which guarantees the right of churches, terests who actively suppressed religious England (or pay the local Anglican priest synagogues, and mosques to discern for deviance and dissent that might upset for his cooperation) subject to claims of themselves “what God says about mar- their privileges. In the Virginia colony bastardy, with potentially serious legal riage,” free from governmental attempts attendance was required at the Sunday consequences.”10 to enforce its preferred religious doc- services of the Church of England, and Such abuses may seem like a relic of trines.3 failure to attend was the most prosecut- the past, but in recent years some Chris- The Revolutionary War-era Virginians ed crime in the colony for many years. tians have tried to outlaw the religious who created our approach to religious Members of these Anglican church ves- marriages of others. In 2012 Chris- freedom understood religious freedom tries were also empowered to report reli- tian Right advocates in North Carolina to be synonymous with the idea of the gious crimes like heresy and blasphemy sought to build on existing laws limiting right of individual conscience. James to local grand juries. Unsurprisingly, marriages to heterosexual couples by Madison wrote that when the Virginia the wealthy planters and business own- amending the state constitution, using Convention of 1776 issued the Virginia ers who comprised the Anglican vestries language that would effectively crimi- Declaration of Rights (three weeks be- were able to limit access to this pipe- nalize the performance of marriage cer- fore the Declaration of Independence), line to political power. Dissenters from emonies without a license. This meant the delegates removed any language these theocratic dictates were dealt with that clergy from varied religious tradi- about religious “toleration” and declared harshly.7 In the years running up to the tions, from Judaism to Christianity to instead “the freedom of conscience to be Revolution, Baptists and other religious Buddhism, would be breaking the law a natural and absolute right.”4 Madison dissidents in Virginia were victims of if they solemnized religious marriage was joined in supporting the rights of vigilante violence. “Men on horseback ceremonies for same-sex couples. And conscience by evangelical Presbyterians would often ride through crowds gath- the motive was explicitly religious. State and Baptists who also insisted on a sepa- ered to witness a baptism,” historian Senator Wesley Meredith, for example, ration of church and state for fear that John Ragosta reports. “Preachers were cited the Bible in explaining, “We need mixing would corrupt both. horsewhipped and dunked in rivers and to regulate marriage because I believe Invoking the words of the Found- ponds in a rude parody of their baptism that marriage is between a man and ers may seem hokey or sound archaic ritual… Black attendees at meetings— woman.”11 to some. But they knew that the free- whether free or slave—were subject to This issue was part of the 2014 case dom they were seeking to establish was particularly savage beatings.”8 General Synod of the United Church of fragile, and likely to be opposed in the This was the context in which Jefferson Christ vs. Resinger, wherein a federal future. Understanding the through line drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious judge declared that laws that deny that connects the struggles for religious Freedom in 1777, which took nearly a same-sex couples the right to marry in freedom at the founding of the country decade to become law. The statute ef- the state, prohibit recognition of legal to today’s helps us fight to defend the fectively disestablished the Anglican same-sex marriages from elsewhere in principle from redefinition and coopta- Church as the state church of Virginia, the United States, “or threatens clergy tion. curtailing its extraordinary powers and or other officiants who solemnize the Such an understanding helped the privileges. It also decreed that citizens union of same-sex couples with civil or United States Commission on Civil are free to believe as they will and that criminal penalties” were unconstitu- Rights in 2016 when it issued a ma- this “shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, tional.12 It was an historic victory for a jor report on issues involving religious or affect their civil capacities.” The stat- progressive version of religious liberty exemptions from the law. “Religious ute was the first in history to self-impose but one soundly rooted in the history liberty was never intended to give one complete religious freedom and equal- of religious freedom. Clergy could now religion dominion over other religions ity, and historians as well as Supreme perform same-sex marriage ceremo- or a veto power over the civil rights and Court justices widely regard it as the nies “without fear of prosecution,” said civil liberties of others,” said Commis- root of how the framers of the Consti- Heather Kimmel, an attorney for the sion Chair Martin R. Castro, who also tution (and later the First Amendment) UCC.13 further denounced the use of religious approached matters of religion and gov- Jefferson and his contemporaries saw liberty as a “code word” for “Christian ernment.9 religious freedom as the key to disen- supremacy.”5 The principle of religious equality un- tangling ancient, mutually reinforcing The Commission found that overly der the law was a profoundly progressive relationships between the economic and broad religious exemptions from federal stance against the advantages enjoyed political interests of aristocrats and the labor and civil rights laws undermine and enforced by the ruling political and institutional imperatives of the church: the purposes of these laws and urged economic elites of the 18th Century. what Jefferson called an unholy alliance

20 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 report in review

of “kings, nobles, and priests”—mean- State of the Dream 2017: Mourning in America ing clergy of any religion—that divided United for a Fair Economy, January 2017 people in order to rule them. He later wrote that his Virginia Statute for Re- White economic anxiety has been cited by the ligious Freedom was “intended to put media as a prime reason for Donald Trump’s down the aristocracy of the clergy and presidential win. With wealth inequality at its restored to the citizens the freedom of highest rates in decades, some fear about the the mind.”14 future of personal wealth is understandable. A quarter-millennium later, we are But financial instability and economic anxiety still struggling to defend religious free- are not exclusively White problems and should dom against erosion and assaults by be contextualized within the broader and more powerful religious institutions and their diverse scope of the U.S. population—especially agents inside and outside of govern- given the fact that when looked at through a racial ment. Aspiring clerical aristocrats de- lens, the wealth gap is even greater, with the base the idea of religious freedom when average family of color having less than a dime in they use it as tool to seek exemptions wealth for every average White family’s dollar. from the generally applicable laws of the United States—particularly those that United for a Fair Economy’s January 2017 report, prohibit discrimination. State of the Dream in 2017: Mourning in America, Religious freedom and civil rights are breaks down the ways that race and sexuality complementary values and legal prin- impact an individual’s ability to amass wealth in the current U.S. economy. The vast ciples necessary to sustain and advance majority of private wealth held in the U.S. is inherited. Historically, minorities have equality for all. Like Rev. Barber, we not had access to the capital necessary to build familial wealth, and the White power structure created laws to keep it that way. The theft of land and resources from Native must not fall for the ancient tactic of al- Americans, Jim Crow laws, restrictions on non-European immigration, redlining, lowing the kings, nobles, and priests of and the rise of neoliberal economic policies have all been successful institutional and our time to divide and set us against one systemic policies to keep wealth out of the hands of minorities. The author’s argue that another. President Trump’s proposed economic policies would maintain this status quo—and We have come a long way since the keep wealth in the hands of the already wealthy. revolutionaries who founded our coun- try introduced one of the most power- The report identifies six areas that are important for economic success: assets, housing, fully democratic ideas in the history immigration, wages, education, and inclusion. In all of these areas, minorities are of the world. The struggle for religious currently struggling to catch up to their White counterparts. For example: freedom may never be complete, but it remains among our highest aspira- • Education: Barriers to economic success start young with inequity in the tions. And yet the kinds of forces that classroom. Black children make up 38.8 percent of the children who are suspended struggled both for and against religious from school as opposed to 15.6 percent for White children, setting Black children on freedom in the 18th Century are similar the school-to-prison pipeline. to those camps today. We are the right- • Housing: Homeownership is a factor in American wealth accumulation and people of color are far less likely to own their home than White people. Thus, people ful heirs of the constitutional legacy of of color are disproportionately impacted by rents rising much faster than stagnant religious freedom; the way is clear for us wages. to find our voices and reclaim our role. • Immigration: There are 7.9 million undocumented immigrants working in the United States. Mass deportations would be a human rights violation, injurious to Frederick Clarkson is a senior fellow at Po- many specific industries, and would hurt the overall economy. litical Research Associates. He co-founded the group blog Talk To Action and authored Also, LGBTQ individuals are less likely to have jobs and stable housing than straight Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between or cisgender people, and the inequality grows even larger when race is taken in Theocracy and Democracy. Follow him on account. The news is not all bad, though. Organizations such as Jobs With Justice have Twitter at @FredClarkson. successfully campaigned in some cities to raise the minimum wage and kept wage inequality in the public conversation. Other grassroots and community organizations are addressing these issues as well and working to continue the national dialogue. In these early days of the Trump presidency no one is quite certain what the future holds, but what is known is that in order to promote economic equality and social justice, an intersectional and authentic coalition is needed. Identifying the problems is just the beginning. Coming together, creating solutions, and influencing lawmakers to enact policy with economic justice in mind needs to happen in order to see real change and progress enacted.

-Jessica Conger-Henry

WINTER 2017 Political Research Associates • 21 endnotes

Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value, Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. Charleston shooting a terrorist act,” The April 21, 2016, http://www.prwatch.org/ p. 3 67, September 2014, pp. 97–102, http:// Hill, June 20, 2015, http://thehill.com/ news/2016/04/13091/confirmation-how- www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/245649- not-so-independent-womens-forum-was- 1. Joe Davidson, “Civil rights or religious pii/S0191886914000324?np=y. fbi-head-wont-call-charleston-shooting-a- launched-aid-clarence. liberty — what’s on top?,” The Washington 8. Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, “Social terrorist-act. 14. Alex DiBranco, “Who Speaks for Post, September 9, 2016, https://www. Dominance Orientation: A Personality 29. Eric Tucker and Sadie Gurman, “Why Conservative Women?,” Poltical Research washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/ Variable Predicting Social and Political Atti- the Planned Parenthood shooting isn’t le- Associates, June 9, 2015, http://www. wp/2016/09/09/commission-says-reli- tudes,” Journal of Personality and Social Psy- gally referred to as ‘domestic terrorism’,” politicalresearch.org/2015/06/09/who- gious-liberty-should-not-top-civil-rights/. chology, 1994, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 741-763. Associated Press, Dec. 1, 2015, http:// speaks-for-conservative-women/. 2. Frederick Clarkson, When Exemption is 9. Bob Altemeyer, “Highly Dominating, www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/why- 15. Andrew Belonsky, “Michelle Bernard: the Rule: The Religious Freedom Strategy of Highly Authoritarian Personalities,” The the-planned-parenthood-shooting-isnt-le- ‘The Republican Party Needs to Find Its the Christian Right, Political Research As- Journal of Social Psychology, 2004, Vol. 144, gally-referred-to-as-domestic-terrorism/. Soul,’” Independent Women’s Forum, April 9, sociates, January 2016, http://www. No. 4, pp. 425. 30. Bryan Schatz, “Feds Charge Kansas 2009, http://www.iwf.org/news/2435006/ politicalresearch.org/when-exemption- 10. Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: Militia Members With Plotting to Bomb Michelle-Bernard:-’The-Republican-Party- is-the-rule-the-religious-freedom-strategy- The History of the White Nationalist Move- Somali Immigrants,” Mother Jones, Oct. Needs-to-Find-Its-Soul’. of-the-christian-right/. ment from the Margins to the Mainstream 14, 2016, http://www.motherjones.com/ 16. As my 2015 article, “Who Speaks for 3. The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II (New York: Farar, Straus and Giroux, politics/2016/10/three-militia-members- Conservative Women?” explains, neolib- with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, The Third 2009), pp. 367-379, pp. 393-398. See also kansas-somali-muslim-bomb-plot. eral feminism share significant ideological Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Poli- “White Nationalists,” Southern Poverty 31. Katelyn Y.A. McKenna and John A. similarities with equity feminism in deny- tics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement, Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/ Bargh, “Coming out in the age of the Inter- ing the impact of structural forces and ar- (Boston: Beacon Press, 2016), p. 91. fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ net: Identity ‘demarginalization’ through guing that women can get ahead through 4. John Ragosta, Religious Freedom: white-nationalist. virtual group participation,” Journal of Per- individual actions. Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed, 11. Bill Berkowitz, “Cultural Marxism sonality and Social Psychology, Vol. 75, No. 17. Joan Walsh, “Meet the ‘Feminists’ Do- (Charlottesville:University of Virginia Press, Catching On,” Intelligence Report (South- 3, September 1998, pp. 681-694. ing the Koch Brothers’ Dirty Work,” The 2013), p. 61. ern Poverty Law Center), Aug. 15, 2003, 32. Abi Wilkinson, “We need to talk Nation, August 18, 2016, https://www. 5. Martin R. Castro, U.S. Commission on Civil https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/ about the online radicalisation of young, thenation.com/article/meet-the-feminists- Rights, Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Non- intelligence-report/2003/cultural-marx- white men,” The Guardian, Nov. 15, 2016, doing-the-koch-brothers-dirty-work/. discrimination Principles with Civil Liberties, ism-catching. https://www.theguardian.com/com- 18. Megan Rosenfeld, “Feminist Fa- September 7, 2016, http://www.usccr.gov/ 12. Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritar- mentisfree/2016/nov/15/alt-right-mano- tales,” The Washington Post, November 30, pubs/Peaceful-Coexistence-09-07-16.PDF, ians (University of Manitoba, 2006), http:// sphere-mainstream-politics-breitbart. 1995, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ p. 29. home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/, pp. 88- archive/lifestyle/1995/11/30/feminist- 6. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “The 90. Mobilizing Misogyny, p. 9 fatales/cfd56f87-296b-4580-9d76-fcf- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Releases 13. Bob Altemeyer, “Donald Trump ba15c6296/. Report: Peaceful Coexistence: Reconcil- and Authoritarian Followers,” Daily Kos, 1. David S. Cohen, “Trump’s Assassina- 19. Mariah Blake, “Mad Men: Inside the ing Nondiscrimination Principles with March 2, 2016, http://www.dailykos.com/ tion Dog Whistle Was Even Scarier Than Men’s Rights Movement—and the Army of Civil Liberties,” PR NewsWire, September story/2016/3/2/1494504/-A-word-from- You Think,” Rolling Stone, August 9, 2016, Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned,” Mother 7, 2016, http://www.prnewswire.com/ Dr-Bob-Altemeyer-on-Donald-Trump-and- http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ Jones, Jan/Feb 2015, http://www.moth- news-releases/the-us-commission-on-civil- Authoritarian-Followers. features/trumps-assassination-dog-whis- erjones.com/politics/2015/01/warren- rights-releases-report-peaceful-coexistence- 14. Altemeyer, The Authoritarians, op. cit., tle-was-scarier-than-you-think-w433615. farrell-mens-rights-movement-feminism- reconciling-nondiscrimination-principles- p. 176. misogyny-trolls. with-civil-liberties-300324252.html. 2. Alex DiBranco and Chip Berlet, “The 15. Aric Suber-Jenkins, “How 4chan, a Ideological Roots of the Republican Party 20. Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett, 7. John Ragosta, Religious Freedom, p. 40- small anime forum, became Donald Trump’s and its Shift to the Right in the 2016 Elec- The New Soft War on Women: How the Myth 73. most rabid fanbase,” Mic.com, Oct. 31, tion,” working draft, http://www.pro- of Female Ascendance Is Hurting Women, 8. John A. Ragosta, Wellspring of Liberty: 2016, https://mic.com/articles/157545/ gressivemovements.us/now/site-guide/ Men—and Our Economy, New York: Tarcher/ How Virgin’s Religious Dissenters Helped Win how-4chan-a-small-anime-forum-became- research-resources/#ideological. Penguin, 2013, p 7. the American Revolution & Secured Religious donald-trump-s-most-rabid-fanbase. 3. Matthew N. Lyons, “Notes on Women 21. Danielle Paquette, “The alt-right isn’t Liberty, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 16. “Misogyny: The Sites,” Intelligence Re- and the Right Wing,” ThreeWayFight, Oct only about white supremacy. It’s about 2010), p. 5. port (Southern Poverty Law Center), March 1, 2005, http://threewayfight.blogspot. white male supremacy,” The Washington 9. John Ragosta, Religious Freedom, p. 99. 1, 2012, https://www.splcenter.org/ com/2005/10/notes-on-women-and- Post, Nov 25, 2016, https://www.washing- 10. John Ragosta, Religious Freedom, p. 46. fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2012/ right-wing.html. tonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/25/ the-alt-right-isnt-just-about-white-suprem- 11. Kay Diane Ansley, Catherine “Cathy” misogyny-sites. 4. Pam Chamberlain and Jean Hardisty, McGaughey, Carol Ann Person, Thomas 17. Simon Parkin, “Zoe Quinn’s Depres- Reproducing Patriarchy: Reproductive Rights acy-its-about-white-male-supremacy/. Roger Person, Kelley Penn, and Sonja sion Quest,” The New Yorker, Sept. 9, 2014, Under Siege, Political Research Associates, 22. Mariah Blake, ibid. Goodman v. Marion Warren, in his Official http://www.newyorker.com/tech/ele- April 1, 2000, http://www.politicalre- 23. Tom McKay, “College President’s Hor- Capacity as Director of the North Carolina ments/zoe-quinns-depression-quest. search.org/2000/04/01/reproductive-pa- rifying Rape Comments Are Basically Con- Administrative Office of the Courts. 2016, 18. Adam Smith, “Mostly Indescribable: triarchy-reproductive-rights-under-siege/. servative Dogma,” The Daily Banter, Nov 12, Case No.: 3:16-cv-114. The United States Depression Quest,” Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 5. Political Research Associates, Defending 2014, http://thedailybanter.com/2014/11/ District Court For The Western District Of Feb. 14, 2013, https://www.rockpaper- Reproductive Justice: An Activist Resource college-presidents-horrible-remarks-cam- North Carolina Asheville Division, http:// shotgun.com/2013/02/14/mostly-inde- Kit. (Somerville: Political Research As- pus-rape-basically-conservative-dogma/. www.southernequality.org/wp-content/ scribable-depression-quest/. sociates, 2013), http://www.politicalre- 24. Taylor Malmsheimer, “Conservatives uploads/2016/07/Ansley-v.-Warren-Com- 19. Nick Wingfield, “Feminist Critics of search.org/resources/reports/full-reports/ Are Obsessed With Debunking the 1-in-5 plaint.pdf. Video Games Facing Threats in ‘GamerGate’ defending-reproductive-justice-activist- Rape Statistic. They’re Wrong, Too,” New 12. Max O. Cogburn, “Memorandum of Campaign,” New York Times, Oct. 15, 2014, resource-kit-2/. Republic, June 27, 2014, https://newrepub- Decision and Order,” General Synod of the https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/ 6. Political Research Associates, Defending lic.com/article/118430/independent-wo- United Church of Christ vs. Resinger, Octo- technology/gamergate-women-video- Reproductive Justice: An Activist Resource mens-forum-challenges-one-five-statistic. ber 10, 2014. game-threats-anita-sarkeesian.html. Kit, (Somerville: Political Research As- 25. Nicole Grether, “Men’s right activ- 13. Anthony Moujaes, “UCC victorious 20. Radhika Sanghani, “Misogyny, death sociates, 2013), http://www.politicalre- ist: Feminists have used rape ‘as a scam,’” in lawsuit as judge strikes down N.C. gay threats and a mob of trolls: Inside the dark search.org/resources/reports/full-reports/ Aljazeera America, June 6, 2014, http:// marriage ban,” UCC News, October 9, 2014, world of video games with Zoe Quinn - tar- defending-reproductive-justice-activist- america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/ http://www.ucc.org/north-carolina-marria- get of #GamerGate,” Daily Telegraph, Sept. resource-kit-2/. america-tonight/articles/2014/6/6/ geequality-10102014. 10, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ 7. Liz Welch, “6 Women on Their Terrify- mena-s-rights-activistfeministshaveuse- 14. John Ragosta, Religious Freedom, p. 20. women/womens-life/11082629/Gamer- ing, Infuriating Encounters With Abor- drapeaasascama.html; Roni Caryn Rabin, gate-Misogyny-death-threats-and-a-mob- tion Clinic Protesters,” Cosmopolitan, Feb “Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted,” De- Birth of the Alt Right, p. 4 of-angry-trolls-Inside-the-dark-world-of- 21, 2014,http://www.cosmopolitan.com/ video-games.html. politics/news/a5669/abortion-clinic-pro- cember 14, 2011, http://www.nytimes. 21. Nick Wingfield, ibid. testers/. com/2011/12/15/health/nearly-1-in- 1. Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew: 5-women-in-us-survey-report-sexual-as- An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate, (New 22. Kevin DeAnna, “The Alternative 8. Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett, sault.html?_r=0. York: Schocken Books, 1948), pp. 13-14. Right,” Taki’s Magazine, July 26, 2009; The New Soft War on Women (New York: http://takimag.com/article/the_alterna- Tarcher, 2013), 85. 26. Charlotte Hays, “Portrait of a Modern 2. Andrew Hart, “Game Developer Brianna tive_right. Feminist: Helen Smith,” Independent Wom- Wu Flees Home After Death Threats,” Huff- 9. Alex DiBranco, “Profiles On The Right: en’s Forum, Sept 19, 2012, http://iwf.org/ ington Post, Oct. 12, 2014, http://www. 23. Matthew N. Lyons, “Calling them Americans United For Life,” Political Re- modern-feminist/2789205/Portrait-of-a- huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/11/game- ‘alt-right’ helps us fight them,” ThreeWay- search Associates, April 7, 2014, http:// Modern-Feminist:-Helen-Smith. developer-death-threats_n_5970966.html. Fight, Nov. 22, 2016, http://threewayfight. www.politicalresearch.org/2014/04/07/ blogspot.com/2016/11/calling-them-alt- profiles-on-the-right-americans-united- 27. Alex DiBranco, “Men’s Rights Confer- 3. Dean Takahashi, “Brianna Wu Speaks right-helps-us-fight.html. for-life/. ence Host Says Women Who Drink & Dance Up About Death Threats and Personal Are ‘Begging’ for Rape,” Political Research Cost of Opposing #GamerGate,” Venture- 24. Olivia Nuzzi, “How Pepe the Frog 10. Kevin Cirilli, “Trump Reverses on Associates, July 2, 2014, http://www.polit- Beat, Feb. 9, 2015, http://venturebeat. Became a Nazi Trump Supporter and Alt- Abortion Ban, Saying Doctors, Not Wom- icalresearch.org/2014/07/02/mens-rights- com/2015/02/09/brianna-wu-speaks- Right Symbol,” The Daily Beast, May 25, en, Would Be Punished,” Bloomberg Poli- conference-host-says-women-who-drink- up-about-being-labeled-a-social-justice- 2016, http://www.thedailybeast.com/ tics, March 30, 2016, http://www.bloom- dance-are-begging-for-rape; Adam Serwer warrior-and-worse-in-gaming-interview/ articles/2016/05/26/how-pepe-the-frog- berg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-30/ and Katie J.M. Baker, “How Men’s Rights view-all/. became-a-nazi-trump-supporter-and-alt- trump-says-abortion-ban-should-carry- right-symbol.html. punishment-for-women. Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Dead- 4. Milo Yiannopoulos, “Feminist Bullies beat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement,” Tearing the Video Game Industry Apart,” 25. Andrew Anglin, “A Normie’s Guide to 11. Sarah Havard, “8 worst things Phyllis Buzzfeed News, Feb 6, 2015, https://www. Breitbart, Sept 1, 2014, http://www.bre- the Alt-Right,” The Daily Stormer, Aug. 31, Schlafly ever said about women’s rights,” buzzfeed.com/adamserwer/how-mens- itbart.com/london/2014/09/01/lying- 2016, http://www.dailystormer.com/a- Identities.Mic, Sept 6, 2016, https://mic. rights-leader-paul-elam-turned-being-a- greedy-promiscuous-feminist-bullies-are- normies-guide-to-the-alt-right/. com/articles/153506/8-worst-things- deadbeat-dad?utm_term=.bvY2OY9yl. tearing-the-video-game-industry-apart/. 26. Andrew Anglin, ibid. phyllis-schlafly-ever-said-about-women-s- rights. 28. Comment on TheRedPill, an “official 5. Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, “Hard 27. Naomi Braine, “Terror Network or subreddit of TRP.RED”: https://www.red- Right Conspiracism and Apocalyptic Mil- Lone Wolf? Disparate Legal Treatment of 12. Josh Israel, “Women From Koch- dit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/12v1hf/ lennialism,” The Public Eye, Dec. 19, 2001, Muslims and the Radical Right,” The Public Funded Conservative Groups Lambaste almost_a_hundred_subscribers_welcome_ http://www.publiceye.org/media/hardrit. Eye, June 19, 2015; http://www.politicalre- Equal Pay Measure,” Think Progress, newcomers/. html. search.org/2015/06/19/terror-network-or- April 9, 2014, https://thinkprogress.org/ women-from-koch-funded-conservative- 29. Matthew N. Lyons, “Jack Dono- 6. Judith Donath, “Identity and Deception lone-wolf/. van on men: a masculine tribalism for 28. See Rick Gladstone, “Many Ask, Why groups-lambaste-equal-pay-measure-d8e- in the Virtual Community,” MIT Media Lab, b0ea3edb7. the far right,” Three Way Fight, Nov 23, Nov. 12, 1996, http://smg.media.mit.edu/ Not Call Church Shooting Terrorism?,” New 2015, http://threewayfight.blogspot. people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception. York Times, June 28, 2015, http://www. 13. Lisa Graves, “Confirmation: the Not- com/2015/11/jack-donovan-on-men-mas- html. nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston- So Independent Women’s Forum Was Born culine-tribalism.html. shooting-terrorism-or-hate-crime.html. in Defense of Clarence Thomas and the Far 7. Erin E. Buckels, Paul D. Trapnell, Delroy Right,” Center for Media and Democracy, 30. Dianna Anderson, “ MRAs for Jesus: A L. Paulhus, “Trolls just want to have fun,” See also Kevin Cirilli, “FBI head won’t call Look Inside the Christian ‘Manosphere’,”

22 • The Public Eye WINTER 2017 endnotes

Rewire, Sept 30, 2014, https://rewire.news/ progress.org/thinkprogress-alt-right-poli- kelly-memoir-donald-trump-roger-ailes- article/2014/09/30/mras-jesus-look-in- cy-b04fd141d8d4#.av5b2ftsm. president-fox-news/93813154/. hatewatch/2016/12/16/update-1094-bias- side-christian-manosphere/. related-incidents-month-following-elec- 51. Susan Faludi, “How Hillary Clinton Met 67. Charlotte Hays, “Donald Trump tion. 31. Arthur Goldwag, Leader’s Suicide Satan,” The New York Times, Oct 29, 2016, Breathes New Life into Left’s War on Brings Attention to the Men’s Rights Move- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/ Women,” March 18, 2016, Independent 84. Cassie Miller and Alexandra Werner- ment,” Southern Poverty Law Center Intelli- opinion/sunday/how-hillary-clinton-met- Women’s Forum, http://www.iwf.org/ Winslow, “Ten Days After: Harassment gence Report, March 1, 2012, https://www. satan.html?_r=4. news/2799633/Donald-Trump-Breathes- and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election,” Southern Poverty Law Center, splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence- 52. John Daniszewski, “Writing about the New-Life-into-Left%E2%80%99s-War-on- report/2012/leader%E2%80%99s-sui- Women. Nov 29, 2016, https://www.splcenter. ‘alt-right’,” Associated Press, Nov 18, 2016, org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment- cide-brings-attention-men%E2%80%99s- https://blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/ 68. Christina Hoff Sommers, “‘Amoral rights-movement. and-intimidation-aftermath-election; Ben writing-about-the-alt-right. Also, Josh Har- masculinity’: a theory for understanding Mathis-Lilley, “Trump Was Recorded in 32. Nicky Woolf, “‘PUAhate’ and ‘Forever- kinson, “We Talked to Experts About What Trump from feminist contrarian Christina 2005 Bragging About Grabbing Women Alone’: inside Elliot Rodger’s online life,” Terms to Use for Which Group of Racists,” Hoff Sommers,” American Enterprise- In ‘by the Pussy,’” Slate, October 7, 2016, The Guardian, May 20, 2014, https://www. Dec 8, 2016, http://www.motherjones. stitute, Nov 2, 2016 https://www.aei.org/ http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat- theguardian.com/world/2014/may/30/ com/politics/2016/12/definition-alt-right- publication/amoral-masculinity-a-theory- est/2016/10/07/donald_trump_2005_ elliot-rodger-puahate-forever-alone-reddit- white-supremacist-white-nationalist. for-understanding-trump-from-feminist- tape_i_grab_women_by_the_pussy.html. forums. contrarian-christina-hoff-sommers/. 53. Linda Burnham, “The Absence of a 85. Ryan J. Reilly, “Jeff Sessions Now - Ad 33. Mariah Blake, ibid. Gender Justice Framework in Social Jus- 69. Dylan Byers, “Conservative fe- mits Grabbing A Woman By The Genitals 34. Mark Potok, “War On Women,” tice Organizing,” Center for the Education of male pundits want Donald Trump to fire Is Sexual Assault,” The Huffington Post, Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Women: University of Michigan, July 2008, his campaign manager,” CNN Money, Jan 10, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost. Report, August 20, 2014, https://www. http://www.cew.umich.edu/sites/default/ March 30, 2016, http://money.cnn. com/entry/jeff-sessions-trump-sexual- splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence- files/BurnhamFinalProject.pdf. com/2016/03/30/media/female-conserva- assault_us_58753f08e4b043ad97e64369; report/2014/war-women. 54. While the women of color-led “repro- tives-fire-corey-lewandowski/. Scott Glover, “Colleague, transcripts of- 35. Mark Potok, ibid. ductive justice” framework advocated by 70. Maggie Haberman, Alexander Burns, fer closer look at old allegations of racism 36. Rebecca Hersher, “Jury Finds organizations like SisterSong provides an and Ashley Parker, “Donald Trump Fires against Sen. Jeff Sessions” CNN, Jan 10 Dylann Roof Guilty In S.C. Church example for incorporating analysis of race, Corey Lewandowski, His Campaign Man- 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/ Shooting,” NPR, December 15, 2016, gender, class, and other intersectional is- ager,” New York Times, June 20, 2016, politics/jeff-sessions-racism-allegations/. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- sues, it should not be expected to substitute http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/ 86. Alex Brandon, “Trump says his Su- way/2016/12/15/505723552/jury-finds- for a gender justice and women’s human politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump. preme Court nominees will be ready to take dylann-roof-guilty-in-s-c-church-shooting. rights frame in social justice organizing. html. on abortion ruling,” The Columbus Dispatch, Though intended to include economic is- 37. Mark Berman, ibid. 71. Eddie Scarry, “Trump defends Roger Nov 27, 2016, http://www.dispatch.com/ sues and gender-based rape and violence, Ailes from sexual harassment accusations,” content/stories/insight/2016/11/27/1- 38. Naomi Braine, “Terror Network or Lone which leaders like Loretta Ross had back- Wolf?,” The Public Eye, Spring 2015, http:// The Washington Examiner, July 14, 2016, trump-says-his-nominees-will-be-ready- grounds working on, the “reproductive” http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ar- to-take-on-roe-v-wade.html; Katie Van www.politicalresearch.org/2015/06/19/ label maintains a particular focus. “Gender terror-network-or-lone-wolf/. ticle/2596510. Syckle, “Here’s What a Trump Administra- justice” (Burnham also uses the term “social 72. Sarah Posner, “How Stephen Bannon tion Could Mean for Campus Sexual As- 39. Mark Berman, “Prosecutors say justice feminism”) shifts the emphasis to Created an Online Haven for White Nation- sault,” New York Magazine, Jan 18, 2017, Dylann Roof ‘self-radicalized’ online, wrote meet the challenges of a broader misogy- alists,” Mother Jones, Aug 2, 1016, http:// http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/what- another manifesto in jail,” The Washing- nist movement—with religious and secular www.theinvestigativefund.org/investiga- a-trump-administration-means-for-cam- ton Post, Aug 22, 2016, https://www. expressions—that poses threats in terms of tions/politicsandgovernment/2265/how_ pus-sexual-assault.html; Mark Landler, washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/ reproductive control, sexual harassment stephen_bannon_created_an_online_ha- “Transition Team’s Request on Gender wp/2016/08/22/prosecutors-say-accused- and assault, violence against women, work- ven_for_white_nationalists/. Equality Rattles State Dept.,” The New York charleston-church-gunman-self-radical- place sexism and wage discrimination, and ized-online/?utm_term=.0afcab8108f7. 73. Cassandra Vinograd, “Breitbart’s Times, Dec 22, 2016, https://www.nytimes. other gender-based oppressions. Michelle Fields and Three Others Resign com/2016/12/22/us/politics/state-depart- 40. Adi Kochavi, “The Sad Heroification 55. Matthew N. Lyons, “Alt-right: more Over Trump Incident”, NBC News, March ment-gender-equality-trump-transition. of Elliot Rodger,” Vocative, May 25, 2014, misogynistic than many neonazis,” Three- 14, 2016, http://www.nbcnews.com/ html; Spohia Tesfaye, “Donald Trump will http://www.vocativ.com/underworld/ WayFight, December 3, 2016, http://three- news/us-news/breitbart-s-michelle-fields- adopt Heritage Foundation’s ‘skinny bud- crime/sad-heroification-elliot-rodger/. wayfight.blogspot.com/2016/12/alt-right- ben-shapiro-resign-over-trump-inci- get’: Arts, violence against women funding 41. Earl Holt III, “Media Interviews with more-misogynistic-than-many.html. dent-n537711. to be cut,” Salon, Jan 19, 2017, http://www. the CofCC,” June 21, 2015, https://web. 56. Matthew N. Lyons, Ctrl-Alt-Delete: 74. Brendan Karet, “Right-Wing Civil War: salon.com/2017/01/19/donald-trump- archive.org/web/20150622033926/http:// The origins and ideology of the Alternative Megyn Kelly Trades Barbs With Breitbart will-adopt-heritage-foundations-skinny- conservative-headlines.com/2015/06/me- Right, Political Research Associates, Jan Editor-At-Large Over Dangers Of Empow- budget-arts-violence-against-women-fund- dia-interviews-with-the-cofcc/. 20, 2017, http://www.politicalresearch. ering ‘Alt-Right,’ Media Matters for Amer- ing-to-be-cut/. 42. Roosh Valizadeh, “No One Would Have org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on- ica, Dec 7, 2016, https://mediamatters. 87. Loretta Ross, “Women’s Rights Are Died If PUAHate Killer Elliot Rodger Learned the-alternative-right/. org/blog/2016/12/07/right-wing-civil- Human Rights and the Women’s March on Game,” Return of Kings, May 25, 2014, 57. Matt Forney, “Who Cares What war-megyn-kelly-trades-barbs-breitbart- Washington,” Rewire, Jan 19, 2017, https:// http://www.returnofkings.com/36135/ Women Think” Alterative Right, Jan 29, editor-chief-over-dangers-empowering- rewire.news/article/2017/01/19/womens- no-one-would-have-died-if-pua-hate-killer- 2015, http://alternative-right.blogspot. alt/214754. rights-human-rights-womens-march- elliot-rodger-learned-game. com/2015/01/who-cares-what-women- 75. Mike Cernovich, “16 Feminists washington/. 43. Charlotte Hays, “‘Toxic Feminism:’ think.html. Who Have Taken Over ‘Conserva- Cathy Young Dissects the Bizarre Response 58. Matt Forney, “Why Feminists Want tive’ Media,” Danger & Play, March 30, Author Q&A, p. 17 to a Mass Murder”, Independent Women’s Men to Rape Them,” Matt Forney.com, Feb 2016,https://www.dangerandplay. Forum, May 30, 2014, http://www.iwf.org/ 26, 2016, http://mattforney.com/femi- com/2016/03/30/16-feminists-who-have- blog/2794091/%22Toxic-Feminism:%22- nists-want-men-rape/. 1. See: Frederick Clarkson, “Takin’ It to taken-over-conservative-media/. the States: The Rise of Conservative State- Cathy-Young-Dissects-the-Bizarre-Re- 59. Matthew N. Lyons, “Alt-right: more sponse-to-a-Mass-Murder. 76. ExposedByCMDEditors, “‘Indepen- Level Think Tanks,” The Public Eye, Sum- misogynistic than many neonazis,” Three- dent’ Women’s Group Backing Trump Skirts mer/Fall 1999, www.politicalresearch.org/ 44. Katherine Cross, “What ‘GamerGate’ WayFight, December 3, 2016, http://three- Law to Influence Election,”Center For Media wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/02/ Reveals About the Silencing of Women,” wayfight.blogspot.com/2016/12/alt-right- and Democracy, Nov 1, 2016, http://www. PE-Summer-Fall-1999.pdf, and the up- Rewire, Sept 9 2014, https://rewire.news/ more-misogynistic-than-many.html. exposedbycmd.org/2016/10/25/indepen- date to that article, “EXPOSED: How the article/2014/09/09/gamergate-reveals- 60. Sarah Posner, “Meet the Alt-Right dent-womens-group-backing-trump-skirts- Right’s State-Based Think Tanks Are Trans- silencing-women/. ‘Spokesman’ Who’s Thrilled With Trump’s law-influence-elections/. forming U.S. Politics,” Political Research 45. Caitlin Dewey, “The only guide to Rise,” Rolling Stone Magazine, October 18, 77. Tracy Clark-Flory and Leigh Cuen, Associates, November 25, 2013, http:// Gamergate you will ever need to read,” 2016, http://www.rollingstone.com/poli- “Donald Trump Has The Pickup Artist Vote www.politicalresearch.org/2013/11/25/ The Washington Post, Oct 14, 2014, tics/features/meet-the-alt-right-spokes- In The Bag,” Vocative, Aug 24, 2015, http:// exposed-how-the-rights-state-based-think- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ man-thrilled-by-trumps-rise-w443902. www.vocativ.com/224810/donald-trump- tanks-are-transforming-u-s-politics/. the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only- 61. Danielle Paquette, “The alt-right isn’t anti-feminist-pickup-artists/. Other previously published works on con- guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to- only about white supremacy. It’s about 78. Tim Hains, “Trump: Men Today servative think tanks include: James Allen read/?utm_term=.d3cb125407d0. white male supremacy,” The Washington ‘Are Petrified To Speak To Women- Any Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and 46. Nadine Santoro, “USU Shooting Post, Nov 25, 2016, https://www.washing- more,’ ‘Women Get It Better Than We Do, the Rise of the New Policy Elite (University Threat: This Isn’t A Game,” Disrupting tonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/25/ Folks’” Real Clear Politics, May 8, 2016, of Michigan: The Free Press, 1991); Tom Dinner Parties, Nov 10, 2014, https://dis- the-alt-right-isnt-just-about-white- http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid- Medvetz, Think Tanks in America (Chicago: ruptingdinnerparties.com/2014/11/10/ supremacy-its-about-white-male- eo/2016/05/08/trump_remember_this_ The University of Chicago Press, 2012); Da- usu-shooting-threat-this-isnt-a- supremacy/?utm_term=.25af1245eb6b. when_you_see_hillarys_phony_paid-for- vid Ricci, The Transformation of American game/#more-29965. 62. Aja Romano, “How the Alt-Right’s by-wall_street_ads.html. Politics (Yale University Press, 1994); and 47. Jaclyn Friedman, “A Look Inside the Sexism Lures Men into White Supremacy,” 79. Matt Forney, “Why You Should Shun Andrew Rich, Think Tanks, Public Policy, ‘Men’s Rights’ Movement That Helped Fuel Dec 14, 2016, http://www.vox.co m/cul- Girls Who Support Abortion,” Return of and the Politics of Expertise (Cambridge Uni- California Alleged Killer Elliot Rodger,” The ture/2016/12/14/13576192/alt-right-sex- Kings, Aug 18, 2016, http://archive.is/zQw versity Press, 2005). American Prospect, Oct 24, 2013, http:// ism-recruitment. x4#selection-769.269-769.363. 2. For example, Stahl extensively used the prospect.org/article/look-inside-mens- 63. Carrie L Lucas, “One in Four? Rape 80. Hesse Kassel, “5 Lines That Potential William J. Baroody papers at the Library rights-movement-helped-fuel-california- myths do injustice, too,” Independent Wom- Wives Cannot Cross,” Return of Kings, Nov of Congress. See Stahl’s 2009 speech as a alleged-killer-elliot-rodger; Amanda Hess, en’s Forum, April 27, 2006, http://www. 11, 2014, http://www.returnofkings. Jameson Fellow of the Library of Congress: “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the iwf.org/news/2432517/One-in-Four- com/47540/5-lines-that-potential-wives- https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/fea- Internet,” Pacific Standard magazine, Jan Rape-myths-do-injustice-too#sthash.EOy- ture_wdesc.php?rec=4737. 6, 2014, https://psmag.com/why-women- cannot-cross. WF55L.dpuf. 81. Amanda Marcotte, “Missouri law- 3. The Democratic Leadership Council, a aren-t-welcome-on-the-internet-aa21f- 501(c)((4) ceased operating in 2011, but the dbc8d6#.mdzlvrvd4. 64. Andrew Belonsky, “Michelle Bernard: maker uses ‘men’s rights’ talking points ‘The Republican Party Needs to Find Its to justify abortion restriction,” Raw Story, Progressive Policy Institute, its 501(c)(3) af- 48. Abby Ohlheiser, “Just how offensive did Soul,’” Independent Women’s Forum, April 9, Dec 17, 2014, http://www.rawstory. filiate, is still active. Milo Yiannopoulos have to be to get banned 2009, http://www.iwf.org/news/2435006/ com/2014/12/missouri-lawmaker-uses- 4. For example, see this four-part series of from Twitter?,” The Washington Post, July Michelle-Bernard:-’The-Republican-Party- mens-rights-talking-points-to-justify-abor- posts by Tim Lacy at the U.S. Intellectual 21, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost. Needs-to-Find-Its-Soul’. History Blog: http://s-usih.org/2016/08/ com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/07/21/ tion-restriction/. 65. Nia-Malika Henderson, “Donald 82. Melissa Jeltsen, “Trump’s Election reconsidering-jesse-jackson-the-carica- what-it-takes-to-get-banned-from- ture-the-person-the-politician-part-1.html. twitter/?utm_term=.69e3e83044cc. Trump’s nonexistent problem with GOP Raises Fears Of Increased Violence Against women,” CNN, Sept 11, 2015, http://www. Women,” The Huffington Post, Nov 15, 49. Andrew Marantz, “Trolls for Trump,” cnn.com/2015/09/10/politics/donald- 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ The New Yorker Magazine, Oct 31, 2016, trump-women/. http://www.newyorker.com/maga- entry/trump-women-rights-violence-fears_ zine/2016/10/31/trolls-for-trump. 66. Rich Hampson, “Exclusive: Fox an- us_582a0f63e4b02d21bbc9f186. chor Megyn Kelly describes scary, bullying 83. Hatewatch Staff, “Update: 1,094 Bias- 50. Editorial Staff, “ThinkProgress will ‘Year of Trump’,” USA Today, Nov 15, 2016, Related Incidents in the Month Following no longer describe racists as ‘alt-right’,” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/ the Election,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Think Progress, Nov 22, 2016, https://think- politics/elections/2016/11/15/megyn- Dec 16, 2016, https://www.splcenter.org/

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Art of Activism Nansi Guevara, a visual artist and activist based in South Tex- Inspired by the queer/women leadership of Black Lives Mat- as, has been creating art for as long as she can remember. “The ter, the dignity and humanity of the Zapatista communities, circumstances in my household, a crafty and costurera mother the indigenous-led movement against the Dakota Access Pipe- and a father that left construction materials all over the house, line in Standing Rock, North Dakota, and other bottom-up, pushed me to utilize these discard- community driven movements ed materials for new objects that for change, Nansi says, “For me nurtured my imagination.” She it is critical to center the often points out that what is now called untold stories, histories, and ex- “DIY” has always been a marker periences of people of color and of creativity, and a form of art, women in this country.” Her art rooted in indigeneity, that goes frequently incorporates bright back centuries. It is rasquachismo colors, resisting Eurocentric de- for border communities—a term sign traditions, and weaves to- coined by Tomás Ybarra-Frausto gether multiple languages, as referring to the celebration of re- in her installation, “Our Tierra sourcefulness, ingenuity, and Livri.” She says she uses language “the underdog” in Chicano/a in her art to “elevate multilingual- arts. As a self-described Xicana, ism and push back against purism Mexicana, first generation U.S. and nationalism in language,” American, artist, and muxerista, which delegitimizes folks for “not Nansi uses art to make sense of her speaking in a certain way or not and her community’s experiences using the ‘right’ language.” and evoke emotion and empathy Nansi Guevara, Muxeres lideres de Brownsville, Texas, 2016, print, 24” Nansi describes the process through imagery. x 18”. See more of Nansi’s work at: nansiguevara.com. of drawing as a medicine to her Growing up on the border in Lar- body and sees the creation of new edo, Texas, exposed her to complex, often contradictory reali- worlds through art as something that’s also essential to activ- ties. “Since I was a child I couldn’t understand why some people ism. Socially conscious artists are at the forefront of movements were allowed to cross the [US.-Mexico International] bridge and and change, pushing boundaries and bringing the seemingly some were not.” Nansi evokes Chicana feminist theorist Gloria invisible to light. They “are the pulse of the community and art Anzaldua’s concept of nepantla, or “the in-betweenness that we has the power to help us imagine a better world. It is essential in experience as border people,” as the foundation for the sacred our fight for justice because we need to be able to first imagine knowledge of fronterizas. change in our minds in order to create it.” -Gabriel Joffe

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