Characteristics of a Blackshirt : Ur Fascism and Breivik

While the specific content of the traditionalist beliefs and mores cherry-picked and melded into ‘new’ mythology is of lesser import, that the terrorist Breivik is racist, nationalist and rightwing is significant, orienting the political compass. In common with other proponents of fascism, Breivik syncretises disparate, contradictory elements – of the Crusades and Knights Templar, Freemasonry and modern expositions of conservative and reactionary thought – to mythologise a glorious ‘pure’ past. Fascism is better defined by its rightwing nature, its hatreds, ultraracism and ultranationalism, than the myths it recycles and from which its bankrupt political ‘philosophy’ is derived. The perpetual struggle is against perceived impediments – in Breivik’s pseudo-philosophy these are scapegoated Muslims, communists who tolerate them, feminists and the politically correct – if these results and proponents of multiculturalism can be removed or dealt with, the re-mythologised past can be transmuted into a glorious future. Did Breivik consciously attempt to resolve the contradiction between eternal warfare against the ‘Other’ and the achievement of a golden age described by Eco, by setting out specific tasks to be accomplished by certain times?

Whether harvesting from Christianity or Wobblythumpianism, fascists merge core cultural, political and religious themes into dissonant reactionary mythologies to galvanise an irrational political ideology tailored for the target society, forging Blut und Boden ultranationalism with selective populism in order to promote a militarist drive for power.

Other notable commonalities within existing and historic fascist ideologies and the Breivik dogma include newspeak – the epithet of his movement ‘cultural conservatives’, its ‘cultural marxist‘ enemies and ‘Eurabia’ are striking examples; the ends justifies the means, contempt for the weak, attack of intellectuals, communists and leftists; anti-capitalist and anti-democratic goals; social darwinism, sexual machismo; a cult of heroism, strength, unity and purity; militarism and violence; rejection of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism; xenophobia, ultra-racism, antisemitism, bigotry and prejudice; censorship of opposing ideas, disagreement is treason, strategic victimhood and sense of besiegement.

Although Breivik executed a spectacle which may reduce pressure for a time and is disowned publicly by those who similarly espouse extreme rightwing views (with the exception of the monstrous Glenn Beck, who likened Breivik’s victims to ‘Hitler youth’), Breivik’s essential nationalist, Islamophobic doctrine remains as yet unrepudiated and unexamined critically by these fellow travellers.

One of the features of racism is that its sufferers are oblivious to its symptoms. Yet, racism doesn’t grow in a vacuum. Breivik’s acts and doctrine cannot be separated from the substrate in which it arose in the specific contexts of permissiveness of racism and violence, fuelled by frustration with the hegemony of the ruling class, alienation, and major political events like 9/11 and leaders’ counter-productive, inflammatory reactions to them. While Breivik sees multiculturalism and its leftwing protectors as his primary obstructions, the destructive activities of the transnational ruling class which benefits from and promotes racist, nationalist division is obscured.

There is a larger organism with which Breivik is connected – from neofascist and islamophobic organisations, to fascist Israel, to the white supremacist, uncritical media and people who assumed myopically that the appalling carnage plotted and executed by Breivik couldn’t have been committed by a ‘white’ person, a rightwinger or in a ‘white’ culture. This political terrorist may not be defined as ‘mad’ (to diagnose and disparage is unwise as mentally ill people are no more violent than other community members) or adher to any one isolated belief system than his own concocted dissonance, yet be ‘possessed’ of a dangerous, familiar ideology which has taken root symbiotically in several polities, a toxic phenomenon to be cauterised, else there will be more spectacles, with successive liftings of the bar. The Norwegian Prime Minister has demonstrated deep wisdom in declaring that Norway’s response will be more democracy and respect, not more security and fear.

May kindness, universal human rights, reason and democracy, prevail over brutish dogma.

Related Links

A vile logic to Anders Breivik’s choice of target : Slavoj Zizek deconstructs Breivik’s fascist ideology, with particular reference to the anti-semitism implicit in zionism and Breivik’s own anti-semitism.
Did Anders Breivik target young people because of his adolescent shame?
The biggest threat to Western values : Multiculturalism does not pose a significant danger to Western values – but neoliberalism does.
Extremist Hate Groups Expand Via Facebook Recruiting
Extremists flocking to Facebook for recruits
Mr Ray, who believes there is a “threat to our way of life from Islam”, refused to rule out using violence in support of his beliefs and said it was “inevitable” there would be further violent clashes between Muslims and Christians.
Time for politicians to challenge rightwing prejudices, not pander to them by appropriating rightwing arguments
Breivik’s “outpourings mirror the bigotry in the mainstream media”

The killer has evidently absorbed the far right’s shift from the language of race to the language of culture. But what is most striking is how closely he mirrors the ideas and fixations of transatlantic conservatives who for a decade have been the meat and drink of champions of the war on terror and the claim that Islam and Islamism pose a mortal threat to Western civilisation.

Norwegian investigators are set to question Anders Behring Breivik again as they probe what they called a flood of new leads relating to his killing spree.
Anders Behring Breivik was in contact with the EDL

Only months before he went on his murderous killing spree he exchanged several messages with EDL supporters using his internet pseudonym Sigurd Jorsalfare, the name of the 12th century King of Norway who led one of the Crusades.

Palestine’s Norwegians
Europe’s Homegrown Terrorists
Cognitive dissonance: ‘In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, issued a statement calling Mr. Breivik a “psychopath who violently abused the war against Islamization.” Mr. Wilders said his party is made up of “democrats” and “has never called for violence.”‘
An interesting insight onto the specific kind of antisemitism prevalent on much of the far right – Tony Karon quotes from the mass murderer’s manifesto
Palestinian civil society stands in solidarity with Norway
Defending Breivik: European Politicians in Hot Water for Norway Comments
Siddiqui: Warped standards on terror

One staple of post-9/11 discourse has been the consistent demand that all Muslims everywhere not only condemn terrorism — which almost all invariably do, if for no other reason than that they have been its chief victims — but also that Muslims denounce Muslim hate-mongers, the “enablers” of terrorism.

Yet here we are witnessing a furious attempt by Islamophobic politicians and pundits, as well as their apologists, to decouple themselves from Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist.

This despite the fact that Breivik himself repeatedly cites some of the leading European and American anti-Muslim crusaders to rationalize his anti-Muslim jihad. They, of course, do not advocate violence, while he is a mass murderer. The distinction is clear enough. But they influenced him and shaped his world view. His exaggerated sense of the danger posed by Islam, Muslims and multiculturalism is about the same as theirs.

Geir Lippestad, Breivik’s defence lawyer, said: “There are two more cells in Norway and others from the Western world” prepared to follow Breivik’s example
British rightwing blogger denies meeting Norwegian gunman

Breivik said in his 1500-page manifesto that he attended the founding meeting of the Knights Templar Europe “military order” in London in 2002 where he met a “mentor” who used the pseudonym Richard – after Richard the Lionheart.

Paul Ray, who writes a blog under the name Lionheart, says he belongs to an anti Muslim group called The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights but denies ever meeting Breivik and says he was horrified by the mass killings in Norway on Friday. In a telephone interview with Associated Press, Ray said he was not at the 2002 London meeting that Breivik described in his manifesto.

“I’d like to express my deepest sympathy to the people of Norway and to the families who have lost children,” Ray said. “It’s a horrendous crime that has been committed by someone what goes beyond the realm of human understanding.”

Ray, who now lives in Malta, refused to say how many members were in his group but said he had had no contact with Breivik and had not heard of him before Friday’s attacks.

“It’s an idea,” he said of The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights. “It’s not like it’s a massive organization. It’s a belief.”

Ray, who was involved with the far right English Defence League before falling out with the leadership, said it appeared Breivik had drawn inspiration from some of his ideas and writings.

“It’s really pointing at us. All these things he’s been talking about are linked to us,” he said. “It’s like he’s created this whole thing around us.”

Norway Attacks Raise Alert on Homegrown Extremists
Don’t blame religion for Anders Breivik
On Norway
La Trobe University researcher Ramon Spaaij

says the main ideological drivers for lone terrorists are white supremacy, Islamism, nationalism/separatism and anti-abortionism. …

Indeed, right-wing views are increasingly becoming political mainstream in Europe, and even moderate politicians have been moving to the Right and away from multiculturalism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain have all recently declared an end to multiculturalism.

Norway does not exist in a vacuum. Its right-wing scene is connected to the rest of Europe through internet forums, where hate-speech proliferates, and participation in right-wing demonstrations throughout Europe.

The Norway attacks are a reminder for Australians of the need to monitor individuals with extreme right-wing views. They should not be allowed to join gun clubs, own guns or be able to buy quantities of explosive precursors.

Windschuttle denial : Charge of deadly provocation is false
Anders Breivik, Stieg Larsson, and the Men with the Nazi Tattoos
What’s Blair’s excuse? It is really creepy to hear Blair, mass murdering war criminal, pronounce on mass murdering Breivik.
Blaming Google : Anders Behring Breivik absorbed all of his murderous ideology from the internet.
MSM logic over terrorism; blame Muslims and then blame them again
Distancing : France’s National Front suspends member for defending Breivik
Norway attacks: ‘No proof of UK link to Breivik’

“I can tell you, at this moment in time, we don’t have evidence or we don’t have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells,” said Ms Kristiansen, who heads the Norwegian Police Security Service.

She said she did not think Mr Breivik was insane, as his lawyer has suggested.

Instead, she described him as calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight.

Our culture warriors are fanning too much foreign fare
Glenn Greenwald: U.S. media equates terrorism with Muslims
Roger Cohen in the NY Times:

Breivik is no loner. His violence was brewed in a specific European environment that shares characteristics with the specific American environment of Loughner: relative economic decline, a jobless recovery, middle-class anxiety and high levels of immigration serving as the backdrop for racist Islamophobia and use of the spurious specter of a “Muslim takeover” as a wedge political issue to channel frustrations rightward.

Hypocrite O’Reilly can’t admit obvious racism in fundamentalist Christian ideology
Pat Buchanan Praises Breivik’s Cultural Analysis
European police probe Norway attacker’s links to right-wing groups

“What we’ve seen is an active extremist scene across European countries, including the UK,” Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, told the Guardian. “There are some signs the extreme right have been more active, especially on the Internet. They are more sophisticated and using social media to attract younger people.”

English Defence League founder convicted of leading street brawl
Manifesto just deluded rantings:Costello ‘Mr Howard is labelled “one of the most sensible leaders in the Western world”.’
Norway killer praised Australian conservatives
Norway attacks: Norway’s tragedy must shake Europe into acting on extremism
Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia
Israeli fascist boasts of killing the Israeli left

Fascism Bibliography

Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt (Umberto Eco)
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism (Lawrence Britt)
Italian Fascism between Ideology and Spectacle (Federico Caprotti)
Marxists on Fascism
The palingenetic core of generic fascist ideology (Roger Griffin) [.pdf]
Excerpts from the book “Anatomy of Fascism” (Robert O. Paxton)
Israel embraces fascism and where is the Zionist Diaspora?
The eugenicist racism of religious zionism: ‘Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring’
Between moral outrage and historical analysis
Imagine if a terrorist cited the writings of leftists like me as his inspiration.
Anders Behring Breivik had no legitimate grievance

Palestine / Israel Links

Newspeak alert : What do ‘Flotilla Folk’ do?
The law actually deals with boycotting Israel as a whole – not only settlements
Open call to Wikimania: ‘Edit’ occupation and apartheid out of Palestine!
The overt, outrageous bigotry of Israel’s regime belies its hasbarist pink-washing and secular-sanitisation.
Israeli grocery store keeps Arab baggers and Jewish cashiers apart
Israel rejects bill allocating equal land to Jews and Arabs – old but good
The Palestinian Authority’s UN statehood bid: an exercise in futility?
Press Release: Jenin Freedom Theatre Attacked
More proof that political zionists are anti-semitic : Rightwing Jew can call leftwing Jew a Nazi, but if leftwinger turns the tables, he’s an anti-Semite
Nutanyahoo boasts about Israel being the only stable place with no demonstrations, everyone equal under the law, a strong military because it has a strong society … brrrrrr

Other Links

Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas

“The Answer to Violence is Even More Democracy”

How to defeat racism, prejudice and bigotry? Education for respect of all humans, for equal rights for everyone, for the intrinsic worth of each human, while challenging discrimination where it manifests is essential. Racism, prejudice and bigotry are political acts, defined by the relations of the individual to others. They are not religious beliefs conditioned by one’s relationship with the unknowable, to be tolerated lest our own beliefs not be tolerated. Free speech is limited in our own interests when the rights of others are infringed upon, for example with slander and incitement to crime, and in Australia, with racial vilification laws. Disparate beliefs are forged into a newspeak newculture. These syncretised beliefs are decoration and padding, obscuring an underlying drive for power. In a dark soil of forbearance and silent assent composted with racism, violence and hatred builds, fertilising the poisonous flower of fascism.

Racism, prejudice, bigotry, sexism and able-ism are diseases of the point of view, yet cannot be seen in isolation from the cultures in which they grow. To heal them, it is the whole community organism which must be treated.

The white supremacist attacks in Norway show how dangerous nationalist racism is and how racism, prejudice and bigotry are the common enemies of humanity. Breivik’s major hatreds were for multiculturalism, marxism and Islam, irrationalising that the pure culture, including Protestantism which he re-mythologises and syncretises with the Knights Templar myths, of Norway and Europe was being diluted with invading genes and ‘non-European’ culture, facilitated by the newspeak ‘culture marxists’. In fascist ‘blut und boden’ tradition, he formulates a glorious ‘pure’ past, all the better to point to a glorious purified future in an effort to incite populism to fuel his cause. For him, his targets represented the traitors within.

As Robert Lambert says:

‘Instead, by choosing to attack a government building and a Labour Party summer school, Breivik is drawing attention to what many fringe nationalists see as the political failure of mainstream and left-wing politicians to confront the Muslim threat. So-called appeasers of the “Islamification of Europe” have become as hated as Muslim activists and therefore face the same kind of attacks.’

The pervasive global nature of white supremacism is demonstrated monotously – a political ‘cultural conservative’ massacred children from the Norwegian Labour Party and bombed the PM’s office, and the white media STILL doesn’t call it terrorism or neo-fascism, let alone both.

Other symptoms of fascism besides those mentioned above which Breivik’s pseudo-philosophy includes are sexism and machismo, attack of intellectuals, contempt for the weak and parliamentary democracy; violence, militarism (his Knights Templar schemata), censorship of opposing ideas, disagreement is treason, propaganda, social darwinism, expansionism (of his movement throughout Europe), indoctrination, strategic victimhood, a sense of besiegement, scapegoating and promotion of a cult of unity and heroism.

Respect to the people of Norway.

From the Prime Minister of Norway:

We must never cease to stand up for our values.

We have to show that our open society can pass this test, too,

And that the answer to violence is even more democracy,

even more humanity, but never naïveté.

@Dr_Ulrichsen Oslo Mayor Stang asked whether Oslo needs greater security – “I don’t think security can solve problems. We need to teach greater respect” #

Comment on islamophobic rightwing blog Jihadwatch: “OMG plz don’t tell me he’s one of us. This would deal a serious blow to our cause.”

New Related Links


At Songwriter’s Songbook, Davic Rovics ruminates on the significance of the terrorict incident Massacre in Norway

Israelis Debate on the Web: Did Norway Get What It Deserved?
Some EDL vids extolling the Knights Templar – looks like the dragnet will be widening

http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=2ek3IA8ARIw&feature=y?outu.be
http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=GGyyBn3Lmjc&feature=y?outu.be
http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=18PcaGQVtYM&feature=y?outu.be
And from the founder of the EDL in 2007 : Knights Templar – 21st Century Christian Crusaders

Loony rightwing interpretation : Whether He Knows It Or Not, Breivik Is A Member of al-Qaida
Loony rightwing racist commentator on the WSJ of all places which should be ashamed of itself giving oxygen to this drivel Inside the Mind of the Oslo Murderer
The Oslo massacre and violent video games: The Facts
I hope they throw the book at The Sun. Idiots.
left flank: Australia’s Islamophobes & right-wing ideologues praised in Breivik’s manifesto
Sick Zionists find way to damn Muslims and racial diversity in wake of Norwegian tragedy
Norway gunman claims a London connection and links to the EDL
Hitchens misses the point about Breivik’s fascist syncretisation of Freemasonry and the Knights Templar, and fails to note the fascist and anti-semitic nature of political zionism which he supports. Fascist doctrine chooses myths often from disparate sources, melds them into a new mythology, nostalgic for a glorious past & hoping through purification, for a glorious future. Political zionism, for example, uses Judaeic myth & pseudo-history, to promote its fallacious ‘historic’ entitlement to ‘all the Land of Israel’. This mechanism supports the racism inherent in political zionism and its fascistic drive for power and expansionism.
Don’t blame us! – Foust attempts to ‘normalise’ rightwing #racism, populism, ultranationalism and xenophobia
Nationalists pose bigger threat than al-Qaeda : Contrary to popular belief, most terrorist attacks in Europe are the work of extremist nationalists.
The rightwing ultra-nationalists are rabidly trying to cover up:

‘When you preach bigotry and fear on a daily basis, don’t be surprised when one of your followers takes the next logical step. But Robert Spencer has a reason to feign surprise and indignation over what his hatred has incited, as the link between his hate-writing and this act of terrorism becomes clear: Richard Silverstein notes that the right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik cited Robert Spencer 46 times in his manifesto.’

Norway gunman claims a London connection and links to the EDL
Faces of hatred: Norway mass killer’s life laid bare
Terrorism is not a Religion…it is not Islam
Norwegians Petition Media To Blackout Court Appearance Of Gunman Anders Breivik

Related Links

Media Reacts to News That Norwegian Terror Suspect Isn’t Muslim
Breivik’s posts on Document.no [Google translation]

Norway Attacks: Anders Behring Breivik Reported as Suspect

Police believe the 32-year-old, six-foot-plus Norwegian acted alone in the bombing of government offices in Oslo and an assault with firearms on a island youth camp less than a hour from the capital.

Norwegian television said that Breivik belongs to right-wing circles in Oslo, and a Swedish newspaper has reported the Breivik has posted on right-wing forums in Norway.

Norwegian media has linked Breivik to a Facebook account in which the poster described himself as a Christian conservative.

Anders Breivik, Norwegian Terror Suspect, Admirer of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman

Not long after the blast, the shooting rampage began on Utoya.

Media reports said the gunman, wearing a police uniform, beckoned bystanders over to him, on the pretense that he wanted to speak to them about security measures in the wake of the bombing in Oslo. He then opened fire.

Emilie Bersaas, 19, told Sky News that she heard shooting, saw people running and screaming, then ran herself to a building to take cover. She and a friend piled clothes and a mattress onto a desk and hid under it.

Oslo attacks suspect profiled

On his Facebook page, which appears to only have been started July 17, Breivik mostly posted music videos and said his interests include hunting and bodybuilding.

Under education, Breivik wrote he studied independently, noting he has “approximately 14,500 hours of study” equivalent to a bachelor of business administration and masters in history, as well as “3,000 hours of study in micro and macro finance, religion .”

His profile also says he’s a director at a company called Breivik Geofarm.

He lists himself as single and has five profile photos – four of which are headshots, and one of him at a wedding with two women, one of which is the bride.

A Twitter account is also being linked to Breivik, although there is just one tweet on July 17.

“One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests,” he wrote.

The television station TV 2 in Norway reported Breivik had right-wing extremist tendancies and had two guns registered under his name.

Anders Behring Breivik – Europe 4 Europeans

The alleged offender is a member of the John lodge St. Olaus TD Three pillars of the Norwegian Masonic Order. He has 3 degree status, where the peak is ten degrees. – We have no way to express an opinion on individuals or incidents related to any members, said spokesman of the Norwegian Freemasons order Helge Qvigstad told Dagbladet.

Another stereotype by the media : ‘Breivik appears to evade the stereotype of being influenced by metal music.’
Perhaps today the neo-Nazis in Europe count Muslims among the problems that drive their madness. But to a large degree, these right wing extremist views shaped 20th century Europe. It’s time for a European reckoning of its own history of violence that has bled into the present in such painful ways.

How’s that again? Are the only terrorists in the world Muslim?

If so, what do we call a right-wing nationalist capable of planting major bombs and mowing down scores of people for the sake of the greater glory of his cause? If even a liberal newspaper like the Times can’t call this guy a terrorist, what does that say about the mindset of the western world?

The Fjordman Files
The Political Thinking of Anders Behring Breivik
How a clueless “terrorism expert” set media suspicion on Muslims after Oslo horror
Christian Jihad? Why We Should Worry About Right-Wing Terror Attacks Like Norway’s in the US
The Norway Attacks – Great cartoon
Fjordman Speaks Out on far right Gates of Vienna
Why did so many “experts” declare the Oslo attacks to be the work of Islamic terrorists?
Faces of hatred: Norway mass killer’s life laid bare

Palestine / Israel Links

America’s attempted Quartet sophistry
Everything in this land is about real estate: Understanding the tent protests
Foreign Ministry says Norwegian authorities funding anti-Israel film, exhibition, and play. Norway: We support freedom of expression
Coop Sweden stops all purchases of Soda Stream carbonation devices
Twilight Zone / Blood on the tracks
Desmond Tutu, Israel and U.S. pensions
The Anti-Boycott Act on Cynical Arab

Australia Links

Phone tapping in Australia the highest in the world – ‘The number of phone-tappings is out of control in Australia’, but Israel might be higher
The Questions Harto Won’t Answer
Trust in Australian media has dropped in all the types of media
Framing The Narrative: Murdoch v. Assange
Police unions demand inquiry covers tapping by agencies

Other Links

Who Owns America? Hint: It’s not China America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.
Rupert Murdoch shirking responsibility over phone hacking, says police chief