Consider white nationalism, an ideology that went through an extended period of decline, with sharp losses starting in the late 1990s and continuing through the 2000s. The movement’s adherents were fragmented, factionalized and isolated in the face of a powerful social current against overt racism. Now, a mix of political factors and the rise of social networking have sparked a worrying resurgence.


One element of white nationalism’s decline was its marginalization from the mainstream of society. The role of mainstream media gatekeepers was crucial in reinforcing that isolation through the second half of the 20th Century. Overt white nationalism was rarely found on editorial pages, and its leading figures were rarely seen on the news, except in a negative light. Popular entertainment and culture reinforced messages promoting diversity.


Social media was not the only factor driving the return of white nationalism – the election of an African-American president, economic and demographic shifts, and a new flood of refugees from the Syrian civil war all provide important political context. But the mechanics of the resurgence were swifter and more volatile because of instantaneous global networking, and some key offline factors – including the rise of the Islamic State and Donald Trump’s racially divisive presidential campaign – have been profoundly empowered by access to social media.

“Everyone sees the need of a new principle of life. But as always happens in similar crises—some people attempt to save the situation by an artificial intensification of the very principle which has led to decay. This is the meaning of the ‘nationalist’ outburst of recent years….things have always gone that way. The last flare, the longest; the last sigh, the deepest. On the very eve of their disappearance there is an intensification of frontiers—military and economic.”
— THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES, 1930 http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/revolt.pdf

Seamon joined the force in 1998, after serving three years as a reserve deputy. Allen related a call the rookie made with Dep. Billy Lawrence, that has become a bit of a local legend. The two officers responded to a church in the Pentacost community during the pre-dawn hours answering a burglary in progress call. There they found a mentally disturbed man, armed and naked in the church.

“They got into a gunfight in the church until they ran out of bullets,” Allen said, eliciting another round of laughter. “Billy told the naked man that they were out of bullets and asked if he was out of bullets. The naked man answered that he was out of bullets. Billy and Troy brought him in.”

Hip Bircher. 

(APR 30 1961; Burton Whitlock, an accountant, heads the John Birch Society at Cody, Wyo. via Getty)

Reading this New Yorker review of a new biography of John Birch though I was a little distracted by the writing (I asked myself why, went to the reviewer’s Wikipedia page, and found it insisting on his “crisp wit”…). 

“Granted, my social media feed is heavily weighted towards media folks but you would have thought this moment was Tienneman Square for the media caterwauling. More than a handful of editors, reporters, and mainstream media organizations condemned the Mizzou students as spoiled, anti-democratic, ridiculous, and enemies to their own cause.”
“There is more to it, of course. He built two walls, with prayer circles and corridors in woods so quiet you can hear the slightest wind. He burned through three trucks, 22 wheelbarrows and three dogs – his pooch Pavarotti rules the roost now.”
— Tom Hendrix moved 8.5 million pounds of stone for his great-great-grandmother. He explains why: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/tom_hendrix_moved_85_million_p.html?hootPostID=4917b24ca4533c30b6cad386c72da33a
“There’s a kind of optimism specifically within Christianity about the world — about whose side God is on. Well, I didn’t have any of that in my background. I had physicality and chaos.”
“A lightning strike in Lawrence County pasture killed four miniature horses over the weekend.”