Greg Johnson has penned a new article for Counter-Currents called “Rethinking the White Nationalist Conference.” Matt Parrott has written a response defending the national conference model and Greg has published a rejoinder to Matt.
My take on this matter: if it were not for a decision that I made to attend a White Nationalist national conference, I probably wouldn’t be married right now, and I surely wouldn’t have my son today who you can see on the right.
The last thing that the White Nationalist movement needs is to become more abstract, more intellectual, and more reliant on the internet than it already is now. The inevitable result of retreating from the real world into cyberspace will be to rely even more on anonymity, which will strengthen the taboos, generate more fear, cowardice, and conspiratorial paranoia in our ranks, exacerbate points of disagreement, and further impoverish the already low state of social capital in the movement.
I’ve been to a slew of conferences over the past three years. I agree with Matt that I attended those conferences for the opportunity to meet and enjoy the companionship of other people, not to listen to speeches about stuff that I already know, which I would rather watch without a hangover on YouTube anyway. I’ve met people who are now some of my best friends at these conferences.
I think the threat posed by “anti-fa” to our conferences is exaggerated. In just the last year, I attended three conferences in Tennessee (CofCC, The Political Cesspool, and Amren) and one in Alabama (League of the South) without incident. The Southern National Congress and Stormfront also held their annual conferences in Tennessee. I’ve also attended over a dozen protests all over the South (from small towns to large metro areas) over the past year and half without experiencing any problems.
Who wants to read Sperg lords on the internet engaging in pointless dick slapping contests over rival interpretations of Nietzsche and Julius Evola? Not me. What’s more, in spite of all the talk about the importance of cultivating fresh “ideas,” the basic goal of the White Nationalist movement, which is to replace liberal democracy with a White ethnostate, hasn’t moved a centimeter in at least the last 14 years.
If we want to do something truly valuable for the movement, we would be spending our time translating all these abstract ideas into something of real value, say, romantic relationships, families, real world communities, courage, trust, friendships, and organizational strength. Instead, White Nationalists remain atomized, alienated, divided over abstractions and marginalized in dark corners of the internet.
No amount of money, essays, or posting on glittering websites will suffice to change the present state of affairs. The change will have to come from within. A critical mass of people will have to decide that hiding out for decades behind a computer screen isn’t a life worth living anymore.
Note: If you are wondering why I have been so inactive lately, it is because the little guy above is absorbing so much more of my time! Also, Jack Ryan hasn’t gone anywhere. I’ve just been away and too busy with life to publish new articles.
I tend not to hear about these conferences until after the fact and I expect I’m not the only one. Given that up until recently I was employed in IT and reporting to nonwhites and Democrat-voting women, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway, but knowing they exist is the first step. It probably would be helpful to publicize these more, if you know about them.
Happy New Year Hunter and Georgie!
I agree with Hunter.
But attending these conferences, protests does entail some personal risks as SPLC, Antifa , government system do monitor them and can harass us.
Cowardly Conservatives will generally throw us under the bus and agree with the likes of Salon, MSNBc, New York Times that White Racists are the most evil people in the world , worse than Islamic terrorists, Black street gangs and thus White race realists shouldn’t have the right of freedom of association.
This is what we would love to see here:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/31/german-chancellor-lashes-out-at-anti-islamification-marches-as-support-grows/
The League of the South protests I attended were the best, most effective because our side was out interacting in a positive way with the general White Southern public, instead of just retreating to preach to the choir amongst our selves.
The LotS protests were very effectively organized and disciplined. We had good looking or great looking, well dressed activists. Never go to some demo where there is no dress code, code of conduct and it looks like the whole thing will degenerate in to shouting matches or something out of Maury Povitch.
The problem isn’t conferences. Face to face meeting is crucial, and we need more of it. But if people go to conferences and just talk about the same stuff they talk about on the internet, it’s not helping much.
We need face to face contact, but on a much more local level. And the focus needs to be on mutual support, not political activity. My model is the friendly society or lodge. If you go to a national conference, try to follow up with local get togethers for networking.
I attended my first event this year where I got to meet some wonderful people including HW and family. I would love to attend more & contribute financially.
I agree the internet cannot be our only outlet. As well all know, the thought crime of “racism” is a career ender in today’s PC workplace. I feel this is why we don’t have more support. The amount of support Darren Wilson received after doing his job was incredible. We must find a way for freedom of speech & our opinions to be “protected speech” and not used against us in the workplace. Thoughts?
We have state level meetings and dozens of protest events across the South. The League and CofCC have local chapters in places like Montgomery and St. Louis where people who live close by get together and interact much more often.
In order for anything to flourish at the local level, people will have to 1.) get off the internet and 2.) start joining groups. I don’t think anyone knows how to make that happen.
We should have a movement like the one that has started to materialize in Germany (the oppression is far greater there), but Americans just won’t let go of the internet.
Thank God the “little guy” is absorbing much of your time. Geordie will be a constant reminder that you are fighting for real people, not some screwball abstract idea that very few people will understand.
the basic goal of the White Nationalist movement, which is to replace liberal democracy with a White ethnostate, hasn’t moved a centimeter in at least the last 14 years.
The basic goal may have remained the same, but it seems to me that the ideological landscape has changed quite a bit, and very much for the worse, especially the focus on weird occultists like Evola, and fixation on “game” instead of on building nationalist families.
I have attended many conferences I’m the past few years. I attend SOLELY for the face to face interaction. I really am not interested I’m hearing yet one more speech from any so called leader or intellectual. I gather around the smoke pit or the drink cooler and just talk with folks, and not always about “the struggle” or “the cause”. Usually it involves sports, guns , hunting children etc. My first ever conference was one of Thom Robb’s Faith and Freedom. I met what I would call my best friend there. My family and his have since went on camping trips etc. together.
The problem is that a lot of the speakers think that if you aren’t listening in rapt attention you are being rude. They’ll just have to get over that.
The friend I mentioned above has helped me with several projects in the past and one coming up completely autonomous of any group affiliation. Through us we have been able to put like minded individuals together that otherwise would not have met. BTW, keep your eyes on North Alabama in the coming month for a big splash to be made!
“fixation on “game” instead of on building nationalist families.”
Only someone who does not understand what they are talking about could say this.
Great article!
I have yet to see a good explanation of how game is supposed to help the growth of nationalism. Perhaps you could direct me to one?
My general position is as follows:
1) In order for nationalism to succeed we need strong traditional families based on monogamous marriages.
2) Game does not contribute to creating traditional families or monogamous relationships.
Would you dispute number 1 or 2?
I was getting worried about you, Hunter. Good to hear you and your family are well.
Greg Johnson makes some valid points, but I think he’s missing a few. When he says conferences are a rather expensive and risky way to pursue little more than bragging rights, he underestimates the value of bragging rights. The WN struggle is ultimately about power, and we have to pursue it by the rules of power struggles. Projecting strength is important both for our morale and our opponents’ discomfiture. Small local groups are fine and necessary, but to meet with hundreds of people you never met before, who think like you, is a powerful motivator. Also, your local groups are likely to be made up of people you already know. Not much prospect for expanding networks and forming families.
I think his point of money flowing out of the movement is significant, but he fails to pursue it. The obvious implication is that we need to form in-group networks in all our business dealings, as the Jews do. If you’re going to a conference, you may not have a lot of choice regarding airlines and hotels, but why not find out if there is a sympathetic travel agent who can book your tickets and would appreciate the business? What about taxis? Gas stations? A small bed & breakfast?
I know – the obvious answer is that any businessman on such a list would be destroyed by boycotts a la Paula Deen. That’s a challenge we’re going to have to work out. If we can’t work out how to cooperate in the face of opposition, we might as well throw in the towel now.
Best wishes for the New Year.
I sort of have to agree with Greg here. I’m not always in agreement with what he writes or the approach he suggests, but he really does seem to have a well-above-average understanding of the dynamics involved in interpersonal relations and networking, and the kind of dogged determination it takes to make it all successful in a hostile environment.
One of the biggest and most immediate problems:
Logistics
This is a plague that needs to be tackled ASAP! I think there are some really good people that would probably create fantastic things if it was an easy process to get these people together. I sincerely mean that. But when you have Person A hundreds of miles away from Person B, and Person C is a thousand miles away either of them, then most of the energy consumed is spent just trying to get these people together. So much time, energy and money is wasted just orchestrating face-to-face interaction National Conference model that it becomes entirely too tedious to effectively create practical solutions, not to mention just too damn expensive.
This is the problem Greg mentioned when he wrote about keeping more of the formula for success(time + energy + money) inside of the pro-White sphere. Having a good portion of that formula flowing out of the pro-White sphere just isn’t an efficient way to form the kind of bonds it takes to push forward the idea of racial autonomy and nationalism.
There’s also the problem of diminishing returns when it comes using conventions and conferences as a rallying point or as a replacement for more proactive networking. But I’ll save that for another time.
If more people were willing to step forward at the local level and join organizations (see St. Louis for the CofCC), that would work. I’m all for local meetings, but without chapters, it usually never amounts to more than a handful of people.
The fundamental problem remains the same: WNs don’t join organizations and spend all their time on the internet. Insofar as organizations do exist, they don’t have the resources to change anything.
Hunter,
“I agree with Matt that I attended those conferences for the opportunity to meet and enjoy the companionship of other people, not to listen to speeches about stuff that I already know”
Have you found that this is true of other attendees you’ve met or are there really people going to these conferences who are learning about things like IQ differences and crime stats for the first time?