I’m not sure he realizes it but in this piece at RealClearPolitics John R. Lott, Jr. is making the case for the increasing importance of a if not new previously pretty rare form of terrorist: the eco-fascist:
Of the 82 mass public shootings from January 1998 to May 2021, 9% have known or alleged ties to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or anti-immigrant views. But many of those, such as the Buffalo murderer, are environmentalist authoritarians.
Another 9% of mass public shootings are carried out by people of middle eastern origin, despite them making up only 0.4% of the US population. Whites and Hispanics are underrepresented as a share of the population. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians commit these attacks at a slightly higher rate than their share of the population.
Seventy-one percent of mass public shooters have no identifiable political views.
Even violence against pro-life people and organizations this year has been over 22 times more frequent that violence against pro-choice groups.
We’ve had a few homegrown “eco-fascists” over the years. They’ve been pretty prominent in Germany.
Here nobody closer to the mainstream wants to claim them. They consider themselves to be on the left but many Democrats are pretty quick to label them as “right-wing”. Has anyone seen any mainstream Republicans side with them, even to the extent of suggesting that they have a point?
Somewhere in my home I have an unread copy of Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. I’m not sure the extent of the environmental terrorism that inspired the novel, but the novel inspired environmental terrorists.
This is so poorly written I am surprised you cite it. Here is what he said.
“Of the 82 mass public shootings from January 1998 to May 2021, 9% have known or alleged ties to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or anti-immigrant views. But many of those, such as the Buffalo murderer, are environmentalist authoritarians.”
82? Really? He is choosing a definition of mass shootings that will support his conclusion. Next “many of those”? He can give you exact percentages and numbers for other groups but eco killers are “many”. I am not saying they dont exist but this is all an attempt to divert away from killings by his preferred group.
Steve
Eco-fascism has its roots in the Romantic movement of the 19th Century. Schiller, Rousseau, and Goethe can be considered a early proponents. The Noble Savage, the wanderjahr, Sturm und Drang. The emphasis is on man in nature. It is a reaction against the Enlightenment, science, and reason and largely replaced it, especially in Germany.
The Nazis had a strong Green faction, mostly focused on agricultural policy and the maintenance of the family farm. Darré led this department for a while. Hitler’s vegetarianism is linked to it. The invasion of Poland and western Russia was partly driven by a perceived need to secure agricultural land for the German people. There is a large literature on the Nazis’ Blood and Soil program. Read Anna Bramwell for an introduction.
The US has had its own eco-fascists since at least WW II. In “Famine 1975! America’s Decision: Who Will Survive?,” William and Paul Paddock argue that the US will have to do a triage on which developing countries can be saved, letting others succumb to mass starvation.
Paul and Anne Ehrlich and John Holdren proposed mandatory forced birth control, administered via the water and food supplies, in order to reduce America’s population. (Google John P. Holdren. This guy sits at the power table of the left wing of the Democrat Party.)
Weigel describes humans as “Earth Cancer,” the cure being a reduction in the world’s population and the abandonment economic progress.
Alston Chase documents the violence and radicalism of groups like Eco Raiders and Earth First! The members of Earth First! killed at least one logger by spiking trees. Martha F. Lee details their actions in “Earth First!.”
And, not to be ignored, we have “Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind,” which predicts economic and demographic collapse by about 2100, unless population growth is stopped, and held under 4 billion, and unless industrial development is stopped, and industrialized agriculture is replaced by some sort of environmentally friendly system. The ghost of Darré come back.
We have not yet had a mass killing, but the technology is there to do it, most likely by engineered viruses. What is particularly disturbing is the utter amorality of the biologists working on infectious diseases, viz.
https://www.statnews.com/2022/10/17/boston-university-researchers-testing-of-lab-made-version-of-covid-virus-draws-government-scrutiny/
“The Twelve Monkeys” is entirely possible.
You should note that both birth control and eugenics are closely related to and actually part of the environmental movement. Margaret Sanger’s writings are quite clear on the need to eliminate undesirables, namely blacks and poor whites.
A paraplegic Canadian veteran has claimed that she tried to get a the Canadian Dept. of Veteran Affairs to buy her a wheel chair ramp, but instead was offered MAID, medical assistance in dying. Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Germany, and Hollad.
The ultimate goal of the eco-fascists is the reduction of the world population to a few million paleolithic hunter-gatherers, scattered around a planet without industry or agriculture or science.
There does seem to be implicit support among some Democrats (especially in the Northwest) for tree spiking, vandalizing construction machinery, ramming whalers and the like. Its not like their (and their buddies) are having lit cans of thermite on the hood of their luxury cars.
“I am not saying they dont exist but this is all an attempt to divert away from killings by his preferred group.” (And crime is really a problem in cornfield country, not cities,)
The irony is good for a belly laugh.