>>
The Turner Diaries first made headlines when a violent
white nationalist gang appropriated the name of
The Order, following the tactical blueprint for terrorism in the book. Turner catapulted to national prominence when it was revealed to be a key inspiration for
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people using a truck bomb strikingly similar to one described in detail in the book. Since then,
The Turner Diaries has inspired hate crimes and terrorism across the United States and in Europe in more than a dozen separate plots through the present day.
But beyond the violence committed by its readers,
The Turner Diaries was also the seed of significant shift in
white-nationalist ideology and recruitment, the effects of which are increasingly relevant today. In “
The Turner Legacy,” a new paper for ICCT – The Hague, I examine the complicated history of racist dystopian propaganda and the reasons for Turner’s enduring impact.
White nationalism was the law of the land in the United States through most of the country’s history. In the wake of the Civil War, institutionalized white supremacy began to erode, a process that accelerated into the 20th Century. Against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, white nationalism began to develop complex ideologies, with a number of different strains emerging.
Pedestrian racism—simply disliking or discriminating against people based on race—still played a significant role in society, but as mainstream
white nationalism became increasingly stigmatized, these ideological variants became subcultures in which violent extremism could fester.
The most important movements to emerge from this dynamic were
neo-Nazism and
Christian Identity. Neo-Nazism is heavily focused on Holocaust denial and symbolic identity markers, while Christian Identity is based on an elaborate religious justification that evolved out of a 19th century religious conspiracy theory called British Israelism, which claimed Anglo-Saxons were the lost tribe of Israel. Both movements trafficked heavily in anti-Semitism, but their animus was directed to all non-white people.
[We'll note here that white nationalist David Duke, before he decided to play dress-up and declare himself the local Ku Klux Klan, was an American Nazi]
These movements, along with the Ku Klux Klan, became the face of
white nationalism, resulting in further marginalization due to their flamboyant racism and increasing scrutiny from law enforcement, as their views and rhetoric became increasingly extreme.
It was within this context that William Luther Pierce split from the American Nazi Party and founded the National Alliance. Pierce, an atheist and scientist, was attuned to the fact that these ostentatious forms of
white nationalism were deeply alienating to “normal people,” attracting recruits he described as “defective” and “crippled.” The National Alliance downplayed swastikas and goose-stepping, and instead focused on creating propaganda capable of sidestepping mainstream media gatekeepers appealing to broader audiences.
The Turner Diaries was one of his earliest efforts, and undoubtedly the most successful. Serialized in a National Alliance newsletter, and later published in collected form,
The Turner Diaries is a dystopian novel about a United States where non-white minorities have disarmed and oppressed white Americans, leading to an armed
white nationalist revolution. In sparse, simplistic prose, the apocalyptic plot follows a white supremacist guerrilla resistance movement known as The Order as it launches a series of terrorist attacks, eventually blossoming into a full-blown insurgency. The Order wins in the end, and embarks on a campaign of global genocides against non-whites. << ---
How the Turner Diaries Changed White Nationalism
all you like, it's history and it ain't going away.
You can also buy all the dictionaries in your local bookstore and cross out every term you don't like but that doesn't make it go away either.