Six Things I Think: The Enemy of My Enemy Is Still a Fascist, Actually

NinaIllingworth February 6, 2021August 17, 2023 Adolph Reed Jr, Aimee Terese, American Gestapo, Amerikan Musik, Ammon Bundy, Andy Ngo, Angela Nagle, antifa, antifascism, AOC, beating Hitler, Bernie Sanders, Beth Lynch, Boogaloo Boys, Boogaloo means civil war, Boogaloo movement, Caitlin Johnstone, Chris Rock, Class Notes, class reductionism, class-washing, Counterpunch, crypto fascism, crypto reactionaries, crypto-libertarians, David Graeber, Deep Dives, DHS, Donald Trump, Eli Valley, Eric London, FA1, Fantastic Lies, fascism, fascist recruiting, Fenix Ammunition, Fred Hampton, Freikorps, Glenn Greenwald, Hillary Clinton, JA5, Jerry White, Jimmy Dore, Josh Hawley, Katie Halper, Lee Fang, left right alliance, left-washing, libertarians, Magnus Panvidya, Magnus Panvidya is Zakkari Clark, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Martin Niemöller, Matt Binder, Matt Stoller, Matt Taibbi, Maya Angelou, Media, Medicare for all, Michigan militia, Mike Cernovich, Mike Tracey, militias, MP6, Nagle Caucus, Nazi Germany, News, nihilism, Nina Illingworth, NOI, playing stupid, Progressive Army, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Red Scare podcast, right wing populism, Rittenhouse drills, Ron Paul, Sam Seder, Six Things I Think, Socialism, ST2, Stalin, Stupidpol, Sturmabteilung, The Jimmy Dore Show, the Majority Report, the Young Patriots, Thought Slime, Tulsi Gabbard, Video, Word Socialist Web Site, WSWS, Youtube, Zaid Jilani, Zakkari Clark

Editor’s note: our Six Things I Think feature is a type of post I use when I want to cover a lot of ground about a multi-faceted topic very quickly. Although you don’t strictly *have to* click on every citation link in this essay, you might want to at least read the headline articles, and watch the embedded videos, as they each frame the discussion immediately underneath them.

Typically I employ these posts to catch readers up on a topic I feel I’ve neglected, or when a number of highly-interrelated discussions nevertheless prove beyond my ability to weave into a singular thesis. Today however, I’m writing one because I am absolutely fed the fuck up with crypto-reactionary, faux-left “influencers” online and in boutique media, and I’m more than a little mad at myself for tip-toing around this subject for so damn long. Lemme just warn you in advance, this might get a little “heated” and there’s definitely going to be some profanity.

Please also note that this article is part of the “Amerikan Musik: Fascism Ascendant in the USA” collection on ninaillingworth.com.

Are You People Even Serious?

So let me see if I’m understanding this correctly. I’ve been gone from popular left wing social media for just over a month, and in that time period, numerous ridiculous assclowns online have managed to engage pretty much the entire social media left, in a vigorous, hyper-emotional debate about whether or not there are good kinds of… *checks notes*… fascist cracker militias… that leftists can work with? And, yet again, correct me if I’m wrong here, but this has all been spurred on by the inane babblings of Jimmy fucking Dore?

Okay then, but let’s unpack this trashfire nonsense in as few words as possible (which is tragically still going to be an epic number of words,) because quite frankly, the situation we find ourselves in is far too dire, and the hour is far too late, for all of us to be wasting time on the question of whether or not anti-fascism is optional on the left. It most certainly is not; these folks fantasize about throwing you out of helicopters and it’s not an accident that Martin Niemöller’s famous poem about the Nazi Holocaust, starts with “first they came for the communists.”

Let’s wade into this awful crap:

I Think Jimmy Dore is a Disingenuous, Reactionary Muppet

Alright, so first things first; you do not actually have to watch this forty minute video and in fact, I’m willing to suggest you skip it because Dore’s nonsensical dissembling on behalf of armed, right wing reactionaries is so mind-blowingly obtuse and dishonest, it can probably cause fetal brain damage in lab mice. If you simply read the Word Socialist Web Site article link, and watch Matt Binder’s excellent fifteen minute investigation video embedded below, you’ll have no trouble following along with why real leftists are currently telling Jimmy Dore to shut his cracker pie hole.

Basically, the “too long; fell asleep” here is that Jimmy Dore brought an actual right wing militia extremist randomly spitting out words like libertarian, anarchist, and Boogaloo Boy onto his show, and allowed him to uncritically pitch a bullshit, reactionary, left-right “alliance against the system” recruiting scheme – all of which Dore did while once again hiding behind his typical bullshit disclaimer that he’s just a dumbfuck comedian who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow; which objectively might be the only true thing Jimmy’s said in a while. Keep a pin in that thought by the way, it’s going to come up again later.

But Actually It Gets Worse

Yes, that’s right my friends, there’s another ridiculous and reactionary, forty-plus minute video of Jimmy Dore pitching an alliance with fascism, while demonizing actual leftists; and yes, it is once again so dumb, you might not even want to watch it. This is because as it turns out, Dore tried to pitch this absurd left-right alliance with the f*cking Boogaloo Boys, by backing it with an interview of a left wing labor activist and editor for the World Socialist Web Site. Understandably, Jerry White, an actual socialist, was not particularly pleased about being used this way and offered enough pushback that Dore, clearly feeling a need to “get ahead of the controversy” and prime the pump to smear leftists outraged by the mere suggestion we should align with literal goddamn fascists, cut a whole episode to demonize selected clips of Jerry’s arguments.

We’re going to talk more about this second interview in a moment, but let me start by saying however that fascist-sympathizing, shit-tier comedian fuckery aside, I think it’s pretty damn funny a burnout hack provocateur like Jimmy Dore literally has the balls to try and lecture a Trot socialist, labor activist, on how to do leftism from his perch on um, YouTube. Please do keep in mind that this is the very same man who started off his interview with the “libertarian” militia freak by admitting he didn’t know anything at all about his guest, or the Boogaloo Boys, and was for reasons that are extremely unclear, taking the fellow at his word. Now, when Jimmy has White on, suddenly he’s not only an expert on how the left should organize, but he’s able to vouch for the progressive and class qualities of his previous guest who again, his only knowledge of is supposedly the video he just recorded? Okay then, mister Dore; I’ll certainly give you points for weaponizing the Dunning-Kruger effect with maximum audacity, my man.

Look, this video is just as trash as the last one and don’t even get me started on the injection of the loaded shitlib term “deplorables” in this discussion, but I’m including them here because if you’re going to call a guy a crypto-reactionary, and a cancerous boil on the collective ass of the American online left, it’s only fair to show people the petard you intend to hoist him on first. Frankly, I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that the Boogaloo Boy, who goes by the moniker Magnus Panvidya, was lying, and that while Dore is certainly either a mendacious piece of shit, or the laziest mutherfucker on YouTube, he’s not actually just a harmless knucklehead. Since however these obvious facts do indeed seem to be a point of contention among the twitchy, extremely online, “black helicopter” left, let’s move on to explaining precisely why I feel that way.

YouTube personality Jimmy Dore promotes fascist Boogaloo Boy

Given that this whole shitstorm really got nasty when Jimmy Dore tried to use World Socialist Web Site Labor Editor Jerry White to left-wash a fascist (more on this below) and co-opt the language of class struggle for his own crass purposes, I thought it was only appropriate to give WSWS the first rebuttal opportunity, and it comes to us from genuine socialist observer, Eric London. And rebut, he did; tearing apart not only Magnus Panvidya’s blatant and easily debunkable lies from the first interview, but also the extremely disingenuous set-up Dore was trying to pull by having Jerry on after a fascist militia freak in the first place. Furthermore, London directly touches on why an alliance with fascists, ends in fascism and has absolutely nothing to do with class struggle to boot. Frankly, this article is good enough that if not for the very end, where London says “as for Dore, his own movement to the right is propelled by a more personal trait: stupidity,” I’d be tempted to call it a day right here.

Although I would strongly encourage folks to actually read the entire article, which is excellent, I’m going to pull out a bunch of quotes from it here anyway, because I believe they’re essential reference points for understanding my position that Jimmy Dore is not simply stupid, but rather a crypto-reactionary who is very much committed to breaking off angry leftists for his doomed “left-right alliance against the system” strategy. Case in point, emphasis mine:

“On January 24, Dore invited SEP member and World Socialist Web Site Labor Editor Jerry White onto his program to discuss the WSWS’s coverage of a strike of Hunts Point produce workers in New York City. Dore did not inform White that the guest immediately preceding him was a Michigan leader of the Boogaloo Boys, an armed far-right militia group that actively participated in the January 6 putsch and the plot to kidnap and murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. While interviewing the Boogaloo member, who called himself “Magnus Panvidya,” Dore said his political strategy was to “unite the populist left and the populist right” and find “common interests” with the Boogaloo Boys and similar groups. Dore’s interview with the fascist was fawning and entirely uncritical. Dore then planned to dishonestly use the interview with White to further his political project of finding common cause with the fascistic right. White was obliged to respond by making clear that his presence on the show did not imply an endorsement of either the Boogaloo Boys or of Dore’s calls for progressives to “unite” with them. Dore responded to this clarification with extreme hostility, upset that White had disrupted his plans.”

Okay, so right in the introduction to this article, London makes three key points, or accusations, that I believe given the available evidence, are entirely supportable.

First he points out that “Magnus Panvidya” is a known leader of a far right extremist militia that has already been involved with an (admittedly half-assed) attempted insurrection, and a very real kidnapping plot that likely would have ended in a political assassination, both in Michigan.
Then London notes that in Jimmy Dore’s own fucking words, his political strategy is to literally seek out alliances with the “populist” right; who in the whole fuck are the populist right? Who knows, that depends on the day and we don’t call these mutherfuckers “crypto-fascists” for no reason, but if you’re looking for a rough idea of who those folks admire, you could note that guys like Donald Trump, Ron Paul and Josh Hawley are all quite fond of saying they’re right wing “populists” – as are freaks like Ammon Bundy.
Finally, the author notes that Dore’s mendacity in trying to use the solid left reputation of Jerry White and the World Socialist Web Site to further his explicitly stated project of seeking alliances with crypto-fascists, was of course entirely intentional.

These are clearly not the actions of a befuddled, crank-ass nihilist who just doesn’t comprehend what he’s doing; Dore was not only open about his longstanding intentions of seeking such an alliance with literal armed right wing extremists, but demonstrably understood he would need to conflate the socialist, labor left with the bloody Boogaloo Boys to sell that alliance. That in turn displays an obvious intention to deceive naïve (and justifiably angry) YouTube lefties, while attempting to usher them into a marriage with armed chud nazis; regardless of what you think of mister Dore’s intelligence, it isn’t stupidity that’s motivating his actions here – clearly. Continuing on:

White stated that the SEP opposed Dore’s “flirting with such elements, libertarian elements, right-wing elements like that. Those are the people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6—they were being pulled around by the nose by very powerful political and corporate forces.” White’s comments undermined Dore’s strategy of presenting the back-to-back interviews as a “left-right” alliance. For this reason, Dore became extremely angry, defending the Boogaloo Boys in an expletive-filled rant against White: “You don’t agree with other Americans who are workers? You don’t think that guy was of good will? You don’t think he was earnest?”

Right off the hop, I want to be clear that Jerry is absolutely, one hundred percent right when he says these militia chuds and “populist” conspiracy freaks are being yanked around by rich reactionaries who support a thinly concealed, corporatist dictatorship; which is of course fascism. To learn more about this check out my December 2020 essay “American Fascism and Networks of Power” as well as my November 2020 essay “No Magic Man,” both of which contain numerous citations empirically demonstrating the connection between right wing billionaires, and various “grassroots” right wing “populist” movements Dore is explicitly talking about working with.

Additionally however, can we just stop and take a moment to stare in awe at the sheer fallaciousness of Dore’s arguments here? Even setting aside the fact that I think it’s highly spurious to call a militia chud who owns an ammo shop and several thousand bucks worth of tactile gear, a worker, none of the shit Jimmy just said makes a goddamn lick of sense.

“You don’t agree with other Americans who are workers? You don’t think that guy was of good will? You don’t think he was earnest?”

Well my dude, given that there are in fact a non-zero number of people who happen to be labor class, but also want to put my trans pinko ass in a shallow grave, yes, I’d have to say there are in fact some Americans who are workers, that I don’t agree with automatically. Naturally however, Dore himself does know this because even accepting his ludicrous assertion that “Magnus Panvidya” is a “worker” still does nothing to resolve the contradiction between the Boogaloo Boy’s own stated belief in “an extreme free market system” and Dore’s hard push for a vote on Medicare for All; so clearly there are “workers” who are Americans, that even Jimmy doesn’t agree with either. Furthermore, I’d make the effort to expose Dore’s tawdry attempts to disguise literally agreeing with fascists as class consciousness and solidarity by asking him to point me to the passage where Marx says we should agree with reactionaries who are workers out of hand, but since he’s “just a dumb comedian” – we all know that mutherfucker doesn’t read; theory or otherwise. I mean are you kidding me dude? No Jimmy, I don’t really think one of the Michigan leaders of the explicitly crypto-fascist Boogaloo Boy movement, who spends his time praising “Rittenhouse drills” online has a lot of good will towards me; nor do I really give a fuck if you thought he sounded “earnest” there champ.

Let’s keep going, I warned you this was going to be epic:

Dore then told White he was “making a caricature” of the Boogaloo movement and issued what can only be interpreted as an explicit endorsement of the Boogaloo Boys. Referencing his Boogaloo interviewee, Dore said: “He said the Boogaloo Boys were a response to the racist right-wingers. They’re not racist right wingers! And they’re anti-war and anti-cop! And you still want to s— on these people? You’re not arguing in good will. This is f—ing horrible what you’re doing!” While Dore adopted an extremely hostile tone with White, he conducted a totally uncritical and warm interview with the Boogaloo member. It was not a journalistic attempt to examine the Boogaloo Boy’s views, but a promotional advertisement aimed at presenting the Boogaloo movement as reasonable and worth progressives’ support.

This of course brings up the Jimmy Dore “knucklehead comedian” paradox I mention above; leading us to naturally ask, which is it mister Dore? Do you know enough about a guy calling himself Magnus Panvidya and the larger Boogaloo movement to tell Jerry White he’s a shit-tier leftist organizer for calling “Magnus” a violent reactionary, or are you just a credulous rube comedian who knows nothing about the Boogaloos, and thus can’t be held responsible if Magnus turns out to be lying? Did your mask slip a bit there my friend? Given how loudly all of this speaks to your motives Jimmy, it sounds pretty clearly like it did.

There are still another couple of paragraphs from this article I’d like to share with you a little later, but before the paranoiacs and folks who’ve been living under a rock tune me out completely, we should probably rewind a bit and verify some of London’s claims. After all, the WSWS article contains zero citations and given that, even a genuinely neutral observer might get the impression this is your typical “he said, he said” intramural squabble on the left, particularly if they didn’t have much background information to work with.

So let’s start with the most obvious, basic question underpinning this whole debate; what the fuck is the Boogaloo Movement and are they really fascists?

The Boogaloo Boys: A meme that kills people

Alrighty then, the first thing I’d like to note is that I chose this seventeen minute video about the Boogaloo movement from lefty YouTube creator Thought Slime for two extremely strategic reasons. First, because Thought Slime is (like myself) an avowed anarchist who explicitly recognizes the Boogaloo Boys as fascists, we can quietly dispense with the idea that “Magnus Panvidya” is also an anarchist after watching it. The second reason is because I’d like to preempt Dore’s attempt to prime the paranoiacs in his audience not to accept evidentiary reports about the Boogaloo Boys from mainstream media outlets he claims are pushing fear and sensationalism about *checks notes* right wing militias; I think we can all agree that Thought Slime is not by any stretch of the imagination, mainstream or corporate media.

Of course, I could in fact provide articles about the explicitly violent, and crypto-fascist nature of the Boogaloo Boys; dozens of them actually. Frankly, there are literally so many pre-existing articles online describing the precise methodology “Magnus Panvidya” is using to mainstream fascism on Dore’s show, that one really does have to wonder how Jimmy didn’t just stumble across one of them by accident. Here’s a small selection of them for folks who’d rather read an essay, than watch one:

Far-right ‘boogaloo’ movement is using Hawaiian shirts to hide its intentions

Boogaloo Bois (Frontline and Pro Publica investigation)

Soldiers of the Boogaloo

The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think

How Far-Right Boogaloo Movement Is Trying to Hijack Anti-Racist Protests for a Race War

Far-Right ‘Boogaloo Boys’ Are Trying to Incite Violence at Protests

The Origins Of The Extremist ‘Boogaloo’ Movement

Who Are The Boogaloo Bois?

The ‘Boogaloo’ Started as a Racist Meme

Patriotwave’s Boogaloo: Engineering an Aesthetic of Violence

So at this point I think we can safely say the larger Boogaloo movement is definitely crypto-fascist, but does that actually mean Jimmy Dore is a collaborator piece of shit? I mean, isn’t it possible that this “Magnus Panvidya” is not lying, and Dore just happened to find the rare Boogaloo Boy (Boi) who isn’t actually a fascist? To put it bluntly, the answer to that incredibly irrelevant question is a hearty “fuck no” and our next video demonstrates why. But first, an interlude:

Why It Wouldn’t Matter If A Given Boogaloo Says He’s Not A Fascist

Look, people in America, especially white people in America, need to figure out real goddamn quick that it doesn’t matter what’s in your fucking heart and shit like racism, white supremacy and fascism are about what you do. Frankly, Jimmy’s new best friend is a lying chud militia dipshit, but nobody out here online should have to go to the trouble Matt Binder went through to prove that. If you’re an armed cracker mutherfucker who spends all his time hanging out with armed cracker nazis motherfuckers, then I know that at a very minimum you don’t mind white supremacists, fascists and violent right wing terrorists. Newsflash that’s enough to disqualify your opinion right way; not just on the left, but among decent human society. Nobody in your movement is born a Boogaloo; you chose that brand for a reason and I’m not about to be listening to some bullshit about how there’s good Sturmabteilung out there policing the bad Sturmabteilung – get fucked.

Ok, now back to our regular programing:

A Boogaloo Boy Investigation: Jimmy Dore Edition

Well, I don’t know about you folks, but after those last two video presentations, I could literally go the rest of my life without hearing the phrase “big igloo” ever again. In this excellent fifteen minute video by Matt Binder, we learn that “the internet never forgets” as our intrepid host scours the archives of Magnus Panvidya’s now-deleted social media feeds. As it turns out, Panvidya’s real name is Zakkari Clark, and he is to the surprise of precisely no one, a fascist chud business owner who hates leftists and hangs out with other far right chud militia extremists. While I strongly encourage readers to take the time to watch Matt’s entire excellent video, let’s keep this multi-media moment going by returning to a quote from Eric London’s WSWS article above:

Had Dore conducted the interview from a critical standpoint, he would have learned that the Boogaloo interviewee was flatly lying about his views. Boogaloo Boys are known for “trolling” the media as a form of pseudo-critique. In fact, a Michigan anti-fascist group had followed this Boogaloo member for months and had previously revealed that Dore’s interviewee had publicly defended fascist Kyle Rittenhouse. The Boogaloo member said that other people should “learn how to do that,” referencing Rittenhouse’s murder of two anti-police violence demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. The individual also praised fascist militia gun range sessions, called “Rittenhouse drills,” and defended Steve Baca, the fascist who shot anti-police violence protesters in New Mexico in June 2020.”

Oh hell yeah, these guys sound like great potential allies for the burgeoning American left, don’t you agree? No, of course you don’t, because if you’re still reading this you’re not a crypto-fascist or a fascist collaborator; which brings me back to the only major problem I have with both London’s, and Binder’s, apparent assessment of what just happened here. Namely their (perhaps even slightly sarcastic) assertions that Dore is just lazy and stupid, despite the clear and overwhelming evidence that his stated goal is literally to draft leftists into an alliance with the “populist” (read: fascist) right and he keeps doing things that objectively work towards that stated goal.

You know who does agree with the sentiment “not all Boogaloo Bois” though? I mean, besides dipshits like Jimmy Dore? Chad fucking Wolf:

I Think When DHS Agrees With You, That’s How You Know You Fucked Up

So, I guess the easiest way to confirm that you have the correct, sufficiently left wing take is when the *checks notes again*… American Gestapo agrees with your position that some percentage of Boogaloo Boys aren’t explicitly Nazis and the media is just lying about all that far-right stuff, right?

Adolph Reed: Martyrs and False Populists

Ah, situational irony, the most delicious of life’s little accidents. The link above directs to an essay that was reprinted in one of my favorite books, Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene, by Adolph Reed Jr. Who is Adolph Reed Jr? An African American, Marxist observer whose class-centric (but not class-obsessed) politics, and harsh critiques of superficial representation as well as weaponized identity politics, have made him a sort of pop idol among crypto-reactionaries who fancy themselves leftists because they want free healthcare; we’ll talk a bit more about them later, but for the moment all you really need to understand is that Reed stands for every idea about broad-based class solidarity Jimmy Dore is invoking to defend platforming a fascist militia mutant on his show. The plain truth however, is that while I personally do not agree with everything Reed says, he is by and large a good egg, and he has no problem understanding that leftists don’t work with cracker militias, fascists, or proto-fascist right wing “populists” in the class war. How do I know that? Because amusingly enough, he wrote half an essay about precisely this issue, back in the year 2000! Let’s look at some of the juicier quotes, shall we?

I was surprised by the letters in The Nation and The Progressive from readers who were affronted by negative coverage of the militias in each magazine. I’ve heard the same kind of position taken in conversations with people I know personally who identify with the left. The substance of this ostensibly progressive defense of the militia movement goes something like this: the militia supporters are by and large working class; they often are recruited from especially depressed local economies; their membership expresses their alienation from politics-as-usual; therefore, we shouldn’t dismiss their populist frustrations. It is true that militia members want to curtail the repressive power of the state and complain about the predatory power of large corporations. They oppose NAFTA and want to assert popular, community control of government. But defending them on these grounds is naive and short-sighted, and reflects a broader, perhaps more insidious tendency-including a kind of accentuate-the-positive bias toward whatever looks like autonomous, populist action. This is the same tendency that willfully inflates any sort of apparently group-conscious activity — for instance, youth fads — into the status of political movements.

Well, okay then; so far that definitely doesn’t sound like “we should form alliances against the system with militias” but let’s keep going and see if things improve for Jimmy’s strategy; once again the emphasis here is mine:

On the militia issue, the first problem is that class origin, or for that matter class identity, isn’t an adequate criterion for making judgments about political positions. The principle that if it comes from the oppressed, there must be something OK about it is not only simplistic; it can have truly reactionary implications. This kind of thinking has too often led down the road to complete accommodation to the worst strains arising from working classes. In fact, it’s almost routine now that calls for sympathetic understanding of working-class bigotry — “We need to recognize the genuine fear of loss of control of the family, traditional values, close-knit neighborhood, jobs, way of life etc., etc.” — are the first steps down the road to full-scale retreat from commitment to equality and social justice. Think about the Democratic Leadership Council. There is a long history of rationalizing working-class nativism and racism. It helped sanitize the regime of terror that was the Southern Redemption, restoring unadulterated white-supremacist rule after Reconstruction. The architects of that restoration’s ideology characterized the racist putsch in the South as a revolt of the common people against a corrupt elite that cynically used blacks to further unpopular aims.

So, I guess it’s safe to say that there are in fact some “workers who are Americans” that even Adolph Reed Jr, the avatar of class-first analysis himself, does not automatically agree with. I wonder if Jimmy thinks that makes Reed a bad leftist too?

Let’s look at Reed’s thoughts on right wing “populism” and its relationship to conspiratorial, fascist politics:

“Racist and fascist movements always have some popular, working-class base. Mussolini came out of the Italian Socialist party, and National Socialism sought actively to compete for the hearts and minds of politically unsophisticated German workers disposed to authoritarian, conspiratorial, and scapegoating theories. In both cases, the movement drew energy from the same kind of superficially anti-capitalist rhetoric that the militias project-complete with their versions of “black helicopter” fantasies. The Nazis also pioneered, in their conspiratorial mythology about German defeat in World War I, the “stab in the back” theory that underlies the POW/MIA lunacy running through the ideological pools in which the militia movement swims. And, besides, their anti-statism really isn’t the same as ours, or it shouldn’t be anyway.”

Well, this is certainly awkward, but it sure does sound to me like Reed is saying the same things about fascism and right wing “anti-government” militias, as Jerry White and Eric London said about fascism and the Boogaloo movement.

At this point going on is basically overkill, but I’ve never been a big believer in going easy on crypto-fascism and collaborators, so let’s push on forward together:

We have to recognize that not every popular mobilization is progressive just because it arises from the grassroots. Having experienced the underside of populist rhetoric in segregationism and opposition to civil rights, I’m perhaps especially sensitive to the fact that a lot of nastiness can lie under labels like “the people.” Lynch mobs were, after all, a form of popular, direct action. No matter what Alexander Cockburn says, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that I shouldn’t judge the militiamen by the company they keep politically. Nor have I seen any signs among them of a substantive vision for political and economic reorganization that would allay my fears.

So, once again that looks pretty clearly like Reed is saying “right wing militias are not the left’s friend” and that just because something is “populist” doesn’t make it compatible with leftism; after all, the Ku Klux Klan did in fact promote itself as a populist solution to the federal “tyranny” of um, not being allowed to hang Black people from trees without consequences.

Before we move on, let’s have just one more quote from Reed’s essay; a parting shot if you will:

As Chip Berlet and others point out in the June issue of The Progressive, there’s not much reason to think that the militia movement’s politics are anything other than paranoid proto-fascist. To say that they’re not all racist, sexist, or xenophobic is both bizarre and beside the point. Organizationally and ideologically they’re plugged into the most vicious, lunatic, and dangerous elements of the right. No matter that some individuals may think, or want to think, or want gullible journalists to think that they’re just out playing a more strenuous version of Dungeons and Dragons. So what if this puts me on the same side as the Justice Department? We’re also on the same side when we demand enforcement of voting rights or redress from Ku Klux Klan violence or prosecution of corporate criminals. And, even if I weren’t a former object of COINTELPRO-era surveillance and harassment, I would have no illusions about the really existing law-enforcement authorities – at whatever level of the federal system – being dependable allies. I grew up in inner cities where municipal police were clearly an occupying force. I lived through the civil-rights movement when the state police and FBI worked hand-in-hand with the Klan. Nevertheless, it’s important for us to recognize that in principle at least the state belongs to us as much as to any other interests in the society, and part of our fight must be to make it responsive to us.

Holy shit, someone better get Jimmy the Bactine because I’m pretty damn sure this old man saw him coming twenty-one years in advance. That, my friends, is some far-reaching ether.

So I think in summation we can say with absolute certainty that Jimmy Dore is wrong; he’s wrong about how class solidarity works, he’s wrong about the value of a left-right “populist” alliance against the system, he’s wrong about the Boogaloo Boys as well as other right wing militias, and he’s wrong about his shitlord chud guest Zakkari Clark‘s honesty, character, and politics. Furthermore, by this point I should hope you’re starting to realize that the likelihood that Dore is doing all this bullshit by accident, because he’s confused, is pretty much nil. I mean the guy said it himself, as quoted in London’s article: “his political strategy was to “unite the populist left and the populist right” and find “common interests” with the Boogaloo Boys and similar groups.”

Are you still prepared to give him the benefit of what is now, some pretty significant doubt? What if I told you that Dore indirectly pulled this exact same nonsense a few years back, but this time with chud shitheel provocateur Mike fucking Cernovich of all people?

Reminder: This Isn’t Jimmy’s First Crypto-Strasserist Moment

Let me start by warning you that all of this is going to be very confusing unless you’re at least vaguely familiar with the history of the extremely online left, from the years 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, this clip, which is from the Majority Report show, is a little bit all over the place; in part because it’s from a nearly three year old current events video podcast that assumes you have a passing familiarity with daily online left wing politics, and in part because it features numerous oblique references to Sam Seder’s (still) ongoing YouTuber feud with Jimmy Dore. Frankly I’m not a huge fan of Sam’s work, which frequently smacks of “progressive coalition” liberal reformer nonsense to me, but this clip does cover all the key bases I want to touch on, and since it directly quotes Dore doing the exact same shit I’m talking about in this article, using it here is just a whole lot easier than sifting through an entire podcast and two more episodes of The Jimmy Dore show to fish out timestamped quotations.

Okay, so what the fuck happened here, and why do we care about it? Well, in the summer of 2017, Caitlin Johnstone (a crypto-reactionary herself and someone I, full disclosure, do not like very much for professional reasons) posted an unhinged rant about why lefties needed to get over themselves and work with the “anti-establishment right,” with her cited example being, I kid you not, fascist provocateur and general piece of human dogshit, Mike Cernovich. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this did not sit well with actual leftist organizers, activists, and analysts who noticed Johnstone’s work. So they responded with a surprising (given the small size of her platform) deluge of rebuttal articles on Counterpunch and Progressive Army that, crucially, cover all the same reasons why the left shouldn’t work with fascists that people are yelling at Jimmy Dore today. You can find a selection of those articles below:

Enough Nonsense! The Left Does Not Collaborate with Fascists

No, the Progressive Left Should Not Ally with White Supremacists

Problematic Liaisons 2: Faux Allies

On Caitlin Johnstone & David Cobb’s Attempt to Destroy the Green Party

The Green Party – Marks in a Media Con Job

Insidious Comfort

Okay, so where does Dore fit into all this? Well, it turns out that to the surprise of precisely no one, Jimmy is a big fan of Caitlin Johnstone’s work and a few months later, he was more than happy to have her on his show to pitch Johnstone’s new book and of course, her absurd “left-right alliance” with fascists, against the media and wars, somehow. Naturally, this lead to Dore absorbing criticism from numerous lefties, although in retrospect, the whole episode probably wasn’t treated seriously enough by most of us in the online left, if I’m being honest here. Jimbo the mighty responded in the way that he always does; he went on the Katie Halper Show, essentially called his critics liberal bootlickers, continued to insist we should ally with fascists like Mike Cernovich and then took both recent history, and the Second World War against Nazi Germany, completely out of context to defend his crypto-reactionary bullshit. Bullshit that objectively, regardless of his supposed intentions, helps fascists recruit disaffected leftists. Again unsurprisingly, Dore’s position was met with more pushback before everyone eventually just accepted that he’s an idiot and went on with their lives for a while.

So why am I bringing this up? Because I think when you step back and look at Dore’s long term behavior, it becomes impossible to attribute his dipshitery to stupidity and ignorance. Clearly, Jimmy already knows why leftists don’t align with the “populist right” because after 2017 and 2018, he’d been directly told the reasons why a number of times. Furthermore, throughout this entire episode, including his interviews with Johnstone and his rebuttal on Katy Halper’s show, Dore has shown a willingness to openly distort historical facts, while purposely placing them out of context, to support his arguments. At various points Jimmy has appropriated the legacies of Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey and now The Young Patriots, to defend both his (and Johnstone’s) political positions; this is of course in addition to his bizarre assertions of common equivalency in regards to helping further Mike Cernovich’s odious career, casting a desperation anti-fascist vote for Hillary Clinton, and uniting the anti-fascist world against literally fucking Hitler.

What do I mean when I talk about Dore’s historical mendacity? The simple truth is that the Young Patriots were avowed socialists, anti-racists, and antifascists who used the Confederate flag to symbolize resistance, out of pure ignorance, until they learned better; they weren’t a right wing militia trying to kick off a race war. Fred Hampton was a dedicated socialist, antifascist, and an avowed anti-racist; he wasn’t a free market fundamentalist and he sure as shit wasn’t helping to organize cracker militias to defend businesses against looters. Did Marcus Garvey (and the Nation of Islam) briefly use racists to push a Black nationalist agenda? Sure, and how exactly did that shit work out Jimbo; would you say either of those efforts were a good idea, or a success my dude? Do you think we should be copying plans to help African Americans move to Liberia, or impose racial segregation according to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad? Yeah, that’d be a no; so what the fuck does that have to do with working with fascists today, Jimmy? And frankly, don’t even get me started on how unhinged it is to seriously compare casting a vote against Donald Trump, and working with Stalin to beat the Nazis, with agreeing to help Mike Cernovich spread crypto-fascist propaganda to gullible lefties; that is not a reasonable, adult position and I’m not wasting a goddamn minute on debunking it.

The point I’m trying to make with all this is that I hope you’re starting to see a theme here because I know I am; this mutherfucker knows enough history to literally name drop Marcus fucking Garvey and Pan-Africanism, but somehow he doesn’t comprehend that nazis lie and a red-brown alliance always ends up in dead or imprisoned leftists? Give me a fucking break folks, this is some serious bullshit. Jimmy Dore clearly fucking knows exactly what he’s doing and that makes him at best a reactionary who just happens to be jazzed about public healthcare, and quite possibly the eleventh Nazi from Chris Rock’s tweet above – not a leftist.

I Think I Owe My Readers Another Apology

I must confess dear readers, that sitting down to metaphorically bury Jimmy Dore in the fresh, moist earth, is not an activity I’m capable of undertaking without the burden of personal guilt; for I too have played my own small part in this whole reactionary mess. As I write this to you, there is an old, and extremely popular quote from Maya Angelou rattling around inside my head, and taunting me for my cowardice. “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time” Angelou warned, and much to my woe, I’ve clearly allowed myself to forget her advice when it comes to the subject of Jimmy Dore. The bald and ugly truth here is that most of the historical events I’ve talked about in this essay in regards to Dore, were not news to me; not now, and not when I wrote an essay (at least in part) about his involvement in the “Force the Vote” controversy on December 15th, 2020.

To be clear, I have no regrets about the policy positions I furthered in this essay and immediately clarified and expanded on in a subsequent piece; I still think the American left must work towards building a mass movement that will be unquestionably antifascist, and that as long as we’re more interested in yelling on Twitter at a handful of fresh out of the box, soft-left members of Congress, than building that movement, we aren’t going to get anywhere; the revolution will not begin on fucking YouTube, y’all. Yet reading the piece today, I can clearly see myself desperately trying, and failing, to warn folks about who Jimmy Dore is, and why following him will lead to nothing but ash and ruin. Let’s look at some quotes:

Now look, I didn’t write this column to slag Dore and I’m also not here to make excuses, but given his way-longer-than-reasonable support of reactionary Islamophobe Tulsi Gabbard, and his general willingness to platform reactionaries and reactionary ideas if they can be pitched as anti-establishment, I was (and remain) really not comfortable with pretending Jimmy f*cking Dore is a paragon of leftist resistance.

Well, that doesn’t start off too badly, but I think it’s fair to say I was being kind by inserting the word paragon here; I’m not really comfortable calling Jimbo a leftist, period – now, or then.

The problem is, it’s not liberals I’m worried guys like Dore are going to alienate and drive away from the democratic socialist movement, or for that matter left wing politics in general. The simple truth is that Jimmy Dore is a loud, angry, first-wave Gen-Xer who frequently mixes reactionary positions into his otherwise radical leftism, and his (seemingly) sincere political belief that we need to drop “identity politics” and focus on an alliance with an anti-establishment right against the neoliberal regime, is toxic and will mean a funeral march for the larger left. I’m not accusing Dore of being a racist or a bigot, but he’s also the kind of guy who thinks “woke” is an insult and like most Youtubers, his in your face posture, along with his willingness to broadcast “anti-establishment” right sources and positions, tends to attract a certain small but extremely vocal percentage of people who are bigots and racists, but also want healthcare. Of course Jimmy Dore is by no means alone in this position, or even the worst offender in our little online pinko community, but this is an active (albeit minority) tactical position and ideological strain in the online left, and I believe adopting, or even just broadcasting that position more widely from the left, would ultimately be fail and ruin for us all.

However, here’s where we immediately run into some serious problems. First of all, I’m not really sure what’s radical about Jimbo McFuckstick’s leftism; the guy supports Medicare for All and some other milquetoast Keynesian-left economic policies, that hardly makes him fucking Che Guevara. Furthermore, and especially considering his desire to “work past our differences” with literal fascists, he seems suspiciously hostile to Marxists, communists and antifascists. Finally, while I’m still not saying Jimmy Dore is a racist or a bigot, I’m sure the fuck not vouching for him either, and given that he’s literally helping racist, bigoted fascists recruit with his goddamn YouTube show, I have no fucking clue why Dore’s true motivations for that behavior should matter in the goddamn slightest; I suspect they don’t.

In light of all this, the bald and ugly truth here is that the majority left-wing portion of the anti-establishment alliance guys like Dore and those in his ideological circle are trying to promote, is completely compatible with this radical, visionary leftism coming up in the younger core behind us. The extremely vocal, but numerically inferior “anti-establishment” or “populist” or “moderate libertarian” right, whatever the heck those labels actually mean in practice, is clearly however not compatible with this new mass program, at fcking all. Now obviously I can’t speak for the larger American left, and I’m not trying to here in this essay. But if I have to choose between a strategy that I know has failed twice and alienates pretty much everyone in our community under the age of forty, and a vibrant, youthful dissident movement that has already forced some minor concessions on the climate crisis issue (by putting feet on the ground, as opposed to yelling on YouTube might I add,) I know which direction I think we should choose immediately – and so do you. Look, Jimmy Dore might be a great guy, he’s certainly got a large platform online and I know from personal experience that watching him tear strips off crypto-conservative Democratic Party ghouls and lanyards is viscerally satisfying. An American left that features guys like Dore in a constant flak-generating, oppositional position is probably better for the experience, although it would help if he’d stop pretending independent or libertarian populism is a thing that we should be exploring more in response to neoliberal fckery. He is not however suited to be the face of anything, he shouldn’t be partnering with our political candidates on initiatives we consider meaningful, and ignoring these truths is just going to scare away the kind of people we need to be bringing into our core organizations if we want to actually defeat capitalism and win. So, for the second time this article Jimmy please let me say that I’m sorry, but even if the larger American left declares war on neoliberalism right now, over this Medicare for All proposal, I still think you should sit this project out, and maybe even consider re-branding as more socially left before you rejoin the discussion. In the end, it’s a class war and the collaborators on the “populist” right have already chosen their side whether they know it or not; foxhole fighting demands solidarity, or we will, like so many American left wing movements before us, be buried together in the pet cemetery of Turtle Island liberalism. You’ve gotta get left-er, or you’ll get left behind my good man; same as it ever was.

And finally, this is where my desire not to tip the apple cart leads me into something at least akin to “fascist collaborator apologia.” There is actually no scenario where a guy trying to mainstream fascists for a left wing audience on YouTube, makes the American left stronger. Worse still, literally apologizing for merely hinting at that obvious reality is to my chagrin, a rather gutless act that I would rescind if I could.

At the end of the day, we’re talking about a man who forgives every evil when helping to promote bigot scumbag nationalists and crypto-fascists like Tulsi Gabbard, and Ron Paul respectively, but simultaneously screams at and disavows soft-left democratic socialist politicians for not being radical enough at every turn. We’re talking about a guy that’s fascist militia curious, but pretty sure antifascist activists are wrong for waylaying poor old Andy Ngo; another known fascist propagandist. We’re discussing a man who repeatedly lies about socialist martyrs, American history and how class struggle works to left-wash far right movements, and then hides behind his perceived ignorance when people notice what he’s doing and call him out on it.

This isn’t about political choices; I myself didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, I did a long podcast about how Bernie blew his 2020 nomination run, and I’ve never been a huge fan of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez either. But I sure the fuck don’t preach a twisted mockery of class theory to evangelize on behalf of armed fascists who want to toss me and my friends from a helicopter. To absolve all of that with a wave of your hand while saying “he’s just a dumb comedian” is to literally enable, his enabling of fascism; and I’ll have no part in that sort of behavior anymore. I don’t know, or frankly care, if Jimmy Dore is a fascist; what I do know is that Jimbo is a mendacious, reactionary lump of pigshit who actively helps fascists, crypto-fascists, and far right revanchists who want to kill folks like me, and there’s no place for a guy like that in anything I’d call “leftism.” I should have just said that the first time, and for that I’d genuinely like to apologize to my readers; again.

I Think This Problem Is Way Bigger Than Jimmy Dore

Oh boy, if you thought that last section was going to piss people off, you are not ready for this one; because let’s be honest with ourselves, Jimmy Dore isn’t the only crypto-reactionary fronting a left wing image online, while advocating for alliances with fascists and pushing reactionary ideas as leftism, is he? There’s a whole, rapidly growing ecosystem of these “populist” alliance freaks, particularly in the online blogging medium. Hell, Jimbo isn’t even the only faux-left, collaborator piece of shit I criticized, but let off too lightly, last year, specifically in the month of December. Of course you’ve already read about Johnstone above, and nobody is going to blink if I point out that Mike Tracey is essentially a straight up fascist; but those folks are after all, rather low-hanging fruit. What about people like Angela “Pepes and harsh immigration quotas are good, actually” Nagle? What about “Falun” Glenn fucking Greenwald and his coterie of cop-respecting, riot-abhorring ex-Intercept writers? Please allow me to quote from that December 2020 piece; I’ll leave the formatting mostly unchanged so skeptical readers can click on the citation links if they like:

“So be it then; perhaps we can just ignore sketchy apologists for reactionary cops like Lee Fang, Matt Taibbi or Zaid Jilani among others, because even if few of them would admit it, it’s readily apparent that on some level, most of the people in this larger ideological circle have long been committed to the ideas that “woke” corporate neoliberalism is the primary enemy of the left and that acknowledging Trump’s fascism merely makes it easier for sh*t tier “radical centrists” to dominate the political landscape.

Maybe we just shouldn’t be relying on people who think imaginary “cancel culture” is the true fascist threat, to correctly grasp what fascism actually is. I mean, what evidence is there that card-carrying members of the Nagle Caucus like Aimee Terese, the hosts of the Red Scare Podcast and r/stupidpol forum chuds know anything about fascism at all, and given how poorly they all seem to understand the left, why would you trust their opinions on any given subject anyway?

Maybe it’s time we stop listening to emotional arguments from the Glenn Greenwalds, Matt Stollers and Caitlin Johnstones of the world when it comes to the subject of what is and isn’t a fascist because honestly, when you strip away the righteous indignation, it’s pretty clear that most of these folks are ex-Ron Paul-loving libertarian rejects pushing a left-right “populist” alliance against “the system” that has long since been discredited as a successful strategy – and furthermore, given the intellect of the people disseminating these arguments, it’s fair to say they’re probably not doing so from a position of sincerity and good faith discussion.”

So, are all of these people crypto-fascists? How the hell should I know, and given their collective willingness to left-wash reactionary thought and a bullshit “populist alliance” with fascists, does it even fucking matter? Although I’ve been quite clear about not giving a flying fuck what’s “in your heart”, I’d be willing to bet most of the folks listed above just haven’t realized that hating liberals, more than fascists, isn’t ideologically compatible with leftism or even progressive thought. Which isn’t to say they’re behaving honestly, or to absolve anyone of responsibility for their objectively dangerous actions; some of them are clearly nihilistic careerists, some of them are semi-literate poseurs aspiring to be the class reductionists Adolph Reed Jr insists don’t exist, and at least one of them appears to be embittered and flailing – presumably in response to his unfair treatment in media circles after he was essentially right about Russiagate being a farce. In the specific case of Glenn Greenwald, I’m certainly not the only analyst (liberal, or left wing proper) to struggle with putting a label on his increasingly reactionary strain of political thought:

Glenn Greenwald and his strange far-right blind spot

What Happened to Glenn Greenwald?

Meet the billionaire Glenn Greenwald has been protecting all these years

The strange case of Glenn Greenwald – part 1 (Warning: Some Shitlibery)

Frankly, I’ve grappled for quite a while with the question of how to define the larger ideological cluster these folks belong to. Terms like “the Dum-Dum left,” and “the contrarian left” minimize the fact that these people, who are definitely intelligent enough to know better, are actively courting “populist” allies on the far right who ultimately want to murder leftists. You can’t really call them class reductionists in good faith, because most of the people I listed above have an extremely superficial at best understanding of class; and as an anarcho-syndicalist, I’ll go to my grave before I start calling a bunch of Josh Hawley-humping, Cato Institute rejects the “populist left” or “libertarian left.” Maybe in the end, the real problem here isn’t the terminology we’re using to describe this tendency, so much as the qualifying term “left.” I mean leftism is anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and explicitly anti-fascist; supporting a robust social safety net, opposing the national security state, and loathing Neera Tanden do not by themselves, qualify one as a leftist. Can you pick out any one of these folks who meet all three, or even any two of those qualifications? Yeah, me neither.

Perhaps in the final analysis, guys like Glenn Greenwald, Jimmy Dore and Matt Stoller are the real “libertarian populists” that fascist chuds like Zakkari Clark are pretending to be; but that still places them far to the right of your average socialist or dem soc, and it’s as good a reason as any to stop pretending these dudes represent the larger American left.

I Think We Should Have Listened to Dave Graeber More While We Could

The fact that an actual left wing dissident intellectual like Dave Graeber died with less than one tenth of the Twitter followers Glenn Greenwald has today, probably says a lot more about the extremely online American left than anyone is really prepared to admit. Rest in power, comrade.

I Think I’ll Let Lefty Cartoonist Eli Valley Have the Last Word

Well folks, I suppose that’s just about all I think about Jimmy Dore, crypto-reactionary influencers in the online left, and suicidal anti-establishment alliances with fascists; that was more or less six things, right?