I didn't overlook your challenge. I've been away from my computer for the past couple of days--our daughter had been hospitalized (cracked up her car). If I get the time today or tomorrow, I'll try to excavate some of the material Ridgeway and I took with us on our tour of the Interior West in the wake of Oklahoma City.
As I recall, it wasn't so much your "writings" per se that I found "hysterical" (I don't mean to suggest that Jim shared my opinion, I assume he didn't), but a list of groups that ought to be watched and the way that list had percolated up the food chain of liberal groups, mutating in ever-increasing levels of toxicity and hysteria along the way. What I found in interviewing dozens of members (not necessarily leaders, who seem more like Meville's Confidence Man) defied much of the conventional wisdom about them, namely that the organizations were a.) mainly male (unilaterally untrue); b.) mainly white (not true in California or New Mexico); c.) not working class (unilaterally untrue); d. not critics of corporate power (untrue across the board).
I was thinking this morning as I listened to my favorite American band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, sing my favorite American rock song, Am I Right or Am I Wrong, that much of the chest-thumping about the neo-populists is reminiscent of the East Coast hysteria about Skynyrd following the release of "Sweet Home Alabama". "Oh, they must be racists, they're defending Wallace!" Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, they were longhairs who grew up with blacks and got the shit kicked out of them for their appearance and their radical views--including views on gun control that might even win the endorsement of Katha. More later.
JSC
PS--I don't really agree with much in your quoted paragraphs, I'm afraid. I just don't think you can equate the pain, suffering and death caused by "antidemocratic neocapitalism" (what's "new" about it?) and the invasive powers of the police state (we are now trying and convicting 11-year old black boys for murder) to the facist and racist ideology of a few thousand boneheads. I'd advise you to take a trip to northern New Mexico where the Wise-Use/Militia gatherings are populated by 1.) Hispanics; 2.) Catholics; 3.) people who have 150 year old land tenure claims and legitimate grievances about racist treatment by the feds, the mining companies, and, now, welfare ranchers like Ted Turner and Sam Donaldson. Moreover, I'm perhaps too much the follower of Foucault not to be at least a little intrigued about the possibilities of turning off the "light" of the Enlightenment for at least a few seconds--just for the helluva it.
Chip Berlet wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I posted this to lbo-talk at lists.panix.com under the heading "Re: Henwood vs.
> Cockburn"
> and am sending it along in case you missed it.
>
> ===
>
> Hi,
>
> I would like to debate Jeffrey St. Clair on the subject of my "hysterical"
> writings about the militias and right wing populism.
>
> Please be so kind as to select several paragraphs of my actual writings for
> discussion; not snippets of quotes from corporate media interviews, nor the
> flatulent misrepresentations of my work by red-baiting Neanderthals on the
> right such as Wilcox.
>
> I especially recommend the article in Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law
> Report which talks about opposing government over-reaction to dissident
> groups on both the left and right.
>
> Here is how I end many of my public speeches (adapted from the chapter in
> Ansell):
>
> ===
>
> Democratic public discourse is disrupted by scapegoating, Opposing
> scapegoating is both a moral issue and strategically vital because of the
> role scapegoating plays in building rightwing populism which can be
> harvested by fascism. Fascism begins by organizing a mass movement with
> bitter anti-regime rhetoric. Human rights organizers working for social and
> economic justice need to encourage forms of mass political participation,
> including democratic forms of populism, while simultaneously opposing
> scapegoating and conspiracism that often accompanies right-wing populism.
>
> The removal of the obvious anti-communist underpinnings assisted left wing
> conspiracists in creating a parody of the fundamentalist/libertarian
> conspiracist critiques. Left wing conspiracists strip away the underlying
> religious fundamentalism, antisemitism, and economic social Darwinism, and
> peddle the repackaged product like carnival snake oil salesmen to
> unsuspecting sectors of the left. Those on the left who only see the
> antielitist aspects of right-wing populism and claim they are praiseworthy
> are playing with fire. Radical-sounding conspiracist critiques of the status
> quo are the wedge that fascism uses to penetrate and recruit from the left.
>
> Given the trends we are facing, people who want to defend democracy have to
> fight on four fronts. We must organize against:
>
> ***The rise of reactionary populism, nativism, & fascism with roots in white
> supremacy, antisemitism, subversion myths, and the many mutating offspring
> of the Freemason/Jewish banker conspiracy theories.
>
> ***Theocracy and other anti-democratic forms of religious fundamentalism,
> around the world, which in the US is based in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
> with its subtexts of patriarchy and homophobia.
>
> ***Authoritarian state actions in the form of militarism and interventionism
> abroad and government repression and erosion of civil liberties at home.
>
> ***The antidemocratic neocorporatism of multinational capital with its
> attack on the standard of living of working people around the globe.
>
> As we promote progressive solutions, we must also join with all persons
> across the political spectrum to defend the basic ideas of mass democracy,
> even as we argue that it is an idea that has never been real for many here
> in our country. The principles of the Enlightenment are not our goal, but
> resisting attempts to push political discourse back to pre-enlightenment
> principles is nonetheless a worthy effort.
>
> ===
>
> For some recent material on right wing populism and producerism, especially
> the Buchanan/Fulani Axis (sic), visit:
>
> http://www.publiceye.org/Sucker_Punch/Reform_Party.html
>
> Cheers,
>
> -Chip Berlet
>
> p.s. Here are the actual published articles and monographs. There is some
> unavoidable overlap in the works:
>
> _______, "Mad as Hell: Right-wing Populism, Fascism, and Apocalyptic
> Millennialism," paper presented at the 14th World Congress of Sociology
> (XIVe Congrès Mondial de Sociologie), International Sociological
> Association, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1998.
>
> _______, "The Ideological Weaponry of the American Right:
> Dangerous Classes and Welfare Queens," (L'arsenal idéologique de la droite
> américaine: «classes dangereuses» et «welfare queens»), paper presented at
> the international symposium, The American Model: an Hegemonic Perspective
> for the End of the Millennium?, (Le «modèle américain»: une perspective
> hégémonique pour la fin du millénaire?) sponsored by Group Regards
> Critiques, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, May 12, 1998.
>
> _______, and Matthew N. Lyons, "One Key to Litigating Against Government
> Prosecution of Dissidents: Understanding the Underlying Assumptions," Police
> Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report, West Group, in two parts, Vol. 5,
> No. 13, January-February 1998, and Vol. 5, No. 14, March-April, 1998.
>
> _______, "Who's Mediating the Storm? Right-wing Alternative Information
> Networks," in Linda Kintz & Julia Lesage, eds., Culture, Media, and the
> Religious Right (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
>
> _______, "Following the Threads: A Work in Progress" in Amy Elizabeth
> Ansell, ed., Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought
> and Politics, (New York: Westview, 1998).
>
> _______, "Fascism's Franchises: Stating the Differences from Movement to
> Totalitarian Government," paper presented at the American Sociological
> Association, Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 1997.
>
> _______, "Three Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements of the
> Right," in Eric Ward, ed., Conspiracies: Real Grievances, Paranoia, and Mass
> Movements, (Seattle: Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment [PB
> Publishing], 1996).
>
> _______, The Increasing Popularity of Right Wing Conspiracy Theories:
> Allegations of a Freemason Conspiracy and Other Scapegoating Conspiracist
> Theories Within the Catholic Right, Protestant Right, Anti-Abortion
> Movement, Patriot Movement, and Armed Militia Movement-Including a
> discussion of statements by John C. Salvi, 3d. revised, (Cambridge, MA:
> Political Research Associates, 1996).
>
> _______, "The Violence of Right-Wing Populism," Peace Review, 7:3/4 (1995:
> Journals Oxford, Ltd.), 283-288.
>
> _______, Right Woos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchian, and Other Neo- fascist
> Overtures to Progressives and Why They Must Be Rejected, report, (Cambridge,
> MA: Political Research Associates, revised 1994 (first version 1991)).
>
> _______, Hunt for Red Menace: How Government Intelligence Agencies and
> Private Right-wing Countersubversion Groups Forge Ad Hoc Covert Spy Networks
> that Target Dissidents as Outlaws, (Somerville, MA: PRA, revised 1993 (first
> version 1987)).
>
> Articles
> _______, "Fearful Zealots: A Combustible Mixture," OpEd, The Boston Globe,
> 8/13/99, p. A23.
>
> _______, "Apocalypse Soon: Are You Targeted as an Agent of the Antichrist?
> As the Year 2000 Approaches, the List Grows." The Boston Globe, 7/19/98,
> Focus Section, p. 1.
>
> _______, and Matthew N. Lyons; "Militia Nation," The Progressive, June 1995,
> pp. 22-25.
>
> _______, "Clinic Violence, The Religious Right, Scapegoating, Armed
> Militias, & the Freemason Conspiracy," The Body Politic, in two parts, Vol.
> 5, No. 2 February 1995, and Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1995.
>
> _______, "Anti-abortion Groups Reach for Conspiracy Theories,"
> Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA, 1/18/1995, syndicated by the Progressive
> Media Project through Knight-Ridder.
>
> _______, "Armed and Dangerous," The Boston Globe, 1/6/95, Op-Ed, p. 23.
>
> _______, "The Right Rides High," The Progressive, October 1994.