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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Column: The new-new left winged types of people

Two weeks ago, noted hacker and white nationalist Andrew Auernheimer decided to access printers across the U.S. and churn out fliers with the following message:

“White man ... are you sick and tired of THE JEWS destroying your country through MASS IMMIGRATION and DEGENERACY? Join us in the struggle for GLOBAL WHITE SUPREMACY.”

On the off chance anyone may have had trouble identifying the political movement with the firmest stance against Jews, immigration and “degeneracy,” Auernheimer decorated his pamphlet with swastikas. I guess he really wanted to drive the point home.

It serves as propaganda, cheap intimidation and advertising for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi web publication that has endorsed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Auernheimer, who lives in a hole in the country of Georgia after serving hard time for hacking into AT&T Inc., targeted universities in particular. The Daily Stormer’s skinhead editor, Andrew Anglin, praised the print job for “invading the safe spaces that these universities provide for effeminate men and feminists and minorities.” Clearly, these fascists see universities and students as their enemies.

Weirdly, I’d already seen Auernheimer and Adam Penenberg — a journalist and New York University professor —  have a conversation on Twitter. In the same exchange during which Auernheimer said “Nuremberg laws are a good standard,” he also said this: “Fascists don’t sit on their asses.” 

I find this quite compelling. Yes, quite unlike fascists, the campus left does not obsess over cartoonish and borderline-homoerotic masculinity, nor does it belong to an atavistic cult of death. Could it be stronger? Absolutely. And, considering 2016 as the year of fascism’s rebirth in the U.S. and abroad, it’s gonna have to get strong real fast.

Right-wing types of all kinds tend to look on the campus left with condescension and revulsion, masking what is really garden-variety fear. To them, we’re simultaneously limp, sobbing, blue-haired blobs and an existential threat to white civilization. They fear us because they know our potential — we represent a body of educated, resourceful people with the passion and energy of youth. They mock us because we’ve become largely complacent and short-sighted, unwilling to engage politically beyond our respective bubbles.

What happened? In 1968, we set off a wave of protest and insurrection which nearly undid Western society. Together with the trade unions, our colleagues in France nearly overthrew the Gaullist regime, scaring Charles de Gaulle out of the country. The response there, as well as here, was to restructure higher education and its administration to discourage future rebellion. The University of Paris, ground zero for the French protests of ’68, was split into 13 separate institutions. Spooked by student unrest, our beloved alma mater confined the college of liberal arts inside the monstrosity that is Turlington Hall, deliberately opened in 1977 to stifle student protest and agitation by a man who later went on to design prisons. The campus left didn’t disappear; it’s just been successfully hamstrung. Its main focus is diversifying the small portion of the population lucky enough to attend college; which is important and increasingly necessary work. But this activism rarely extends beyond campus and leaves every achievement up to the whims of bureaucrats who exist to conserve the administration’s authority.

The campus left’s success at ensuring people of all different backgrounds and identities are welcome at universities is an admirable victory. But the campus left in its current form is not prepared to deal with fascists like Auernheimer. There’s a hefty difference between an over-entitled frat guy and someone whose sweetest dreams are of the SS. Students used to be a serious political force; now, we petition diversity officers to erase a Trump supporter’s sidewalk chalk for us. We must abandon the sentiment that the administration represents any kind of long-term ally. To compete with these reactionaries, we have to align ourselves with broader off-campus movements and take a real stand against the likes of Auernheimer and Donald Trump. We have to be politically engaged.  

Alec Carver is a UF history junior. His column appears on Fridays.

 

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