Both of the white supremacist killers responsible for the mass murders in El Paso and Christchurch have more than their racism in common. They are both self-described ecofascists. What this means, and how the far right is coopting environmental concerns to spread its racist message is the subject of the current article.

In the previous article, we examined the underlying philosophies that motivate white nationalist shooters. Anti-immigrant sentiment, the need to fight a racial war, the sense of ‘loss’ that underlies white racial resentment as minorities campaign for equality – these are all common features of Alternative Right extremism. But one motive that has experienced a resurgence in ultra-rightist circles is the need to protect the environment – hence the term ecofascism.

Concern for the environment and a willingness to do something to stop ecological destruction is normally associated with the left. Green activism is the usual provenance of left-wing groups. However, the ultraright and white supremacy are no strangers to environmental causes. Rather than deny the reality of climate change, rightist organisations are now accepting the science of anthropogenic global warming. Their proposed solution? Reduce the human population, in particular the nonwhite nationalities of the world.

Environmentalism has a long history on the racist Right

The issue of environmental destruction wrought by industrialisation and the depletion of natural resources has been a concern of the white supremacist Right. Lamenting the despoliation of nature, the Right has traditionally blamed immigration, and what they see as the movement of nonwhite ‘races’ into the white colonial-settler societies. Decrying multiculturalism as a plot by global elites to dilute white society, eco-fascist writers have blamed the problems of pollution, overcrowded cities and the excessive consumption of scare resources on migrant communities.

Blaming immigration for environmental problems has a sordid pedigree, and this line of thinking traces its origins to the advocates of white supremacy. Professor Madison Grant, author of the racist book The Passing of the Great Race and eugenics proponent, was an ardent environmentalist. A passionate conservationist, he combined his love of nature with a racially-charged misanthropy, advocating the reduction of immigration as a way to relieve pressure on the environment.

While Grant wanted to reduce the numbers of poor people within American society, his co-thinkers in Europe proposed genocidal solutions. In an article for Trtworld, Amar Diwakar details how German commentators developed a racial volkisch concept of ‘race and soil’. A mythologising of the past, volkisch nationalism romanticised the notions of white ‘folk’ tied to the land, cultivating it and connected by racial bonds.

This atavistic throwback to an imagined pre-modern racially harmonious community has surprisingly modern adaptations. The notion of ‘living in tune with nature’ sounds like a benign preoccupation, but was actually updated in the 20th century by Nazi ideologues such as Walter Darre. An early example of a ‘green Nazi’, Darre articulated the ‘blood and soil’ ideas of the Nazi party, advocating a racially-homogeneous homeland (whites-only) sustaining an ecologically harmonious community.

One of the interesting outgrowths of the Alt-Right’s ‘green’ underpinning is advocacy of vegetarianism and veganism. While the stereotypical long-haired hippie type has become the poster-child for veganism and a vegetarian lifestyle, increasing numbers of today’s white supremacists are going for veganism. Resentful of the connection between loonie-lefties and vegetarian concerns, the Alt-Right is emphasising the historic strains of vegetarianism present among the political ancestors of the ultraright. Organic farming and reforestation programmes were promoted by the Nazi party as an extension of their ‘getting back to nature’ ideas.

Counterposing trees and refugees

The El Paso shooter, Crusius, lamented the destruction of the environment in his manifesto. He blamed immigration and refugees for the increased pressure on the environment and natural resources. In this, he is not alone. The notion of overpopulation has a long racial lineage, and has been deployed to rationalise bigotry against the nonwhite populations of the world. Ecofascists and ultrarightists have acknowledged the ecological crisis in order to advocate homicidal measures against their favoured targets.

Overpopulation – or the fear of such an outcome – requires an extensive article of its own. However, let’s make a number of relevant observations here.

The fact of ecological despoliation has long been used as a reason to adopt coercive and authoritarian methods against racial and ethnic minorities – and the poor. Overpopulation advocates have built a case based on xenophobic arguments and fear. Deriving their ideas from the English pastor Thomas Malthus, today’s neo-Malthusians routinely point to nonwhite communities and cities – Kinshasa, or Mexico City – to buttress their arguments.

Overcrowding in urban areas is a symptom – not a cause. Overcrowded cities is the result of bad planning, or rather, prioritising profits over people’s needs. Not every overpopulationist is a vicious, stone-cold racist. Talking about numbers of people is axiomatic. However, every ecofascist is an overpopulation advocate; targeting the numbers of nonwhite people, in order to sustain the rapacious consumerism of capitalist societies.

Environment journalist David Roberts, has written how it is the wealthy that consume the most resources, and have the greatest adverse environmental impact. It is the profit-driven corporations that exploit and overconsume natural and mineral resources. The oil and gas energy companies are notorious for exploiting resources, leaving behind them a trail of toxic pollution and environmental destruction.

Even if we are concerned about reducing numbers, the solution resides not in a genocidal reordering of the nonwhite populations, but in female empowerment. Education of girls, greater reproductive rights and increased opportunities outside the home reduce birth rates and make for a more gender-equitable society.

There are solutions to the environmental crisis that do not involve a genocidal racial reordering of the world. Bold climate justice policies, such as the Green New Deal, provide initial steps in challenging the capitalist production system which places profits over people’s lives. Those who campaign for environmental justice must not allow the white supremacist Right to pervert that struggle for their own racist ends.

In the immediate aftermath of the El Paso shooting, the New York Times editorial board published an article that confirms what political commentators having been saying for decades: the United States has a white nationalist terrorism problem. The El Paso attacks are only the latest outburst in a long-term pattern of ultra-rightist, fascistic violence.

Right wing terrorism is not confined to the United States – white nationalism is a supranational ideology that motivated multiple ultranationalist killers, from Breivik in Norway, to the Australian racist murderer in Christchurch.

Let’s unpack this subject.

The El Paso racist killings have prompted the corporate media – finally – to critically examine an undercurrent of American society which they had previously denied or downplayed – white racism. The latter, rebranded with the euphemistic label white nationalism, has motivated far right terrorism, and is the ideological glue that holds together white supremacist groups of all stripes.

White nationalist killers are an international contagion, according to the FBI. If that assessment of white nationalist gunmen sounds similar to the evaluation of IS militants, then this must prompt us to rethink definitions of ‘national security.’

White nationalism wants a whites-only ethnostate

The term ‘white nationalism’ sounds harmless – just another variety of ethnic diversity. Its egalitarian-sounding undertone makes it appear to be just an overeager patriotism indulged by its partisans on a jolly jamboree. Make no mistake – white nationalism is a xenophobic and exclusionary philosophy, intending on creating a whites-only ethnostate. Harking back to the days of Rhodesia – and apartheid South Africa – white nationalism sees a racially hierarchical society as a fundamental objective of its endeavour to reshape capitalist society.

Trump is not the only one

There is no question that the US President, through his words and actions, is an enabler of fascistic violence. His constant demonisation of migrants and refugees, his portrayal of immigration from non-white countries as an ‘invasion’, his defence of white supremacist rallies such as Charlottesville 2017 – all these mark out the Trump presidency as an ally of white nationalism.

However, to reduce the problem of white nationalist terrorism to the workings of Trump’s brain misses the wider picture. Trump is hideous in his racism, but he is not an aberration. White nationalist killings have a long and sordid history in the United States. White supremacist killers have rationalised their actions, from Breivik in Norway to the racist Christchurch murderer in 2019, by way of issuing a manifesto.

As repulsive as it is, it is instructive to examine the El Paso shooter’s manifesto. Patrick Crusius, prior to going on his violent rampage in El Paso, published a document elaborating his worldview and explaining his actions. This manifesto demonstrates a person committed to a fascistic perspective, and who made clear that his reasoning predates the actions and words of Trump.

The Great Replacement theory – white racial paranoia

Crusius, like all racist killers, frames his actions in purely self-defensive terms. The white race, according to Crusius, is under attack by multicultural and liberal elites bringing nonwhite migrants into the United States. Through this programme of integration and assimilation, the white race will be outnumbered and replaced by the superior numbers – and faster breeding – of the nonwhite ethnicities. This is the great replacement theory, and this notion has been developed over the years not only by white supremacists, but also by mainstream conservative commentators.

First elaborated by French political commentator and writer Renaud Camus, the great replacement theory is an umbrella term that includes various permutations of white racial paranoia. In its most basic form, it states that global elites are engaged in a vast transnational conspiracy to replace the white race by bringing in nonwhite populations. In Europe, far right parties have advocated this conspiracy theory to scapegoat migrants for economic and social problems.

It is instructive to note that it is not only the ultra-right that has blamed a mythical ‘mass immigration’ wave for the socioeconomic problems of Europe. Charles De Gaulle, hero of the French Republic, is on record as stating that the French population faces the threat of being overwhelmed by Arab, Muslim and Berber immigrants from Algeria and North Africa. These sentiments, recycled by British politicians such as Enoch Powell, are a perverse inversion of reality – the ‘white race’ changes from an oppressor to a victim.

The United States has its own tradition of fear-mongering when it comes to the issue of immigration. The late Professor Madison Grant authored the book The Passing of the Great Race in 1916. In this book, Grant lamented the dilution of the white race, through race-mixing, with the ‘inferior’ breeds of migrants from Eastern Europe (particularly Jewish emigrants) and nonwhite nations. This manufactured racial anxiety predates the ‘white genocide’ conspiracy theory being regurgitated in far right circles today.

Ultra-rightist terrorists recycle a version of this racial paranoid dystopian fantasy in their writings. The El Paso shooter complained of a ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas’. The Australian killer in Christchurch also portrayed his actions as those of a white man ‘defending his race’ against invading hordes of migrants. In fact, the revamped white nationalist movement – under the new brand name of Alternative Right – posits itself as ‘anti-globalist’ or ‘anti-elite’ and thus attempts to deflect accusations of racism.

The El Paso gunman, like his fellow white supremacists, updated and operationalised fascistic violence by targeting the mythical ‘upsurge’ in migrant numbers. Fighting a war to stop the supposed marginalisation of the white race, far-rightist killers have adapted their whites-only perspective for a modern society. Nostalgia for the white, ante-bellum Confederate past is no longer a preeminent feature of the ultra-right.

What the far right has also discovered as a tactic to propose its solutions – as evidenced by El Paso shooter’s manifesto – is environmentalism. Instead of denying or downplaying environmentally destructive threats to the planet, the anti-immigrant Right is using these concerns to demand their solution – decimate the nonwhite populations and thus rescue the Earth’s ecology. In fact, Crusius described himself as an eco-fascist.

The resurgence of eco-fascism is a large subject. That will be the topic of the next article.