Far-right administrata
This is not an article but an administrative post. As the number of hyperlinks in the blog’s right panel slowly grows, I have found it convenient to divide the links into a larger number of smaller categories. A problem however arises in naming the new “Far Right” category. The term “Far Right” is usually held to be pejorative, yet I am aware of no other commonly recognized name for the strain of political thought the term signifies. The term “Communism” is likewise (rightly) held to be pejorative; we don’t shun the use of the term for this reason. Conservatives are less fond of euphemisms than liberals are, as a rule, in any case; and the alternate term “Fascism,” though blurry, is nevertheless too narrow, is imprecise, and, of course, is even more pejorative. The term “Paleoconservatism” likewise does not quite seem to fit.
I feel considerable sympathy for the far right, though some far rightists will question whether I can claim to belong to the far right myself. If someone can think of a better word that actually has currency—a word people not of the far right understand without having to have it explained to them—then I should be happy to substitute it. In the meantime, I have added the adjective “Western,” which has good connotations, to blunt the unintended pejoraty.
Republicans may notice that the blog’s right panel links to the Democratic ueberblog the Daily Kos but not to its Republican counterpart Red State. This is not because I agree with Kossacks more than with Red Staters, but because the Daily Kos does its partisan job competently and with style. Red State regrettably by contrast is a Politically Correct fever swamp. One doubts that many readers of the present blog are fans of the Daily Kos, but I happen to read it now and then, if just to see what those lovably loony leftists are up to this week. I even occasionally publish “diaries” over there under the login “tannoce” (”econnat,” spelled backward), where the Kossacks treat even deeply conservative ideas with a moderate measure of tolerance and courteous disagreement. Oh, they’ll label you a racist and a sexist. It’s all right. One Kossack once even labeled me an “age-ist,” if you can believe it. But it’s mostly in good fun. Anyway, if Kossacks will add dozens of thoughtful comments even to my far right “diaries,” then they deserve a link.
Howard
[Update: I hadn’t looked at the blog’s access statistics in over a year until this week. I was surprised this week by what I found there. This little blog with its infrequent posts takes over 500 “hits” a day, which is not a lot by blogging standards, maybe, but is multiple times the traffic a year ago.
[The traffic is what it is; I have no control over it and, since the blog sells no advertising, it doesn’t really matter, except that I should thank the several readers who have seen fit to link to the blog from their own various Web sites. What interests me however is that the volume of comments has remained steady even as the readership has apparently multiplied severalfold. Or, maybe the multiplied “hits” are the result of some automatic, mechanical, robotic Web network phenomenon I do not understand, rather than of genuinely increased traffic. What is clear however is that fewer than 1 percent of an article’s readers leave a comment—which of course is fine; they are not obliged to do so. I like the comments I get, but I couldn’t answer 100 comments per article, anyway. —HJH]
February 13th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Howard, I don’t really mind any term as long as I think it accurately describes my position. So “far-right” is not a problem, but “fascism” is just plain inaccurate. Most of us want to turn back the clock to the way America was before race-liberalism, which was not at all fascist. But you might find others who are offended at being called anything they think is pejorative.
It would seem the main thing you mean by “far-right” is “race-conscious”. Perhaps “racialist” is a more accurate label, though some might say it overemphasizes one aspect of what we write about. I personally don’t mind “white nationalist” and was rather surprised to find out that so many bloggers who share my ideas find it offensive. It lumps us in with neo-Nazis, but so does just about any label that makes reference to our race-consciousness. But since it’s widely disliked, I wouldn’t recommend you use it.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I just got done reading Pat Buchanan’s “The Great Betrayal” which is about the fraud of free-trade and the superior economic theory of economic nationalism. Great book. Have you read it?
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Kyle,
I have indeed read “The Great Betrayal,” not once but twice through from cover to cover. It was that very book that first made an economic nationalist of me, who before had been a free trader. The book’s central lesson as you now know is straightforward: that the U.S. historically became the greatest industrial power the world had ever seen, whose common workers enjoyed history’s highest standard of living, precisely by practicing economic nationalism, consciously rejecting the siren’s call of free trade.
Mr. Buchanan’s book debunks free-trade propaganda rather thoroughly, point by point. As far as I am aware, no one has ever seriously refuted the book; the very few who have tried, such as in this typical attempt, do little more than to beg the question. (It is not my intent to erect a rhetorical straw man, incidentally. If any reader knows of a more competent rebuttal specifically to Mr. Buchanan’s work, I should appreciate the reference.)
I agree with you. Pat and his book are both great. That you now have read it affirms in you an additional degree of knowledge too many of our fellow Americans regrettably lack.
By the way, Kyle, I have watched the entire video of your hosting Nick Griffin before the new year. Mr. Griffin today seems perhaps to be sinking into a political stew of his own making over the strange Sadie Graham affair, but of course you could not have known anything about that when you extended your invitation, and it has nothing to do with you. That video was something to behold. You’re a brave fellow, I think.
Who was that blonde wench in the second or third row, anyway? Was she on drugs, or did she actually think that she was being serious?
Howard