Eco-fascism: Far right co-opting environmentalism to justify anti-immigration and anti-Semitic views

[progressoid]

The rising threat of eco-fascism: Far right co-opting environmentalism to justify anti-immigration and anti-Semitic views

Exclusive: New research, shared with The Independent, says that while the populist radical right largely continues to reject scientific consensus on the climate crisis, there is a concerning rise in so-called ‘green nationalism’, writes Louise Boyle

New research, shared exclusively with The Independent, has found that while the populist radical right around the world largely continues to reject scientific consensus on the climate crisis, there is a concerning rise in so-called “green nationalism”.

The study, conducted by anti-racism and anti-fascism advocacy group HOPE not hate (HNH), warns that as climate impacts become more extreme, there will be an insidious attempt by fascistic groups to “rebrand themselves with a green tinge”.

The paper highlighted a number of alleged hate groups which have sprung up in recent years. For example, the paper claims one small outfit in the north of England has been handing out leaflets, calling out global corporations over emission levels while encouraging people to grow vegetables at home.

But Hnh researcher David Lawrence writes, in HNH’s opinion: “Beneath this inoffensive green sheen, however, lies something nastier... a European far-right network that promotes ‘identitarianism’, a form of racial segregation.”

The far right have also adopted the idea of “localism”, the study says, tapping into a “regressive romanticism” of returning to an imagined past of untouched nature and landscapes, rather than building a sustainable future.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/ecofascism-immigration-anti-semitism-b1819718.html?fbclid=IwAR0iNgRgqU_WNLMwQShpOSZbtZVcTlBAADytf1hdUEjbgb6A1cKNEMhYZ2k

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Unfortunately, people migrating from less developed countries to more developed ones

IS, in fact, detrimental to the environment.

It's not something us nice liberals like to consider for the most part, but it's true.

And localism is also good for the environment.

So these fascists are being pretty tricky.

[hunter]

6. There's only one earth.

Wherever you shit, you are shitting on earth.

Affluent people, who tend to be the worst offenders when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and horrible agricultural practices, are really good at hiding their shit or claiming it smells like roses.

The problem with our current world economy is that "productivity" isn't productivity at all. It is in fact a direct measure of the damage we are doing to this planet's natural environment and our own human spirit.

The average person living in poverty in some place like Cairo or Mexico City has a much, much, smaller environmental footprint than the guy driving a Tesla.

Personally I think we should be paying people to experiment with lifestyles having very small environmental footprints. We would judge the success of these experiments in terms of happiness and the willingness of others to freely adopt those lifestyles.

Generally the people with the smallest environmental footprints live in dense population centers, don't own cars, are mostly vegetarian, practice birth control, and support public education especially for girls and women.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. We don't disagree, in fact that is very well said ...

I'm just saying, on average, people moving from less-developed countries to more developed countries ... each time that happens, mankind's carbon footprint gets bigger.

Sure there's individual (pretty rare) exceptions, but that's the average.

And in truth ... buying local also helps.

I'm not an 'avoiding facts just to be PC' sort of guy, nor do I think that overall bad people ... can't ever have reasonable good ideas. Not my nature.

Thanks again for your well-spoken and salient contribution

[luckone]

2. Didn't Sierra Club already do this bit in the US 20 yrs ago maybe. I could see it play in UK

[wryter2000]

3. They sure did

Anti immigration, as I recall

[progressoid]

8. How the Sierra Club's History With Immigrant Rights Is Shaping Our Future

In 1998 the Sierra Club was at a crossroads. For decades, a group of people within the organization had pushed to use the Sierra Club’s influence to promote policies to block immigration and undermine immigrant rights. In 1998, some of those people, including Jon Tanton, called “the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement,” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, brought forward a proposal for the Sierra Club to become an actively anti-immigrant organization with a public stance opposing immigration.The proposal was defeated in a vote by the Sierra Club’s members, but only barely. The fact that this internal movement found support within a portion of the Sierra Club’s membership was a reflection of our exclusionary history and one marker of the environmental movement’s problematic overlap with ideologies and activist members of population control, eugenics, and conservative movements. Just one example of our exclusionary history is the fact that in the 1950s, the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club had a policy against allowing African American members.

In 2004, we went through this process again. Anti-immigrant advocates ran to take control of the Sierra Club’s board of directors, and lost.

The Sierra Club was vulnerable to organized bigotry because of our democratic structure. As we struggled internally to reject the agenda of Jon Tanton and his followers, Tanton’s movement grew because of his access to the Sierra Club community. He gained new followers and credibility because of his association with the Sierra Club. Part of the reason that his ideas are still popular is because the Sierra Club was slow to act. And unfortunately, those ideas are still alive and well in the public discourse.

more...https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2018/11/how-sierra-club-s-history-immigrant-rights-shaping-our-future?fbclid=IwAR0g6BYGzNusMLv9jexTJhKFiCHtNo4x761itCMQcJQfR5WM2W3tjpBVzLc

[abqtommy]

4. Why are there still any reTHUG fascists left at the local, state or national government level?

We have laws against sedition and insurrection. WHAT'S THE HOLD-UP?

[marble falls]

5. It might work until they show up at the park with RVs, dirtbikes, beer, fireworks, and firearms.