The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have brought about the dark side of environmentalism. Or is it just a revival of old ideologies?
Behind these environmentally friendly and seemingly harmless rhetoric lies a murderous, racist ideology that combines unchecked violence with environmentalism, all in the name of saving the planet.
Cue the eco-fascists: a nature-obsessed niche promoting sentiments of white supremacy. They rally causes of anti-Semitism and multiculturism, deeming racial purity of indigenous lands to be the only solution to save mother earth. Their principles are what we get when we brew a bespoke cocktail of modern-day neo-Nazism with an avid desire to go back to ancient geographical roots. Commonly held beliefs among this alt-right group include veganism, anti-multiculturalism, white nationalism, anti-single use plastic, and anti-Semitism.
These differentiating characteristics makes it easy to recognize its online counterpart- in the various Twitter profiles showcasing pictures of forests and cabins, ranting about animal rights, calling for plastics bans and racial cleansing, venerating dramatic images of insurgency and terror, spewing hate for Jews and showcasing a distinct yet passionate interest in Norse mythology. Eco-fascists have found meaning in the Norse/Proto-Germanic rune – most commonly Algiz, “ᛉ” or “ᛦ”, known as the “life” rune. You might have seen this rune before as it was used in postwar Germany as a symbol of the neo-Nazi movement in place of the actual Nazi symbols that were banned. Intended as a logo for the notorious Lebensraum – the programme for a master race by Nazi Germany, the symbol represents the perfect modern appropriation, almost a nod to the historical ideologies held by the group.
Within this subset, we often see a marriage of neo-Nazi notions with Third Reich’s “Blood and Soil” ideals. An eco-fascist’s utopia involves nations comprising of only those people that are indigenous to that region (blood); this geographically bounded version of homes can then be preserved through environmentalist principles (soil). In their glories of ancestral ties and cultural heritage, which often function as dog-whistle for white supremacy, lies the overt bete noires of multiculturalism underpinned by Malthusian ideas of harmful population growth. A small number of extremists have even openly canvassed anti-human, eliminationist viewpoints that offer a ready basis for authoritarian, genocidal responses to ecological disaster. While most eco-fascist don’t openly call for a genocide, they do believe in mass deportation of non-indigenous immigrants who they claim are the root cause of over-population in some countries. Their eugenicist’s approach to solving this dilemma by scrapping of immigrant population is both striking and widespread.
Despite our natural inclinations to imagine this group as some hippie yet aggressive tree huggers gone rogue, it is important to realize their gradual and concerning rise in the mainstream, sometimes with deadly consequences. The recent violent acts of self-identified ecofascists signify the latest revival of the extreme right to promote what the FBI calls ecoterrorism: “the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.”
Eco-fascism made headlines when the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand who killed 51 people at two mosques, recognized himself as an ecofascist in his manifesto. According to him, “Immigration is environmental warfare” and “there is no nationalism without environmentalism.” His killing inspired Patrick Cruises in El Paso, Texas, who claimed 22 lives in order to “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.
Cruises made his environmental stance clear by naming his manifesto “An Inconvenient Truth,” most possibly after Al Gore’s 2006 climate change documentary. Crusius wrote that “the decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.” Blaming America’s consumer culture for environmental damage, Cruises elaborated that “Fresh water is being polluted from farming and oil drilling operations. Consumer culture is creating thousands of tons of unnecessary plastic waste and electronic waste, and recycling to help slow this down is almost non-existent.
Urban sprawl creates inefficient cities which unnecessarily destroys millions of acres of land. We even use god knows how many trees worth of paper towels just wipe water off our hands. Everything I have seen and heard in my short life has led me to believe that the average American isn’t willing to change their lifestyle, even if the changes only cause a slight inconvenience.”
In the recent past, climate change has been cited as among the biggest causes of human displacement. Extreme weather has caused the migration of more than 18 million people in 2017 alone. And these numbers are expected to grow as climate change refugees try to escape the troubles of drought, food insecurity, and conflict brought about by dangerous weather conditions. Researchers have also noted that some far-right European parties are already trying to capitalize on the upcoming trends of refugee upsurge. We see this in France’s National Assembly’s claims of a hardened border being a crucial environmental policy; we also see this in Hungary’s head of state calling for aggressive measures to stop migration in the name of climate change action. The horrors it seems lie not only in the climate change in itself, but also in ways societies choose to deal with such catastrophes. While U.S. Republican Party’s persistent denial of the climate change reality is a cause of massive concern, political parties that acknowledge climate changes but suggest such eco-fascist solutions are equally alarming.
Despite remaining on the political margins, eco-fascists venture to exploit the looming ecological collapse as an opportunity to re-align the society along their radical lines. Their subculture of co-optation threatens the desperate noble work of contemporary environmentalists who are actively battling effects of climate change-many of whom identify as political progressors and far leftists. Eco-fascists might distinguish themselves from the common political right, in that they acknowledge the effects of climate change, but their political ideologies lament the despoliation of nature, associating it with modernism and industrialization and attributing it for the diminished connections between race and territory.
Relying on “deep ecology”, eco-fascism poses to endanger countless lives as it deems the “sacrifice of some to save all” as the only way to preserve and sustain the planet. This “lifeboat ethics” approach underlines most of their beliefs. While they share similar principles with many garden-variety white supremacists, their stance on growing refugee populations is consistent throughout and sets them apart from other umbrella-term “fascist” groups.
It is however interesting to note that majority of the topics that intrigue the political right find themselves into eco-fascist discourse, but with an environmental spin. Abhorrence for almost all non-white Western European cultures lies at the heart of eco-fascism with anti-Semitism being by far the most preferred form of online racism. Eco-fascists claim white people have been forced into “semitic egalitarian slavery” and that the establishment of an “ethnostate” of white people is the answer to all environmental distress. Unlike many active online communities who often don’t have any idea what the solution to their problems should be, eco-fascism not only propose but also propagate ideological solutions that are shocking to say the least.
With such solutions circulating social media regularly, it is not hard to imagine a world where “eco-authoritarianism” or “climate barbarism” takes full control; a politics centered on the state making “our way of life” sustainable as the environment fragments. Upcoming political regimes committed to this cause can then draw upon the multitude of coercive powers they’ve acquired over the past decades; draconian anti-protest laws; secret trials and imprisonment; the deployment of the army to quell civil disturbances, to ensure their ultimate victory in fighting the battle of earth’s survival on their own terms.
Such possibilities make it all the more urgent to push for a democratic, just, and global response to climate change.
This will not only save our planet but also save the mankind from each other.
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