Stephen McNallen and Racialist Asatru Part 3: In His Own Words
Table of Contents
Part 1: Metagenetics and the South Africa Connection
Part 2: Roots of Racialized Religion
Part 4: Stella Natura and What Can be Done
McNallen’s words and actions in the years following the founding of the new AFA show these early associations were not aberrations but the first symptoms of a much larger pattern. McNallen has used his position and organization as a platform for advancing thinly-veiled white nationalist talking points. His actual views on a number of popular topics among the New Right like immigration and the environment show his efforts in advancing a racialist agenda under the cover of spirituality.
An excellent example of this is an article on the topic of immigration he wrote and published in 2010 titled, “A down and dirty breakdown of the ‘browning of America'” in Western Voices World News, the news site for the white separatist group European Americans United. In the article he makes this astonishing claim:
4. Illegal immigration on the present scale is a form of conquest.
There are many ways to seize power in a country. Mao Zedung, Che Guevara, and Nguyen Vo Giap favored rural-based revolution involving guerrilla warfare. Leninist theory revolves around taking over existing institutions – “the organizational weapon.” In societies with just the right kind of bureaucracy, eager colonels can force a coup d’etat.
Today we are witnessing a new method of takeover. The formula is simple: Infiltrate an area with large numbers of illegals with strong ties to their home country. Encourage each new immigrant, legal or otherwise, to bring in his or her extended family. Obtain the diplomatic and political support of the sending country – in this case, Mexico. Build a network of nonprofit organizations with money from liberal foundations and government grants. Interlock the nonprofits and local political entities to form a comprehensive alternative governmental structure. Maintain racial and cultural solidarity while driving out competing races and cultures – one neighborhood, one town, one county at a time. If anyone objects, accuse them of “racism.”
It is working. Or rather, it has already worked over vast regions of what is still technically the American Southwest.
His solutions are equally reactionary in their intent. McNallen calls for a border wall to be built by imprisoned immigrants, the deportation of all illegal immigrants to Mexico, and an immediate overhaul of immigration law to put a halt to all non-European immigration into the United States.
This is not the only word he’s had on the subject. On the AFA site is posted another essay titled, “Wotan v. Tezcatlipoca: The Spiritual War for California and the Southwest.” In this essay McNallen argues Mexican immigration into the United States is driven, not by the fallout of neoliberal trade policies, fleeing the violence of drug cartel wars, or the simple desire for a better life which drove many immigrants — including McNallen’s Irish ancestors — to the United States, but by a crusade commanded by the Aztec God Tezcatlipoca:
The great majority of Mexican-descended people are solidly Christian, at least on the surface. You’ll find them in church most Sundays, and there is no reason to doubt their sincerity. But what lies beneath this ordinary exterior? Can a whole group of people manifest religious forces of which they’re not even consciously aware?
Carl Jung, one of the most famous psychologists of modern times, would say so. In an essay titled “Wotan,” he wrote how the God of fury and frenzy – as an archetype in the collective unconscious – had gripped the German people during the early part of the Twentieth Century. This was manifested in a great many religious and social movements, the most notorious and tragic of which was Nazism. The result was a great spiritual revival on one hand, and war and destruction on the other.
Would Carl Jung’s comments on Wotan as an archetype in the Germanic soul also have its parallel in the psychic functioning of the Mexican people? Are Tonatzin and Tezcatlipoca (the God, not just Leo Guerra) moving among their folk, stirring them to conquest?
What is even more curious is his claims follow the exact same line of reasoning as is presented by David Lane and Ron McVan on page eleven of the infamous white supremacist tract Creed of Iron:
Wotanism came back in force among the Germanic peoples and became manifest during the first and second World Wars. A new but ancient mythos was developing, a mythos of the blood, and it began reviving the light, order, spirit, and folkishness again within the Aryan race. The great Swiss psychologist and renowned founder of analytical psychology Professor Carl Gustav Jung stated that, “The power of Wotan (the principal deity of our pre-Christian forefathers) was possessing or incarnating in the entire German folk.” Professor Jung further stated in a letter to his friend, Miguel Serrano, in 1960 that “Wotan in reality never died, but has retained his original vitality and autonomy. Our consciousness only imagines that it has lost its gods; in reality they are still there and it only needs a certain general condition in order to bring them back in full force.”
Yet when these highly visible connections come to light McNallen is quick to muddy the waters. In 2011 the white nationalist National Policy Institute held their 2011 conference which Media Matters reporter Brian Powell covered. Amidst the discussion of carving out white ethnostates, post-apocalyptic doom and gloom, and serious discussions of re-instituting apartheid Powell encountered a group of Heathens affiliated with the AFA attending the conference. When word of this hit the Pagan press McNallen was quick to release a statement disavowing all responsibility putting the spin machine into overdrive with, “A Response to Recent Defamation”:
I have investigated the current controversy and have discussed it with the AFA Board of Directors. Here is my statement:
Four (not “seven to fourteen”) members of the Asatru Folk Assembly did attend a conference hosted by the National Policy Institute. They did this as private individuals, not as representatives for the Asatru Folk Assembly. The only way the original blogger, Brian Powell of the left-wing blog Media Matters, knew that they were AFA members is because, by his own admission, he craned his neck to see what one of them was writing on a piece of paper. At no time was there any attempt to speak for the AFA or to identify the ideals of the AFA with the subject matter of the conference.
The AFA will not dictate to its members which meetings they are permitted to attend as private individuals. There are suggestions that we discipline them for the crime of being present in a room where extreme statements seem to have been made. We will not do this. There will be no exposure, no witch-hunt, no apologies, and no reprimands.
A careful reading of the original post on the Media Matters blog makes it clear that Mr. Powell “cherry picked” the most extreme comments possible while ignoring the rest. He admitting that he expected “a little more anger, a little more foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of non-whites.” He further notes that “foremost on the minds of the attendees was not white dominance, it was white extinction.” His main objection, in short, was that people of European descent dared to meet to quietly discuss issues of concern to them as a group.
Let me very clearly state these two points: 1. The AFA will never advocate, condone, or excuse illegal or dishonorable acts directed at any person because of their race. 2. That said, men and women of European descent have exactly the same right to meet and to promote their collective interests as do any other group. To demonize them for doing this, when every other group is encouraged to do so, is to indulge in a vicious double standard.
Playing to the standard tactics of imaginary double-standards, shooting the messenger, apple pie words, and accusing everyone else of racist intent McNallen is quick to appeal to the narrative of victimization. Rather than address the content or issues he argues the AFA has no right to dictate to individuals what they do in their own time while simultaneously distancing the organization from any illegal or dishonorable acts they might do. For all his vocal support for individual freedom he is quick to dismiss any possibility of holding them accountable by providing the “private activity” loophole.
When the spotlight is turned away McNallen, using the AFA blog and Facebook as his podium, advances an agenda which is clearly inspired by and feeds the appetites of white nationalists. On the AFA’s own blog McNallen publishes multiple pieces where he insinuates and in some cases openly claims whites around the world are facing a campaign of genocide. In Asatru and the Most Heroic Age of All McNallen says, “We European-descended folk are cut off from our spiritual heritage and flounder, lost, in a swamp of alienation and apathy. Everywhere, our numbers are dropping.” In What Makes the Asatru Folk Assembly Different: Purpose! he points to the AFA’s Declaration of Purpose, enshrining the first two above all others:
What does matter to us is purpose! This, in the form of the Declaration of
Purpose, is the guiding star of the Asatru Folk Assembly. The first two points
of the DOP deal with the practice of Asatru and with the existence of our Folk,
respectively. The remaining points are elaborations on these.
The two points in question are, “The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution” and “The issuance of a call to all our brothers and sisters of the People of the North to return to this, their native religion and way of life“. What makes these claims even more questionable is their striking similarly to the latest line of propaganda from the white nationalist movement: global white genocide. He makes his feelings on the issue even more clear in the 142nd issue of the AFA newsletter:
OUR CULTURE, OUR PEOPLE
Most Whites believe “the American dream” is dead
According to an ABC News/Yahoo poll, only about half of all Americans feel “the American dream” – the belief that if you work hard you’ll get ahead, and so forth – is alive.
Generally, respondents with more education and greater income said the dream was alive and well. We might expect, then, that most European-Americans (roughly synonymous with “whites”) might be in the optimistic camp. However, this is not the case: Only 48% of whites said the dream was alive for them. Of non-whites, 57% said the dream was alive.
What does this tell us about the mood of Eurofolk? We’ve known for years that the group with the highest rate of suicide in this country has been European-American teenage males, and the “prize” for the lowest self-esteem has gone to teen European-American females. Despite all the politically-correct assumptions about “white privilege,” more and more of us are sensing that the current system is stacked against us and that something is very, very wrong.
Our sickness, of course, is ultimately spiritual. We must find our ancient soul. We must realize we are a people. Each of us is the latest expression of a continuity stretching back to the earliest inhabitants of Europe, a continuity that transcends space and time and mortality.
“Only when we realize we are a river will we stop drowning in puddles.”(1)
When not advancing an overtly white nationalist line of reasoning McNallen dabbles a bit in environmental advocacy through the Facebook page. Through this page McNallen gave his qualified endorsement of Deep Green Resistance, a radical environmentalist movement which advocates an end to modern civilization and the use of guerrilla warfare to achieve it and damn the consequences:
In the first of the two posts: “Why I Like Deep Green Resistance” McNallen lays out the positives:
SOME THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK “DEEP GREEN RESISTANCE”
Deep Green Resistance, by Aric McBay, Lierre Keith, and Derrick Jensen,is controversial for an understandable reason: It advocates the dismantling of civilization to save life on Earth. Personally, I don’t think the human race needs to go back to the hunter-gatherer level – which is basically what they advocate but I agree that some radical changes are in order. Another problem is their overall radical-left worldview. That said, there are some very good things about this book.Things I like about this book: First, the authors understand the seriousness of our situation. They understand that not only humans, but many or most animal and plant species on Earth, are in danger of extinction. With just a little effort, we could actually kill everything down to and including bacteria (the “Venus syndrome.”) That’s pretty serious.
Second, the DGR crowd gets a really important fact: Corporations and government are not going to stop what they are doing just because we ask them nicely.
Third, they know we don’t have a lot of time. If we had a hundred years, or even fifty, we might change enough “hearts and minds” to keep us from going over the cliff. But time is something we don’t have: Earth’s climate for the next few thousand years will be determined by what we do in the coming decades.
Fourth, I like their passion, which they often express with great eloquence.
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll cover what I DON’T like about DGR.
Asatru serves Life! We stand with the Aesir, the Vanir, and our mother Earth.
Steve McNallen
And what he doesn’t like:
SOME THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK “DEEP GREEN RESISTANCE”
Yesterday I told you four things I really liked about DGR. Today, you get to read about the downside.
First, like radical leftists everywhere, they analyze things in terms of class struggle. I reject this out of hand. An Asatru approach would stress the spiritual values of our tribes, our nations, and our ethnic heritage. The ideology of class struggle only disrupts and obscures the primary importance of organic religious and ethnic ties. My loyalty is not to the “workers of the world,” but to my extended kin – all men, women, and children of European descent.
Second, they oppose hierarchy. The peoples of Europe, however, have long been hierarchical: Our tribes had a distinct leader who was often chosen from specific distinguished families, advised by a council of often influential or wealthy leaders, and who was held in check by the votes of the freemen.
Third, they are anti-masculine. Men are basically accepted only to the extent that they are psychologically neutered. Put-downs on men are scattered throughout the book. The proposed DGR society would be driven by female values, not by a balance of male and female as we have in Asatru.
Fourth, I cannot accept the idea of rejecting our hard-won scientific and technological discoveries. As Eurofolk, we have an innate drive to frontiers whether they be geographical or theoretical. We have been to the moon, and our descendants will explore the Galaxy. Our task is to make a technologically-advanced civilization compatible with a living Earth. This can be done.
Despite my criticisms, there is much in “Deep Green Resistance” that is of value and it is a real thought-provoker.
Hail the Gods!
Hail the AFA!Steve
There are a few things about this pair of posts that are very unusual. The first is, in spite of his opposition to their goals of ending civilization, McNallen ultimately recommends reading it. The second is the total lack of any mention of the use of violent terrorist tactics to achieve their ends. The only thing he says on the matter is he agrees with their sense of urgency while saying nothing about the means behind that urgency. Third is DGR itself. Far from being the norm in radical environmentalism Deep Green Resistance is seen by many other environmental radicals, anarchists, and other fellow travelers as fringe extremists. As a result of this firestorm of controversy several DGR members resigned from the organization in protest, citing these criticisms and others as their main grievances. Fourth and finally his reasoning depends, like all his other works, heavily on his ideas on metagenetics, heritage, and the centrality of race in culture and spirituality.
His relatively recent promotion of environmental issues fits with an alarming and growing trend in the global neo-fascist movement: a serious push to co-opt the green movement. This element of neo-fascist ideology traces its roots back to the concept of Blut und Boden (blood and soil). This theory is one of many central justifications for their pathological anti-semitism and their demands for “living space“. In 1953 Julius Evola would take some of these ideas to the next step in his book Men Among the Ruins. In it he calls for a retreat from modernity as part of the necessary personal transformation to build reactionary consciousness.
In practice this leads to fascist movements attempting to co-opt the ideas and imagery of the green movement. As was observed at the blog Climate and Capitalism the main avenue for their co-optation is the overpopulation argument. This argument has a surprising level of support among some segments of the environmental movement. Fascist organizations turn this into a call for banning immigration to reduce the number of undesirable poor degrading the environment. One excellent example is Golden Dawn’s “Green Wing“, an organization set up to advance an eco-friendly image for the openly neo-Nazi political party. Central to Golden Dawn’s party platform is the call to build a “Greece for Greeks” where immigration would be banned, all immigrants would be expelled, and entrance into the country would be sharply limited.
Golden Dawn and Stephen McNallen aren’t alone in holding such extreme views on immigration and the environment. In the words of Derrick Jensen, one of the founders of Deep Green Resistance:
And you’ve heard the arguments. The United States needs to close its borders to immigration from poor countries. Having finally gotten our own birthrate down sufficiently to more or less stabilize our population, the last thing we need is a bunch of poor (brown) people moving in to crowd us out (we know, also, that once they’re here they’ll breed faster than we do, and soon enough will outnumber us).
I often respond to this argument by saying I’m all for closing the border to Mexico (and everywhere else, for that matter, all the way down to closing bioregional borders), so long as we close it not only to people but to resources as well.
McNallen’s speech and advocacy are not limited to the online world. Coming up on September 20th in the High Sierras is the latest and most blatant of Stephen McNallen’s promotion of fascist ideology: Stella Natura.
Continued in Part Four: Stella Natura and What Can be Done on Monday, September 9th
1. AFA Update, Issue #142, January 5th, 2011
Circle Ansuz 