How Many Nazi Parties Does America Need?
Behold: The party of "MechaHitler" has arisen.
Before presenting today’s provocation, I decided to put together this timeline showcasing most of my writings and podcasts about Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man-child, so you can see the evolution of my thought, including the moment when I turned on him at the end of February in 2023:
2022
Dec 3:
An Open Letter to Elon Musk Thanking Him for the Correct Decision Shutting Down Neo-Nazi Kanye West
Dec 9:
Dec. 17, not about Musk but what we call “foreshadowing” in fiction:
2023
Feb. 27:
Feb. 28, a podcast:
March 1:
March 11, a podcast:
July 23, a podcast:
August 10, a satire:
Nov. 1:
2024
Feb. 17:
[I’m really rather surprised that I didn’t write about him more last year…]
2025
Jan. 23:
Jan. 28:
March 21, a satire:
May 30:
June 5:
I am a reluctant journalist to begin with, and one who embraces the school of thought that it’s best to make one's biases clear up front, rather than claim some artificial "neutrality."
This concept of “objectivity” in journalism is a 20th-century invention intended and concocted primarily as a marketing strategy to sell more newspapers. Cut out open ideological or partisan bias (the norm for journalism’s history before then) and, in theory, that meant the creation of a product more appealing to the masses. And it worked—until blogging software and the internet smashed their monopoly during the media revolution that I stumbled into 20 years ago.
The reason this traditional journalistic approach is a fiction and a pose is because the reader doesn't see the mechanism behind how journalistic writing is manufactured. Even if an article is written in a seemingly "neutral" tone, or is merely "reporting facts," then the reader is almost certainly not at all cognizant of how the writer selected those particular facts and then assembled them together to emphasize some ideas at the expense of others.
The writer may not directly say, "This is my opinion," but instead, he'll go and get a quote from an expert who says something he likes and agrees with, and then he'll insert it. He may talk to the expert for 10 minutes who explains the levels of complexity in the topic. Then the reporter will find the three sentences that most fit the point he wants to make.
He may choose to drop in facts and quotes that, while objectively true, are chosen and arranged in such a way as to make their subject look bad or good: whichever the writer knows his editor will want in order to appease the publisher, in order to appease the owner, in order to boost the bottom line, since in America, the only moral obligation of a corporation is to deliver a profit to its shareholders.
Let me provide an example of how this juxtaposition of facts can work:
Elon Musk has announced and filed for a new political party, with the passing of President Donald J. Trump's budget-busting bill as the impetus. Behold: “The America Party.”
He has endorsed this basic summary of the party's platform:
“Reduce debt, responsible spending only
Modernize military with AI/robotics
Pro tech, accelerate to win in AI
Less regulation across board, but especially in energy
Free speech
Pro natalist
Centrist policies everywhere else”
Musk has consulted with anti-constitutional, far-right, neo-monarchist Curtis Yarvin on the party's aspirations.
Multiple previous political parties have used comparable names and had similar platforms. The American Party from the 1850s is better known as “the know-nothings.” Their platform was anti-immigrant, conspiracist, and anti-Catholic. Surely it’s just an odd, history-rhyming coincidence that today’s far right is waging war primarily against Latinos, who are predominantly Catholic. Right? And surely it’s a coincidence that the American Independent Party was founded by segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace, right? Surely there’s no meaningful pattern afoot here.
Over the last few days, xAI's chatbot, Grok, began unleashing antisemitic conspiracy theories and praising Adolf Hitler, including dubbing itself "MechaHitler," a play off of the "MechaGodzilla" robot of Japanese monster movies, or “MechaStreisand” of early-era “South Park.”
In the 21st century, fascism comes to America with a smiley face. And we will dissect it with pop culture references whether we like it or not.
Now, given the articles unapologetically displayed above, my biases against Musk are well known. He has fashioned himself into a literal comic-book supervillain. Surely now, even as I write this, he is busy plotting in his super secret laboratory hidden under a volcano and will soon reveal the gigantic laser cannon he will use to carve his “X” logo and a middle finger onto the moon.
Seriously, though, I regard him as one of the top evil men on the world stage and suspect he is compromised by Russian intelligence agencies, making him essentially a tool of Vladimir Putin. This whole new party effort may be a Putin-directed move designed to inflame even further division within America.
But, please, just put together the facts on the table. The world's wealthiest man, who grew up in apartheid South Africa, raised by a family of Nazi-sympathizers, first simply hosted one of the world's most antisemitic websites. Then he dispatched the AI embedded within to amplify that hate exponentially (having been trained on its users’ uncensored postings.) The same week, he launches a political party with a name invoking bigoted parties of the past, advised by the internet’s most infamous neo-Monarchist.
So let's just summarize here:
The Republican Party is run by men who have set up concentration camps in America and sent innocent people to overseas gulags run by dictators.
This new "challenger" party that has split off from the GOP is run by a man who programmed his AI with antisemitic conspiracy theories and sophomoric Hitler humor.
Friends, I'm sorry, I don't care how many people this offends or angers: These are NAZI PARTIES. It’s fucking plain as day at this point. The Right devolved from Reaganite libertarian-conservative anti-communism to "national conservatism" to "populist-nationalism" to Alt Right-style fascism and now to overt racist, white-supremacist, eliminationist, genocidal neo-Nazism. Using these terms went from hyperbole to accuracy in a matter of months.
I didn't think it would move this fast. I didn't think it would get this bad. But here we are, and people need to wake the fuck up to see what is happening now.
Look, when CAMPS start popping up, when the government seeks to round-up a demonized minority, when media begins celebrating the fantasy of alligators eating brown people, when TORTURE IN FUCKING GULAGS begins, yeah, you're damn right, I'm going to start talking about fascism and studying the Nazis in greater depth. ICE is now Trump’s Gestapo.
This is the reality: My choice to now compare the Trump regime to Hitler and the Nazis clearly is not based on an inadequate understanding of the history of antisemitism. It’s the opposite: I’m freaking out because of what I do know too well. The time has come to RING THE ALARM BELLS AS LOUD AS WE CAN.
Sorry, all that’s functionally different here is that it’s happening in America (in our literal backyard, here in San Bernardino County), there’s tons more money behind this, and the targets? Latinos and other non-white people, rather than Jews.
I am so angry that I have to do this now:
It's time to put two or three dozen history books on hold at the library and begin to study the mechanics of Nazism now in an operational, practical sense. From the rise of Hitler and the oppression inflicted against the Jews, Roma, and other groups, what can we learn from the oppression now beginning in the Age of Donald Trump-Stephen Miller-Vladimir Putin against brown people - as well as the white people who stand the fuck in their way?
One of the subjects that I hope to learn more about is this:
What were the different ideological factions within Nazism and fascism more broadly?
Because I suspect there are some historical parallels in the uneasy alliance between the Musk-Thiel Tech Oligarchy Nazi wing and the Bannon-Loomer-Miller True Believers Nazi wing.
Yes, and how fucked up is this? Far-right Jews - with Miller in particular leading the charge - are among those leading a Holocaust against brown people. It's going to grow so ugly to watch this part of the story go down. But you’re goddamn right, I’m going to be calling out the right-wing Jews trotting out their Judaism to try and cover up the fascism happening now.
Just as a lot of Evangelicals have made far-right ideology their religion, so too will you see the court Jews of the Trump regime trying to provide the same cover. “How offensive it is that you are comparing this internment camp to a death camp in World War II!” Yeah, you know what’s more fucking offensive? Building the fucking camp where there are already reports of human rights abuses. My language and comparisons are offensive because the reality is fucking offensive. There isn’t a “pleasant” or “respectful” way to talk about people in your county being rounded up for indefinite detention in concentration camps.
There are those who genuinely do believe in the racism and authoritarianism, and then there are those who want to just make as much fucking money as they can, who see an opportunity to do so by hitching their cart to some big man using time-tested populist techniques to emotionally manipulate a gullible legion of followers.
More and more, I'm learning how the hidden facts of history, buried in old library books, can often provide the keys to transforming our present. It's time to look back to see what we can learn to try and stop this train from going any further down the tracks ...
On a totally separate note, I bemusedly read Yarvin, AKA "Mencius Moldbug," for a time maybe fifteen years ago or so. He was what I would call "usefully wrong," in that he challenges your views and makes you defend them. He was most cogent when describing the current power structure of the American ideological hegemony, which I know is a preoccupation of Elon "Mind Virus" Musk.
(I might be weird in that I seek out the heterodox—Trotsky, Graeber, etc. If I can't identify why my views are superior to theirs, it means I have homework to do.)
Something I've never gotten a clear answer about from everyone who claims they just want immigrants to do it "the right way":
As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong), hiring a coyote to smuggle your family across the border can run anywhere from $1k-$10k per person. People who go that route often have to empty their life savings for a dangerous crossing with no guarantee they'll even survive.
If it's that difficult and expensive to do it the illegal way, how much more difficult must it be to go through the legal process, which (again, correct me if I'm wrong) includes a years-long vetting process for not only the people actually trying to enter, but everyone they've had even the briefest contact with in their lives (okay, that last part is a slight exaggeration, but you get my point)?
Further, how can we seriously expect people fleeing crime, oppression, economic collapse and other dangers to life and limb to just stay put while going through this process, which might end with them being denied entry if someone in their child's third-grade class has a relative in a gang, with no refund on the time and money they've already spent jumping through flaming hoops suspended over shark tanks?