Petr
Administrator
Christian Nationalism Isn’t An Op
July 27, 2022
Hunter Wallace
I keep hearing this in the comments.
I’ve seen it a bunch of times on social media.
Basically, it is secular or pagan White Nationalists insisting that Christian nationalism is some kind of op to subvert White Nationalism. They don’t understand why we are talking about this.
1. We’re talking about it because the trend is driving the news cycle. I write about the news. If it is news, I have probably heard about it and have an opinion on it.
2. We’re talking about it because people like Doug Mastriano and Michael Peroutka have won several Republican primaries.
3. We’re talking about it because Roe v. Wade was recently struck down.
4. We’re talking about it because the Republican base has become radicalized over the past three or four years and the biggest shift by far has occurred among White evangelical Protestants.
5. Most importantly, we’re talking about it because this is where all the action is these days. This is where we are having success. These are the people who are “waking up,” not Reddit suburban atheists.
4 out of 10 Republican voters are White evangelicals.
8 out of 10 Republican voters are Christians.
The overwhelming majority of nationalists and populists in this country are conservative Christians who tend to live in small towns, rural areas and small metros. Those people are the elephant in American politics. Secular White Nationalists or pagan Nationalists are like the flea on the ass of the elephant. Virtually all self-described atheists and pagans skew toward the Far Left.
See, for example, their views on gender:
Abortion:
Homosexuality:
Casual sex and open relationships:
Trans:
In recent years, the elephant in our politics – the White evangelical Protestant base of the GOP – has quietly gotten redpilled on a bunch of issues. These people are telling pollsters under Joe Biden all kinds of things like “journalists” are a bunch of Satan worshipping child molesters or that they would be better off if their state seceded from the Union or that Christians should establish their dominion over our government and culture or that they are armed and ready to fight Civil War 2 or that they are angry about Whites being replaced by non-White immigrants. This is where the GOP base is at these days.
Occasionally, the spotlight shifts back to secular and pagan White Nationalists. This usually happens when someone on 8chan has a meltdown and commits a mass shooting that horrifies the country and spurs calls for gun control or when people with Nazi flags parade around Turning Point USA or when Richard Spencer endorses something like drag queens or another MSNBC talking point in a hot take and it creates a stir in that space that befuddles and amuses outsiders. Some of the people we used to be associated with have gone down the well trod self-marginalizing road of creating their own fake make believe racial religion and walling themselves off from the outside world to ensure their total irrelevance.
I’ve watched the secular Alt-Right space stagnate and decline. I believe it has happened for two reasons. The first is that people who are college educated atheists and pagans – presumably, the target demographic – overwhelmingly skew to the Far Left and so the growth in that swath of the population fuels the Left. Although they are vocal on the internet, the people who identify as atheists and racial nationalists are extreme outliers who have taken an unusual path. The second is that making anti-Christianity such a central part of their message and platform alienates and repulses normies who are otherwise sympathetic to nationalism and share many of the same grievances. Thus, the only people who are still in business and growing are those who for whatever reason (maybe they didn’t read Nietzsche?) are not inclined to do this. The space never recovered from Richard Spencer’s leadership. I’m no fan of Nick Fuentes, but he grasps these dynamics: to grow on the Right, your message has to resonate with Christians.
Once again, Christian nationalism is in the news because White evangelicals have radicalized since the George Floyd riots and because Dump lost the 2020 election and said it was stolen from him and because Joe Biden is pushing them to the Right as Democratic presidents always do. We’re celebrating the development because it is more important to radicalize the elephant in the room – the White evangelical Protestant base of the GOP, which is tens of millions of people who dominate entire states – than to cater to the most absurd ideas of a fringe of anti-Christian White Nationalists with Reddit priors.
Ask yourself … why aren’t we talking about you? Why aren’t you making waves? What happened to the Alt-Right? Maybe it is because it has become much more plausible to imagine Christian normies getting more radical and rightwing than you ever going anywhere and attracting a politically significant following to your laughingstock atheist personality cults like Apolloism? Do you guys get together and reassure yourselves that assuming there are no ops that this is the year that something like Apolloism or Atomwaffen breaks out into the mainstream?
In the real world, the overwhelming majority of people who are pro-White, who are rightwing in their politics, who see themselves as nationalists are Christians. The strength of White racial identity is strongly associated with religiosity to the point where White and Christian are synonymous to millions of normies. This has been true across all of American history. It remains true today. Even the Nazis were Christians. The least religious Whites are far more liberal and antiracist than everyone else. White evangelical Protestants are more rightwing across the board than all other groups. Developments in this world matter a lot more because the Right is so Christian that what happens there shapes the politics of the entire country. We should be engaging with these people and finding common ground with them.
Anyway, it is crystal clear now to all observers – pro-White or anti-White – that the trajectory of White evangelical Protestants, not Trad Caths or Orthobros or the secular Alt-Right or any other extremely online fad, is the thing to watch over the next few years. These people are getting extremely radical in a very short period of time. We need to focus on conducting the revolution in attitudes that is happening there under the surface into something positive. At least that is my belief. These people are persuadable on key issues as their recent interest in secession and the Great Replacement shows.
I’m watching this, laughing at the back and forth, doing a little trolling and cheering it on. I’m enjoying watching one side accuse the other of “Christofascism” which responds and accuses the other side of being a bunch of Satan worshipping pedophiles who are grooming children into homosexuals. I think it makes sense to encourage this polarization and to egg it on and see where it goes. Hopefully, the two sides can be persuaded that they loathe each so much that they should part ways in a peaceful National Divorce.
I hear what you are saying: Christians suck, Christians are dumb and Christianity is a Jewish religion, but Christian nationalism is a gay op to deter Christians from responding to this highly effective pitch you are making that otherwise would be convincing disaffected Christians to flock to your atheist or pagan racial nationalist subculture en masse and join forces with the White shitlibs who are wrecking the country and physically attacking you in the streets to create a White ethnostate. My point is that no one is really listening and that these developments are happening independently in the MAGA space in evangelical churches.
The rising trend of nationalism was different a few years ago. What happened to it? Where did all that energy go? White evangelicals getting more radical under Joe Biden aren’t the reason it all dissipated. It was largely due to one act of self sabotage after another and leaders who weren’t ready for primetime and cracked in front of a national audience.