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Atlantic
5 days ago
- Politics
- Atlantic
What to Do With the Most Dangerous Book in America
Recently, I was invited to the Dalkey Book Festival, in Ireland, to speak at a session titled 'Books That Changed the World.' I assumed that, as a Shakespeare scholar, I was expected to talk about the global impact of the First Folio. Instead, frightened by what has been happening in America, I decided to choose a book that is changing the world right now. For that, I turned to a 1978 novel I had long heard of but never read: The Turner Diaries, by William Luther Pierce, a physicist and the founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. I knew that that the novel had once served as a deadly template for domestic terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, who drew from its pages when he planned the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, and Robert Jay Mathews, whose white-supremacist gang took its name, the Order, from the novel; a member of the Order killed the Jewish radio host Alan Berg. I also knew that it had inspired John William King, part of a group that dragged James Byrd Jr., a Black man, to death behind a pickup truck. As King shackled Byrd to the vehicle, he was reported to have said, 'We're going to start The Turner Diaries early.' The book is a vile, racist fantasy culminating in genocide, but it isn't just a how-to manual for homegrown terrorists. What has been labeled the 'bible of the racist right' has influenced American culture in a way only fiction can—by harnessing the force of storytelling to popularize ideas that have never been countenanced before. Literature can be mind opening, but it can also be corrosive, and there is no exaggeration in saying that The Turner Diaries and books like it have played a part in spreading hateful ideas that now even influence government policy. Seeking a copy online, I was led directly to Amazon. I was surprised to find the book available on that site, which had reportedly stopped selling it after the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Before then, according to a New York Times article about the ban, Amazon had marketed the book alongside a warning identifying it as 'a racist, white supremacist fantasy.' Amazon had justified the sale of what it acknowledged to be an 'infamous work'—one that has now reportedly sold as many as half a million copies—because of the novel's 'historical significance and educational role in the understanding and prevention of racism and acts of terrorism.' I found that to be a sound policy; I would no more ban offensive books, which need to be studied and analyzed, than I would prevent scientists from investigating infectious pathogens. It was only after reading the novel that I fully grasped why Amazon had previously decided to remove it from its site after a mob of Donald Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol. Proud Boys had helped organize and lead that assault, encouraged a few months earlier when Trump was asked during a presidential debate to condemn the group and replied: 'Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!' The month before the January 6 attack, in a livestreamed video, Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys leader, described government officials as 'evil scum' who 'deserved to die a traitor's death'—to which another leader, Ethan Nordean, replied, 'Yup, Day of the Rope.' That was the name that Pierce gave, in The Turner Diaries, to the day when enemies are lynched, 'a grim and bloody day, but an unavoidable one' orchestrated in hopes of 'straightening out the majority of the population and reorienting their thinking.' The appearance on January 6 of a gallows with a noose hanging from it outside the Capitol visually reinforced the allusion to that defining moment in the novel. Biggs and Nordean were later sentenced for their roles in the assault to 17 and 18 years in prison, respectively. (Trump commuted their sentences.) The Turner Diaries tells the story of Earl Turner, who, in the closing years of the 20th century, participates in a revolution that begins as a race war in the United States and results in the annihilation of nonwhite people (and those aligned with them) from the planet. It is told through a series of diary entries that Turner makes from September 16, 1991, to November 9, 1993, the day he pilots an airplane into the Pentagon in a suicide mission. July 19, 1993, is an especially exciting day for him, as Turner witnesses 'what surely must be one of the biggest mass migrations in history,' the evacuation of Black people, Latinos, and immigrants at 'a rate of better than a million a day.' Once nonwhite people are gone, he writes, the 'air seems cleaner, the sun brighter, life more joyous.' The diary entries are framed by a foreword and an epilogue, said to have been written in 2099 and reflecting back on these world-changing events. The novel, which is horrifying and heartless, slowly acclimates readers to greater levels of violence and hatred, with healthy doses of propaganda justifying large-scale murder. Black people are depicted as rapists and cannibals, Jews as rapacious and controlling, and white people who believe in a multicultural society as race traitors who also deserve to die. I purchased the $30 paperback, now in its third edition, the first to be published under William Pierce's name rather than his pseudonym, Andrew Macdonald. The book was advertised on Amazon, shockingly, as a 'futuristic action-adventure novel.' The pitch for the book had gotten a thorough makeover, the stain of extremist violence whitewashed by a seemingly innocent, policy-based appeal. Amazon no longer warned customers that The Turner Diaries was infamous; it offered only the publisher's description of the novel as one 'that warns us of how American society might unravel if the immigration and racial policies being pursued then—which are being pursued to an even greater extent today—were allowed to continue.' This language, which existed on sales pages before January 6, also appears on other sites where the book has remained available online, including Books-A-Million and On Amazon, the book's publisher, which is presumably the creator of the alarming description, was listed as the innocuous-sounding Cosmotheist Books. A search for the publisher leads to the National Alliance, which invites new members committed to 'a thorough rooting out of Semitic and other non-Aryan values.' Amazon was sharing profits from the book with a neo-Nazi organization, one that I was now indirectly funding. That the book had appeared for sale again on Amazon now that Trump is president again didn't strike me as all that surprising. The start of Trump's second term calls to mind familiar themes from the novel. I am not suggesting that the president or those in his immediate circle have read it—only that the book, now in circulation for roughly half a century, has informed the thinking of people who yearn to 'make America great again' by expelling immigrants and appealing to white grievances. In The Turner Diaries, those who have governed America are blamed for granting 'automatic citizenship to everyone who had managed to sneak across the Mexican border,' and liberalism is derided as 'an essentially feminine, submissive world view.' Anger is also directed at the mainstream media: 'One day we will have a truly American press in this country, but a lot of editors' throats will have to be cut first.' When the current Trump administration reportedly pushed out two Black military leaders, General Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Lieutenant General Telita Crosland, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's broader calls to rid the armed forces of DEI, I couldn't help thinking of Turner's lament that the U.S. Army was more than 40 percent Black, and that 'the day will come when we must make our move inside the military.' In May, Trump invited white South African refugees to America. When asked by a journalist why he had done so, he repeated the sort of discredited claims of white genocide that fill the pages of The Turner Diaries, while blaming the press for covering it up: 'It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about.' (South Africa does have a very high murder rate, but overwhelmingly, the victims are Black.) The roundups and expulsions in the novel rhyme with the Trump administration's error-prone but unapologetic deportation strategy. Some purges in The Turner Diaries are based on mistaken identities and false accusations, but 'there was no admitting to the possibility of mistakes'; acting with 'arbitrariness and unpredictability' was part of the plan. On June 15, Trump posted on Truth Social words that echo the novel's xenophobic rhetoric: 'We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities' to 'reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.' It may be a coincidence that the Los Angeles metropolitan area, to which Trump has deployed Marines and the National Guard, is the site deliberately chosen in the novel to trigger the violent clashes that foment militarization in the country. I would be interested to know whether Stephen Miller, the Trump adviser responsible for overseeing the recent harsh immigration roundups in Los Angeles, has read Pierce's novel; we do know that he sent emails to Breitbart News recommending Jean Raspail's 1973 The Camp of the Saints, a novel that the Southern Poverty Law Center has called 'a sort of anti-immigration analog to The Turner Diaries. ' The center's website still warns about the dangers of both books. Recently, I went back to Amazon, only to discover that The Turner Diaries had disappeared: By early June, the site had erased all traces of the novel. The title had even vanished from my browsing history. I reached out to Amazon; a spokesperson referred me to content guidelines prohibiting the promotion of 'hate speech' and confirmed that the title had been discovered and removed. What they wouldn't tell me is why it had been briefly available, even on Amazon's sites in Germany and Canada, countries where The Turner Diaries has been banned. I wondered whether the books' appearance was a subversive act by an employee who holds extremist sympathies, or was perhaps authorized by someone who had seen Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, squelch the endorsement of Kamala Harris in The Washington Post (which he owns) and donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration. But this is speculation. What is badly needed is transparency. The Turner Diaries may remain invisible to many Americans, but its effect on what is happening in the country today is plain to see.
Irish Post
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Post
'Peace, not war' - Bernie Sanders tells Cork on Irish visit
Irish Post commentator PETER KELLY went walkabout with former US presidential hopeful in Ireland's 'Second City' From Cork City Hall to Connolly Hall SIPTU union event with Lord Mayor Dan Boyle IT'S not every day that a US presidential hopeful is seen on walkabout in Ireland's second city. At the end of May Senator Bernie Sanders prompted many a second glance among Cork's residents as he strode through its small streets. The man who vied for the US Democratic Party's presidential nomination both in 2016 and 2020 was on an Irish visit to promote the benefits of union labour, its heritage and to encourage world peace. He gave speeches at union buildings in both Dublin then Cork, and was the keynote speaker at the capital's Tressell Festival, then to a sell-out public audience in the renowned Vicar Street Theatre near the Guinness Brewery. Senator Sanders with wife Dr Jane O'Meara Sanders beneath Shandon Bells Church The 83-year-old veteran US Senator was earlier afforded an audience with 84-year old Irish President Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in Phoenix Park. Their fond interaction went viral on social media and Mr Sanders signed the distinguished visitors book in what is known as the Irish White House. The Vermont native had met President Higgins in 2018 at Dublin's Dalkey Book Festival and this year was joined by his Irish-American wife, Dr Jane O'Meara Sanders. Sláinte! Celebrating labour union icon Mary 'Mother' Jones' legacy However, it was in Ireland's second city that Mr Sanders made the most memorable impression. From cordial fellow train passengers en route to Cork, to the city's lord mayor, TDs and the pro-union audience in its offices, it was a surreal sight seeing Bernie Sanders traverse the small city and streets of the inner city, as locals looked on bemused. The ironic apex of his visit was surely the butchers' shop-stop, where local union labour historians regaled him of tales of Mother Jones, the locally-born union activist who organised workers in the US in the late 1800s is celebrated. The sight of Senator Sanders in historic Cork lanes, behind the counter, flanked by carnivorous staff in aprons prompted his comment that "I've been to many openings and events, and let me tell you this, it's the first time ever that me and Jane have ever been to a butcher's shop,' he joked. 'Thank you, Cork.' Bernie Sanders arrives from Dublin at Cork's Kent Station With an Irish whiskey toast Sanders departed with well-worn wisdom for local Lee-siders, advice to honour long established Irish-American ties. "It's imperative" he said, "that we all stand together to remember our common humanity, and that all the children in the world have a right to live with food, with education, with security. And that we strive for a world of peace and not war." Peter Kelly See More: Cork, Senator Sanders, US Politics
Irish Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Rick O'Shea: ‘My wife and I come from very working-class backgrounds, so we think savings are important'
Rick O'Shea is a veteran DJ and radio presenter who has worked with RTÉ since 2001, currently with RTÉ Gold. He is taking part in Dalkey Book Festival, which runs June 12th-15th. Are you a saver or a spender? If you had asked me that question a few years ago, I would have told you I wasn't a saver, but that was only because there was never money left over to save. In recent times that has changed a little. Both my wife and I come from very working-class backgrounds, so a cushion of savings is something we think is important to have. What was the first job you received money for, and how much were you paid? The only job I have ever had is being a radio presenter. My first full-time job was when I was 19, playing late-night love songs on a local radio station. I think I was paid the princely sum of £60 a week. In 1992 it didn't quite pay the rent on the Bray-based bungalow I was living in. Do you shop around for better value? If it's something big, of course. We had our bathroom completely changed recently and there seemed to be endless months of getting quotes from different companies. If it's something like cereal, or groceries, probably not. READ MORE What has been your most extravagant purchase, and how much did it cost? I rarely buy expensive stuff such as technology or flash clothes, so the only thing I'd ever call extravagant is travel. After a year of hard saving, we went to Japan and South Korea in 2015, and it cost somewhere in the region of €10,000. [ 'I recently bought a sofa worth about €10,000 new for €380 on Done Deal' Opens in new window ] What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money? On the same trip, I bought what I call my Japanese jumper. It's a long cardigan thing that I bought drunkenly late one night in Hiroshima. I've worn it around the house for the last decade, and there are strict instructions that in the event of my untimely death, I am to be buried in it. Is there anything you regret spending money on? Every nonsense purchase I made in my 20s. I built up a stupid credit-card debt that took years to pay off but it taught me never to do the same thing again. I have a credit card now as they're handy when it comes to checking into hotels on holidays, but I never use it otherwise. Do you haggle over prices? Not really. I think you either have the gene for that or you don't. My father is the exact opposite; it's in his blood. The man loves nothing better than a good haggle over €1 or €2 at a car-boot sale for an album he is interested in. Do you invest in shares and/or cryptocurrency? No to both, probably because I view them as gambles that I'm ill-equipped to take. I'm exactly the sort of person who would invest in stocks the day the market crashes or into a pump-and-dump crypto scheme. I'm sure some people do very well at these things, but I'm not wired that way. Do you have a retirement or pension plan? When I started working in RTÉ in 2001, one of the few smart things I have ever done was say yes when I was asked if I wanted to enrol in the pension plan. I'm also the sort of person who never takes it for granted that I'll make it to 65, so who knows, it may all have been a terrible waste of money. [ Rick O'Shea: 'I was never passionate about the idea of being on the radio' Opens in new window ] What was the last thing you bought and was it good value for money? Tickets to the stage version of My Neighbour Totoro, the new Conor McPherson play The Brightening Air , and the upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim's final musical, Here We Are – all in London and all for my birthday. With very rare exceptions, spending money going to shows in London or on Broadway in New York has always been good value over the years, regardless of how much it costs. Have you ever successfully saved up for a relatively big purchase? All the time. Holidays, solar panels and even our car all came from our savings. We don't have loans out for anything at the moment. If we can't afford it, we save for it and wait. Have you ever lost money? No, I don't think I ever have. Are you a gambler and, if so, have you ever had a big win? I have a deep-seated cynicism about big gambling companies. A huge part of their business model is taking advantage of people with addiction issues who can least afford it. I couldn't stomach money I had to work hard for just disappearing down the drain, no matter the small chance of an upside. Remember, the house always wins. What is your best habit when it comes to money? And your worst? I like to think my best habit these days is having the spare money to give to causes online when I see them. I work with a couple of charities, and I'm painfully conscious of how hard fundraising is these days, particularly in a mainly post-cash world, so if I see a cause I care about online, the odds are I'll donate. My worst habit is probably subscribing to things I don't read. I recently had a subscription to New Scientist magazine that was read one week out of every six when it arrived in the letterbox. How much money do you have on you now? I have gotten into the terrible habit of not really carrying cash on me. There's €60 in my wallet right now, and it's been there for over three months. In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
Irish Independent
30-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Independent
Detached bungalow in Dalkey offers sea views and mature garden, just five minutes from centre of village
Asking price: €1.465m Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 275 1000 When it comes to rooms with a view, Knocknacree Park in Dalkey takes some beating. A private enclave of detached homes largely built in the 1960s, it's set on an elevated site with vistas across Dublin Bay. Set in a quiet cul-de-sac, No18 is a 1,668 sq ft bungalow with a C3 BER. It opens into a bright entrance hall with a guest WC off. Also accessed via the entrance hall is a living/dining room with exposed timber beams and an engineered floor. Next to that is a streamlined kitchen/breakfast room with quartz countertops, integrated units and sliding doors to the back garden. Four double bedrooms and a family bathroom complete the accommodation. Outside, there's room to park several cars in the front driveway, and an adjoining garage provides handy storage space. The back garden is laid out in lawn lined with mature trees, shrubs and flowerbeds and has a paved patio for al fresco dining or just relaxing with a good book. Remember, this town is home to the Dalkey Book Festival. It's a handy five-minute walk to Dalkey village, one of south Dublin's most sought-after addresses with its artisan bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and shops. There are excellent public transport links, including the local Dart station from where you can be in the city centre in half an hour. Located within easy reach of popular walking trails through the hills of Dalkey and Killiney, the property is also close to some renowned swimming spots, including the Forty Foot and Vico Bathing Place.
Business Post
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Post
Sian McWilliams' Diary: from hot topics in global politics to a freezing dip in the Forty Foot
Life The co-founder of the Dalkey Book Festival, which runs from June 12 to 15, juggles authors and speakers, while also fitting in a quick trip to her home town of Belfast
