Gord's Notebook : Glenn Spencer: Nativist White Supremacist & The Myth of The Aztlan Conspiracy

UPDATE: 12:54 PM, June 25, 2009

Image at Nativist' anti-immigrant/ anti-Mexican Glenn Spencer's American Patrol link

Above Image from New World Order Watch link at Nativist' Glenn Spencer's anti-immigrant anti-Mexican American Patrol Report.

"The Philosophy Of Race Realism":

"What we call race realism is what was considered traditional common sense until perhaps the 1950s. It is a body of views that was so taken for granted it had no name, but it can be summarized as follows: That race is an important aspect of individual and group identity, that different races build different societies that reflect their natures, and that it is entirely normal for whites (or for people of any other race) to want to be the majority race in their own homeland. If whites permit themselves to become a minority population, they will lose their civilization, their heritage, and even their existence as a distinct people."

From white supremacist anti-immigration organization American Renaissance.com

"This means that even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, people of color, or other scapegoated groups, conspiracism creates an environment where racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of prejudice, bigotry, and oppression are likely to flourish. Decent people of all political stripes need to denounce conspiracy theories as toxic to democracy."

Quote from: "Late Night FDL: Transmitting Extremism" By: David Neiwert, April 6, 2006 firedoglake

Lou Dobbs, Michelle Malkin & others on the right promote the notion of the Azlan Conspiracy Theory.

Glenn Spencer-claiming That the Aztlan Reconquista is real-
- The Second Mexican-American War

American Renaissance conference, 2000.

The Nation of Aztlan as presented by the anti-immigration

www.immigrationwatchdog.com

and from Michelle Malkin fear mongering about the Aztlan Conspiracy & the Reconquesta:

"Welcome to Reconquista" By Michelle Malkin ,March 27, 2006

As Mickey Kaus points out, the reporters at the Los Angeles Times (and all other major media, for that matter) have downplayed the radical ethnic separatism that characterized the pro-illegal immigration rallies over the weekend. While the Times misleadingly asserted that the Los Angeles rally “featured more American flags than those from any other country,” its reporters conveniently ignored marchers with extremist signs and banners advocating America-undermining concepts of reconquista and Aztlan:

These sentiments, as I’ve noted before, are not limited to ethnic fringe groups–but also mainstream Democrat politicians and campus chapters of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or MEChA.

Most of the members of the open-borders media won’t dare breathe a word about this militant phenomenon, lest they be accused of…racism. Oh, the irony.

Welcome to reconquista.

Where are all the assimilationists now?

and Lou Dobbs:

and on Lou Dobbs racist rhetoric & fear mongering about immigrants & the Aztlan Conspiracy.

"Lou Dobbs' Dubious Guest List" by Bill Berkowitz at CommonDreams.org, July 1, 2006

...Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a longtime media watchdog group, notes that Dobbs regularly stirs up anti-immigrant sentiment on his nightly programme.

"Dobbs' tone on immigration is consistently alarmist; he warns his viewers of Mexican immigrants who see themselves as an 'army of invaders' intent upon re-annexing parts of the Southwestern U.S. to Mexico, announces that 'illegal alien smugglers and drug traffickers are on the verge of ruining some of our national treasures,' and declares that 'the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans' through 'deadly imports' of diseases like leprosy and malaria," the group said.

The mix of legal & illegal-immigration ,Nativism, racism White Supremacy & Aztlan conspiracy theory.

One of the conspiracy theories promulgated by the anti-immigration movement is that of The Aztlan Conspiracy theory. Aztlan it is claimed was once the homeland of many of the indigenous people in Mexico & its bordering American states before the conquest by Europeans after 1492.According to the theory the Mexican & latino illegal & legal immigrants intend to take back the land which was once part of Aztlan but which has been incorporated into the United States .

In reality the only ones who have been most vocal about this claim are the American Nativists & other anti-immigration groups & Eurocentric Americans & white supremacists. This conspiracy theory appears to have originated with the Nativist Glenn Spencer of American Patrol.

extract from " The Nativists " Southern Poverty Law Center Winter 2005, Intelligence Report

If there were a Paul Revere of the anti-immigration movement, it would be Glenn Spencer, a vitriolic Mexican-basher who may have done more than anyone to spread the myth of a secret Mexican conspiracy to reconquer the Southwest.

"The so-called reconquista, an alleged plot to turn several American states into a Mexican state or some kind of puppet government controlled by Mexico, has been a top concern for Spencer for years. Back in 1999, he put it like this: "The consul general says Mexico is reconquering California. A Mexican intellectual suggests that anyone who doesn't like Mexicans should leave California. What else do you need to hear? RECONQUISTA IS REAL... . EVERY ILLEGAL ALIEN IN OUR NATION MUST BE DEPORTED IMMEDIATELY. ... IF WE CAN BOMB THE TV STATION IN BELGRADE [in the former Yugoslavia] WE CAN SHUT DOWN [U.S. Spanish-language stations] TELEMUNDO AND UNIVISION."

Spencer got involved in the anti-immigration movement in 1992, when he formed Voice of Citizens Together, also known as American Patrol, in California. In 2002, saying the battle was lost in that state, he moved to the "front lines" of the Arizona border, where he formed American Border Patrol. He was one of the first to call for border citizens' patrols and pioneered the use of surveillance technology.

He also was one of the first well-known anti-immigration activists to more or less openly court white supremacists and anti-Semites. He has attended conferences of American Renaissance magazine, which specializes in racist theories about blacks and others. He interviewed the magazine's editor, Jared Taylor, on his syndicated radio show. Another guest was California State Professor Kevin MacDonald, who is the architect of an elaborate anti-Semitic theory dressed up as evolutionary biology."

Here are some examples of topics found on Glenn Spencer's site Glenn Spencer's American Patrol Report:Citizenship / Sovereignty / Law

at Obama Watch at American Patrol.com

Can the US Constitution survive dictator Obama?
The Mexican Flu Map
America Betrayed Radio Show
Obama and new world order: Part I
The Narcissist in Chief
Hearing set on default in Obama eligibility case (Birthers)
Every "law" Obama signs brings us closer to........ (socialism, Totalitarianism)
B. Hussein Obama and the End of America
Video : The Obama Deception

and at its link to Family Valuses we find lurid headlines at American Patrol Family Values such as:
Suspected invader indicted on child molestation charges
One illegal alien... nine little girls molested!
Woman accused in child sex assault extradited to U.S.
Child molesting invader sentenced to 80 years
Alleged invader charged with sexually assaulting 9 girls

At American Patrol website there is a link to the video below by the Paranoid Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones who promotes the existence of so-called FEMA Concentration Camps & that 9/11 was an inside job of Zionists & Illuminati & the Coming of "The New World Order" & other bizarre conspiracies.Though it should be said that these days he has some stiff competition from Fox News & Glenn Beck & others on the right who seem to come up with their own bizarre conspiracy theories every other week.Though it is arguable that they merely use "conspiracy thories " as part of their strategy to undermine the Obama administration with the American public at large or at least to incite & fire up their conservative base.

B. Hussein Obama and the End of America

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Our intention is not to add any validity to the Aztlan Conspiracy theory but to expose it as another lie touted by fear mongering Nativist and white supremacists and which incredibly has been picked up some conservative & right wing members of the mainstream media.

The so-called Aztlan conspiracy originates & is promulgated by anti-immigration extremists ,nativists & white Supremacists such as Glenn Spencer but what is disturbing is that the mainstream media spews forth this erroneous conspiracy theory as if it were the truth. The media promotes the notion that the Latino immigrants intend to take back a large part of the United States which according to the Aztlan conspiracy once belonged to their ancestors.:

Reconquista! at Orcinus, April 17, 2006

In case anyone's wondering, this latest conspiracy theory in fact originated on the far right -- specifically, with Glenn Spencer, leader of American Patrol...

Working in league with communist Chicano activists and their allies in America, Spencer warns, Mexico is using a little-known but highly effective plan ý a scheme already successful in "seizing power" in California ý "to defeat America."

The name of the conspiracy is the "Plan de Aztlan."

"Some scoff at the idea of a Mexican plan of conquest," says Spencer's video (which also features a scuffle between VCT and antiracist activists). The video then answers with an assortment of sound bites from Latino activists and Mexican officials -- including references to "la reconquista" (the reconquest) -- that "prove" that there is a Mexican plot to break the Southwestern states away.

A "hostile force on our border," the narrator warns, is engaging in "demographic war" against the United States. "Mexico is moving to capture the American Southwest."

Variations on this Aztlan conspiracy theory are now widespread on the American radical right. Columnists like Francis and Joseph E. Fallon, who has written on the subject for journals including American Renaissance and Mankind Quarterly, a publication specializing in race "science," have helped to publicize variations of the theory.

...Of course, Michelle Malkin and the Washington Times will never tell you that this is where these theories originate. Nor will they ever be able to demonstrate that the notion of reconquista exists among Latino immigrants as anything more than a fringe element.

All that they can do is offer anecdotal evidence, mostly pictures of people carrying signs claiming they belong here. And they'll tell you that what they're claiming is that this country belongs to Mexico -- when no such claim is in sight.

What matters to people like Malkin is whipping up their audience, appealing to their fears. Because fearful people are irrational people, and likely to defer to authority; malleable, because they're eager to be safe. For the lot of them, scapegoats are de rigeur.

What matters to the rest of us, though, is that yet another innately racist appeal from the far right gets neatly repackaged and sold to mainstream Americans as somehow legitimate. And that, folks, is how transmission works.

The North American Union:Right-wing Populist Conspiracism Rebounds By Chip Berlet at Public Eye.org, spring 2008, Vol.23,No.1

... When a society is undergoing transition or turmoil, social movements can arise that portray the idealized nation as being subverted by alien ideas. This can involve internal or external forces, or both, and it can involve the idea that the government is part of the conspiracy, or that the government is being subverted from within, or both. This complexity is one reason mainstream analysts often dismiss such conspiracy theories as “crackpot” or “irrational.”

In a healthy national community, few take conspiracy claims seriously. When conspiracy theories develop a mass base, it is usually an indication of some ailment in the body politic. This is often related to a sense of powerlessness and the feeling that the average person no longer has any real role in influencing government decisions that touch their daily lives.

...It is clear that some white racial supremacist and neofascist organizers use conspiracist theories that do not appear to have racist or antisemitic themes as a relatively less-threatening entry point in making contact with potential recruits. Phrases such as “international bankers,” “welfare queens,” and “one world government” are interpreted in different ways by different listeners, and can be viewed as coded appeals with bigoted subtexts.

This means that even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, people of color, or other scapegoated groups, conspiracism creates an environment where racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of prejudice, bigotry, and oppression are likely to flourish. Decent people of all political stripes need to denounce conspiracy theories as toxic to democracy.

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David Neiwert argues that what was once the beliefs & ideology of extremist fringe groups in the 1980s & 1990s has now become part of the mainstream but rebranded.

"Late Night FDL: Transmitting Extremism" By: David Neiwert, April 6, 2006 firedoglake

What was most disturbing was, even in 2000, the way the mainstream conservative agenda was beginning to resemble the politics of longtime racists like David Duke and Richard Butler, the Aryan Nations leader: bashing welfare recipients, attacking affirmative action, complaining about "reverse discrimination," calling for the elimination of immigrants. Since then, this trend has only accelerated, to the point that old-fashioned haters like Duke and the National Alliance are finding their ranks thinned by followers who just become Republicans.

Conservative-movement bloggers have not only played a critical role in this trend, they have proven to be the most reliable way of transmitting ideas from the racist far right by repackaging them in mainstream clothes, and even worse, generating sympathy for racist beliefs. ..

.. it had become clear that white supremacy was finding ways to creep back into the mainstream. This was particularly evident in the popularity of the so-called "militia" (or Patriot) movement of the 1990s, which was a direct offshoot of the Aryan Nations' "Christian Identity" belief system, which promoted the notion of seemingly mainstream "Christian Patriots" as their ideal followers.

The main mechanism for converting mainstream conservatives into right-wing extremists and white nationalists is a process I call transmission: extremist ideas and principles are repackaged for mainstream consumption, stripped of overt racism and hatefulness and presented as ordinary politics. As these ideas advance, they create an open environment for the gradual adoption of the core of bigotry that animates them.

This strategy was first enunciated by Patrick Buchanan back in 1989, in a nationally syndicated column that expressed a level of kinship with David Duke, who at that point was building momentum in a bid to win the Louisiana governorship. Buchanan thought the GOP overreacted to Duke and his Nazi "costume" by denouncing him; he urged:

Take a hard look at Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not in conflict with GOP principles, [such as] reverse discrimination against white folks.

...But in Malkin's case, the thread from far-right extremism to mainstream consumption is especially pronounced, since she herself has a considerable history of dalliances and associations with extremists and far-right organizations, most notably VDare, the SPLC-designated hate group that publishes not just Malkin's work but that of Steve Sailer and Jared Taylor.

Malkin, of course, has never explained her association with VDare... Similarly, they never confront the effects of their reliance on old appeals from the far right, because that would undermine the whole enterprise.

Rather, they trot them out for consumption and play coy about any of the deeper implications of what they're saying. Then, they leave it up to their readers to complete the connection.

Thus, the editors at sites like Little Green Footballs, Free Republic, or RedState provide few substantive instances of outright racism -- but plenty of examples of repackaged extremism. Their commenters, however, are another story altogether; as we've seen, their audiences are all too glad to revel in the underlying bigotry.

The end result is a poisonous environment in which not merely the ideas, but the endemic attitudes and worldview, of the racist right receive not just fresh clothes but a whole new generation of adherents. This is why, for instance, so much naked eliminationism aimed not just at illegal immigrants and Muslims but, generically, "treasonous" American liberals has become inextricably interwoven with right-wing rhetoric in recent years.

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Politics of hate & racism- courting/ pandering to racists & haters for votes

Holocaust Museum Shooter, von Brunn, no 'lone wolf'
Ron Walters/NNPA Columnist, District Chronicles, June 21,2009

...But was he really? We make two points. So-called "lone wolves" are part of a larger official community which gives them substantial legitimacy and two, when that legitimacy falters they are most likely to show their violent fangs.

With the upsurge of the conservative movement, racist violence and hate speech became staples used to mobilize people, not necessarily into racist groups, but also into campaigns and voters for elected officials.

When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, not only did he open his campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., where civil rights martyrs Schwerner Goodman and Chaney were killed by the Klan, but Klan members took off their sheets and staged "Vote for Ronald Reagan" rallies at events on the campaign trail.

And even though Reagan mildly repudiated their support, the new road to the legitimacy of the radical right had been forged.

...When in 1999, Democrat, Rep. Robert Wexler (CA) attempted to pass a resolution condemning the Council of Conservative Citizens, a new version of the supremacist group, White Citizens Council, Republicans blocked it. Politicians who had associations with the council included Senators Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, Bob Barr, Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice and others.

This led Wexler to ask why the Congress could pass a resolution denouncing Black hate speech by Khalid Muhammad, then of the Nation of Islam by 97-0, but did nothing in this case.

That same year, Congress also refused to denounce the speech of Republican Sen. Ernest Hollings who called Black people "darkies" and Hispanics "wetbacks" and said that African heads of state came to International conferences to "get a square meal instead of eating each other."

With the latest change of administrations it may appear that legitimacy for racism has weakened, and so the "lone wolves" may come out once more.