“Unite the White” would have been a more appropriate title. August 12th marks the one year anniversary of the infamous Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, and the anniversary reunion was ostensibly organised to defend “white civil rights.”
Round two did not quite live up to its expectations. The previous year saw thousands of protesters (white nationalists, alt-righters, confederate heritage defenders and neo-nazis) clashing with counter-protesters (antifa and black lives matter as well as various churches and other non-violent groups) as the police and National Guard failed to prevent violence from erupting. The most shocking event of the original rally was the murder of Heather Heyer, a peaceful counter-protester that was run down by a psychopath in a car (representing the so-called “right” of the conflict).
This obvious tragedy aside, my reaction to the original rally at large was best expressed by Candace Owens: who cares, we have bigger problems to worry about than this silly drag act. In fact, aside from big theatrical shows of strength like Charlottesville, I don’t take the claims of white nationalists very seriously. If white nationalists in the USA are really concerned with forming a white ethno-state, why don’t they move up to somewhere like Maine or New Hampshire where the white population is very high and there is very little ethnic migration? For all their parades and publications, I am not convinced that many white nationalists are really sincere about their goals. It may be that, like their far left counter-parts, they just like to play self-made victims with an unhealthy obsession with group identity.
For the anniversary event, held in Washington after a failed attempt to obtain a permit for Charlottesville, organiser Jason Kessler allegedly demanded “no nazis,” claiming that the rally is simply about white identitarian civil rights and nothing to do with nazism. Quite a shift in tone from last year, which included numerous national-socialist organisations with Matthew Heimbach even booked as a key speaker. However, before you go thinking that Kessler might be a peaceable Jared Taylor-type, recall that after last year’s rally he made public comments claiming that Heathen Heyer deserved to die, even alienating the likes of Richard Spencer.
Speaking of Spencer, he and other ‘leading’ white nationalists and neo-nazis (including the crazies behind Daily Stormer) denounced the event and encouraged their followers not to partake, apparently Kessler is no longer well-liked within American ethno-nationalist circles. This may be why the numbers were rather pathetic, with some estimates claiming less than a hundred attendees, contra several thousand counter-protesters.
There were anticipations that the “anti-fascist” protesters would behave reprehensibly as is usually the case and of course they did not disappoint, getting into scuffles with the police and harassing local media. As usual, the American MSM ignored the violence of the anarcho-communists, comforted by their delusion that their enemy’s enemy is their friend: only our allies at Fox were willing to point out the hypocrisy (thanks Tucker and Tomi). This was the same problem as with the original event, of which it was impossible to find any unbiased, objective account. The closest I found were Keith Preston’s and, most impressively, President Trump’s (Trump and Pence also condemned “violence and racism” ahead of the anniversary event).
First as tragedy, then as farce. What an enormous waste of time for everybody involved. The rally should have never happened, it should have never been counter-protested, and the media should have just ignored it. I’m not even sure why I wrote this article.
C Hill
Last Exit to Albion 