#This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed

[thelibrarywaltz]

Read in April 2024:

The Key To Deceit (Electra McDonnell #2) by Ashley Weaver -> audiobook 🗝️ ☆☆☆☆

This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb Jr. ⛓️‍💥 ☆☆☆½

Crossings by Alex Landragin 🪬 ☆☆☆

Playing It Safe (Electra McDonnell #3) by Ashley Weaver -> audiobook 🌊 ☆☆☆☆

No 5 star reads this month sadly. I was a bit disappointed by Crossings, which had an absolutely brilliant concept, almost a puzzle box of a novel (it can be read straight through as 3 loosely connected short stories, or read in a specific page order that jumps around to make one complete novel) and a fascinating premise but left me feeling zero emotional connection or sympathy for literally any of the characters.

Even though its writing felt a bit repetitive at times, it was incredibly enlightening to read This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed about the gun culture and need for self defense and defense of those practicing nonviolence surrounding the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s - a piece of history I had never heard anything about before. And it was quite satisfying to finally get to the book that’s been on my TBR the longest - since 2019!

Finally, the wonderful thing about not doing any specific reading challenges this year is that I’ve had the time to reread several favorites and finish more books in those series (like the rest of the Winternight Trilogy after rereading The Bear and the Nightingale). I’d wanted to reread A Peculiar Combination and The Key To Deceit last year before the third Electra McDonnell book, Playing It Safe, came out, but I was so tied up in trying to do so many prompts I never got around to it. Now I’ve caught up on the series and only have to wait a couple more weeks before book 4, Locked in Pursuit, comes out. (side note: how cute are those series covers!)

I have to admit, becoming an audiobook listener at work comes with new challenges. Like being up on an 8 foot ladder spreading fireproofing caulk with my earbuds in when the two lead characters FINALLY kiss after almost 3 whole books… and trying not to have a whole face journey about it in case anyone walks by 😂.

… that being said, I would LOVE more audiobook recommendations with delicious slow burn sexual tension! I’m here for the emotional escapism from the construction site 😎

[zurich-snows]

This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights ...

Charles E. Cobb Jr.

[didanawisgi]

“Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. "Just for self-defense," King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend’s Montgomery, Alabama, home as "an arsenal." Like King, many ostensibly "nonviolent" civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, Charles E. Cobb Jr. recovers this history, describing the vital role that armed self-defense has played in the survival and liberation of black communities.  Drawing on his experiences in the civil rights movement and giving voice to its participants, Cobb lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the long history and importance of African Americans taking up arms to defend themselves against white supremacist violence.”

[uispeccoll]

#VoicesfromtheStacks: Recording

Charles E. Cobb Jr.  (1943-   )

The struggle for equal rights in society continues to this day, with the protests around the nation and world making it clear that the fight for equality is not yet over. While we often focus on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in history classes, so much of the Civil Rights Movement was carried by everyday people who did what they could to improve their society for all. 

This is a continuing series focusing on a new audio collection recently added to our archives, which consists of voice recordings from Civil Rights activists recorded between 1963 and 1964.  

During the Mississippi Summer Project (later known as Freedom Summer), activists and civil rights groups from all over the country gathered in Mississippi in an organized effort to register African Americans to vote. The activists and those attempting to register were regularly met with harassment,  intimidation,  and violence.

During this time, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) got  attorney Bob Zellner to record a series of short interviews with civil rights activists in Mississippi and Alabama in order to record their experiences.

Today we would like highlight the interview with Charles Cobb, (Listen here.) Cobb is a journalist, professor, and former SNCC  field secretary, who worked on the ground to organize protests, and help people register to vote, which you can hear him talk about in his recording. He went on to become the author of several books, including On the Road to Freedom, a Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail and This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed. He, along with others from SNCC founded the Drum and Spear bookstore in Washington, D.C. He also worked as a journalist for many years, and is a founding member of the  National Association of Black Journalists.

Read more of Cobb’s story here 

University of Iowa Libraries received a series of recordings of Civil Rights leaders with the papers of Eric Morton. Morton was a SNCC leader, AFSCME organizer and, later, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fort Valley State University of Georgia. He met University of Iowa student and activist Steve Smith over Freedom Summer, creating a life-long friendship. Morton wished to have his papers sit alongside his friend Steve’s papers in the UI archives, for which we are extremely thankful.

--Diane R.

Images from https://www.sncclegacyproject.org/

Learn more about this collection and listen to more recordings here.

[secretcircuit]

went from having finished one (1) book all year to reading 2 in a single weekend just bc they are ebooks from the library and they are due tomorrow lol!

ive been reading a lot of manga so ive been Reading, ive also been reading (unfortunately) some books for work, so at least my brain knows How to read. but i have so many more books i want to get through!

in fact,,, hmm i think i am going to make a list of the books i am reading / have read! under the cut:

read so far:

race after technology by ruha benjamin -- SO good, discusses how technology shapes + often strengthens existing systemic oppression even when it ostensibly tries to do the opposite (eg startups that focus on diversifying hiring). not very long either; if you any interest in how tech feeds into racism, def recommend. also benjamin has some really great work out there. ok no more essays

swimming in the dark by tomasz jedrowski -- gay coming of age story set in communist poland. i feel like it tried to make some political points but 1) idk how salient they were and 2) the emotional focus of the story / the protagonists love for his love interest kind of overshadowed the political element. mostly i am suspicious because part of the protagonist’s “awakening” politically was listening to radio free europe, which is a notorious counterinsurgency tactic (along with radio free asia for example) by the u.s. so like... im not trying to say that there werent flaws in communist poland, since i dont know much abt it, but like, it feels strange to me that there was so much focus on the west. there was also a lot of focus on james baldwin’s novel giovanni’s room, so it’s extra weird that there werent any parts that were like “even as i am drawn to the west i am aware of it being flawed” idk... anyway,,,

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar & max gladstone -- i LOVED this book so much. it is pretty popular so i wont say much about it here but i am so glad i read it. it made me cry

to read:

blood in my eye by george jackson

hammer and hoe by robin d g kelley

captive genders edited by eric a stanley and nat smith

captivating technology by ruha benjamin

this nonviolent stuff’ll get you killed by charles e cobb -- i’m already halfway through, just noting for posterity

little blue encyclopedia (for vivian) by hazel jane plante -- also halfway through this, really enjoying it so far!!!

[innuendostudios]

Research Masterpost

This is my research list for The Alt-Right Playbook. It is a living document - I am typically adding sources faster than I am finishing the ones already on it. Notes and links below the list. Also, please note this does not include the hundreds of articles and essays I’ve read that also inform the videos - this is books, reports, and a few documentaries.

Legend: Titles in bold -> finished Titles in italics -> partially finished *** -> livetweeted as part of #IanLivetweetsHisResearch (asterisks will be a link) The book I am currently reading will be marked as such.

Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis Alternative Influence, by Rebecca Lewis The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer*** Eclipse of Reason, by Max Horkheimer Civility in the Digital Age, by Andrea Weckerle The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt On Revolution, by Hannah Arendt Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley*** This is an Uprising, by Mark and Paul Engler Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandifer This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed, by Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel The Brainwashing of my Dad, doc by Jen Senko On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin*** Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Indoctrination over Objectivity?, by Marrissa S. Ballard Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson Anti-Semite and Jew, by Jean-Paul Sartre Alt-America, by David Neiwert*** The Dictator’s Handbook, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte The Anatomy of Fascism, by Robert O. Paxton Neoliberalism and the Far Right, by Neil Davidson and Richard Saull Trolls Just Want to Have Fun, by Erin E. Buckels, et al The Entrepreneurial State, by Mariana Mazzucato

Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis (free: link) A monstrously useful report from Data & Society which- coupled with Samuel R. Delany’s memoir The Motion of Light in Water - formed the backbone of the Mainstreaming video. I barely scratched the surface of how many techniques the Far Right uses to inflate their power and influence. If you feel lost in a sea of Al-Right bullshit, this will at least help you understand how things got the way they are, and maybe help you discern truth from twaddle.

The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer (free: link) (livetweets) A free book full of research from Bob Altemeyer’s decades of study into authoritarianism. Altemeyer writes conversationally, even jovially, peppering what could have been a dense and dry work with dad jokes. I wouldn’t say he’s funny (most dads aren’t), but it makes the book blessedly accessible. If you ever wanted a ton of data demonstrating that authoritarianism is deeply correlated with conservatism, this is the book. One of the most useful resources I’ve consumed so far, heavily influencing the entire series but most directly the video on White Fascism. Even has some suggestions for how to actually change the mind of a reactionary, which is kind of the Holy Grail of LeftTube.

(caveats: there is a point in the book where Altemeyer throws a little shade on George Lakoff, and I feel he slightly - though not egregiously - misrepresents Lakoff’s arguments)

Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff An extremely useful book about framing. Delves into the differences between the American Right and Left when it comes to messaging, how liberal politicians tend to have degrees in things like Political Science and Rhetoric, where conservatives far more often have degrees in Marketing. This leads to two different cultures, where liberals have Enlightenment-style beliefs that all  you need is good ideas and conservatives know an idea will only be popular if you know how to sell it. He gets into the nuts and bolts of how to keep control of a narrative, because the truth is only effective if the audience recognizes it as such. Kind of staggering how many Democrats swear by this book while blatantly taking none of its advice. Lakoff has been all over the series since the first proper video.

(caveats: several. Lakoff seemingly believes the main difference between the Right and Left is in our default frames, and that swaying conservatives amounts to little more than finding better ways to make the same arguments. he deeply underestimates the ideological divide between Parties, and some of his advice reads as tips for making debates more pleasant but no more productive. he also makes a passing comparison between conservatism and Islam that means well but is a gross and kinda racist false equivalence)

How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley (livetweets) A slog. Many useful concepts, and directly referenced in the White Fascism video. But could have said everything it needed to say in half as many pages. Stanley seems dedicated to framing everything in epistemological terms, not appealing to morality or sentiment, which means huge sections of the book are given over to “proving” democracy is a good thing using only philosophical concepts, when “democracy good” is probably something his readership already accepts. Also has a frustrating tendency to begin every paragraph with a brief summary of the previous paragraph. When he actually talks about, you know, how propaganda works, it’s very useful, and I don’t regret reading it. But I don’t entirely recommend it. Seems written for an imagined PhD review board. Might be better off reading my livetweets.

Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandier A trip. Similar to Jason Stanley, Sandifer is dedicated to “disproving” a number of Far Right ideologies - from transphobia to libertarianism to The Singularity - in purely philosophical terms. The difference is, she’s having fun with it. I won’t pretend the title essay - a 140-page mammoth - didn’t lose me several times, and someone had to remind which of its many threads was the thesis. And some stretches are dense, academic writing punctuated with vulgarity and (actually quite clever) jokes, which doesn’t always average out to the playfully heady tone she’s going for. But, still, frequently brilliant and never less than interesting. There is something genuinely cathartic about a book that begins with the premise that we all fear but won’t let ourselves meaningfully consider - that we will lose the fight with the Right and climate change is going to kill us all - and talks about what we can do in that event. I felt I didn’t even have to agree with the premise to feel strangely empowered by it. Informed the White Fascism video’s comments on transphobia as the next frontier of bigotry since failing to prevent marriage equality.

On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt Was surprised to find this isn’t properly a book, just a printed essay. Highly relevant passage that helped form my description of 4chan in The Card Says Moops: “What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without its being assumed that they are committed to what they say: it is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made for enjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will be encouraged to convey what is on their minds without too much anxiety that they will be held to it. [paragraph break] Each of the contributors to a bull session relies, in other words, upon a general recognition that what he expresses or says is not to be understood as being what he means wholeheartedly or believes unequivocally to be true. The purpose of the conversation is not to communicate beliefs.”

The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin (livetweets) Another freakishly useful book, and the basis for Always a Bigger Fish and The Origins of Conservatism. Jumping into the history of conservative thought, going all the way back to Thomas Hobbes, to stress that conservatism is, and always has been, about preserving social hierarchies and defending the powerful. Robin dissects thinkers who heavily influenced conservatism, from Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche to Carl Menger and Ayn Rand, and finally concluding with Trump himself. There’s a lot of insight into how the conservative mind works, though precious little comment on what we can do about it, which somewhat robs the book of a conclusion. Still, the way it bounces off of Don’t Think of an Elephant and The Authoritarians really brings the Right into focus.

Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Yet another influence on the White Fascism video. Bit of a mixed bag. The opening gives a proper definition of fascism, which is extremely useful. Then the main stretch delves into the landscape of modern fascism, from Alt-Right to Alt-Lite to neofolk pagans to the Proud Boys and on and on. Sometimes feels overly comprehensive, but insights abound on the intersections of all these belief systems (Burley pointing out that the Alt-Right is, in essence, the gentrification of working-class white nationalists like neo-Nazi skinheads and the KKK was a real eye-opener). But the full title is Fascism Today: What it is and How to End it, and it feels lacking in the second part. Final stretch mostly lists a bunch of efforts to address fascism that already exist, how they’ve historically been effective, and suggestions for getting involved. Precious few new ideas there. And maybe the truth is that we already have all the tools we need to fight fascism and we simply need to employ them, and being told so is just narratively unsatisfying. Or maybe it’s a structural problem with the book, that it doesn’t reveal a core to fascism the way Altemeyer reveals a core to authoritarianism and Robin reveals a core to conservatism, so I don’t come away feeling like I get fascism well enough to fight it. But, also, Burley makes it clear that modern fascism is a rapidly evolving virus, and being told that old ways are still the best ways isn’t very satisfying. If antifascism isn’t evolving at least as rapidly, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to win.

(caveats: myriad. for one, Burley repeatedly quotes Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies, which does not inspire confidence. he also talks about “doxxing fascists” as a viable strategy without going into the differences between “linking a name to a face at a public event” and “hacking someone’s email to publicly reveal their bank information,” where the former is the strategy that fights fascism and the latter is vigilantism that is practiced widely on the Right and only by the worst actors on the Left. finally, the one section where Burley discusses an area I had already thoroughly researched was GamerGate, and he got quite a few facts wrong, which makes me question how accurate all the parts I hadn’t researched were. I don’t want to drive anyone away from the book, because it was still quite useful, but I recommend reading it only in concert with a lot of other sources so you don’t get a skewed perspective.)

Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel (Michael Kimmel, it turns out, is a scumbag. This book’s main thesis is that we need to look at violent extremism through the lens of toxic masculinity, so Kimmel’s toxic history with women is massively disappointing. Book itself is, in many ways, good, but, you know, retweets are not endorsement.)

A 4-part examination of how men get into violent extremism through the lens of the organizations that help them get out: EXIT in Germany and Sweden, Life After Hate in the US, and The Quilliam Foundation in Europe and North America. Emphasizing that entry into white nationalism - and, to an extent, jihadism - is less ideological than social. Young men enter these movements out of a need for community, purpose, and a place to put their anger. They feel displaced and mistreated by society - and often, very tangibly, are - and extremism offers a way to prove their manhood. Feelings of emasculation is a major theme. The actual politics of extremism are adopted gradually. They are, in a sense, the price of admission for the community and the sense of purpose. The most successful exit strategies are those that address these feelings of loneliness and emasculation and build social networks outside the movement, and not ones that address ideology first - the ideology tends to wither with the change in environment. The book itself can be a bit repetitive, but these observations are very enlightening.

(caveats: the final chapter on militant Islam is deeply flawed. Kimmel clearly didn’t get as much access to Qulliam as he had to EXIT and Life After Hate, so his data is based far less on direct interviews with counselors and former extremists and much more on other people’s research. despite the chapter stressing that a major source of Muslim alienation is racism, Kimmel focuses uncomfortably much on white voices - the majority of researchers he quotes are white Westerners, and the few interviews he manages are mostly with white converts to Islam rather than Arabs or South Asians. all in all, the research feels thinner, and his claims about militant Islam seem much more conjectural when they don’t read as echos of other people’s opinions.)

Terror, Love and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein A look at totalitarian governments and cults through the lens of attachment theory. While not explicitly about the Far Right, it’s interesting to see the overlap between this and Healing from Hate. Stein stresses that the control dynamics she discusses are not exclusive to cults, and are, in fact, the same ones as in abusive relationships; cults are just the most extreme version. So you can see many similar dynamics in Far Right organizations, like the Aryan Nations or the Proud Boys. It’s made me curious how many of these dynamics are in play in the distributed, less controlled environment of online extremism, and makes me want to look further into the subject before drawing conclusions.

(caveats: book is, as with How Propaganda Works, sometimes a slog and rather repetitive. I clocked a 4-page stretch in chapter 8 where Stein did not say a single thing that hadn’t been said multiple times in previous chapters. also, when talking about people coerced into highly-controlled lifestyles, she offhandedly includes “prostitutes” among them? it’s that liberal conflation of sex work and trafficking which is really not cool. this isn’t a major point, just something to notice while you read it.)

Alt-America, by David Neiwert (livetweets) A look at the actual formation of the Alt-Right, and the history that led up to it: the Militia and Patriot movements of the 90′s, the Tea Party, the rise of Alex Jones and Glenn Beck, and so on. Having been steeped in the rhetoric and tactics of the Far Right for so long, someone doing the work of sitting down and putting it all in chronological order is immensely helpful. Generally clear and well-written, too, and would be an easy read if not for how goddamn depressing the content is. Has an unfortunate final 7 pages, where Neiwert starts recommending actual policy. Falls into the usual “have empathetic conversations with genuine conservatives to turn them against the fascist wing taking over their party,” not recognizing the ways in which conservatism is continuous with fascism, nor the ways that trying to appeal to moderate conservatives alienates the people whose rights they deny. Means an extremely valuable book leaves a bad taste in the final stretch, but everything up to then is aces.

[reading-writing-revolution]

"Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. "Just for self-defense," King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend’s Montgomery, Alabama, home as "an arsenal." Like King, many ostensibly "nonviolent" civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, Charles E. Cobb Jr. recovers this history, describing the vital role that armed self-defense has played in the survival and liberation of black communities.  Drawing on his experiences in the civil rights movement and giving voice to its participants, Cobb lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the long history and importance of African Americans taking up arms to defend themselves against white supremacist violence."

[cornelisdemooij]

Innuendo Studios Research Masterpost - With More Links

This is my research list for The Alt-Right Playbook. It is a living document - I am typically adding sources faster than I am finishing the ones already on it. Notes and links below the list. Also, please note this does not include the hundreds of articles and essays I’ve read that also inform the videos - this is books, reports, and a few documentaries. Legend: Titles in bold -> finished Titles in italics -> partially finished *** -> livetweeted as part of #IanLivetweetsHisResearch (asterisks will be a link) The book I am currently reading will be marked as such. Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis Alternative Influence, by Rebecca Lewis The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer*** Eclipse of Reason, by Max Horkheimer Civility in the Digital Age, by Andrea Weckerle The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt On Revolution, by Hannah Arendt Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley*** This is an Uprising, by Mark and Paul Engler Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandifer (Patreon) This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, by Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel The Brainwashing of my Dad, documentary by Jen Senko On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin*** Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Indoctrination over Objectivity?, by Marrissa S. Ballard Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson Anti-Semite and Jew, by Jean-Paul Sartre Alt-America, by David Neiwert The Dictator’s Handbook, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein <- (currently reading) Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte The Motion of Light in Water, by Samuel R. Delany Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis (free: link) A monstrously useful report from Data & Society which- coupled with Samuel R. Delany’s memoir The Motion of Light in Water - formed the backbone of the Mainstreaming video. I barely scratched the surface of how many techniques the Far Right uses to inflate their power and influence. If you feel lost in a sea of Alt-Right bullshit, this will at least help you understand how things got the way they are, and maybe help you discern truth from twaddle. The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer (free: link) (livetweets) A free book full of research from Bob Altemeyer’s decades of study into authoritarianism. Altemeyer writes conversationally, even jovially, peppering what could have been a dense and dry work with dad jokes. I wouldn’t say he’s funny (most dads aren’t), but it makes the book blessedly accessible. If you ever wanted a ton of data demonstrating that authoritarianism is deeply correlated with conservatism, this is the book. One of the most useful resources I’ve consumed so far, heavily influencing the entire series but most directly the video on White Fascism. Even has some suggestions for how to actually change the mind of a reactionary, which is kind of the Holy Grail of LeftTube. (caveats: there is a point in the book where Altemeyer throws a little shade on George Lakoff, and I feel he slightly - though not egregiously - misrepresents Lakoff’s arguments) Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff An extremely useful book about framing. Delves into the differences between the American Right and Left when it comes to messaging, how liberal politicians tend to have degrees in things like Political Science and Rhetoric, where conservatives far more often have degrees in Marketing. This leads to two different cultures, where liberals have Enlightenment-style beliefs that all you need is good ideas and conservatives know an idea will only be popular if you know how to sell it. He gets into the nuts and bolts of how to keep control of a narrative, because the truth is only effective if the audience recognizes it as such. Kind of staggering how many Democrats swear by this book while blatantly taking none of its advice. Lakoff has been all over the series since the first proper video. (caveats: several. Lakoff seemingly believes the main difference between the Right and Left is in our default frames, and that swaying conservatives amounts to little more than finding better ways to make the same arguments. he deeply underestimates the ideological divide between Parties, and some of his advice reads as tips for making debates more pleasant but no more productive. he also makes a passing comparison between conservatism and Islam that means well but is a gross and kinda racist false equivalence) How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley (livetweets) A slog. Many useful concepts, and directly referenced in the White Fascism video. But could have said everything it needed to say in half as many pages. Stanley seems dedicated to framing everything in epistemological terms, not appealing to morality or sentiment, which means huge sections of the book are given over to “proving” democracy is a good thing using only philosophical concepts, when “democracy good” is probably something his readership already accepts. Also has a frustrating tendency to begin every paragraph with a brief summary of the previous paragraph. When he actually talks about, you know, how propaganda works, it’s very useful, and I don’t regret reading it. But I don’t entirely recommend it. Seems written for an imagined PhD review board. Might be better off reading my livetweets. Neoreaction a Basilisk, by Elizabeth Sandifer (Patreon) A trip. Similar to Jason Stanley, Sandifer is dedicated to “disproving” a number of Far Right ideologies - from transphobia to libertarianism to The Singularity - in purely philosophical terms. The difference is, she’s having fun with it. I won’t pretend the title essay - a 140-page mammoth - didn’t lose me several times, and someone had to remind which of its many threads was the thesis. And some stretches are dense, academic writing punctuated with vulgarity and (actually quite clever) jokes, which doesn’t always average out to the playfully heady tone she’s going for. But, still, frequently brilliant and never less than interesting. There is something genuinely cathartic about a book that begins with the premise that we all fear but won’t let ourselves meaningfully consider - that we will lose the fight with the Right and climate change is going to kill us all - and talks about what we can do in that event. I felt I didn’t even have to agree with the premise to feel strangely empowered by it. Informed the White Fascism video’s comments on transphobia as the next frontier of bigotry since failing to prevent marriage equality. On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt Was surprised to find this isn’t properly a book, just a printed essay. Highly relevant passage that helped form my description of 4chan in The Card Says Moops: “What tends to go on in a bull session is that the participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without its being assumed that they are committed to what they say: it is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel. The main point is to make possible a high level of candor and an experimental or adventuresome approach to the subjects under discussion. Therefore provision is made for enjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will be encouraged to convey what is on their minds without too much anxiety that they will be held to it. [paragraph break] Each of the contributors to a bull session relies, in other words, upon a general recognition that what he expresses or says is not to be understood as being what he means wholeheartedly or believes unequivocally to be true. The purpose of the conversation is not to communicate beliefs.” The Reactionary Mind, by Corey Robin (livetweets) Another freakishly useful book, and the basis for Always a Bigger Fish and The Origins of Conservatism. Jumping into the history of conservative thought, going all the way back to Thomas Hobbes, to stress that conservatism is, and always has been, about preserving social hierarchies and defending the powerful. Robin dissects thinkers who heavily influenced conservatism, from Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche to Carl Menger and Ayn Rand, and finally concluding with Trump himself. There’s a lot of insight into how the conservative mind works, though precious little comment on what we can do about it, which somewhat robs the book of a conclusion. Still, the way it bounces off of Don’t Think of an Elephant and The Authoritarians really brings the Right into focus. Fascism Today, by Shane Burley Yet another influence on the White Fascism video. Bit of a mixed bag. The opening gives a proper definition of fascism, which is extremely useful. Then the main stretch delves into the landscape of modern fascism, from Alt-Right to Alt-Lite to neofolk pagans to the Proud Boys and on and on. Sometimes feels overly comprehensive, but insights abound on the intersections of all these belief systems (Burley pointing out that the Alt-Right is, in essence, the gentrification of working-class white nationalists like neo-Nazi skinheads and the KKK was a real eye-opener). But the full title is Fascism Today: What it is and How to End it, and it feels lacking in the second part. Final stretch mostly lists a bunch of efforts to address fascism that already exist, how they’ve historically been effective, and suggestions for getting involved. Precious few new ideas there. And maybe the truth is that we already have all the tools we need to fight fascism and we simply need to employ them, and being told so is just narratively unsatisfying. Or maybe it’s a structural problem with the book, that it doesn’t reveal a core to fascism the way Altemeyer reveals a core to authoritarianism and Robin reveals a core to conservatism, so I don’t come away feeling like I get fascism well enough to fight it. But, also, Burley makes it clear that modern fascism is a rapidly evolving virus, and being told that old ways are still the best ways isn’t very satisfying. If antifascism isn’t evolving at least as rapidly, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to win. (caveats: myriad. For one, Burley repeatedly quotes Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies, which does not inspire confidence. He also talks about “doxxing fascists” as a viable strategy without going into the differences between “linking a name to a face at a public event” and “hacking someone’s email to publicly reveal their bank information,” where the former is the strategy that fights fascism and the latter is vigilantism that is practiced widely on the Right and only by the worst actors on the Left. Finally, the one section where Burley discusses an area I had already thoroughly researched was GamerGate, and he got quite a few facts wrong, which makes me question how accurate all the parts I hadn’t researched were. I don’t want to drive anyone away from the book, because it was still quite useful, but I recommend reading it only in concert with a lot of other sources so you don’t get a skewed perspective.) Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel (Michael Kimmel, it turns out, is a scumbag. This book’s main thesis is that we need to look at violent extremism through the lens of toxic masculinity, so Kimmel’s toxic history with women is massively disappointing. Book itself is, in many ways, good, but, you know, retweets are not endorsement.) A 4-part examination of how men get into violent extremism through the lens of the organizations that help them get out: EXIT in Germany and Sweden, Life After Hate in the US, and The Quilliam Foundation in Europe and North America. Emphasizing that entry into white nationalism - and, to an extent, jihadism - is less ideological than social. Young men enter these movements out of a need for community, purpose, and a place to put their anger. They feel displaced and mistreated by society - and often, very tangibly, are - and extremism offers a way to prove their manhood. Feelings of emasculation is a major theme. The actual politics of extremism are adopted gradually. They are, in a sense, the price of admission for the community and the sense of purpose. The most successful exit strategies are those that address these feelings of loneliness and emasculation and build social networks outside the movement, and not ones that address ideology first - the ideology tends to wither with the change in environment. The book itself can be a bit repetitive, but these observations are very enlightening. (caveats: the final chapter on militant Islam is deeply flawed. Kimmel clearly didn’t get as much access to Qulliam as he had to EXIT and Life After Hate, so his data is based far less on direct interviews with counselors and former extremists and much more on other people’s research. despite the chapter stressing that a major source of Muslim alienation is racism, Kimmel focuses uncomfortably much on white voices - the majority of researchers he quotes are white Westerners, and the few interviews he manages are mostly with white converts to Islam rather than Arabs or South Asians. all in all, the research feels thinner, and his claims about militant Islam seem much more conjectural when they don’t read as echos of other people’s opinions.)

[anarchistmemecollective]

this nonviolent stuff’ll get you killed

how to blow up a pipeline

I think the radical left isn't radical enough

[ohwhatagloomyshow]

you ever read a book at exactly the right time in your life cause it’s happening to me right now with “this nonviolent stuff’ll get you killed,” about guns in the civil rights movement

[soulpowercoach]

This Monday, the American Folklife Center at the @LibraryCongress will host “Since 1968: Cultural Organizations, Programming & Documentation, & #Community Enrichment in New York, Kentucky, & #DC” an afternoon #symposium exploring cultural work, geography & community of 3 organizations who trace their beginnings to the swell of social change emerging in 1968. The 2nd panel will focus on DC’s Drum & Spear #Bookstore. Panelists include former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) members & co-founders of Drum & Spear. Including this lovely women centered here in my #latergram, Judy Richardson, scholar, filmmaker; contributor & co-editor, "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC"; #CourtlandCox, president of CCAP Consulting; #AnthonyGittens, founder/director of the D.C. International Film Festival; and #JenniferLawson, media consultant. The panel will also include #JoshuaDavis, asst. professor of history at U of Balt. Drum & Spear Bookstore was born as the Black Consciousness Movement surged across the US. The store officially opened shortly after the murder of Dr. King. Founded by #SNCC veterans #CharlieCobb (journalist, author, "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the #CivilRights Movement Possible"), Ms. Richardson, Courtland Cox, & #CurtisHayes (later Muhammed), the bookstore was for a time the largest in the country dedicated to literature from Africa and the diaspora. The name “Drum and Spear” reflected the store’s defining principles. The drum, according to Richardson, symbolized “communications w/in the diaspora” while the spear suggested “whatever else might be necessary for the liberation of the people.” Drum & Spear was a haven for #books, #poems & #plays published by & about #Blackpeople throughout the world. Everything from #AlexHaley #IcebergSlim #ChesterHimes #GwendolynBrooks #LeroneBennett, #ShirleyGrahamDuBois #HakiMadhubuti #SoniaSanchez It was also site for meetings, conferences & information gathering. #SpeakLIFE #GRATITUDE #SpreadLOVE #Mindfulness #PositiveVibes #Peace #Focus #Courage #Affirmation #CivicEngagement #BlackExcellence #BlackJoy #UnspeakableJOY #Advocacy #BlackLivesMatter https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFJlwsg0ar/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cr3caqrh5q4l

[mrkinetik]

“Now you can pray with them or pray for ‘em, but if they kill you in the meantime you are not going to be an effective organizer.” - Worth Long, SNCC Field Secretary. “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed” by Charles E. Cobb, Jr. is one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read. This book introduced me to a different view of the Civil Rights Movement, with particular attention to the state of Mississippi. Some of the book draws on things that occurred in the Mississippi Delta, so this book is also why the National Endowment for Humanities summer seminar in the Delta was of particular interest to me. There were other reasons but the book helped. Charles McLaurin is quoted and mentioned in the book. It’s a tremendous blessing to meet someone who was in what you read about, something of such great magnitude. The book discusses armed self-defense and its role in the “survival and liberation of black communities”, as noted by Cobb. It is, in my opinion, a must-read book. While much of the history of African Americans was not in my public school curriculum experience, in elementary school we had a Black History team and I was on that and we competed. My grandmother bought us a Black History board game when we were kids. So I learned outside of school and continue to do so. However, this history is important for all people to know. I needed this book as I continue to wage against the broad range of foolishment in the world. Pick this up soon, then hit me up so we can rap about it please. #thisnonviolentstuffllgetyoukilled #charlesecobbjr #mississippidelta #civilrightsmovement #freedomsummer #blackhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn2REL6BHl5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1lcxtjpgjfh7h

[anarcho-druidism]

Racist political campaigning continually raised the specter of communism, or as that deep southern white fear was sometimes more softly expressed, “social equality”

This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, by Charles E Cobb Jr

[citylightsbooks]

5 Questions with Vegas Tenold, Author of Everything You Love Will Burn

Vegas Tenold is the author of Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, published by Nation Books. He discusses his book at City Lights Bookstore on Thursday, March 8th, 2018.

City Lights: If you’ve been to City Lights before, what’s your memory of the visit? If you haven’t been here before, what are you expecting?

Vegas Tenold: The first time I went to City Lights was probably a decade or so ago, and although I was almost 30 years old at the time and much too old for such pretentious douchebaggery, I sat at the bar [at Vesuvio Cafe], ordered a margarita—because I’d read somewhere that it was Kerouac’s favorite drink—lit a cigarette, which almost made me fall off the chair because I don’t smoke but wished I did because it seemed like the “Beat” thing to do, and read a book that I don’t remember. Probably Howl or something by Gregory Corso. I’m not poo-pooing Ginsberg or Corso in any way, but what kind of pretentious asshole does a thing like that? Ugh. While the memory of what an exhausting shit I must have been still makes me cringe, the visit itself stands out as one of my favorite moments at a bookstore, topped only by the time I interrupted a live BBC interview inside Shakespeare & Co. in Paris by barging in and urgently asking for the facilities.

CL: What’s the first book you read & what are you reading right now?

VT: The first books I remember really loving were the Little Vampire books, by Angela Sommer Bodenburg. The Narnia books were also an early love. I got into fantasy at an early age, particularly the trashy end of the spectrum because I could buy them with whatever money I had and many of them had variations of sexy trolls/aliens/elves on the cover. Irresistible stuff for an adolescent boy who spent his weekends role-playing. I remember a series by an author called Robert Asprin. Hardly Nebula-Award winners, but they had a green-skinned character named Tanda or something that I had a crush on.

At the moment I’m switching between This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible, by Charles E. Cobb Jr, The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution, by Yuri Slezkine and 1984, by George Orwell. I’m re-reading the latter because I plan on tweeting about all the similarities between the book and our current society in a way that not only completely misreads the book but also profoundly misunderstands our current world.

CL: Which 3 books would you never part with?

VT: The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński.

CL: If you opened a bookstore tomorrow, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?

VT: The bookstore I would open actually existed until recently. It was the much-loved Left Bank Books in the West Village in New York. It was one of those wonderfully dusty rare-book places, much like the shop Bastian flees into in the beginning of Neverending Story, where the curmudgeonly owner would only reluctantly help those he deigned worthy, and once called me an idiot for asking about a first edition Gatsby.

I’m no good at marketing so I think it would make sense for me to piggyback on someone else when it came to naming the thing. Maybe Apple Store could be a good name for a bookshop? Apple did all this marketing legwork so I don’t see why they’re the only ones who should benefit from it.

And I’m a hoarder when it comes to books, so ideally no one would ever buy anything.

[berniesrevolution]

Thread by @SankofaBrown

Mask Off: The Monopoly on Violence and Re-Invigorating an Anti-Imperialist Vision for Black Liberation

I myself am currently reading This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed and it’s very enlightening. Brilliantly illuminates how the actual Civil Rights Movement was a melding of non-violent direct action with disciplined, armed self-defence. 

[denebola42-blog]

This Week @CPUSA: Cancel culture? Give us a break! – Communist Party USA https://www.cpusa.org/party_voices/this-week-cpusa-cancel-culture-give-us-a-break/ It's Communists. That explains everything. Lol ok I'm no longer interested in civil rights. Especially with Communists in Mexico saying hi to the ones here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLnbIGVrGMgVMmvz3UxIXbJkvTjDjU6B/view?usp=drivesdk Bunch of worthless assholes. If i can say I'm for civil rights and I'm still alive but i feel and have been unsafe around these assholes? Yeah, I've been shammed as a minority. And disabled person. HOME | Comunist Stats https://www.communiststats.com/ Saw them in Mexico too. With a Che mural..i thought they were gonna kill me. And at weber state university i picked a fight with a long haired commie hippy for his Che shirt. 🖕🏽 But not much different than manifest destinies around the world including here. Much death stems from lack of percepción and understanding. George Floyd Posed As A Water Company Man To Rob A Pregnant Woman — CLASSIC HIP HOP MAGAZINE https://classichiphopmagazine.com/editor/2020/6/8/george-floyd-posed-as-a-water-company-man-to-rob-a-pregnant-woman That explains this. I think you might like this book – "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible" by Charles E. Cobb Jr.. Start reading it for free: https://a.co/c2yGs1k They fuck with history. #communismsucks #merica🇺🇸 #merica #militaryfamily #militaryscience #military #thinblueline #veterans #citizenscientist #citizensofmotherearthandfathertime #digitalnomadpotatoe #familymatters (at North Ogden, Utah) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMWJRjRBzeZ/?igshid=mbtfikvr2zjd