how racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and all other forms of hate and bigotry are interconnected. fanning the flames of one will inevitably promote and facilitate the rest.
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Sarah Wildman: Tiki torch–wielding white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday night, chanting, “You will not replace us,” and, “Jews will not replace us.”
For many Americans, this was a shocking thing to hear. But for Europeans, the idea that white Christian identity is being threatened by ethnic diversity and multiculturalism has become a common refrain on the far right.
Indeed, Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ far-right Freedom Party, tweeted on Sunday, “Our population is being replaced. No more.” And fear of “replacement” has long been a rallying cry of the European youth alt-right movement, Generation Identity.
The popularity of this idea is due in part to the work of a deeply controversial French philosopher named Renaud Camus. Camus argues that European civilization and identity are at risk of being subsumed by mass migration, especially from Muslim countries — it’s a concept he refers to as the “Great Replacement.”
I decided to reach out to Camus on Sunday to ask him what he thought of the fact that neo-Nazis and white nationalists in the United States were chanting slogans that appeared to have been influenced by his ideas (whether they knew it or not). He seemed surprised by the notion that his ideas could in any way be associated with the white nationalists marching in Charlottesville. He condemned the violence and insisted he has no connection to Nazism: “If the marchers are Nazis and/or anti-Semites, or if they make [violent] attacks — I am of course very much against all of that, and I cannot say they are inspired by me.” But, he said, “I can very well understand why people in America would chant, ‘We won’t be replaced,’ and I approve of that.” More here.