PragerU's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad History
The outfit that's making historical content for Trump's White House and America's youth has a history of doing history that has a fairly loose relationship with the truth
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In 2003 a Collector of Kooky Cold War Shit Got to Rummage Around in Walter Huss's Library: Here's Her Story
A window into Walter's world in its twilight years, and some thoughts about why people like me and that bookseller (and maybe you too?) find right wing kooks like Huss so morbidly compelling
Walter Huss's Political Paranoia, and My Own
What if they really were/are out to get you as they transform the country into an authoritarian hellscape?
Why Tim Walz's "mind your own damn business" message is kryptonite to the MAGA movement
What if those people who are different from you aren't part of some nefarious "Communist" conspiracy, but are just people in a free country who are [heaven forefend!] different from you?
Walter Huss Knew That if Fascism Ever Came to America, it would happen via the hostile takeover of a major political party
On American Fascism's parasitic relationship to "The Party of Lincoln"
Normal people in an authoritarian party
On the Oregon Republican response to the attempt on Donald Trump's life
The Heritage Foundation's President has said that the next Trump Administration will be a 2nd American Revolution. Here's a transcript of their Declaration of Independence.
When in the course of tremendous human events like nobody has ever seen before...
The Anti-Democratic Urgency Behind the Alitos' Flag Fetish
The "liberal, anti-fascist consensus" of the post-WWII era was always tenuous, but the "rough beast" of Trumpism has turned one of our two major parties directly against it like never before.
The Information Regime of Authoritarianism, coming soon to a Federal Agency Near You
If the Project 2025 folks get their way, we will all soon live in the sort of dystopian, disorienting information ecosystem the MAGA many already inhabit
The Art of the Racist Troll, ca. 1987
In 1987 Oregon Republicans upbraided a former party leader (Walter Huss) for acting like a shameless, racist troll. Those were the days, eh?
William F. Who?: Walter Huss and the American Conservatives Who Couldn't Have Cared Less About Bill Buckley
Some thoughts on the recently released PBS documentary about William F. Buckley
"Right wing nuts" for Reagan: A conversation between Thomas Zimmer, me, and Ben Bradford, the maker of the "Landslide" podcast
NPR recently released an excellent podcast series on the politics of the 1970s called Landslide. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend it. At the very least, it’ll almost certainly revolutionize the way you think about Gerald Ford. [How about that for the hard sell?
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In 1946 a Wisconsin Town Invited a Fascist to Deliver the Keynote Address at their Centennial Celebration
Few people in Viroqua, Wisconsin WANTED Gerald LK Smith, the head of the America First Party, to speak, but when they ALLOWED it, they fanned the flickering embers of the American Fascist Tradition
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It's funny until it's not; why I've stopped finding absurd right wing conspiracy theories so hilarious
What is there to do, really, other than laugh at stuff like this? Candace Owens investigates…lol. Candace’s grim look is the icing on the cake—putting on her best Katie Couric “this is very serious” face. It’s all so soul-crushingly dumb. And until the political culture of
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"Silver Shirts for Reagan!": Walter Huss and the American "conservative" tradition with roots in 1930s-era fascism
The political world view of Walter Huss (1918-2006) was formed by the pro-Hitler, fascist organizations that flourished in late 1930s Portland...here's why that matters.
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Speaking at Reed College in 1965, a Portland Nazi floated the idea of building a barbed-wire topped wall along the entire Mexican border. The audience erupted in dismissive laughter. Not so funny now.
Sometimes history does more than just rhyme
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When did the conspiracy-obsessed, fascist-friendly far right first get a foothold in the Oregon Republican Party? Would you believe me if I said 1962?
A story about that time in 1962 when a group of former Silver Shirts and present white nationalists and Christian supremacists came close to taking over the Multnomah County Republican Party.
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An Oregon Republican Legislator said that Christians are uniquely suited for elected office. When OR GOP chair Walter Huss said that in 1978, he got huge pushback...from Republicans.
On the fuzzy line between hard and soft Christian Nationalism
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Your assignment, should you choose to accept it
And some news and announcements
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On this MLK Day, we should remember the people who in 1989 wanted to take MLK's name off a Portland street, but for totally not-racist reasons!
On Walter Huss's lifelong hatred of MLK, the many "totally not racist" Oregonians who enabled it, and the small group of antifascist activists and researchers who told the truth about it
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The FBI thought OR GOP chair Walter Huss was involved with the Nazi Party. Today I found some evidence that they might have been right
A state GOP chairman who was possibly a Nazi? Seems bad.
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Some archival gems from an amazing but largely unknown archive
A day in the "Charlie White Americanism" collection at Portland State
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An update on the Substackers Against Nazis campaign
According to Substack's owners, true free speech lovers ban images of consensual sex and platform Nazis. Mkay.
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