Those Pesky Fascists

I spent the months of July through October preparing for and attending Counterjihad Brussels 2007. I’ve spent the last three weeks coping with the crisis brought on — as a result of the Brussels conference — by the unreasonable and unfounded allegations against Vlaams Belang and Sverigedemokraterna.

To make a long story short: I’ve been busy, and haven’t been paying much attention to the Infidel Bloggers Alliance for a while.

Now I come to find out that there is plenty of antagonism against Vlaams Belang and Sverigedemokraterna here. I find an animus against the two most courageous European political parties, parties that are striving vigorously against the political currents in their countries to engage in a true praxis of Counterjihad, instead of simply the blah-blah-blah that we all take part in here. They get arrested and assaulted for what they do. Some of them could have been arrested solely for what they were saying in that meeting room of the European Parliament. Paul Belien, although not a member of any political party, has been detained by the Belgian police several times for his political views.

I talk the talk, but they walk the walk.

I don’t want to try to refute specific allegations here. The chance having any effect would be slim There are already extensive refutations at the CVF blog for anyone who cares to scroll down and look. None of the refuting information — the proofs of disinformation, the demonstration of biased sources, the fact that guilt by association is being alleged — has been acknowledged by those who throw out these charges.

So… I might as well be yelling into a closet, but here goes.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
I’m going to concentrate on Vlaams Belang, since I recently spent a lot of time visiting with them in Antwerp and Brussels, particularly in their party offices in the Flemish Parliament.

VB are a popular party, the largest single party in the Flemish Parliament. Their primary mission is the independence of Flanders, but they also take strong stands on civil liberties, shrinking the size of government, and free markets. Their record in Belgium and the EU Parliament is vigorous and consistent on these issues.

So styling them as “fascist” is a bit of a stretch. Fascists, after all — assuming the word has any meaning — are syndicalists, whose political philosophy envisions a partnership between the state and business. A fascist polity involves massive state control of business and private affairs as well as the suppression of free speech, and all for the good of Il Popolo. Envision a kind of upscale Mafia controlling the affairs of the country, and you’ve got the fascistic ideal. Since it relies on intense corporate nationalism, and involves a heavily controlled state on behalf of the common people, it’s rightfully called — surprise! — National Socialism.

It’s difficult to shoehorn Vlaams Belang into any kind of “fascist” container, since their publicly-declared and oft-repeated positions are diametrically opposed to those of fascism. They are on the “far right” by European standards — but fascist?

However, let’s be honest — when VB are tarred with the “fascist” brush, it’s not the traditional, dictionary definition of “fascist” that the wielders of the brush mean to imply.

What they really mean is “racist”. Vlaams Belang are supposedly racists — everybody knows that — hence they are “fascists”.

It’s the same reason why I’m called a fascist.

I’m a conservative with a strong leaning towards libertarianism. I believe that we live under a regime that has abrogated the Constitution; that the power of the federal government is constitutionally limited to national defense, protecting the borders, maintaining the currency, and regulating interstate commerce; and that all other federal functions are a usurpation of the rights of the people as guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment.

I believe in the legalization of all drugs. I believe that homosexuals should be left alone by the state.

And yet I’m a fascist. It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?

But what’s really meant is that I’m a racist. I’m an Islamophobe, therefore a xenophobe, therefore a racist, therefore a fascist. Q.E.D.

And if the racist tendencies can be specifically “proven” to include anti-Semitism, the accused party moves from “fascist” to “neo-Nazi”.

That’s what has happened to Vlaams Belang. In Europe, any party that is conservative is going to be styled a “neo-Nazi” party. It’s unavoidable; if you’re not a welfare-state multicultural socialist of the acceptable kind, then you’re a neo-Nazi. There are no other categories available, unless you want to be a Green.

There are still a fair number of people in Europe who hate Jews, most of them either Muslims or Leftists (or both). The vast majority anti-Semitic incidents in Europe are perpetrated by Muslims or the extreme Left.

But even so, if you’re a European right-winger, you are bound to have run into, talked to, or been in the same room with someone who hates Jews. A patriotic anti-Semite will inevitably gravitate towards the right, because that will be the closest to his comfort zone. If he possibly can, he will find a party made up entirely of fellow Jew-haters, but, if not, he will stay close to other varieties of conservatives.

And here’s where the allegations against Vlaams Belang simply don’t make sense: there are actual, avowed anti-Semitic parties in Flanders. They are marginal and ludicrous from a mainstream point of view, but they exist. Why would any self-respecting anti-Semite take up with a Jew-lover like Filip Dewinter when he can have a worthy heir of Adolf Hitler instead?

Remember, Vlaams Belang is the only pro-Israel party in Flanders. They openly seek and gain support of the Orthodox community in Antwerp. They repeatedly go on the record with these positions.

How could any self-respecting Jew-hater ever vote for them?

I was in the their party offices for a long time when I was in Brussels. I had to cool my heels for a couple of hours, so I spent a while looking at their posters, pamphlets, and other campaign literature. I did my best to make sense of the Dutch, and when I couldn’t, I asked for help from Paul or Bart or one of the secretaries.

The party’s positions include a patriotic separatism, a vigorous opposition to mass immigration, and the demand that immigrants in Flanders assimilate to their host country’s culture. If there is an anti-Semitic agenda, it is well-concealed.

The anti-immigrant position is all that’s required to gain you the “fascist” and “neo-Nazi” labels; the anti-Semitic allegations have then to be based on old photos, guilt-by-association charges, and similar tenuous connections.

“Ah, Baron,” you say, “but these Jew-hating Vlaams Belang guys are simply very, very clever at hiding their real intentions from everyone until they gain power. Then the pretense will be over!”

So let me see if I’ve got this straight…

Vlaams Belang have fooled me. They’ve fooled hundreds of thousands of Flemish voters. They’ve fooled the Jews of Antwerp.

And yet somehow a handful of Americans — who by their own admission remain largely ignorant of affairs in Flanders and most of the rest of Europe — have managed to pierce the veil with their canny eyesight and perceive the Truth!

I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t cut it.

In fact, the only thing that will cut it is Occam’s razor.

In order to avoid needlessly multiplying entities, I must assume:

• That most anti-Semites would not involve themselves with Vlaams Belang, since there are other parties that more closely meet their needs;
  
• That the people of Flanders vote for Vlaams Belang not because they are racists or hate Jews, but because they are devoted to their traditional culture and long for an independent Flanders;
  
• That there may be people in Vlaams Belang who have at one time or another been associated or sympathized with anti-Semitism, but that they have been purged, changed their views with the passage of time, or now find other issues more important, and thus have pragmatically revised their positions;
  
• That many of the Jews of Flanders support Vlaams Belang because they share VB’s concern with unlimited Muslim immigration, and believe that the most dangerous anti-Semites in their country are Muslims; and
  
• That the European left has so demonized Vlaams Belang and propagated so much disinformation about it that it is almost impossible to avoid the “neo-Nazi” allegations, even though the number of verified instances of such things is laughably small, much smaller than the huge number of incidents openly committed by leftists and Muslims.

There is an overwhelming need to find reliable democratic allies in the struggle against the Islamists, and the window of opportunity for taking action will close soon. The triviality of the accusations leveled at Vlaams Belang argues against shunning them. Occam’s razor leads me to the inevitable conclusion that a working relationship with Vlaams Belang as a partner in the Counterjihad is not only a practical necessity, but also morally sound.

The “neo-Nazi” and “Fascist” charges are absurd. The vast majority of Europeans do not take the neo-Nazis seriously; they regard them as ludicrous and silly. No neo-Nazi party is going to come to power via the ballot box.

The only way fascists will take control is if the EU and the Muslims working in tandem conspire to put them there.

These fears are phantoms. People who are obsessed with them are chasing their own shadows.