Bronze sculpture of three hooded, faceless figures

Epstein’s Ghost and the Many Sides of Conspiracism

Matthew N Lyons

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal highlights that assessing conspiracy theories’ political meaning and significance can be complicated. While some conspiracies are real, conspiracism exaggerates the role of small groups in making politics and history, plays fast and loose with the facts, and diverts attention away from the real systems and movements that predominantly shape our world. All conspiracism involves scapegoating, but the motivation behind such scapegoating varies widely, from demonizing subversives in defense of entrenched power, to a well-meaning but misguided effort to challenge such power. Anti-elite conspiracism (often but by no means always rooted in antisemitism) has been a major vehicle with which far rightists repackage their ideology in progressive-sounding ways, and with which they try to manipulate or form alliances with the left.

anti-Chinese racism, Antifascist, antisemitism, conspiracism, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, MAGA movement


An exchange on the relevancy on the Three Way Fight perspective

Three Way Fight

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I got an email message the other day regarding the website. I thought it would be useful to post the exchange I have had thus far, and open it up for some of the other …

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Three Way Fight

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HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA: ROCK AGAINST RACISMWhether it’s soul, indie, garage, punk rock, house, hip-hop or bhangra, music brings us together and offers a vibrant celebration of our multicultural and multiracial society. More than twenty years …

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We Must Become The Global Resistance To The Occupation

Three Way Fight

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from the NorthStar Anarchist Collective, Minneapolis, MN “Over the last few months the people of Iraq have stepped up the resistance to the U.S. occupation of their land. Is this a surprise? What would you …

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Cursory thoughts on armies, insurrection, and The Sixth

Three Way Fight

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In my last post I briefly addressed the IRA’s recent statement on ending its armed struggle and the urging of all of it’s members to throw their weight into “peaceful” political work that we can …

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meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Three Way Fight

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“There’s nothing in the streetsLooks any different to meAnd the slogans are replaced, by-the-byeAnd the parting on the leftAre now parting on the rightAnd the beards have all grown longer overnight”– Wont Get Fooled Again …

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“¡Que se Vayan Todos”: Venezuela’s Anarchists and the Three-Way Fight

Three Way Fight

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When Venezuela is mentioned in North America these days, it is almost always in reference to President Hugo Chavez, who is vilified by the mainstream press and adored by much of what passes for the …

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Notes on Trump/MAGA 2024

Matthew N Lyons

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Even more than in the past, Trump and the MAGA movement have brought key elements of fascist politics into the Republican Party, and a second Trump presidency is likely to be significantly more authoritarian than the first one.

Antifascist, Donald Trump, MAGA movement, US presidential elections

Chaos or Revolution? It Depends on Us

3WF

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The institutional far right is strong, while the far left is weak and disorganized. To develop the capacity to meaningfully intervene in the current crisis, far leftists need to engage with oppressed communities and work together with liberals in a united front.

Antifascist, Donald Trump, far right, radical left

Who’s Afraid of Luigi Mangione? A Response to Alexander Reid Ross

3WF

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Luigi Mangione’s recent alleged killing of an insurance CEO touched a wedge issue that cuts across class and across the political spectrum—the massive corruption of the health insurance industry—and created an opening for the left. A recent article by ex-leftist Alexander Reid Ross, which dismisses Mangione as expressing an American proclivity for violence, represents a counterinsurgency action in defense of the state.

Alexander Reid Ross, Anti-capitalism, counter insurgency, health care, health insurance industry, liberal antifascism, Luigi Mangione

Reading Adam Shatz on the war in Gaza

Three Way Fight

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by Matthew N. Lyons How do we forcefully make the case to defend the Palestinian people in Gaza against Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault, and also honor the conflict’s heartbreaking contradictions? This is a question I’ve …

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Burn the foundation and all that it upholds: an antifascist review of “Tell Me I’m Worthless” by Alison Rumfitt

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“The House spreads. Its arteries run throughout the country. Its lifeblood flows into Westminster, into Scotland Yard, into every village and every city. It flows into you, and into your mother. It keeps you alive. …

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Books

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“Imperialism as a whole is the enemy of humanity, not particular countries”: Reading Michael Karadjis on the Middle East

“Imperialism as a whole is the enemy of humanity, not particular countries”: Reading Michael Karadjis on the Middle East

To help us understand the dynamics of power and conflict in the Middle East from a radical standpoint, Three Way Fight looks at a website that starkly assesses the Israeli government’s genocidal goals while debunking anti-imperialist illusions about Iran and the so-called Axis of Resistance.
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Anti-Fascism and the Three Way Fight in Québec

Anti-Fascism and the Three Way Fight in Québec

The ideas advanced in the book Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism offer a useful set of tools to examine developments in Québec’s far right and antifascist movement over the past seven years.
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Three Way Fight virtual book event August 5th

Three Way Fight virtual book event August 5th

Book co-editors Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons will discuss Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism in an online event sponsored by Firestorm Books. “Three way fight” refers to a political approach, a political project, and a book, and the presentation will give an overview of all three.

“Anti-hate” think tank scapegoats China for Palestine solidarity protests

“Anti-hate” think tank scapegoats China for Palestine solidarity protests

There’s a real money trail linking China’s propaganda apparatus with some pro-Palestinian organizations in the U.S. But the Network Contagion Research Institute distorts this bid for influence into a conspiracist vision of the Chinese Communist Party secretly directing mass protests to destabilize America.

New Video Promo For Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism

New Video Promo For Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism

What’s the relationship between combating the far right and working for systemic change? What does it mean when fascists intensify racial oppression and patriarchy, but also call for the downfall of economic elites or even take up arms against the state? Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Anti-Fascism offers an introduction to three way fight politics, with more than thirty essays, position statements, and interviews spanning from the antifascist struggles of the 1980s and 1990s to the political upheavals of the 21st century. Check out the new book promo by kersplebedeb and PM Press to learn more.

Anti-Zionist Reflections on Zionism and the American Jewish Community

Anti-Zionist Reflections on Zionism and the American Jewish Community

To uphold the idea that Jewishness is equivalent to Zionism in a world where a large chunk of younger Jews no longer identify with Zionism and oppose the inhumanity of Israel’s rule over Palestinians, you have to silence all of the Jews who disagree with you.
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Epstein’s Ghost and the Many Sides of Conspiracism

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal highlights that assessing conspiracy theories’ political meaning and significance can be complicated. While some conspiracies are real, conspiracism exaggerates the role of small groups in making politics and history, plays fast and loose with the facts, and diverts attention away from the real systems and movements that predominantly shape our world. All conspiracism involves scapegoating, but the motivation behind such scapegoating varies widely, from demonizing subversives in defense of entrenched power, to a well-meaning but misguided effort to challenge such power. Anti-elite conspiracism (often but by no means always rooted in antisemitism) has been a major vehicle with which far rightists repackage their ideology in progressive-sounding ways, and with which they try to manipulate or form alliances with the left.

Antifascism in 2025: Shane Burley interviews Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons

This interview first appeared on Shane Burley’s website Maiseh Review. We appreciate Shane’s efforts over the years to help bring three way fight politics to a broader audience.

Trumpism’s multiple factions

As the Trump administration attacks oppressed communities and dismantles social and environmental programs with breathtaking speed, it’s important that we understand our enemy’s strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions. The Trump movement encompasses at least five major components and multiple fault lines. A major point of potential conflict within the administration is between established capital’s socially conservative wing (represented by Project 2025 contributors such as Russell Vought, Peter Navarro, and Tom Homan) and big tech capital (represented by figures such as Elon Musk and JD Vance), a conflict that big tech is likely to win.

The DOGE and the neoreactionaries

While MAGA movement ideology centers on right-wing populism, DOGE’s attack on the administrative state is guided by neoreactionaries, whose ideology glorifies elites and rejects populist appeals in principle. And while the first Trump administration was backed by an unstable coalition of competing capitalist interests, now high technology capitalists closely aligned with neoreactionary politics are at the head of the pro-Trump business bloc. These changes have helped make the second Trump presidency more dangerous than the first, but they also point to potential divisions and conflicts within the Trump coalition.

Chaos or Revolution? It Depends on Us

The institutional far right is strong, while the far left is weak and disorganized. To develop the capacity to meaningfully intervene in the current crisis, far leftists need to engage with oppressed communities and work together with liberals in a united front.