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


round up of Lansing anti-NSM news

Three Way Fight

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i’m gonna post some links to various reports about this past weekends events in Lansing. it seems that there is a general thougt that the NSM had roughly 80 members present (although the NSM is …

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Three Way Fight

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here are some more articles regarding anti-NSM actions: the first is a report on Grand Rapids, Michigan anti-racists organizing an “outing” of the NSM ‘s Southwest Unit leader, Ken Matthews the second is more views …

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Debating the NSM’s Bill White

Three Way Fight

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For those not in the know, the NSM is planning a rally in Lansing, Michigan for April 22nd. This has led to some local grassroots organizing to counter the fascists. LCAN (Lansing Coalition Against Nazis) …

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Christian Rightists and Neocons: A 25-Year Alliance

Three Way Fight

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This is the text of a talk I gave in October. It offers some historical background about two of the main factions in the non-fascist sector of the U.S. right. When we think about the …

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Organizing against the National Socialist Movement

Interview for Flint’s Uncommon Sense. U.S. was an independent newspaper in Flint, Michigan.***************************** On April 22nd, the National Socialist Movement(NSM), a Neo-Nazi organization, plans to hold their national action in Lansing. This is the same …

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Three Way Fight

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Hamas’ stunning victory underlines the contradictions and hypocrisies in Bush’s Mideast policies. By Juan Cole The stunning victory of the militant Muslim fundamentalist Hamas Party in the Palestinian elections underlines the central contradictions in 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

Three Way Fight

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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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Responding to Stan Goff’s, Debating a NeoCon

Goff’s positions are refreshing given what is often presented as radical. I agree with him that the war in Iraq is “…symptomatic of a much deeper global crisis”. I agree that the difficulties facing capital
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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.