Color drawing of smiling dog leaning on the letters "DOGE," with American flags, and with words "Department of Government Efficiency" arching above.

The DOGE and the neoreactionaries

Matthew N Lyons

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.

Antifascist, business and politics, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, neoreaction, tech capitalists


On Lesser and Greater Evils (guest post by Rebecca Hill)

Three Way Fight

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“Rather than seeking among our opponents for strategic allies, it would be much better to seek a principled alliance across the left to create a strong center of gravity from which to fight both the …

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Review: Making Sense of the Alt-Right by George Hawley

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H-Net has published my review of political scientist George Hawley’s book Making Sense of the Alt-Right. On the plus side, the book is carefully researched and offers a good account of the alt-right’s development, hostility …

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Fascism Today Conversation Part 1: Interview with author Shane Burley

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In this post I interview Shane Burley about his new book, Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It, to which I was honored to write the foreword. Publisher AK Press describes the …

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The Alt-Right: History, Ideology, and the Future of a Fascist Movement (podcast)

Three Way Fight

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Eric Draitser interviewed me for an episode of his Stop Imperialism podcast series on Patreon. The full podcast (almost two hours) is available to Patreon subscribers, while the first half is available for free. Here’s …

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Fascist anti-capitalism?

Three Way Fight

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Henry Ford, industrialist and antisemite. Jason Wilson of The Guardian has a good article about the role of socialism and anti-capitalism in fascist ideology. I am quoted along with antifascist authors Alexander Reid Ross and …

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An Alt Right Update – Six Months After “Ctrl-Alt-Delete”

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“An Alt Right Update,” published by Political Research Associates, is my attempt to summarize how the Alt Right’s political situation has changed since Donald Trump took office on January 20th, when the report “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” first …

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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

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

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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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Trump’s Gospel: A Review of Jeff Sharlet’s The Undertow

Three Way Fight

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So much has been already said about Donald J. Trump, Trumpism, and the amorphous mass known as his “base” that it hardly seems worth revisiting the topic almost eight years after his fateful descent down Trump Tower’s golden excavator. Just as the 2016 election seemed to confirm everything that virtually everyone had already been saying about US politics for years, so too does Donald Trump today seem self-explanatory.

Book Review, Dave Ranney


Books

Scroll to see more and click on a book for more information about it and where to buy it.

Chomsky et al

by reddboy I would argue that we’ve reached a point in history where global capitalism is the immediate as well as the underlying issue and revolutionary strategy must confront all capitalist policy options, not just

Pedagogy of Confrontation

by reddboy The Growing Pains editorial and the Sketchy Thoughts response to it are welcome treatments of important issues. I want to make a few comments on one aspect; the editorial’s treatment of the pedagogy

Sketchy Thoughts on UTA’s, Growing Pains

…It is worth remembering that the pedagogy of confrontation does not need to take the specific forms it did during the anti-globalization moment in order to remain true to the idea that people will be

Twilight of the Heart

from, Growing Pains, Editorial from Upping the Anti issue 3 Writing our most recent histories seems to bring to mind the reliable touchstones of literature. Let us say, then, that it was the best of

Aryan Jihad? New Directions for the Aryan Nations

The following was forwarded to threewayfight from a former contributor to the ARA Research Bulletin and author of the article The Southern Poverty Law Center “Bad Jackets” Anarchists. It’s been awhile since I paid attention

Bash the Fash – Anti-fascist recollections, 1984-1993

This is literally a no-punches pulled account of militant group Anti Fascist Action’s fight against fascism in Britain by a grassroots anarchist member of AFA. Highly recommended. It is important, not because he makes any

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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.

Review of Alberto Toscano’s “Late Fascism”

Alberto Toscano’s book offers a helpful overview of antifascist writings with an emphasis on authors loosely associated with Critical Theory. Of particular value is Toscano’s discussion of the role of myth in fascist ideology, which focuses on contributions by Italian scholar Furio Jesi and has relevance for understanding Donald Trump’s speeches and far right online meme culture. Yet Toscano’s discussion of “racial fascism” exaggerates capitalists’ ability to control events, strips both fascists and antifascists of political agency, and reflects an obliviousness to antifascists’ strategic and tactical concerns.

Review of “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism”

Shane Burley and Ben Lorber offer a thoughtful radical analysis of how antisemitism works, how it fuels supremacist politics more broadly, and how the charge of antisemitism is misused to attack Palestine solidarity and the left. To combat antisemitism they argue for a strategy based on mass mobilization, dialog, and an intersectional critique of oppressions.

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

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.