The Lesser of Two Evils: Responding to Joel Davis and Keith Woods
1559 Words
Before a hot war begins, when the bullets start flying and the bombs start exploding, political warfare rages. We witness political warfare these days almost every time politicians open their mouths. Before political warfare, however, we have cultural warfare, which is where metapolitics becomes important. This kind of warfare consists of various historical, ideological, or religious narratives which shape the worldview of ordinary (read: non-political) people. These narratives compete to the point where politicians become champions for the dominant narratives of the people who elect them. And if such narratives become anti-White in nature, so be it. In fact, anti-White politics have become the norm among most non-White politicians in America these days (as well among quite a few White ones).
My job as a pro-White dissident writer is to frame or re-frame narratives which will assist ordinary Whites in combating such anti-White narratives. Metapolitics, basically. In metapolitics it is not necessary to surpass or deny a narrative. It is necessary only to match it with a counter-narrative. Victory in such conflicts depends as much upon the spirit of the interlocuters as it does on logic, evidence, and clarity. A side could be dead wrong in the face of the facts, but if they possess greater spirit than their opponents, then they will have greater influence in steering the dominant culture into the future. This is what we see with narratives that favor both Black and Jewish history.
I was reminded of this while reading about the recent debate between Joel Davis and Keith Woods. Davis, an Australian nationalist, finds that rehabilitating Adolf Hitler and National Socialism is crucial for today’s White Nationalism, while Woods, who is from Ireland, feels that the various stripes of White Nationalism do not need either to thrive. It was a fascinating and civil metapolitical exchange, and it greatly benefited the Right. In effect, the men differ on how to counter the prevailing Jewish narrative which claims that A) Hitler and the Nazis were a uniquely odious evil, and B) anyone who professes beliefs even remotely close to Hitler’s is potentially genocidal and should be suppressed.
In basic terms, Davis attempts to surpass the Jewish narrative with a unabashedly pro-Nazi one, while Woods attempts to go around it by not emphasizing Nazism at all. Both sides of the debate possess profound elements of truth and deserve respect from the Dissident Right. Yet, I find both sides a bit wanting. I also think that both men are working too hard, thereby requiring their followers to work too hard as well. For example, ascribing to Davis’ position 85 years after the fall of Nazism would require a lot of reading and documentary viewing as well as the ability to discern good sources from bad. By the same token, ascribing to Woods’ position would require some fairly deft mental gymnastics to articulate a rightist position that does not evoke the Nazis in the minds of a disinterested audience. The bar for entry here is a little too high.
There is a third way, however, one that combines the strengths of both sides of the debate and, in its simplicity and directness, promises the substantial metapolitical victory that has been eluding White people since the end of World War II.
But first, why are both sides wanting? Because Davis’s approach entails too much risk to be successful, and Woods’ approach ultimately leaves the Jewish narrative uncontested. Since in metapolitics truth often plays second fiddle to spirit, it doesn’t really matter how correct either side is, how well-researched or watertight their arguments are, or how persuasive their advocates are. What matters is how well either side can galvanize the spirit—or enthusiasm—of their followers. Unfortunately, neither Davis nor Woods make the most of Rightist spirit. Anyone goosestepping in Davis’ pro-Nazi direction would have to wade into the teeth of the globalist Left, which means giving up on the idea of having a career and children, and accepting a life of constant struggle and danger. For ordinary people, this is a spirit killer. On the other hand, side-stepping along with Woods offers no defense to the Nazi/genocide charge coming from the proponents of the uncontested Jewish narrative. By attempting to go around the narrative rather than face it head on, Woods appears to tacitly concede the truth behind it. He can invoke Irish or Slavic nationalists all he likes, but in the eyes of a disinterested audience, this will come across as a bit of a dodge. This is also a spirit killer.
While neither approach is without merit, each gets us closer to our ultimate goal of White ethnostates only by baby steps—steps which may or may not keep up with the vagaries of history.
The third way I’m promoting entails meeting—but not defeating—the Jewish metapolitical Nazi narrative. This has the advantage of being less risky than Davis’ approach yet more direct than Woods’. It’s also easier to swallow than either counter-narrative, and no less true. Basically, we need to look at Nazism as a defensive wartime ideology, which was preferrable to its alternative: Bolshevism. At its worst, it was evil, sure. But it was the lesser of two evils.
This is it. This is all one needs to rouse the spirit of the Right and stem the odious tide of the Left. For one, it widens the tent to include both Davis and Woods. People in both camps can agree that the swastika, for all its merits and demerits, was morally superior to and less destructive than the hammer and sickle. This history is undeniable. Secondly, by keeping the reasoning so basic and simple, most White people will not need to read lengthy essays or watch obscure documentaries to climb on board. All they need to know is that the Bolsheviks killed more people than the Nazis did, and for less reason. The Nazis at least had the decency to wait until England and France had declared war on them before kicking their atrocities into high gear. The Soviets, on the other hand, had no such qualms and put to death tens of millions between 1924 and 1939, when they were at war with no one. We should also note that England and France had been egged on the entire time by US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had a clear anti-Nazi bias. How do we know this? Because the Allies had declared war on Germany for invading Poland, but not on the Soviet Union, which had done the exact same thing. Again, very simple. If the Allies were really on the side of good in 1939, why didn’t they attack the Soviets who had over an order of magnitude more deaths on their heads than the Nazis did? It’s a fair question, and one that the defenders of the prevailing narrative would have a hard time answering without resorting to blatant Jewish chauvinism.
We should also remember this passage from Hitler’s Reichstag speech of January 1939, as channeled through notorious Hitler hater William Shirer in his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
If the international Jewish financiers . . . should again succeed in plunging the nations into a world war, the result will be . . . the annihilation of the Jewish race throughout Europe.
See that? Hitler was actually being comparatively nice here by warning the Jews what would happen to them if they instigated another world war (which they did, they totally did). Did Stalin offer such consideration before murdering 15 million in the Holodomor and untold millions more in the Great Terror and the Gulag Archipelago during the 1920s and 1930s? Of course not. Hence the Nazis were the lesser of two evils. Does this seem like a weaker claim than what either Joel Davis or Keith Woods is offering? That’s because it is, and that is a good thing. I call it the Weak Claim Paradox.
There’s another reason for this as well. I personally am not a Nazi. However, gun to head, if I had to choose sides during Ragnarök, I would plop for the Nazis over the Bolsheviks. Why? Because as a White, straight, conservative male who is not consumed with guilt and self-hatred, the Nazis are much less likely to shoot me. This is an excellent reason. And given how prone the disproportionately Jewish Soviets were to shooting White people, Whites today should realize that Jews were not the only ones who suffered during the 20th century—nor were they absent among the people inflicting the suffering. In fact, it could be argued that they did more of the latter than the former.
None of this means that Joel Davis or Keith Woods should change their beliefs. Davis should continue praising the Nazis, and Woods should continue eschewing them. There is truth on both sides, and it is good they balance themselves out in pro-White circles. However, it couldn’t hurt if both men and their followers were to employ the Weak Claim Paradox from time to time when reaching out to normies. Believe what you want about the Nazis, but they were and still are objectively better than the alternative. And what we’re getting today with unfettered globalism, immigration, crime, and degeneracy is the alternative.
And if anyone hits back with the Nazi smear, simply respond, “At least we’re not Bolsheviks. They were worse.”