ning several volumes using the pen name Trevor Lynch, which medi-
tate upon the white nationalist ideas and ideals he perceives as prevalent
in mainstream cinema as well as analyzing them from this perspective
too.73 “I think that film is the most powerful intellectual tool for creating
a world view,” Johnson notes.74 Thus by engaging with popular film,
reinterpreting and inverting its meaning, Johnson engages in a form of
asymmetric countercultural warfare against liberal society, leveraging its
cultural produce against it. To this end, Johnson has published several
such works. These include James O’Meara’s The Eldritch Evola . . . and
Others: Traditionalist Meditations on Literature, Art and Culture (2014), a
Traditionalist take on the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft and Mickey Spillane,
among others, and End of an Era: Mad Men and the Ordeal of Civility
(2015), discussing this popular television show from a “race realist” and
Traditionalist perspective. Jef Costello’s The Importance of James Bond and
Other Essays (2017) meanwhile explores “Traditionalist, New Right, and
masculinist themes” in the James Bond films and a range of other movies,
television shows, books, opera, art and advertising.
Individual components of Johnson’s broader politics have invited lively
contestation, perhaps none more so than pronouncing that homosexuality
was “beside the point” with regards white nationalism, and that homo-
phobia itself was a product of Judeo- Christianity. “Queer- bashers are in
the grip of Jewry without even knowing it. White Nationalism requires
that we de- Jew our thinking, but many White Nationalists have no idea of
just what a radical change in outlook that requires.”75 His publication of
The Homo and the Negro (2013) by James O’Meara, an openly gay extreme
right- wing activist, elicited further hostility.76
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Greg Johnson and Counter-Currents
217
Despite being on friendly terms with figures like Jack Donovan,
Johnson has become increasingly critical of the “manosphere,” which,
he argues, “morally corrupts men,”77 since their ethos, alongside those
of other sundry other misogynists and rape advocates, “is no more com-
patible with the healthy sexual order we want to create than the feminism
they oppose.” In comparison, while defending heterosexuality as norma-
tive, Johnson argues, “as long as homosexuals uphold healthy norms and
have something positive to contribute, they can and do make our move-
ment stronger, if we stop worrying about it.”78
Reception
Counter-
Currents was positively received by most white nationalist
ideologues, including Tomislav Sunić, the Croatian author who lauded
Johnson as “the most prominent intellectual and activist of the cultural
and metapolitical school of thought . . . in the USA.”79 Anti- Semitic
intellectuals like Kevin MacDonald, the current editor of TOQ, have been
similarly effusive, penning endorsements for his books. Johnson’s per-
sonal insistence upon “punching right” as a means of evolving white na-
tionalist ideas has not always been received with equanimity, however,
particularly with regards his analysis of the Alt Right.80
Johnson has been particularly critical of Richard Spencer, the Alt- Right
luminary who coined the term. Following Trump’s election in November
2016, Spencer proclaimed, during the course of a speech, “Hail Trump,
hail our people, hail victory!” Some audience members gave Nazi salutes
in response. This “damaged the Alt- Right brand— perhaps irreparably—
by associating it with Nazism,” argued Johnson after footage of the event
emerged. The irony of some of Johnson’s own ideological proclivities
aside, Spencer’s speech certainly polarized Alt Right and “Alt- Lite”
factions, which was, as Johnson noted, diametrically opposed to what the
“brand” was supposed to do, which was to allow people to flirt with a
host of “dissident Rightist ideas” without embracing stigmatizing labels
like “white nationalism” or “national socialism.”81 More recently, Johnson
has also been embroiled in a war of words with fellow metapolitical pub-
lisher Arktos Media surrounding his allegations of malfeasance and
their counter claims of his alleged complicity in an attempted takeover
of Arktos.82
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E M E R G E N T T H I N K E R S
Conclusion
Counter-
Currents continues to pursue its metapolitical approach to
advancing white nationalism, gaining it a wide audience in North America
and Europe. Johnson’s political and ideological significance as a thinker
and ideologue is perhaps best located in his fusion of European New
Right ideas with more classic variants of American white racism— in
effect, repackaging European metapolitical ideas and countercultural
strategy for a US audience. In this regard, Counter- Currents acts as an
important clearing- house for such ideological experimentation and syn-
cretization. The “North American New Right” often appears intellectually
contradictory, purporting to embrace European New Right thought while
simultaneously embracing its antithesis: biological racism, conspirato-
rial anti- Semitism, and indeed the more cultic dimensions of National
Socialism. Johnson argues, however, that this seemingly inherent in-
compatibility is in fact a strength: “We need this diversity, because our
goal is to foster versions of White Nationalism that appeal to all existing
white constituencies. We can speak to multitudes because we contain
multitudes.”83 Therefore, Johnson’s ability to assimilate, articulate, syn-
thesize, and critique this broad range of white nationalist positions, to
popularize and intellectualize them, combined with his commitment to
cultural struggle through the rearticulation of “high” ’ and “low” culture
in support of such propositions, places him in the vanguard of a new gen-
eration of white nationalist intellectuals— even though his sympathy for
National Socialism and overt anti- Semitism sets him apart from many
of them.
Notes
1. Greg Johnson, ed., North American New Right (San Francisco: Counter- Currents
2012), 1:1.
2. Greg Johnson, “Counter- Currents/ North American New Right Newsletter: May
2013,” accessed December 14, 2017, http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2013/ 06/
counter- currents- nanr- newsletter- may- 2013.
3. Greg Johnson, “Between Two Lampshades: Michael Enoch Interviews Greg
Johnson, Part 1,” accessed December 14, 2017. https:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2015/ 06/ between- two- lampshades- 1/ .
4. Greg Johnson, “Heidegger’s Black Notebooks: The Diaries of a Dissident National
Socialist,” accessed December 14, 2017. https:// www.counter- currents.com/
2014/ 03/ heideggers- black- notebooks/ .
21
9
Greg Johnson and Counter-Currents
219
5. Greg Johnson. “Heidegger Did Nothing Wrong,” accessed December 14, 2017,
/> https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2016/ 01/ heidegger- did- nothing- wrong/ .
6. Johnson, “Between Two Lampshades. ”
7. “PSR Faculty Profiles,” accessed December 14, 2017, http:// web.archive.org/
web/ 20030715010656/ http:// psr.edu/ page.cfm?l=250 for academic profile.
8. Johnson translated Alain de Benoist’s On Being a Pagan (2004), published by
Ultra, which also publishes Tyr, named after the Germanic sky god. Johnson
subsequently published books by Colin Cleary one of Tyr’s founding editors.
9. Johnson, “Between Two Lampshades.”
10. Greg Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed by Laura Raim about the Alt Right
(Transcript),” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2016/ 09/ greg- johnson- interviewed- by- laura- raim- about- the- alt- right-
transcript/ .
11. Greg Johnson, “The Shadow of Trump: Interview with Il Primato Nazionale,”
accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2016/ 11/
interview- with- il- primato- nazionale/ .
12. Michael Polignano, “Genes May Determine Racial Attributes,”accessed
December 14, 2017, http:// www.students.emory.edu/ WHEEL/ Archive/ 00_
Oct06/ editorial1.html; Polignano subsequently argued that refusal to take one’s
“own side” in an ethnic conflict prefaces racial dispossession and extinction.
Michael J. Polignano, Taking Our Own Side (San Francisco: Counter Currents,
2010), 108– 144.
13. Greg Johnson, “comment #239,” posted August 29, 2011, accessed December
14, 2017, https:// majorityrights.com/ weblog/ comments/ elitism_ secrecy_ de-
ception_ the_ way_ to_ save_ white_ america/ .
14. Polignano was managing editor/ webmaster from 2010 to 2013, returning as
webzine editor/ webmaster in 2017.
15. Counter-
Currents Radio, “Greg Johnson interviews Richard Spencer on
Radixjournal.com,” accessed December 14, 2017, http:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2014/ 01/ greg- johnson- interviews- richard- spencer- on- radixjournal- com/ .
16. Greg Johnson, “Tom Sunić Interviews Greg Johnson,” accessed December 14,
2017, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2015/ 10/ tom- sunic- interviews- greg-
johnson/ .
17. Ted Sallis, Review of Jonathan Bowden’s Pulp Fascism, accessed December 14, 2017,
http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2013/ 07/ jonathan- bowdens- pulp- fascism.
18. Jonathan Bowden, Western Civilization Bites Back, ed. Greg Johnson (San
Francisco: Counter- Currents 2014).
19. Johnson, “Tom Sunić Interviews Greg Johnson.”
20. Greg
Johnson,
“Counter- Currents/ North American New Right
Newsletter: September to November 2017,” accessed December 14, 2017,
https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2017/ 12/ counter- currents- nanr- newsletter-
september- to- november- 2017/ .
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21. Jesse Singal, “Undercover with the Alt-
Right,” New York Times, accessed
December 14, 2017, https:// www.nytimes.com/ 2017/ 09/ 19/ opinion/ alt- right-
white- supremacy- undercover.html.
22. Johnson, “Tom Sunić Interviews Greg Johnson.”
23. Greg Johnson, “Metapolitics and Occult Warfare, Part 4,” accessed December
14, 2017, http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2012/ 12/ metapolitics- andoccult-
warfare- part- 4/ .
24. Greg Johnson, “The Counter- Currents Radio Network,”accessed December 14,
2017,
http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2012/ 09/ the- counter- currents- radio-
network/ .
25. Greg Johnson, Counter- Currents/ North American New Right Newsletter: April to
August, 2017, accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.com/
2017/ 09/ counter- current- nanr- newsletter- april- to- august- 2017/ .
26. Nicholas Goodrick- Clarke, Hitler’s Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu- Aryan Myth,
and neo- Nazism (New York: NYU Press, 1998).
27. Troy Southgate, ed., Jonathan Bowden: The Speeches (London: Black Front Press,
2012), 23– 45.
28. Mourning the Ancient, “Savitri Devi: The Woman against Time— Looking
Back with R. G. Fowler,” accessed December 14, 2017, hhtp:// www.
mourningtheancient.com/ savitri. Impeachment of Man was more readily available after its 1991 republication by the Noontide Press, which Johnson sells
through Counter- Currents.
29. “The Savitri Devi Archive,”accessed December 14, 2017., https:// www.savitridevi.
org/ . Johnson dedicated Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country (2016) to Beryl Cheetham, Savitri Devi’s close friend, who assisted him with his research.
30. “Fowler” reprinted Defiance (2007) and Gold in the Furnace (2006), originally
published in 1951 and 1952 respectively.
31. Johnson also published two editions of And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi
Interviews (2005, 2012) and A Warning to the Hindus and The Non- Hindu
Indians and Indian Unity (2013), originally published in 1940. Calcutta, B.K.
Brahmachari, Hindu Mission.
32. Greg Johnson, In Defense of Prejudice (Counter- Currents: San Francisco 2017),
241– 244.
33. Ibid., 238.
34. Jonathan Bowden, Pulp Fascism: Right- Wing Themes in Comics, Graphic Novels,
and Popular Literature, ed. Greg Johnson (Counter- Currents: San Francisco
2012), v.
35. Graham Macklin, “The ‘Cultic Milieu’ of Britain’s ‘New Right’: Metapolitical
‘Fascism’ in Contemporary Britain,” in Cultures of Post- War British Fascism, ed.
Nigel Copsey and John E. Richardson (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), 177– 201, for
an overview.
21
Greg Johnson and Counter-Currents
221
36. Johnson, “The Shadow of Trump: Interview with Il Primato Nazionale.”
These forums built upon a series of Francis Parker Yockey memorial dinners
and “annual weekend retreats” which Counter- Currents had been running
since 2010.
37. Greg Johnson, “New Right vs. Old Right,” accessed December 14, 2017, https://
www.counter- currents.com/ 2012/ 05/ new- right- vs- old- right/ .
38. Johnson, “Tom Sunić Interviews Greg Johnson.”
39. Greg Johnson, “Remembering Julius Evola: May 19, 1898– June 11, 1974,”
accessed December 27, 2017, http:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2013/ 05/
remembering- julius- evola- 2/ .
40. “About Counter- Currents Publishing and North American New Right,” accessed
December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.com/ about/ .
41. Greg Johnson, “Metapolitics and Occult Warfare, Part 4” and Michael O’Meara,
Towards the White Republic (San Francisco: Counter- Currents, 2010), 1– 21.
42. Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed by Laura Raim” and Greg Johnson,
“Grandiose Nationalism,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter-
currents.com/ 2015/ 02/ grandiose- nationalism/ .
43. Greg Johnson, “Robert Stark Interviews Greg Johnson on Populism, Elitism,
and Economics,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2015/ 07/ robert- stark- interviews- greg- johnson- on- populism- elitism- and-
economics/ .
44. Johnson, “Between Two La
mpshades.”
45. Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed by Laura Raim.”
46. Greg Johnson, “White Extinction,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.
counter- currents.com/ 2014/ 02/ white- extinction/ .
47. Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed by Laura Raim.”
48. Greg Johnson, “‘Set Aside Your Humility and Lead:’ Ruuben Kaalep Interviews
Greg Johnson,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.counter- currents.
com/ 2015/ 10/ set- aside- your- humility/ , accessed December 14, 2017.
49. Greg Johnson, “White Nationalism is Inevitable,” accessed December 14, 2017,
https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2017/ 05/ white- nationalism- is- inevitable/ .
50. Johnson, “Greg Johnson Interviewed by Laura Raim.”
51. Greg Johnson, “The Slow Cleanse,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.
counter- currents.com/ 2014/ 06/ the- slow- cleanse/ .
52. Johnson, “Greg Interviewed by Laura Raim.”
53. Johnson, “The Shadow of Trump: Interview with Il Primato Nazionale.”
Acknowledging Trump as a “civic nationalist” and “pragmatic centrist,” Johnson
nonetheless found much to admire. Nepotism is reinterpreted as evidence that
Trump “thinks dynastically.” Skating over the fact that much of his fortune
was inherited, the activities Trump derives his wealth from— Trump “builds
things, and he builds things that last a long, long time”— stands, for Johnson,
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as a counterpoint to the Hungarian Jewish billionaire George Soros, whose self-
made wealth derives from financial speculation. See Johnson, “Greg Johnson
Interviewed by Laura Raim.” Johnson’s judgment In Defense of Prejudice, 99, that,
compared to “evil” Hillary Clinton, Trump “will govern as a centrist, a reconciler,
and a peace- maker,” appears questionable.
54. Greg Johnson, “Trump, Hillary, and the Alt Right,” accessed December 14, 2017,
https:// www.counter- currents.com/ 2016/ 08/ trump- hillary- and- the- alt- right/ .
55. Greg Johnson, “November 9, 2016,” accessed December 14, 2017, https:// www.
counter- currents.com/ 2016/ 11/ november- 9– 2016/ .
56. Johnson, “Tom Sunić Interviews Greg Johnson.”
57. Tamir Bar- On, Rethinking the French New Right: Alternatives to Modernity
Key Thinkers of the Radical Right Page 37