washingtonpost.com
Anti-racists gather to lament our gains.
Recently I attended an event in Washington, D.C., to discuss “Growing Far-Right Sentiments in Europe and the U.S.” The participants were Charles Lane of the Washington Post, two German professors billed as experts in right-wing radicalism in the US and Europe, and Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
All the speakers bemoaned the rise of Donald Trump and of populist groups in Europe. All said the “refugees” were fueling the Right in Europe, and that the dwindling white majority in the United States backs Mr. Trump. They also voiced a growing fear of the internet that gives dissenters a voice. The meeting had an atmosphere of pessimism and gloom that was an almost perfect mirror-image of the optimism and energy of the recent American Renaissance conference.
The two professors showed slides with facts and figures and photos of PEGIDA marches and the like, while Miss Beirich spoke without rising from her stool. Charles Lane, who writes editorials such as “The Dangerous Nihilism of Trump Voters,” was the moderator, feeding softball questions to the other three.
Of the 60 or so people in the audience, 45 seemed to be retired white people, with a handful of non-whites and young folks. Perhaps that was to be expected; the four speakers were old white people, too. They seem to have forgotten their obligation to promote “role models.” ...
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