Chip Berlet
Encyclopedia
John Foster "Chip" Berlet (born November 22, 1949) is an American investigative journalist, and photojournalist activist specializing in the study of right-wing movements
in the United States, particularly the religious right
, white supremacists, homophobic
groups, and paramilitary
organizations. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories
in the media and on the Internet, and political cult
s on both the right
and left
of the political spectrum
.
He is the senior analyst at Political Research Associates
(PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks, and is known as one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and anti-Semitic
groups to recruit farmers in the Midwestern United States
in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash.
Berlet, a paralegal
, was a vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild
. He has served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies
at Boston University
, and currently sits on the advisory board of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche
," which was published in High Times. He served on the advisory board of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution
. He was affiliated with Chicago Area Friends of Albania.
for three years, where he majored in sociology
with a journalism
minor. A member of the 1960s student left, he dropped out of the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist without completing his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the National Student Association
and National Student Educational Fund
. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.
During the late 1970s, he became the Washington, D.C.
, bureau chief of High Times magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on FBI surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a paralegal
investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an American Civil Liberties Union
case, involving police surveillance
by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago Red Squad" case). He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Indian Movement
, Socialist Workers Party
, the Christic Institute
, and the American Friends Service Committee
(a Quaker group). He was a founder member of the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, leaving the organization when he relocated to Boston in 1987.
In 1982, Berlet joined Political Research Associates, and in 1985, he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer bulletin board
aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
Berlet was originally on the board of advisers of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned over issues concerning another board member, L. Fletcher Prouty
and Prouty's book The Secret Team
.
In 1996, he acted as an adviser on the Public Broadcasting Service
documentary mini-series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, which was later published as a book by William Martin.
. His photographs, particularly of Ku Klux Klan
and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the Associated Press
wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in The Denver Post
, The Washington Star, and The Chronicle of Higher Education
.
The book received generally favorable reviews. Library Journal
said it was a "detailed historical examination" that "strikes an excellent balance between narrative and theory." The New York Review of Books
described it as an excellent account describing the outermost fringes of American conservatism. A review by Jerome Himmelstein in the journal Contemporary Sociology said that "it offers more than a scholarly treatise on the activities of the Third Reich", that it provides a background to help the reader understand the Holocaust and that it "merits close attention from scholars of the political right in America and of social movements generally."
Robert H. Churchill of the University of Hartford
criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis.
In articles, Berlet has argued that the United States is currently undergoing a right-wing backlash that is the most sustained of its kind in U.S. history
. He argues that although 95% of the US's hate crime
s are committed by people not affiliated with any group, they have nevertheless internalized a narrative
developed and promoted by the right wing that demonizes certain groups, including blacks and gay
s. He argues that the left must develop coalitions to find a way to counter-balance these narratives, instead of becoming isolated as another side of the "lunatic fringe".
In ZOG Ate My Brains, Berlet warned of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that undermines the effort of progressives to bring about social change.
Berlet has provided "research assistance" to a campaign run by the mother of Jeremiah Duggan
to reopen the investigation into his death. The British
student died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany. Berlet's statement suggests that the LaRouche movement
bears responsibility.
, Dick Gregory
, Craig B. Hulet, and Victor Marchetti
for being willing to work with groups on the right such as the John Birch Society
and Liberty Lobby
.
, Patrick Buchanan, and H. Ross Perot echoed different elements of historic fascism
... In his Republican convention speech, Buchanan eerily invoked Nazi symbols of blood, soil and honor... Perot's candidacy provided us with a contemporary model of the fascist concept of the organic leader, the "Man on a White Horse" whose strong egocentric commands are seen as reflecting the will of the people."
and his associates for a close working relationship with Republican textile magnate Roger Milliken
, erstwhile major backer of the 1996 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan
, and anti-unionization stalwart.
published "Into the Mainstream," in which Berlet named conservative activist David Horowitz
's Center for the Study of Popular Culture
(CSPC) as one of an "array of right-wing foundations and think tanks support[ing] efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable." Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery
on "'black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs'" and of "attack[ing] minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism
."
, as having a long history of violence, physical assaults, intimidation, psychological manipulation
, emotional blackmail
, and harassment. He further asserts that the LaRouche network is "a totalitarian political organization that operates through a variety of front groups, with detailed reports from the field constantly being sent back to the worldwide headquarters in the United States." Laird Wilcox
and John George (1996), commenting on Berlet's critique of LaRouche, pointed out that LaRouche is most vehemently criticized by authors who "come from extremist ranks themselves", citing Berlet's association with the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, and the National Lawyers' Guild's affiliation with the "Soviet-controlled" International Association of Democratic Lawyers
.
and Simson Garfinkel
. The director of the University of Pennsylvania Press
, publisher of the book, described Berlet's article as "hyperbolic" and called the charges overblown. The publisher promised to add citations in future editions.
coauthored with the Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Berlet argued that the religious right
has maintained its staying power despite predictions of its demise. Berlet predicted that, despite predictions of their demise, "On the day after the election, you will not see millions of Christian Right activists raptured off planet Earth. They will be left behind to continue more than thirty years of political activism from within the largest organized social movement in the United States today."
, as explicated in his debate with prominent conspiracy theorist David Ray Griffin
. He debunked those theories in his review of Griffin's book A New Pearl Harbor.
In addition to producerism, Berlet sees other elements that he believes are common to right wing populism: demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracy theories of power.
Berlet criticizes "the inside-the-beltway spin that dismisses the rightwing populists as a marginal lunatic fringe..." which, in his view, marginalizes genuinely engaged citizens who have some legitimate fears and thereby feeds their hatred of perceived elites. In and of itself, this centrist vs. extremist model is "toxic to democracy." Berlet also believes that dismissing the tea partiers aids various factions, including John Birch conservatives, "Ron Paul libertarians," the Christian Right, and white supremacist groups, that have been documented trying to recruit the people who are newly moved by right wing populism.
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
in the United States, particularly the religious right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
, white supremacists, homophobic
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
groups, and paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organizations. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
in the media and on the Internet, and political cult
Political cult
Political cult is a term used to describe some groups that are generally considered to be on the political fringe. Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult" is sometimes applied are religious in nature, some are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on...
s on both the right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
and left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
of the political spectrum
Political spectrum
A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....
.
He is the senior analyst at Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates , named and known on the Web as PublicEye.org, is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.-Mission:...
(PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks, and is known as one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
groups to recruit farmers in the Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash.
Berlet, a paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
, was a vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....
. He has served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies
Center for Millennial Studies
The Center for Millennial Studies is a scholarly institute at Boston University devoted to studying millennial, millenarian, and apocalyptic movements, groups, and individuals throughout history and on the contemporary scene....
at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, and currently sits on the advisory board of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
The Defending Dissent Foundation , previously known for many years as the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and formed in 1960 as the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, is a national not-for-profit advocacy organization in the United States, dedicated to defending the right of...
. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
," which was published in High Times. He served on the advisory board of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution
Campaign to Defend the Constitution
Campaign to Defend the Constitution was an American online organization founded in September, 2005 to support the constitutional separation of church and state and to oppose what it perceived as the growing influence of the religious right. It was a project of the Tides Center, a non-profit...
. He was affiliated with Chicago Area Friends of Albania.
Background
Berlet attended the University of DenverUniversity of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
for three years, where he majored in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
with a journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
minor. A member of the 1960s student left, he dropped out of the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist without completing his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the National Student Association
National Student Association
The United States National Student Association, a confederation of American college and university student governments, was founded in 1947 at a conference at the University of Wisconsin. It established its first headquarters in Madison, not far from the U. of Wisconsin campus...
and National Student Educational Fund
National Student Educational Fund
The National Student Educational Fund was founded in the 1970s in Washington, D.C. as a non-profit research group. Founder Layton Olson created the group using staff from the National Student Lobby and the National Student Association . NSEF issued several reports and books on issues related to...
. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.
During the late 1970s, he became the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, bureau chief of High Times magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on FBI surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
case, involving police surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago Red Squad" case). He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Indian Movement
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
, Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
, the Christic Institute
Christic Institute
The Christic Institute was a public interest law firm founded in 1980 by Daniel Sheehan, his wife, Sara Nelson and their partner, William J. Davis, who was a Jesuit priest. Its headquarters were based in Washington, D.C. with several offices in other major United States cities, such as San...
, and the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
(a Quaker group). He was a founder member of the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, leaving the organization when he relocated to Boston in 1987.
In 1982, Berlet joined Political Research Associates, and in 1985, he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer bulletin board
Bulletin board
A bulletin board is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information...
aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
Berlet was originally on the board of advisers of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned over issues concerning another board member, L. Fletcher Prouty
L. Fletcher Prouty
Leroy Fletcher Prouty served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy. A former colonel in the United States Air Force he retired from military service to become a banker, and subsequently became a critic of U.S...
and Prouty's book The Secret Team
The Secret Team
The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World is a book by L. Fletcher Prouty, a former colonel in the US Air Force, first published in 1973...
.
In 1996, he acted as an adviser on the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
documentary mini-series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, which was later published as a book by William Martin.
Photojournalism
Berlet is also a photojournalistPhotojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
. His photographs, particularly of Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in The Denver Post
The Denver Post
-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
, The Washington Star, and The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
.
Books and other writings
The most recent of Berlet's three books, co-authored with Matthew N. Lyons, is Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, published in 2000 by The Guilford Press. It is a broad historical overview of right-wing populism in the United States.The book received generally favorable reviews. Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
said it was a "detailed historical examination" that "strikes an excellent balance between narrative and theory." The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
described it as an excellent account describing the outermost fringes of American conservatism. A review by Jerome Himmelstein in the journal Contemporary Sociology said that "it offers more than a scholarly treatise on the activities of the Third Reich", that it provides a background to help the reader understand the Holocaust and that it "merits close attention from scholars of the political right in America and of social movements generally."
Robert H. Churchill of the University of Hartford
University of Hartford
The University of Hartford is a private, independent, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The degree programs at the University of Hartford hold the highest levels of accreditation available in the US, including the Engineering Accreditation Commission of...
criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis.
In articles, Berlet has argued that the United States is currently undergoing a right-wing backlash that is the most sustained of its kind in U.S. history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
. He argues that although 95% of the US's hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
s are committed by people not affiliated with any group, they have nevertheless internalized a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
developed and promoted by the right wing that demonizes certain groups, including blacks and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s. He argues that the left must develop coalitions to find a way to counter-balance these narratives, instead of becoming isolated as another side of the "lunatic fringe".
In ZOG Ate My Brains, Berlet warned of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that undermines the effort of progressives to bring about social change.
Berlet has provided "research assistance" to a campaign run by the mother of Jeremiah Duggan
Jeremiah Duggan
Jeremiah Duggan was a British student at the Sorbonne who died on 27 March 2003 in Wiesbaden, Germany, while attending a youth cadre school organized by the LaRouche movement, an international network led by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche....
to reopen the investigation into his death. The British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
student died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany. Berlet's statement suggests that the LaRouche movement
LaRouche movement
The LaRouche movement is an international political and cultural network that promotes Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included scores of organizations and companies around the world. Their activities include campaigning, private intelligence gathering, and publishing numerous periodicals,...
bears responsibility.
US Intelligence policy
In 1991, Berlet wrote a report entitled "Right Woos Left," which was critical of a number of critics of U.S. intelligence policy including Prouty, Mark LaneMark Lane (author)
Mark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...
, Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur....
, Craig B. Hulet, and Victor Marchetti
Victor Marchetti
Victor Marchetti is a former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a prominent paleoconservative critic of the United States Intelligence Community and the Israel lobby in the United States....
for being willing to work with groups on the right such as the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
and Liberty Lobby
Liberty Lobby
Liberty Lobby was an American political advocacy organization founded in 1958 that went bankrupt in 2001. It was founded by Willis Carto. In their own words,-Antisemitic world-view:...
.
Allegations by Berlet of neofascism
Berlet has made allegations that various public figures are tainted by Neofascism. Berlet writes that "In the United States, the 1992 presidential campaigns of David DukeDavid Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, Patrick Buchanan, and H. Ross Perot echoed different elements of historic fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
... In his Republican convention speech, Buchanan eerily invoked Nazi symbols of blood, soil and honor... Perot's candidacy provided us with a contemporary model of the fascist concept of the organic leader, the "Man on a White Horse" whose strong egocentric commands are seen as reflecting the will of the people."
Ralph Nader
Berlet criticized Ralph NaderRalph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
and his associates for a close working relationship with Republican textile magnate Roger Milliken
Roger Milliken
Roger Milliken was a U.S. textile heir and businessman. He served as President and then CEO of his family's company, Milliken & Company, from 1947 until 2005...
, erstwhile major backer of the 1996 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
, and anti-unionization stalwart.
Center for the Study of Popular Culture
In 2003 the Southern Poverty Law CenterSouthern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
published "Into the Mainstream," in which Berlet named conservative activist David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
's Center for the Study of Popular Culture
Center for the Study of Popular Culture
Center for the Study of Popular Culture may refer to:*The David Horowitz Freedom Center, founded in the 1980s by political activist David Horowitz; the center changed its name in July 2006....
(CSPC) as one of an "array of right-wing foundations and think tanks support[ing] efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable." Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
on "'black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs'" and of "attack[ing] minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
."
Lyndon H. LaRouche
Berlet described a worldwide network that he claims is controlled by Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
, as having a long history of violence, physical assaults, intimidation, psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
, emotional blackmail
Emotional blackmail
Emotional blackmail is a term used to cover a central form of psychological manipulation - 'the use of a system of threats and punishment on a person by someone close to them in an attempt to control their behavior'. "Emotional blackmail.....
, and harassment. He further asserts that the LaRouche network is "a totalitarian political organization that operates through a variety of front groups, with detailed reports from the field constantly being sent back to the worldwide headquarters in the United States." Laird Wilcox
Laird Wilcox
Laird M. Wilcox is an American researcher specializing in the study of political fringe movements. He is the founder of the "Wilcox Collection on Contemporary Political Movements," said to be one of the largest collections of American political material in the United States. It is housed in the...
and John George (1996), commenting on Berlet's critique of LaRouche, pointed out that LaRouche is most vehemently criticized by authors who "come from extremist ranks themselves", citing Berlet's association with the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, and the National Lawyers' Guild's affiliation with the "Soviet-controlled" International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers is an international organization of jurists' associations.-Subsidiaries and affiliated organizations:Local:* Bangladesh - Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh...
.
Alleges 'Leaderless Jihad' plagiarism
In an article in Public Eye, Berlet made allegations against Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century. Marc Sageman, the author of the book, argues that there is an excessive focus on al Qaeda, and that terrorism has become decentralized. Berlet stated that passages had been taken from works by Richard HofstadterRichard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter was an American public intellectual of the 1950s, a historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University...
and Simson Garfinkel
Simson Garfinkel
Simson L. Garfinkel is an Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Garfinkel is regarded as a leader in the fields of Digital forensics and Usable Security...
. The director of the University of Pennsylvania Press
University of Pennsylvania Press
The University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, publisher of the book, described Berlet's article as "hyperbolic" and called the charges overblown. The publisher promised to add citations in future editions.
The religious right
In a July 2008 article in The ProgressiveThe Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
coauthored with the Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Berlet argued that the religious right
Religious right
The term religious right may refer to religiously motivated right wing movements such as:*Christian right*Hindu nationalism *Islamism*Jewish right*Theravada...
has maintained its staying power despite predictions of its demise. Berlet predicted that, despite predictions of their demise, "On the day after the election, you will not see millions of Christian Right activists raptured off planet Earth. They will be left behind to continue more than thirty years of political activism from within the largest organized social movement in the United States today."
9/11 conspiracy theories
Berlet is a critic of 9/11 conspiracy theories9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...
, as explicated in his debate with prominent conspiracy theorist David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...
. He debunked those theories in his review of Griffin's book A New Pearl Harbor.
Tea Party Movement
After visiting a meeting of the Idaho Liberty Agenda, Berlet wrote: "It helps to recognize that much of what steams the tea bag contingent is legitimate." He sees in the tea party movement a strong strain of producerism, a belief that the productive middle class is being preyed upon by both a parasitic elite (including politicians) and other unproductive segments of society such as minorities, the poor, and immigrants. Berlet writes:
They see their jobs vanish in front of their eyes as Wall Street gets trillions. They see their wages stagnate. They worry that their children will be even less well off than they are. They sense that Washington doesn't really care about them. On top of that, many are distraught about seeing their sons and daughters coming home in wheelchairs or body bags.
In addition to producerism, Berlet sees other elements that he believes are common to right wing populism: demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracy theories of power.
Berlet criticizes "the inside-the-beltway spin that dismisses the rightwing populists as a marginal lunatic fringe..." which, in his view, marginalizes genuinely engaged citizens who have some legitimate fears and thereby feeds their hatred of perceived elites. In and of itself, this centrist vs. extremist model is "toxic to democracy." Berlet also believes that dismissing the tea partiers aids various factions, including John Birch conservatives, "Ron Paul libertarians," the Christian Right, and white supremacist groups, that have been documented trying to recruit the people who are newly moved by right wing populism.
External links
- Biography of Berlet, Political Research Associates
- Biography of Berlet, Center for Millennial Studies
- "Race, Class and Gender: Justice in the Intersections", brief description of Chip Berlet's work
- Chip Berlet on "The Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords" - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...