Episode 82: 'Western Civilization' and White Supremacy: The Right-Wing Co-option of Antiquity

Citations Needed

News, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2019

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The term "Western civilization" has long been a staple of the American Right, but with the recent resurgence of white nationalism, it is having something of a comeback. Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly are hosting a two-week Mediterranean "cruise thru history" to "explore the roots of Western civilization." The Intellectual Dark Web's Jordan Peterson tells us "The West is Right," while The Daily Caller and Fox News are busy "celebrating the West." Neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach hails "Youth for Western Civilization." Both the traditional and so-called alt-right ground their worldviews in a fictional moral arc of "The West" that bares little resemblance to reality.

Learning from the past and applying those lessons to the present is a good thing. But in pop political discourse, the Classics have been misused and abused to promote an origin story that never was - a white Greco-Roman world birthing our noble, so-called "Judeo-Christian" American empire to gloss over a history of exploitation, imperialism, slavery and conquest.

On this episode, we'll explore the right-wing obsession with the ancient world, it's influence on neoconservative empire-building and alt-right white nationalism alike, and how our common cultural understanding of the ancient world has been perpetually white-washed to promote a clash of civilizations narrative and racist pseudo-science.

We are joined by Dr. Sarah E. Bond, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, and Dr. Cord Whitaker, Associate Professor at Wellesley College.

Transcript

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0:48.0	Western Civilization.
0:49.4	It's a term that's been a staple of the American right for centuries, but as of late is having
0:55.4	a major resurgence.
0:57.6	This renewed obsession with defending so-called Western Civilization is now a very hot product.
1:05.2	Both the traditional and so-called alt-right ground their worldview in a fictional moral
1:09.7	arc of the West that bends towards equity science and increased standards of living.
1:15.5	Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly host a cruise that quote explores the roots of civilization.
1:20.0	Right wing media personality Ben Shapiro argues the foundation of Western civilization was
1:24.4	born in Jerusalem and Athens as quote twin notions of a Judeo-Christian moral framework
1:29.8	and Greek natural law reasoning.
	...

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