The White Nationalist Cabal Behind O'Reilly's Christmas Crusade

What would Christmas be without warnings of the secular crusade to destroy it? Thanks to the fulminations of cable news cranks and evangelical moralists, the War on Christmas has become an annual outrage. A far-right state senator from Utah, Chris Buttars, fired the opening salvo in this year's Christmas war, sponsoring an urgent resolution demanding that stores greet shoppers with the phrase "Merry Christmas."

The Christmas kulturkampf is a growth industry in a shrinking economy, providing an effective boost for conservative fundraising and a ratings bonanza for right-wing media. So who was the genius that created it? Was it the irascible Bill O'Reilly, who fumed in 2005 that "secular progressives" plotted against Christmas in order to legalize drugs and gay marriage? Or was it a band of resentful little elves in Santa's workshop? After a visit with the ghost of conservatism's past, I revealed the answer at The Daily Beast.

On December 5, Peter Brimelow explained to me how he conceived the War on Christmas during the mid-1990's, then brought his crusade to the conservative movement. Who is Brimelow?

A former editor for Fortune and the National Review, Brimelow is now a leading figure of the white nationalist movement. His website, VDare.com, is the internet's leading anti-immigration journal, providing a forum to allies like Jared Taylor, a white supremacist publisher, and Kevin MacDonald, an evolutionary psychology professor who claims that Jews are possess special psychological traits that enable them to out-compete Gentiles for resources and power. For his part, Brimelow has argued that the influx of "weird aliens with dubious habits" from developing nations was eroding America's white Christian "ethnic core." In 2003, four years after VDare's founding, the Southern Poverty Law Center classified the journal as a "hate group."

How did the War on Christmas spread from Brimelow's website and fevered imagination to O'Reilly and the conservative media? I reveal the details at The Daily Beast.

Comments

[bdaved]

Happy Hanukkah, Max!

[pfc1369]

There's a war on Christmas?

Where do I enlist?

[VSamuels]

(Geeesh, it's going to take all day to read all of these comments.)

The reality is Mr. Blumenthal is that many white folks simply aren't really interested in these type of stories---as conditioned by a defensive mechanism which is ever on guard to cite the whinning of those who point out the particulars of some with the white culture who have never let go of defining themselves firstly as 'white souls'. First, one must I believe lay the groundwork of emphasizing basic common decency and basic common honesty, for without either of these things, one has little chance of beginning a conversation and even less chance of sustaining one to the point where they can outline their case and then prove their point.

Many folks here are what I refer to as 'surface' people, they are comfortable with their assumptions and beliefs about various assundary issues, and rarely choose to move beyond the quick and standard explanations that in their mind explains the unusual or unsettling issue. As Tim Wise, a white social commentator explains: whites being in power and control in America haven't had to look beyond their own voice to understand, as there has been little consequence (to suffer) from power deprived non-whites for doing so.

This is an important subject and I would ask that you continue at it, I for one will be listening.

[cobraxus]

Dec.25th was actually The Feast Of Saturn(Saturnalia)celebrated by The Romans.Originally lasting over 10 days it was consolidated down to just one:December 25th.Then Saint Nicolas began using the holiday to secretly remind people about the birth of Christ by leaving toys for children and thus here we are.