1. An erstwhile contrarian radical who hates PC SJW hipsters decides to defend a right-wing buffoon. But he knows there is no positive case to be made so he confines himself to attacking critics of the buffoon. I"m talking of course of Wyndham Lewis' anti-anti-Hitler stance.
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4. Part of Lewis' critique of established order was aimed at liberalism of Bloomsbury set (which was, admittedly, often snobbish). Lewis thought this liberalism was sentimentally exalting women, people of color, the young, and gays. In other words, he opposed "identity politics"
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5. Here in his book Hitler (1931) Lewis complains about "Sex-war" (feminism & gay rights), Age-war (i.e. goddamn Brooklyn millennial hipsters), & "Color-line-war" (anti-racism).pic.twitter.com/qPjnzVOaoz
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6. In complaining that "big business" was the force behind feminism, gay righs, youth rebellion & anti-racism, Lewis anticipates the current right-wing critique that corporate capitalism is promoting PC.
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7. Lewis saw the vogue for jazz, non-Western art & the Harlem renaissance as products of "negro-worship" from sentimental white liberals. In other words, political correctness. Hitler offered a salutary alternative of honest white pride.pic.twitter.com/WKMzfnQ4B3
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8. There's a fair amount of what-about-ism in Lewis. Sure, Hitler is a loud anti-Semite. But the British ruling class are different only in vocal level. They are polite anti-Semites.pic.twitter.com/XilxLwL0rG
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9. Lewis' overriding gambit, as Fredric Jameson pointed out in his terrific "Fables of Aggression; Wyndham Lewis, The Modernist as Fascist," is to treat Hitler as a victim, the punching bag of the established order. In today's language, the victim of the Deep State & Fake News.
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10. Lewis, to be clear, was a skilled polemicist & was right on a few individual points (Treaty of Versailles & war debts were bad). But he was overwhelmingly wrong in the larger agenda (which was to make the most plausible case for not opposing Hitler).
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Is he the proto what aboutist?
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Same old story.
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In this, Lewis reflects a tendency of anti-bourgeois radical voices in Germany that in the 1920s gradually became more and more openly Nazi supporters.
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Yes, absolutely.
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