Speculative Whiteness by Jordan S. Carroll
Does it seem like we’re living in a season of “The X-Files” where the most improbable conspiracy theories lurk inside every institution and public figure? Space aliens even factor into the calculations of QAnon. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to learn in Speculative Whiteness that the leaders of America’s alt-right are science-fiction fans?
Jordan S. Carroll’s Speculative Whiteness is deeply grounded in the history of ideas, academic as well as pop cultural. Turns out sci-fi author Charles B. Hudson backed Hitler during World War II, earning an indictment for sedition. His acolyte, James H. Madole, led America’s first postwar Nazi organization, the National Renaissance Party. Described by Carroll as an “off-putting figure who appeared at [street] actions wearing a tightly buttoned suit jacket, a pair of thick glasses, and a crash helmet,” Madole is largely forgotten but precedent setting for his role in introducing the far right to infinity and beyond.
Carroll explores the links between fandom and fascism, acknowledging the genre has always included writers and readers of diverse opinions if not diverse ethnicity. Sci-fi fandom was largely white and mostly male from its inception through midcentury before a new generation of authors such as Ursula Le Guinn and Octavia Butler went boldly to places unvisited by their predecessors.
Science fiction is galactic in scope and attracts aliens and the alienated of all sorts. According to Carroll, Unite the Right’s headliner Richard Spencer “brags about owning a light saber, obsesses over Christopher Nolan, and discusses every development in the Dune franchise with avid interest.” Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Worker Party cites the sci-fi game Warhammer 40,000 as his “entrée into white nationalism.” The game’s British creators insist that Warhammer is a parody of authoritarian violence, but in a postmodern age that discounts “authorial intentions,” creative misreadings can run unchecked.
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Central to Carroll’s thesis is the role in alt-right science-fiction of English philosopher Nick Land, “the intellectual godfather of the Neoreactionary movement.” Land divides humanity into the “masses” and the “nerds,” with the nerds providing the right stuff for “a superior, space-based race” that will reach for the stars. Land’s nerds will mostly be white, augmented by a few Asians prized for their powers of imitation. The rest of the Earth’s population are little more than monkeys. Will the nerds have their revenge?
Of course, science-fiction writing based on white supremacist precepts is as old as the genre itself. But Carroll looks closer and sees beyond speculative dystopias blamed on Jews, Blacks, Muslims or beings endowed with their stereotypes. “The alt-right seizes upon speculative genres to dictate who has the right to speculate in the first place,” he adds. This has led to coups within fandom and ugly digital wars. Simply put, the alt-right (and their sci-fi) divides the world into those who deserve a future and those who do not.
And yes, the alt-right says no to “Star Trek.: Too many minorities on the bridge of the Enterprise, too many Jewish influences in the screenplays. They are rooting for Khan.
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