Roleplaying as the Man of Action: Functions of Short Form Fiction in Terrorgram Publications
By Samantha Olson, M.A. Candidate in Security Studies at Georgetown University
Introduction
Accelerationists’ use of fiction to deliver ideological messaging is hardly new. The 1978 novel, The Turner Diaries, is considered by some to be the most influential book in the neo-Nazi accelerationist milieu. Indeed, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh sold copies of the novel at gun shows and was arrested with pages from the book in his getaway car in 1995. Understandably, Pierce’s work remains popular within the accelerationist ecosystem. The Terrorgram publication, The Hard Reset, provides a multi-page analysis of The Turner Diaries and its enduring relevance for the movement.
The Turner Diaries may be the most infamous work of neo-Nazi fiction, but it is far from the most recent. While the ecosystem has yet to produce a novel, Terrorgram zines are replete with short-form fiction. Keeping with the broader function of Terrorgram publications, these stories are meant to be explanatory narratives, ideological justifications, tactical lessons, and a call to arms for further violence. To be sure, there is plenty of mainstream fiction that is exceptionally violent and for which there exists hearty debate about whether or not it is ethical. What sets self-insert accelerationist fiction apart is that its purpose is to familiarize the reader with––and desensitize the reader to––the feeling of being a violent actor. Above all, accelerationist short fiction performs three functions that standard propaganda cannot: escapism, roleplay, and promises of reclaimed masculinity following movement success. All functions are in the interest of radicalizing readers into violent action. Here, we take a closer look at three examples of short-form accelerationist fiction drawn from Terrorgram publications and assess their functional purpose.
Escapism
It is no secret that reading fiction is a tried and true method of briefly escaping reality. Terrorgram fiction is not fundamentally different. These short stories offer readers the opportunity for ideologically imbued escapism by constructing an alternate reality that idealizes the neo-fascist militant accelerationist struggle. Escapism in these stories is often literal. The Hard Reset features a flash piece entitled “Homesick for a Place I’m Not Even Sure Exists,” which paints an idyllic picture of life off the grid in the accelerationist resistance. Recruits and veterans live in a sanctuary where they tend orchards, raise livestock, digitize neo-fascist ideological materials, and train fighters to violently dismantle “the filth of civilization.” These neo-fascist warrior monks pray and build their bodies through physical training, build their minds through discussing philosophy and military strategy, and build their culture through painting and sculpting representations of their idealized society.
The archetypal soldier in such installments hardly resembles the reality of the accelerationist ecosystem, which predominantly occupies the fringes of the internet, instead of the rugged training camps authors idealize. Immersion in accelerationist escapist fiction bridges this gap between fantasy and reality. While the opportunities for readers to join neo-fascist communes beyond the reach of civilization are far and few between, they can emulate the neo-fascist warrior monk archetype. Activities that first appear moderate or at least not decidedly accelerationist in nature become quiet acts of extremism when they leave the page.
Interests such as physical fitness, religion, philosophy, and agricultural self-sufficiency—all benign at first glance and perfectly legal—are imbued with an ideological undertone by accelerationist propaganda that situates these activities as the antithesis to Western society. Western society, in turn, is characterized as unfit, atheist, unintelligent, and dependent on handouts. Even the mundane aspects of a reader’s life can be reframed to have ideological meaning. Going to the gym, praying, scrolling the Wikipedia page on Nietzsche’s concept of the “Übermensch,” can all be narrativized as forms of micro-resistance to the System, aiding in one’s indoctrination into the accelerationist lifestyle and worldview. One can begin to hone himself into the archetypal accelerationist soldier by engaging in zero-risk activities and romanticizing hobbies he might already be engaged in. Additionally, by lowering the threshold for active participation in resistance-coded activities, these fictions simultaneously lower the threshold for violence by bringing these accelerationist cosplayers closer to the world—and actions—they desire to emulate.
Self-Insert Fiction
Some Terrorgram fiction pieces follow in the “self-insert” genre in which authors write themselves into a story as a fictional character to engage in a sort of independent roleplay. Self-inserts to violence are not entirely new in the right-wing extremist context but have hitherto been largely limited to images and poetry rather than extended short fiction. The lengthier accelerationist approach to self-insert fiction allows more profound and sustained reader immersion in the depiction of violence.
The eight-page short story “High Scores and Headlines” in Militant Accelerationism is especially noteworthy in this regard. The piece follows a fictionalized account of a catastrophic accelerationist attack targeting Jews, police, and federal agents. Immediately after the narrative is a mock-up of a fictional Terrorgram “Daily News” publication, which boasts of a “god-tier performance” by an accelerationist who has just taken “second place” after Norwegian domestic terrorist Anders Breivik. At the bottom of the page, the author asks, “feeling inspired?” and challenges the reader: “if a 25yo retail clerk can do this, wbu?” Self-insert fiction as such allows the reader to try the role of “man of action” on for size and potentially empowers him to take the narrative off-page.
The interactive and invitational nature of self-insert fiction leaves the reader with the impression that the only difference between him and the protagonist is his unwillingness to act in the real world. The protagonist in “High Scores and Headlines” has no name, a lackluster personality, and no defining features save for his “ice blue eyes.” This is by design; his implicit purpose is to function as a hollow, inhabitable shell for the reader to occupy and vicariously reap the psychological rewards of violence. Self-insert accelerationist fiction has perhaps the clearest and most lethal functional purpose. While the author taunts the reader, either implicitly or explicitly, that “this could be you” in place of the protagonist, the reader is able to try on the role of “man of action” without actually putting himself in harm’s way.
Reclaimed Masculinity
Bridging the escapist and self-insert genres and making idealized masculinity even more explicit is accelerationist fiction depicting ideologically colored sexual fantasies. These stories romanticize and sexualize accelerationist violence, offering sexual conquest as a hypothetical reward for commitment to accelerationist aims. A series of related fictional installments in Militant Accelerationism follows the exploits of a self-described “cell of domestic terrorists” who plant weapons caches, plot attacks, and occasionally descend into an unnamed city to commit racially motivated acts of violence. While there is little plot to speak of, the narrative of these excerpts is primarily organized around the protagonists saving three white women from being raped by Black men. The group abducts the young women as spoils of war and divides them amongst themselves based on each man’s sexual preferences.
The protagonist, Charlie, finds his match with the dark haired, blue-eyed Marianne, whom he likens to a princess. Almost immediately, Marianne tests Charlie’s patience by fleeing from the camp, luring him to the river where she then threatens him with a pistol that she had kept hidden on her person. After a close-quarters struggle in which Charlie disarms her, Marianne reveals the chase to have been a mere “shit-test” to evaluate Charlie’s resolve and masculinity. Naturally, Marianne happens to be an ardent neo-fascist accelerationist as well. After listening to her lament how young women are continuously victimized by immigrants and non-whites, Charlie falls head-over-heels and decides Marianne is “the one.”
The sexual fantasy depicted here serves to reinforce core tenets of neo-fascist ideology while also providing readers a glimpse of the more titillating rewards of participation in accelerationist violence. First, although Marianne sets herself apart from the other women with her weapons proficiency and neo-fascist ideological leanings, she admits she has been forced to become self-sufficient because the System has rendered white men unwilling to defend the purity of white women. Her natural preference would have been to marry young and start a family. Second, while Charlie’s attraction to Marianne is immediate, Marianne’s attraction to Charlie is framed as a response to displays of his ideological commitment to accelerationism and willingness to commit violence. In other words, this fantasy ties a man’s sexual desirability to his degree of commitment to the accelerationist cause and suggests that accelerationist women—of which there are few—are only attracted to the most dedicated and stereotypically masculine soldiers.
Conclusion
While short fiction makes up just a small fraction of the cumulative thousands of pages of Terrorgram publications, its potency as a radicalizing agent should not be overlooked. These passages offer opportunities for escapism into alternate realities of idyllic training facilities and neo-fascist paradises that purely instructional propaganda cannot. Self-insert fiction allows prospective perpetrators to roleplay as the archetypal “man of action” to become familiar with being an active participant in hastening the collapse of the System. This continual self-perception as a potential domestic terrorist erodes psychological barriers to actual violence. Ideologically infused accelerationist sexual fantasies deliver neo-fascist messaging about gender, sexual relations, masculinity, femininity, and race while also highlighting the erotic payoff of dogmatism. At first glance, it is easy to dismiss accelerationist fiction as just that: fiction. However, considering the overall function of these stories is to radicalize readers, it becomes clear that the ultimate aim of accelerationist fiction is induce readers to have their actions memorialized in the non-fiction genre by facilitating radicalization and creating real-world violence.
