Douglas Murray and the "fetid swamps" of the far right

On Douglas Murray’s latest appearance on Sam Harris’ podcast, the issue of his appearance on Stefan Molyneux’s YouTube show was raised and Harris talked of how “dicey this situation is” for him.

Murray responded firstly by admitting he is “promiscuous” in deciding whom he talks to, before going on to promote generally being open to discussions with a wide variety of people as opposed to “not speaking to anyone who isn’t 100% aligned with us”.

However this response didn’t quite meet the point Harris was attempting to make of why exactly this situation is “dicey”. This isn’t about refusing to talk with certain people, but the impression Murray’s appearance on such shows gives to its viewers.

As he stated Murray does anything but isolate himself from opposing views. Over the years he has talked with loads of people and debated all sorts with wacky views such as former KGB employees, various Islamists, or even extreme as actual ISIS supporters.

However there is a key variable here in regards to Molyneux. The fact is what Murray referred to as the “fetid swamps” of the far-right is a not inconsiderable part of his fan base.

As Harris mentioned, Molyneux’s show hosts a roll call of racists, misogynists, and conspiracy theorists. These include white nationalist Breivik fan Vox Day, lunatics from Infowars like Mike Cernovich or Alex Jones, an anti-Semitic holocaust revisionist from the extreme Red Ice Radio is his resident Sweden “expert”, whilst white supremacists Jared Taylor, or Helmuth Nyborg, who hang out at the sort of events that feature David Duke, are called upon to discuss race and IQ.

Molyneux is far from the only one in these circles to have praised Murray.

Kevin MacDonald, probably the leading promulgator of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in the USA, says “Douglas Murray rocks”. Geoffrey Miller, a far-right evolutionary psychologist who loves the likes of Vox Day and Moldbug, says “if enough people read this excellent Douglas Murray book, Europe still has some hope of surviving into the 22nd century”.

Tara McCarthy, white nationalist YouTuber who thinks interracial relationships are “borderline bestiality” and advocates deporting non-whites, says “I definitely recommend you buy Douglas Murray’s book and give it to [‘red pill’] your normie friends”.

Paul Weston, PEGIDA co-leader whose political party advocates banning Muslims from running for public office, executing “traitor politicians/journalists”, and published articles glorifying Radovan Karadzvic, lauds Murray’s book as “filled with wisdom, reality and logic”. Paul Joseph Watson, a conspiracy theorist at Alex Jones’ Infowars who made his name as a 9/11 truther and pushing countless other conspiracies which are generally anti-West and favourable towards Russia, calls it “the most important book of the 21st century so far”.

Other far right figures such as trolls Milo Yiannopolous or Katie Hopkins are big fans and call him “wonderful” or say “I love Douglas Murray”. Murray is also following and retweeting praise from accounts supportive of the likes of Britain First, Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, that also talks of “white genocide” and putting politicians on trial for treason.

It varies for each individual, but around these circles, you’ll hear conspiracies about pizzagate, Seth Rich, the Rothschilds, “white genocide”, and various other ugly sentiments directed particularly towards liberals, Jews, Muslims, non-whites, or women.

The Islamist far-right Murray has conversed with may be equally as beyond the pale in terms of nuttiness, but not a single sane person would get any impression at all of him being aligned with someone like Tariq Ramadan and that’s the difference. These people at least perceive Murray to be an ally and on their side.

You suspect Murray ought to know this difference too. In the past he correctly and entirely justifiably criticised Nicola Sturgeon for sharing a platform with the lunatic white Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, or Sayeeda Warsi for speaking at FOSIS (a group that frequently hosts various Islamists).

Here Murray fully understands the difference between his discussions with Ridley and Sturgeon sharing a platform with her. The latter is fellow travelling with a malevolent agenda that caters to a nasty audience of anti-Semites and theocrats, the former is challenging it. The only thing is in going to discuss the failures of mass immigration on Molyneux or Rebel Media (where Murray was interviewed by an idiot who accuses his friend Maajid Nawaz of having an “agenda of terrorism”), whose shows caters to an audience of paleo-cons, ethno-nationalists, and conspiracy theorists, Murray is unwittingly or not doing similar himself.

It would be inadvisable and worthy of criticism for anyone to go to toxic Islamist personalities or groups like MEND or ISNA to just discuss “Islamophobia”, bash the West, and play to their narratives. But the same also applies to far right and conspiracy platforms like the awful Rebel Media or Molyneux as an appropriate outlet to discuss failures of mass immigration.

Murray discussing "the future of
the west" with Rebel Media

In going on their shows and following the likes of them and Paul Joseph Watson on Twitter after they praised him, Murray is just further reinforcing their impression of him as an ally and fellow traveller. This can be forgiven for a mistake out of ignorance (if acknowledged as such), but there are others who will not be so generous, not least opponents eager to stigmatise him.

This brings us to another question of why Murray has been attracting more and more fans from the far-right, and whether he is particularly bothered these people have this impression of him.

In a 2010 article Murray slammed Russia Today as a “strange propaganda outfit” pumping out conspiracy “filth”. If he’s genuinely still worried about this conspiracy “filth”, and the “fetid swamps” of racism and anti-Semitic conspiracy he talks of, then he ought to perhaps be alarmed many of its most notable promulgators perceive him as an ally and are fans of his.

On Harris’ podcast late in 2015, Murray stated his goal “has always been to wake people up about [problems of mass immigration and Islam] and to make them take it seriously in order so it wasn’t left to [...] Marine Le Pen in the future”.

Yet curiously with the prospect of Trump or Le Pen in recent elections, Murray did not seem concerned enough to use his position as a commentator to critique them. Instead, although not endorsing them, his takes (such as “Trump won't be as bad as you think” and “Is Le Pen really far-right?”) were consistently apologetic usually focusing solely on lambasting Left wing hyperbole, hypocrisy and overreach, and either downplaying or ignoring the legitimate concerns many have about the dangers of these candidates.

And more broadly he has scarcely made any noises against the sensationalist overreach, exaggeration and conspiracy, the promotion of nativist identitarianism, Putinist/Assadist apologetics, the love for Assange and Wikileaks, and contempt for the post-WW2 liberal international order found on Alt-Lite/Alt-Right friendly outlets Breitbart, Rebel Media, Infowars, Sputnik/RT, and other characters in those circles who grew in prominence alongside Trump and Le Pen’s campaigns.

For example on a topic such as Sweden, whilst Murray correctly notes “there is no doubt” it is “exaggerated by some people”. Unlike another critic of mass immigration Tino Sanandaji, who manages to be more balanced and calls out the “cartoonish exaggerations” often seen on the above websites which strengthens and distinguishes his arguments from more reactionary voices. Instead Murray rarely calls this out and even repeats in his book ludicrously misleading claims from the far-right such as that Sweden has the second highest levels of rape in the world (this overreach being a gift to those who want to brush over the very real problems and indeed one critical review of his book did just that).

This is the main reason these people speak of and perceive Murray the way they do. He does not only bash the Left’s overreach and exaggerations, but will go on their podcasts and shows and bash the Left with them. All the while neglecting to talk of the likes of Trump or Le Pen in any other terms than they’re either the Left’s fault or the Left is criticising them wrongly or are hypocrites.

As Ben Shapiro said on a recent podcast when a fair number of such people “claim you as an ally” then “that does matter” and “it becomes more incumbent on you to disassociate from them, if you want to disassociate from them”. That means calling out and critiquing the Breitbart/Rebel Media/Infowars-sphere and their overreach, conspiracies etc on occasions too.

Murray is an articulate thoughtful speaker does raise interesting points that should be taken seriously. Hopefully after his podcast with Harris he will be more aware though of how “dicey this situation is for him” and whether he is comfortable with the way the far-right view him.

Otherwise it is hard to take the concern he expressed of an empowered far-right sincerely, and it may be worth asking if his views have shifted to now basically align with Dennis Prager, who’s lately been using Murray’s book to advance his lecturing to Never Trump conservatives that there is a “Left-Right battle” that is “existential” for Western civilisation and they must “join the fight” to stop the Left.