After Apocalypse: American Ecofascism and the Violent Work of Earthly Restoration

FAIN: FT-291639-23

Chloe Ahmann Kessler
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14850-2820)

Archival research leading to a book on the intersection of hate groups and environmental movements and how such groups have historically come from both sides of the political spectrum.

This project concerns the murderous reparative vision at the heart of ecofascism, focusing on far-right groups in the NW United States. This vision took spectacular form in recent shootings by avowed ecofascists, but my study takes up the quiet work that fueled them. For if these shooters aspired toward world-breaking violence, they did so knowing others were preparing the Eden that would supposedly sprout up from the remains. For decades, white supremacists have kept busy claiming bioregions, going vegan, recruiting men on hikes, and laboring in other ways to graft whiteness onto planetary futures. These quotidian efforts are not at odds with ecofascist terror. They are precisely where that terror is being cultivated. It is therefore urgent to understand the concept-world that gives them traction: one that links elimination to repair, rendering violence legible as environmental care, and where mass shootings can be pitched as preemptive strikes against the ravages of climate change.