ABSTRACT
This chapter explores former Trump administration official and far-right mobilizer Steve Bannon’s rise to power, Bannon’s ideology, and his frequent “signaling” of affinities with fascists. Although Bannon often seeks to maintain plausible deniability of racism with the public, his worldview is racist, and he constantly signals allegiance to fascism and networks with fascist and far-right actors. He believes in the mystical power of the nation, and while he sometimes insists this transcends such factors as race and sexual orientation, there are clear inconsistencies in his profession of this claim. The influence of Bannon’s apocalyptic vision demonstrates that a politics of destructive “accelerationism” is not new (as addressed in the preceding chapter) as well as must not be understood merely as a fringe criminal phenomenon but rather can reside at the heart of political power. Fascism’s adoption of fascist narratives from the Traditionalist School as well facilitates the dangerous spread of fascist ideology, further evidencing that fascism is a social movement seeking power and always already connected to sources of power.
