The Anarchist European Tour 1878: The Plot Against Civilization pp. 247-249

We’re done with Russia, so no more of that weird racism—we’ll just have to settle for Webster’s normal brand. It’s 1878 and she claims that “Western Europe experienced a repercussion of the Russian Terror, and the four leading Anarchists, Kropotkine, Cafiero, Malatesta, and Brousse, organized a worldwide scheme of violence described by them as the ‘Propaganda of the Deed.”

I don’t think she knows what ‘repercussion’ means. Does she mean to say that the scheme of the four is in direct response to the Russian Tsar’s clamp down of the Russian citizens? I am really asking that question because there is no context for her claim. It’s the first sentence of the paragraph that opens the section.

We just have to move past it I guess.

The end of the paragraph implies a good old fashioned false flag. The German Emperor Wilhelm I (which Webster writes as “William” for what I assume are racist reasons) was the target of two assassination attempts by anarchists Hodel and Nobling. Webster tells us that none of the Socialist writers would claim a link between their organizations to the assassins. They would, of course, deny this even if there was a link which is where I was expecting Webster to go. Instead, she just mentions that if we want to believe them, we can…which is weird for her. Then she writes, “(the would be assassins) served as a pretext for the anti-Socialist law which Bismark passed triumphantly at the end of the year.”

Bismark passes these laws which prohibited meetings of Socialists, Communists, and any organization of Germans that sought to overthrow the German government. Webster tells us that Hodel (the second attempted assassin) was found with pictures of two leading Socialists which would seem to indicate that Hodel at least knew of them. Instead of saying that the Socialists were lying Webster writes that the pictures may have been, “placed in his pockets by the Berlin police –may have been hired for the deed, -- agents provocateurs are, of course, a favorite resource of autocratic governments.”

Here is where the racism gets in the way of a conspiracy theory. For Webster’s story to be coherent the Socialist organizations of Germany attempted to assassinate the Emperor in order to further their world domination plot. This is what she claimed happened in Russia. Instead, she hates Germans so much that it forces her to claim that maybe the Socialists aren’t responsible for all the world’s evils and instead it’s those dastardly Germans. The obvious conspiracy theory takes a strange backseat.

Her anti-German hate continues, “The ‘genius’ of the German people is naturally disinclined to Individualism, and whether in the form of Prussian militarism or of State Socialism always favours mass formation.”

The German is unable to think for themselves and is in fact unwilling to do so. Unlike Webster who is one hundred percent original and not parroting strange racial stereotypes and conspiracy theories from the 18^th century.

She then gets a little Tucker Carlson by claiming an actual unique conspiracy theory. Socialism and Anarchism fail to take hold in Germany because of those laws. In the real world this isn’t true. Worker solidarity actually grows in Germany despite the laws but we will set that aside. Instead, the German government begins exporting their Socialists and Anarchists to the United Kingdom and the Americas. This is done with the goal of destabilizing those countries with worker revolts while Germany itself remains clean…which again, it doesn’t. The worker movements in Germany at this time are strong enough that Bismark gives them concessions in order to placate them.

In England, especially in London, there is no native anarchism it’s all German. London is the center of German-anarchism but the English working class has never took to these ideas. She engages in a repeated purposeful flip flopping between referring to Anarchists and Socialists. She claims that Anarchism never found a foothold in England, ok, I’m going to take her word for that. Socialism did. What she’s trying to accomplish is to confuse the reader on these two issues so that when we read that even Kropotkine could find no socialist groups to commiserate with we don’t question it. However we should remember that these two groups are no the same because she kept reminding us that her boyfriend was getting tossed out of Socialist groups.

She’s lost focus entirely. We’ve gone from Germany to the UK and found that there are no anarchists. Ok, so what? Does this mean that the plot to overthrow civilization, the focus of this book, has stopped? No, of course not, because we still have 97 pages left in this book.

She hates Socialism and Anarchism, but her reasoning is never explained. I know plenty of people that disagree with Socialism but they have reasons. We’ve just been told that Socialism is part of the plot but are never given a reason how or why? In contemporary conspiracy theories the plot is a little more detailed but it still lacks this one aspect. Socialism requires organization and pamphlets, if I was going to try and subvert civilization, I would merely use the existing system. It’s much more efficient than doing all of this agitation.

We remember that the Internationale is dead, the largest worker’s organization in European history (to that point) failed when it realized that it was much better to have localized organizations that could adapt to the needs of the locals. Webster, in desperate need of a villain, claims that a “formidable sect’ springing to life again – the original Illuminati of Weishaupt.” Dun dun duuunnnnnn!

Wait a second, she’s been telling us that the Socialists and the Anarchists were following the Illuminati plan this entire time. This conspiracy theory is busting apart because she doesn’t know who is in charge. The Socialists were supposed to be carrying the Illuminati plan forward, the anarchists in Russia as well. This would mean that these groups were independently following the Illuminati plan. I think she needs to recheck her yarn and pushpin board.