I first encountered Jeff Sharlet watching a series on Netflix, “The Family.” Sharlet, out of interest in religious groups (and the request from a friend’s family to find out what the hell their son was doing in what they thought was a cult) agreed to spend some time with a Family of men living in the suburbs of Wasington, D.C.
This group of young males, in their twenties, gardened, cleaned up after and even cleaned toilets for the powerful men who came to stay at the Georgian mansion on the property. The work was said to be a way of humbling themselves in the eyes of God.
There were not many rules for the group, just constant bible talk, no sex, and a lot of basketball. But, there were enough comings and goings for Sharlet to get the image of what actually was going on in this Family Compound. The Family had national and even international visitors all well chosen to provide high-level deals. In a community with few rules, three of the most important were that the deals were not to be talked about, the group was not to be talked about and no one was to allow himself to be be identified as a member of the group.
Sharlet got enough information to write two books about The Family. Many on the inside considered him a turn coat, a plant, but Sharlet maintains in the documentary that he never intended to write a tell all story about them. It just happened. He felt that the men and the connections they had made and their potential power made them too important not to write about.
Sharlet has come out with a new book “The Undertow,” and is doing interviews. The following notes are on an interview he did with Democracy Now.
Podcast: Democracy Now
• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/democracy-now-audio/id73802554
• Book: The Undertow
• Conspiracy theories form an appealing rabbit hole where you feel you have some kind of special knowledge.
• Sharlet is highly critical of the 60 Minutes – Interview of MTG.
• This interview, Sharlet maintains, is a masterclass in how not to tell stories about fascism. Lesley Stahl thinks she occupies the center and that her arched eyebrow can still effectively convey to an audience condemnation of someone like MTG and what she says in the interview. Polite disapproval is just not enough when you are dealing with fascists.
• MTG is not a rising a star, she is not trying to enter the same cosmos as someone like Lesley Stahl.
• You cannot fact check a myth. It is not based on a claim to reality. The power of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump is in spectacle.
• B-roll of Stahl strolling along looking at MTG’s lawn conveys the message: You thought she was dangerous, here I am walking along with her.
• People like MTG are going to remake this country in a fascist image.
• Ashley Babbitt, for example, was turned into a martyr.
• They aged her backyard. First she was over 30, then in her 20s, then 16, an innocent white girl killed by a black police officer. It is the lynching myth all over again.
• Babbitt has joined air force, motivated by 9/11. But, something around 2016, which gave her license to indulge. She was deep in debt and she gave in to this undertow. She gave in to the misogyny and racism. She felt free giving in to her worst impulses.
• This temptation to give in to the undertow is not unique Trump or the Trump movement. There’s fascism around the globe. Turkey, Brazil until recently, Myanmar. There is a global fascist moment.
• This is in part due to the failure of neoliberalism, the pandemic, the unprocessed grief associated with the pandemic, whites feeling as if they are losing their way of life, fears about climate change. All of this turns into rage.
• And, authoritarian leaders like Viktor Orban, of Hungary are part of a worldwide move toward fascism. Orban recently tweeted his support for Trump after the indictment in New York.
Book: The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War
Other Books by Jeff Sharlet
The Family (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(miniseries)
2019 Article about The Family in the Atlantic
Frat House for Jesus, the New Yorker
The National Prayer Breakfasthttps://www.vox.com/2018/7/18/17586516/jeff-sharlet-maria-butrina-national-prayer-breakfast-the-family
Law, Power, and Justice 
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