Barriers to Entry

Saying something positive about Pierce.

Readers of this blog know I am critical of Pierce and his ideology and approach. With respect to the latter, I have a negative view of his move to the isolated mountains of West Virginia (WV), and I also looked with a skeptical eye at the methods Pierce used to evaluate potential Local Unit Coordinators (LUCs) (the details of which I will not describe on a public forum, other to say that I used to term his methods “the Tom Sawyer approach” – make of that what you will).

However, let me say something positive about some of these characteristics of Pierce’s approach.  By locating out in the middle of nowhere (besides the physical security advantages), Pierce discouraged casual, amateur infiltrators; only the more professional and hardened infiltrators would be willing to travel to the “National Office.”  The vast majority of sincere National Alliance (NA) members never went out to the woods of WV, one cannot imagine most infiltrators doing so.

Consider the Hermansson infiltration.  He claimed (whether he really felt this way is another story) that he felt his safety was continuously in danger when dealing with the likes of Steadman, Jorjani, and Greg Johnson. What dangerous characters!  What were they going to do?  Blow a Viking horn at him?  Wave a copy of Ride the Tiger in front of his face?  Danger!  Danger! Can you imagine someone like Hermansson making the long trip to WV in the company of real hardcore Nutzis (*)?  Pierce making prospective LUCs “jump through the hoops” also was useful in weeding out the more casual of the insincere.

So, given what’s going on with today’s wonderful White nationalism 2.0, we can consider that Pierce effectively erected barriers to entry that discouraged many of the deceptive and defective.

Now, I still am of the belief that Pierce was wrong on balance. The NA would have done better had its “National Office” been “closer to civilization” (even with the negatives that would have brought, the positives would have outweighed it all), and whatever the benefits of his LUC screening, it did not do a good job of selecting people for competence, energy, and good character.

But, coming full circle, at least Pierce had enough sense to erect some barriers – to not just accept any White featherless biped claiming adherence to your cause.

So, let’s give credit where credit is due.

*Nutzi is not being pejorative in this sense; after all, I was – still am? – a Nutzi myself, albeit an intellectual Type II, rather than a “boots and runes” Type I.