History is Sometimes Wrong - Gore Vidal Did NOT Say W. F. Buckley Jr. is 'Crypto-Fascist' as NPR & Wikipedia Say
Setting the Record Straight 1
What passes for history is all too often based on the hearsay of journalists. If you wanted to search for historical information about what insult Gore Vidal used towards William F. Buckley Jr. in their live televised debate on August 28, 1968, you would likely “google it” and after reading the Wikipedia page about it or an article about it by NPR, you might believe that Vidal called Buckley Jr. a “crypto-fascist”.1 This is not so, as we’ll see.
This underscores the importance of valid evidence as opposed to what a journalist’s hearsay. We can not just take their word for it. They are often wrong. Everyone makes honest mistakes. Some people lie. Sometimes people lie by omission or other methods, sometimes people - even people who are paid to be journalists - lie directly.
Because people are to be deemed innocent unless proven guilty, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we should presume that we are dealing with honest mistakes in this piece because there’s no evidence otherwise. However, shame on them for expecting people to simply take their word for it, because (naïve) people often do. There is no shortage of people who will believe something because a news report said it is so.
That leads to lies being recorded as true history. The Proud Boys, for example, will be remembered in history as far-right, white-nationalist, fascist and so on. This will be based on what I will call the Emperor Wears No Clothes Effect in which, without the need to communicate with each other, writers who know better about the Proud Boys publish lies about them and agree with each other’s published lies - mainly that they are far-right and so on - and in which other writers innocently but irresponsibly believe the lies and publish them further and in which, therefore, the wider public believes untruths and history is wrong.
Because I am but one small voice, especially having been muffled so tightly or even silenced by Youtube, Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter, and so on, what I write below - a correction of the record - will not be heeded and history will be wrong. But at least we will know, we and those we share this with.
In writing an entry for the term crypto-fascism in my growing Culture War Encyclopedia, I found that the earliest known use of the term was by Frankfurt School member Adorno in a letter in 1937. There’s a link to this letter under crypto-fascism in the Culture Ware Encyclopedia. He used it to refer to three thinkers, including Carl Jung, apparently because he believed they had a sort of ahistorical and natural inclination towards nationalism and capitalism that, however unwittingly, paves the way for fascism.2
Here is an example of someone saying that conservatism is crypto-fascism. By definition, fascism and conservatism are mutually exclusive. One is about conserving social order and tradition and the other is about catastrophic breaking from traditional social order.
Here is an example of someone claiming that libertarianism is crypto-fascism. In reality, however, fascism is a form of totalitarianism like socialism and Nazism. Libertarianism is the exact opposite of socialism/fascism/Nazism.
I found that multiple sources attribute the second earliest known use of the term to Gore Vidal and record that he used the word to describe William F. Buckley Jr. in a debate. As I discovered, this is apparently not true.
Vidal did, however, call Buckley Jr. a “pro or crypto-Nazi” on live television as we’ll see.
In 1968, William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal debated over multiple nights on TV during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In their third debate, on August 28, while, famously, the police brutally cracked down on protesters outside the convention, they clashed on this and other matters.
As The New York Times reported…
Literary aristocrats and ideological foes, Vidal and Buckley attracted millions of viewers to what, at the time, was a highly irregular experiment: the spectacle of two brilliant minds slugging it out — once, almost literally — on live television.
Over the course of this debate, Buckley Jr. mentions fascism thrice and totalitarianism once in a way that makes it clear that he opposes fascism and totalitarianism as one can see here. He mentions Nazism in the same oppositional manner multiple times here, comparing Nazi sympathizers with protesters who, at that time, says Buckley Jr., made it clear they sympathize with communist soldiers killing American soldiers (the US military was fighting the Viet-Cong in Vietnam at the time).
The host and moderator mentions that the protesters in question were tryin to raise the flag of the Viet-Cong and asks Vidal if that is not provocative and would not the raising of a Nazi flag during World War II have similar consequences? While Vidal states that in American Democracy, you can express any view you like. At that point, Buckley Jr. says something about the point of view of the Nazi while Vidal tells him to shut up. Buckley says…
Some people are pro-Nazi and the answer is they were well treated by people who ostracize them and I’m for ostracizing people who egg on other people to shoot American marines and American soldiers. I know you don’t care.
Buckley seems to be referring to treatment of pro-Nazi protesters in America during World War II while American soldiers were fighting Nazis. He seems to be trying to make the point that in both cases, it is repugnant to fly the flag of the enemy.
This enraged Vidal who responded - wait - go ahead and guess how Vidal responded before proceeding.
…(guess here)…
Yes, that’s right, Vidal responded by calling Buckley Jr. a Nazi, or, more specifically, a “crypto-Nazi.”
If you guessed “fascist” or “crypto-fascist” that’s close enough. These terms are abused in the same manner by the same kind of people.
Vidal responded…
as far as I’m concerned the only sort of pro or crypo-Nazi I can think of is yourself. Failing that, I would only say that we can’t have -
The moderator/host says…
Stop calling names.
Buckley Jr. says…
Now listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your god-damn face and you’ll stay plastered
The moderator/host jumps in…
Gentlemen, please!
Buckley says that he was in the infantry in the last war and fought Nazis. Vidal says that he is lying about that. The moderator/host asks the same question in different words and the debate continued.
In 2008, a Gawker article claimed that Vidal called Buckley Jr. a “crypto-fascist” but he called him no such thing. They may have made the honest mistake of writing “crypto-fascist” when they meant to write “crypto-Nazi”. They may also have been confused by the fact that Vidal had written about that exchange in an essay for Esquire published in 1969 (in footnote 1)…
I had not intended to use the phrase "pro crypto Nazi." "Fascist-minded" was more my intended meaning, but the passions of the moment and Smith's use of the word "Nazi" put me off course.
Of course, we can only speculate as to why they got that wrong.
In 2015, NPR made the same incorrect claim.
As I write this, Urban Dictionary incorrectly claims that in the debate,
Vidal accused Buckley of being a 'crypto-fascist'
In writing on this in 2015, the New York Times mentions the “crypto-Nazi” slur but makes no mention of the term “crypto-fascist”.
As I began to write this, according to the Wikipedia page on crypto-fascism, Vidal would later later correct himself as meaning to say that Buckley Jr. was "crypto-fascist" rather than “crypto-Nazi”. No further details are offered on this point nor is any citation offered. As I was writing this, I corrected the Wikipedia page on the matter and added the section you can see there about the misuse of the term to describe the author of 300 which is clearly a tale in which the bad guys are soldiers of the imperialist dictatorship (fascists) and the good guys defend the civilization that even Moody admits gave us democracy. It seems Mr. Moody has things a bit distorted.
Because of the politics-ridden nature of Wikipedia, I do not expect my edit to last very long so it is archived here.
Thanks for reading
~ Justin TroublePlease see my other reports, my videos, and consider donating. Also, please subscribe and share!
Liberty my right ∴ Truth my sword
Laughter my shield ∴ Knowledge my steed
Love my solace ∴ Honor my rewardCypto-fascism - according to Merriam-Webster, a crypto-fascist is
one who has secret fascist sympathies but is not an avowed fascist
but the term is often misattributed to people whom far-leftists hate but for whom they can find no evidence that they are fascist. For more, see my Culture War Encyclopedia.
Fascism - this is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as…
a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government
a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control of social and economic life, and extreme pride in country and race, with no expression of political disagreement allowed
According to Arthur Goldwag3,
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was appointed prime minister of Italy in 1922 and became its dictator in 1925. Writing in the Italian Encyclopedia in 1932, he defined Fascism as a militaristic, quintessentially imperialistic philosophy…In Mussolini’s words,
“The foundation of fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the state.”
Goldwag writes furthermore that fascism entails surrendering to a supreme leader with an indominable will. He characterizes Hitler’s regime in Germany and Franco’s regime in Spain as fascist. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that Franco’s regime was militaristic and…
displayed many fascist characteristics.
Britannica agrees that Mussolini’s and Hitler’s regimes were fascist and they add the following to the list of fascist regimes…
The Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) in Austria…the National Union (União Nacional) in Portugal…the Party of Free Believers (Elefterofronoi) in Greece…the Ustaša (“Insurgence”) in Croatia…the National Union (Nasjonal Samling) in Norway, …and the military dictatorship of Admiral Tojo Hideki in Japan.
They also list many fascist parties that never gained state power and parties that thy say imitated fascism including the Revolutionary Union of dictator Luis Sánchez Cerro of Peru. For more, see my Culture War Encyclopedia.