White Supremacy, Globalization & Homophobia

The internet is inherently global, simultaneously a tool of globalization and a symbol of it. And, increasingly white supremacists are using the internet to both organize internationally and to react against the process of globalization and all that it represents for them. This is what Benjamin Barber has referred to as Jihad vs. McWorld.

A case in point to illustrate this: Eric Rudolph. Rudolph plead guilty and was sentenced this week to four consecutive life terms today for bombing the Olympics, an abortion clinic, and a lesbian bar. The connection between these may not make intuitive sense to the outside observer, but once you know that Rudolph is a member of the white supremacist group Christian Identity, then the connection becomes clearer.
Chip Berlet's extensive background piece on Rudolph and the Christian Identity branch of the white supremacist movement illustrates that for Rudolph and other white supremacists, there is a clear link between white supremacy, globalization and homophobia. Their view is that the dominance of whites is threatened by loss of jobs in the U.S. and the more permeable national boundaries brought about by globalization. In addition, the type of modernization that disconnects sex from reproduction leads to the twin evils of abortion and homosexuality, both of which are viewed as threats to the declining proportion of whites in the U.S. population. Thus, the link between white supremacy, globalization and homophobia for people like Rudolph.