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Date: July 21, 2021 09:41AM
Mormon neo-Nazi "DezNats" (2019)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-cult-of-deznat-alt-right-mormons-targeting-porn-and-the-lgbtq-community#DezNat stands for “Deseret Nation.” It’s a loose, extremely controversial affiliation of online Mormons, which has divided the LDS Twittersphere in the past five months, drawing praise from conservative church members, and concerned, even fearful, criticism from progressives.
Several conservatives who spoke to The Daily Beast claimed that the hashtag is apolitical, nothing more than a way for church members to aggregate doctrinal commentary on Twitter. “It’s not ‘nationalism,’” said Dustin Turner, a church member and former Ted Cruz staffer who uses the hashtag. “Have you ever seen Red Sox Nation? It’s got the same connotation.” Another #DezNat proponent, a 28-year-old Washington State Fish & Wildlife official named Brett Cain said that he was initially concerned by the tag. “Nationalism doesn’t sound too good,” Cain said. “But it was explained to be a Deseret Nation—not in terms of country or borders—but a group of people with common culture and that culture is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2019/09/10/reese-the-lds-church-has-a-white-nationalist-problem/Like many alt-right groups, DezNat was not taken particularly seriously when they first started to appear around 2018. ABC 4 News reported on their activity but failed to address the seriousness of this growing group of white nationalists who consider themselves acting on the wishes of one of the largest institutions in Utah. Members of DezNat argue that they do not have an ideology and are only motivated by a desire to “follow the prophet,” as written by one member, Tanner Guzy. In what seems to be some sort of overcompensation, Guzy has based his Twitter in painful efforts to portray himself as a strong, traditional, masculine man. He does a good job of normalizing white nationalism, making it look compatible with the lifestyle and beliefs of the average Latter-day Saint guy, and he is just one of the many pushing a hateful, racist and vile ideology — one I believe that the LDS Church leaders would not agree with.
DezNat claims not to have any formal organization, but they do share an ideology far more sinister than Guzy’s vague claims of loyalty. DezNat believes they are the true followers of Christ and the prophet, that they alone interpret doctrine properly among Latter-day membership and that they must fight against the empowerment and expression of LGBTQ people, socialists, minorities, women and progressive members of the church.
One Reddit user described DezNat as “some sort of far-right Mormon circle jerk,” but DezNat is not a small, harmless group. It is cultivating a strong following of fellow Latter-day Saints who join the online movement, most keeping their real identities hidden. The Deseret Nation YouTube channel provides perspective into the group’s beliefs with videos promoting the subservience of women, anti-vaccination activism and variations of the flat-earth conspiracy. Hundreds of DezNat accounts regularly pop up on Twitter (some, of course, are taken down) with many targeting the LGBTQ community, women, people of color and even non-American white people (some in DezNat are extreme enough to have a thing against Europeans, who they refer to as Europooreans).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/alaska-assistant-attorney-general-twitter-far-rightOnline, Cicotte, under the moniker J Reuben Clark and the Twitter handle @JReubenCIark, has expressed extreme positions on race, criminal justice and religion.
Since-deleted tweets archived by anti-fascists reveal that he advocated various extreme positions including the summary imprisonment of Black Lives Matter protesters; vigilante violence against leftwing groups; and a punishment of execution for acts including performing gender reassignment surgery.
The JReubenCIark account was also one of the earliest and most prominent accounts to promote Deseret nationalism on Twitter using hashtags like #DeseretNationalism and #DezNat.
Deseret nationalists or DezNats are a loose association of rightwing Mormons. Previously they have been noted for harassing perceived enemies online, such as progressive Mormons, LGBTQ Mormons, former Mormons and political progressives.
Some who identify with the movement wish to recreate Deseret, the region which is now much of the interior of the western United States, which Mormons sought to have admitted to the union, and effectively ruled between 1862 and 1870.
Some DezNats advocate the creation of a theocratic secessionist Mormon state, and some have proposed that this be a white ethnostate, a desire which is reminiscent of the proposals of some white nationalists for a white ethnostate in the Pacific north-west.
Many DezNats flirt with accelerationist neo-Nazi imagery, and pass around memes and catchphrases that are adaptations of imagery and verbiage associated with the “alt-right” movement.
The account is pseudonymous, but it left a trail of evidence regarding Cicotte’s identity which were archived by antifascist activists.
The moniker not only references a prominent 20th-century Mormon leader and attorney, but is the name of Brigham Young University’s law school, from which Cicotte graduated in 2008.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2021 09:50AM by anybody.