Watch Twitch.TV/QueerSatanic
(Fridays @ 8 p.m. Pacific / 0300 GMT)

Good news for TST in Boston invocation appeal, updates on TST HQ arrests, and Spencer Sunshine’s book release

Jump to

1. [INFORMED DISSENT] Satanic Temple, Inc. v. City of Boston (“Boston invocation appeal update”)
2. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Michigan alleged bomber update (“Michigan man accused of making explosives to target Satanic Temple”)
3. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Oklahoma alleged bomber update (“Oklahoma Man Indicted by Federal Grand Jury”)
4. [WE LIVE IN HELL] 2022 alleged arsonist check-in
5. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Iowa vandalism trial update
6. [PERMANENT SHITTENING] Antifascist academic looks at Satanic Temple leader’s neo-Nazi ties (“Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism” by Spencer Sunshine)

---

1. [INFORMED DISSENT] Satanic Temple, Inc. v. City of Boston

The First Circuit Court of Appeals is addressing The Satanic Temple’s appeal of TST’s failure at the federal district court level that came down in the middle of last year.

What’s notable about the description of the oral arguments versus the actual federal district judge decision (and the magistrate judge’s upholdings) is that everyone involved seemed to be very sympathetic to The Satanic Temple’s arguments in principle and when looked at from the ten-thousand-foot view. But examined up close, it was the way TST’s lawyers actually pursued the case including repeatedly targeting Michelle Wu specifically at the expense of engaging in more valuable discovery that got them in so much trouble. Local outlet UniversalHub covered all of that process pretty extensively for people who don’t want to read the court docket for themselves.

Weirdly, The Satanic Temple continues to go after Wu personally as well as the district judge Angel Kelley by name, such as in this video TST released and Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko on his Substack newsletter.

Federal Judge Angel Kelley, who I would not be surprised to learn is a personal friend of Michelle Wu in the limited network of corrupt Boston politics, was openly contemptuous of The Satanic Temple from the beginning, denying us even the opportunity to depose Wu (she’s just too important of an official for that), passively allowing Boston to miss several deadlines, while rigorously interrogating our every move, and eventually issuing a thoughtlessly dismissal of the case. As usual, the polarized extremes of the political spectrum had the same response: relief and applause. The theocratic right tried to contextualize it as evidence that the courts should not, and will not, take us seriously as a religion. The nihilistic selfie stick social reformers on the other side tried to contextualize it as our own ignorance of the system while congratulating themselves for staying the course on their own tactics of posting over-generalized catch-phrase laden open letters to nobody in particular on Facebook.

Lucien Greaves, “The Satanic Temple Poised For Victory in First Circuit Legislative Prayer Suit” (May 8, 2024)

For those who weren’t following along for the case, The Satanic Temple tried to depose then-city council member Michelle Wu as she was in the middle of running for Boston mayor, and tried to do it by making her come half an hour away to TST’s HQ in Salem, on Election Day.

At the time, Misicko claimed to the press they just hadn’t been paying attention to the calendar:

Lucien Greaves, the head of TST, said this is all a big misunderstanding, and that this is just a weird coincidence.

“That wasn’t us trying to be smartasses,” Greaves told the Herald, saying any other day should be fine. “I wasn’t really expecting this to be a thing.”)

BostonHerald.com, “Satanists bedevil Michelle Wu in Boston lawsuit” (Oct. 28, 2021)

But TST’s lawyer admitted in writing it was done to maximally inconvenience Wu because he sees litigation as “zero-sum” (for which he was subsequently sanctioned).

By merely issuing the notice of deposition, I forced a cascading chain of events that has drawn public attention to this dispute, has reduced the City’s ability to detriment my cause, and has increased the likelihood that my client would procure its sought-after invitation to participate in the prayer ceremony whether by judicial decree or by public pressure. …

I feel no remorse for the action I took. As an attorney, it is my sworn duty to do anything short of breaking the law to see to it that my client’s goals are recognized. This business of litigation is zero-sum. Everything I do which can benefit my client will cause an equal and opposite effect on the other side. I serve my purpose with all the zealous advocacy which my oath commands. And I expect nothing less from my adversaries.

Matthew Kezhaya, The Satanic Temple, Inc. v. City of Boston, Letter/request (non-motion) — Document #38 (Oct. 29, 2021)

By the way, if anyone has any idea what Doug Misicko and/or Cevin Soling have against Wu and Kelley other than not getting their way, please share.

To be clear, this Courthouse News write up of oral arguments is unambiguously good news for The Satanic Temple. The trouble for them is the actual district court case they’re bringing as opposed to the principles they are gesturing at.

One more thing to note since it might be relevant later: First Liberty Institute submitted an amicus curiae brief on the side of the city of Boston, and they make what is, under the present Supreme Court regime, a genuinely clever argument about why TST doesn’t deserve any religious freedom protections in situations like this:

There is no question that the prayer the Satanic Temple has proposed to give before the Boston City Council would be intolerable to the tradition of solemn, respectful prayer approved in Marsh. According to the Satanic Temple, had it received an opportunity to give an invocation, it would have uttered the following:

Let us stand now unavowed (sic) and unfettered by arcane doctrines borne of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old. Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions not their fealty to arbitrary social norms and elusory categorizations. Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or of all. That which will not bend must break and that which can be destroyed by the truth should never be spared its demise. It is done. Hail Satan.

See Appellant App. at 101–03 (emphases added). Given the derisive and disparaging tenor of this prayer, the Boston City Council would have been “well within its rights under Marsh to deny permission for [the Satanic Temple] to recite [its] proposed prayer.” See Snyder, 159 F.3d at 1235. Thus, the Boston City Council’s failure to invite the Satanic Temple to give an invocation cannot constitute wrongful discrimination.

One of the motivations for the decision in the Bladensburg peace cross case was that government cannot be “aggressively hostile towards religion.” For that reason, the destroying of the American Legion’s peace cross or modifying it to make it secular would be construed as hostile, the right-wing dominated U.S. Supreme Court determined.

Here, the argument goes, Boston allowing an invocation that denigrates others for their beliefs would have a similar effect.

It’s an argument not likely to be relevant or persuasive to the First Circuit, but if the case goes any higher, look out for it to be a justification for the U.S. Supreme Court to say Satanists have no religious rights as far as governments go.

Lastly, in an answer to the question, “What has The Satanic Temple done in the community of Boston?”, TST’s lawyer Matt Kezhaya, replied:

“We’ve participated in uh Boston’s Pride Parade we’ve participated in uh it’s called Menstruatin’ with Satan. It’s a donating of tampons and whatnot for Women in Need for Hygiene purposes.”

This is the same TST Boston chapter/congregation that was somewhat suddenly and mysteriously ejected / opted-out(?) over a dispute with Salem.

TST will use you up, market themselves off you, let you launder their reputation, and even use you for their legal arguments, and what you get in return is “shit” and “all”.

• District court docket
• Full First Circuit Appellate Docket
• Amicus Brief by First Liberty Institute in support of Boston
• Courthouse News oral argument recap
• Full audio of oral argument
• “Lucien Greaves” Substack post

Back to top

2. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Michigan alleged bomber update

In addition to the existing state charges announced a few weeks ago, Grant, Mich., resident Luke Isaac Terpstra has been indicted by a federal grand jury in regards to traveling across state lines from Michigan to Salem, Mass.

From the January 2024 coverage of his arrest:

GRANT, Mich. — Luke Isaac Terpstra, a 30-year-old in Grant, was arraigned on Jan. 4 .for building homemade explosive devices, then trying to get rid of them, according to Grant Police. 

Court documents show that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office received a tip on Jan. 2 from Terpstra’s mother that explosives had possibly been thrown away in the garbage receptacle at her son’s address in Grant.

Terpstra’s mother told a Kent County deputy her son was being evicted from his home when the explosives were discovered. His step-father came over to his home to help him pack when Terpstra commented that “he needed to disarm and dispose of some explosives that he had.”

Terpstra’s step-father saw the explosives in a box and photographed them before he tried to throw the evidence away.

Documents show he was asked by his step-father about the explosives. Terpstra then revealed that he was thinking about using them on a Satanic temple in Massachusetts, saying he had already drove there to scope out the location.

Terpstra allegedly told his step-father he was targeting the temple because “there are pedophiles there and they’re bad people.”

WZZM13.com, Jan. 10, 2024

And then the follow-up in April when Terpstra was found competent to stand trial:

GRANT, Mich. — The West Michigan man who police said had plans to use homemade bombs to blow up the Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts has been found competent to stand trial.

The suspect underwent a mental competency exam and the court found him competent to more forward with the case.

Luke Terpstra, from Grant, was in court Thursday and remains behind bars with a $1 million bond. 

Investigators said they received a tip back in January from Tepstra’s mother that he had made bombs and attempted to put them in the garbage outside his Grant home.

His mother told officials her son was experiencing “mental issues.”

Terpstra’s mother told a Kent County deputy her son was being evicted from his home when the explosives were discovered.

WWZM13.com, April 11, 2024

Important details to highlight here are that we have a man who has apparently bought into the Christian Nationalist and anti-queer propaganda conflating queer people with pedophiles and all of those with Satanists, to whom all sort of conspiratorial fantasies of an antisemitic cabal are ascribed. His life is not going well; he’s being evicted. His mother thinks he has “mental issues”, but how distinct that is from falling down the sort of QAnon pipeline tens of millions of Americans have, someone closer to the case would have to say.

Whatever his problems, he’s not an invalid. According to the story told to police, he drove from Michigan to Massachusetts to scope the Satanic Temple headquarters out. But he’s not a mastermind, and it’s not the police or FBI that stop this man, but his own mother and stepfather that he openly admits his desire to engage in what is, by the description of the homemade explosives, a mass casualty event.

From the January story again:

Michigan State Police used robots to search through garbage cans, and found what the bomb squad referred to as improvised explosives with the intent to harm people. They say some the devices were wrapped in shrapnel. One of the jars even had ammunition wrapped around it in tape so that when it exploded, rifle rounds would go through the air.

WWZM13.com, Jan. 10, 2024

With all of the caveats that all of this information is coming from the cops, and we don’t have any other narrative or evidence to the contrary, this all lines up with someone who believes that there are ontologically evil pedophiles gathering in a certain location who are a threat to children and the very fabric of US society but no one else is willing to do something about.

While we’re very critical of the cynical media game TST is playing, it’s not just because TST’s owners are profiting from playing it. It’s also because of its impact on Christian Nationalists: weakening and challenging them in no significant way while also priming them to attack the people their media tells them — bombards, even — are an existential threat to them and their children, with plenty of help from TST’s national spokesperson “Lucien Greaves”.

It doesn’t even have to be actual Satanists — several states away! — who get targeted by this stuff.

In 2020, a man shot a couple in El Paso, Texas, at their home, one of them fatally.

From a Daily Beast recap in September 2021:

According to court documents obtained by the El Paso Times, Alvarez said he was “executing and exterminating the pro-choice Jewish Satan worshippers” when he descended on the Kaufmanns’ home, ambushing Georgette Kaufmann before trying to enter the home and shoot her husband.

Alvarez allegedly targeted a group of four houses that included the Kaufmanns’ because of their proximity to a local park. Police said in an affidavit the suspect committed the crimes based on his belief that the four houses were involved in “satanic activities” associated with Memorial Park.

TheDailyBeast.com, Sep. 11, 2021

And the El Paso Times following up a few days later:

An El Paso man accused of killing a lawyer and wounding her husband in a bizarre shooting at their home appeared Wednesday in an online teleconference bond hearing.

During the hearing, Joseph Angel Alvarez asked the judge if he could make a comment about “public safety” and “life and death,” but his lawyer, Greg Anderson, advised him against speaking.

The couple, Georgette G. Kaufmann and Daniel L. Kaufmann, appear to have been randomly targeted because their home was next to Memorial Park in the 100-year-old Manhattan Heights historic neighborhood, Assistant District Attorney John Briggs said at the hearing.

“It appears that the motive in all of this was the defendant had some thought that there were some satanic things going on at the park related to abortions and had some kind of issue with the houses in that area, one being the house where the Kaufmanns lived,” Briggs said.

Briggs added that there are “disturbing” underlying motives — the complaint document details antisemitic and anti-Democratic Party ramblings allegedly attributed to Alvarez.

Daniel Borunda for ElPasoTimes.com, Sep. 23, 2021

And from the trial in 2023 in which Alvarez was ultimately convicted:

The testimony revealed he was fired from this job in February of 2020 after reporting that his coworkers were having “orgies” in the office.

Alvarez said after losing his job he had begun to dig deeper into the theories about sacrificial abortions and started warning his former coworkers about these practices along with sending numerous social media messages.

“This is being practiced worldwide, the abomination,” Alvarez said.

KTSM.com, Oct. 18, 2023

The killing took place in November 2020; The Satanic Temple announced its “satanic abortion ritual” in August 2020.

The only update last week to the Terpstra case is that the act of driving across state lines meant it could be elevated to a federal indictment and prosecution. Also, you could be forgiven for getting this case mixed up with several others we’ll cover below.

• Associate Press brief
• Justice Department press release
• Federal court docket (1:24-cr-00067)
• Indictment

Back to top

3. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Oklahoma alleged bomber update

Back when he was originally arrested in Oklahoma, we talked about this more extensively on stream, but Sean Patrick Palmer of Perkins, Okla., is well, apparently another “not exactly a criminal mastermind”, but just like with Luke Terpstra, that doesn’t mean that what he’s accused of trying to do couldn’t have been potentially deadly.

The original case docket included an affidavit for the warrant for Palmer that had a lot more details, including the handwritten “Crybaby Satan” note.

6. After landing on the porch, the IED partially detonated causing minor fire and related damage to TST’s exterior. Below is a photograph of the IED. The IED appears to have been constructed from a section of plastic pipe covered with metal nails, which were attached to the pipe with tape. The inside of the pipe was filled with a powder-like substance, preliminarily identified as smokeless gunpowder

8. The suspect depicted in the TST security footage appears to be somewhat heavy set. He is wearing black pants, a black jacket over a tan-colored tactical vest, black shoes, a black hat, a black face covering, one black glove, and one white glove. The footage shows the suspect approaching TST from the east on foot at approximately 4:14 a.m. He is holding the IED in one hand and what appears to be a lighter in the other hand. The video shows the suspect throwing a small item into a flower bed adjacent to TST, using the lighter to ignite the IED, and then throwing the ignited IED over a fence and onto TST’s porch. The suspect then flees west on foot across Bridge Street, onto Lanthrop Street, and out of view. The following is a still image from the surveillance video showing the suspect just before throwing the IED:

9. As part of the investigation, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies searched the 64 Bridge Street property on April 8, 2024. During the search, a six-page handwritten note was found in the flower bed depicted in the above photo – the same flower bed into which the suspect appeared to discard a small object just prior to throwing the IED. Among other things, the letter stated:

DEAR SATANIST
ELOHIM SEND ME 7 MONTHS AGO TO GIVE YOU
PEACEFUL MESSAGE TO HOPE YOU REPENT. YOU SAY NO, ELOHIM NOW SEND ME TO SMITE SATAN AND I HAPPY TO OBEY. AND ELOHIM WANT ME TO CONTACT YOU TO TELL YOU REPENT. TURN FROM SIN. ELOHIM NO LIKE THIS PLACE AND PLAN TO DESTROY IT. MAYBE SALEM TOO? ELOHIM SEND ME TO FIGHT CRYBABY SATAN, BUT WANT ME TO MAKE HARD EFFORT SO NO ONE DIES. I OBEY.

10. Approximately 7 months earlier, on or about September 11, 2023, TST’s 64 Bridge Street property was vandalized with white spray paint. According to a police report of the incident, the painted text referenced the following Biblical verses: “JOHN 3:16-20, PSALM 141, ACTS 3:19.”¹ The timing of this incident is consistent with the portion of the handwritten letter that reads, “ELOHIM SEND ME 7 MONTHS AGO TO GIVE YOU PEACEFUL MESSAGE TO HOPE YOU REPENT.” Likewise, the religious nature of the painted text is consistent with overall theme of the handwritten letter, which makes numerous references “Elohim” (a Hebrew word for God). To my knowledge, the September 2023 vandalism was not publicized either on television of newspapers. There is probable cause to believe, therefore, that the person responsible for April

Again, the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Osama Khudari goes into a lot more details, including how they identified him. What’s relevant for our purposes is that for a guy who argues on Facebook things like, “Hate to burst your bubble, my dude, but satan exists. I wish he didn’t, but he does” — this is not someone for whom “you know, if you go onto their website, you can see TST’s tenets really say,” or “actually The Satanic Temple doesn’t worship or believe in a literal supernatural devil” is particularly convincing. That’s not the level that those folk are operating at, and thankfully they so far have been trying to do harm with homemade explosives and arson rather than buying industrially produced firearms and looking to do direct harm that way, which would almost certainly be more deadly and has lots of precedents in modern U.S. history.

While this isn’t TST’s fault in a direct way (for example, the house formerly owned by a Church of Satan member in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was targeted in an arson in 2021 despite no one in that area seeking more press than a “Halloween House”), it is part of the foreseeable results of whipping up a new Satanic Panic for clout and profit.

Doug Misicko and Cevin Soling are very clear about their support of stochastic terrorists on the far right in the name of free speech, and if they were actually the ones most in danger of being targeted for their grift, there might even be something admirable and brave about what they’re doing, if still foolish.

But some of the people who see TST going out to pick fights with the far right aren’t going to realize the game being played, and they are going to respond “appropriately” to the existential threats being offered up to them.

BOSTON – An Oklahoma man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston for allegedly throwing a pipe bomb at The Satanic Temple (TST) in Salem, Mass. on April 8, 2024. 

Sean Patrick Palmer, 49, of Perkins, Okla., was indicted on one count of using fire and an explosive to damage and attempt to damage a building used in interstate or foreign commerce. Palmer was initially charged by criminal complaint and arrested on April 17, 2024 in Perkins, Okla. He subsequently appeared in federal court in the Western District of Oklahoma, where the Court ordered Palmer detained and transferred to the District of Massachusetts. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

Justice.gov

• Boston Herald: “Oklahoma man indicted on charge he threw pipe bomb at The Satanic Temple”
• Original Docket (1:24-mj-01222)
• Current Docket (1:24-cr-10132)

Back to top

4. [WE LIVE IN HELL] 2022 alleged arsonist check-in

No, this is the other attempted attack on the Satanic Temple’s headquarters in Salem, Mass., from almost two years ago now.

The man arrested on suspicion of setting fire to the Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, late Friday, in what he allegedly described as a “hate crime,” was arraigned Monday.

Daniel Damien Lucey, a 42-year-old from Chelsea, appeared in Salem District Court to answer to charges of charges of arson, a civil rights violation and destruction of a place of worship. He was ordered held without bail.

When interviewed by police, Lucey allegedly admitted to traveling to Salem to set the temple on fire. Police said Lucey “made statements that he considered his actions a ‘hate crime.'”

A prosecutor alleged in court that Lucey had said “that the people were devil worshippers and he would not lose any sleep over people in the building being hurt.”

Police also said Lucey left his backpack on the temple’s porch with a copy of the U.S. Constitution, two sticks, lighter fluid and a Bible.

NBCBoston.com, June 10, 2022

At last check-in, and as of February 2024, alleged repeat arsonist Daniel Damien Lucey was still being held at Bridgewater State Hospital. The website for the facility describes it:

Bridgewater State Hospital (BSH) is a medium security facility housing male patients in two categories: civil commitments without criminal sentences, and on occasion, pre-trial detainees sent for competency and criminal responsibility evaluations by the court.

Mass.gov

The last public update on the case seems to be from September 2022 when Lucey was indicted on charges related to the arson at TST’s HQ.

SALEM — A Chelsea man with a history of setting fires and other destructive acts has been indicted in last June’s fire at The Satanic Temple in Salem.

Daniel Damien Lucey, 42, was indicted last week by an Essex County grand jury and is scheduled to make his first appearance in Salem Superior Court for arraignment on Oct. 6, according to court records.

He is currently being held without bail. Indictments charge Lucey, of Chelsea, with burning a dwelling house, destruction to a place of worship and a civil rights violation.

Lucey was arrested shortly after the June 10 fire was discovered on the porch of the organization’s Bridge Street headquarters.

Lucey, who was wearing a T-shirt that said “God” on it, allegedly told police that he set the fire because the owners were “devil worshippers” who “need to be wiped out.”

Julie Manganis for SalemNews.com (AOL.com mirror), Sept. 7, 2022

All of this might make you think that Lucey is just another Bible-thumper, however, the Salem News story goes on to say, “At the time he [Lucey] had a record of prior incidents, including a charge of throwing a rock through a stained glass window at the Arlington Street Church in 2020, knocking over planters and pushing a luggage cart into a window of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in 2019, and setting fires under or near police cars and luxury vehicles.”

Not all of those seem to have made the news, but some of the 2020 incidents did get contemporary coverage.

Officers responding to a report a 911 call in the area West and Mason streets around 11:55 a.m. learned an individual, later identified as Lucey, had set fire to a blanket and placed under an unoccupied Boston police cruiser, officials said.

Police say officers found a charred blanket on the ground near the cruiser’s gas tank, but Lucey was nowhere to be found.

About 30 minutes later, officers in the area of Arlington and Boylston streets spotted a smoking blanket under a Honda Civic.

Lucey was later nabbed when officers found him strolling through Copley Square.

WHDH.com, June 11, 2020

Another contemporary police description from a different incident on May 26, 2020, described an altercation as an assault on a police officer (spitting), and said Lucey threw a burning U.S. flag onto a police vehicle as part of a protest.

🇺🇸: Police officer spat on in #Boston, #MA

– Daniel Lucey (40) arrested at scene
– Threw burning American flag onto police vehicle
– Spat on police officer
– Claimed the incident was a 'protest' #memorialdayweekend2020 #BostonCommon @IntellFusion https://t.co/1HGP2t2Mga pic.twitter.com/4NusxiiLcy

— Intelligence Fusion – North America (@IFNorthAmerica) May 26, 2020

Which isn’t necessarily what you’d expect from someone with a shirt that says “God” on it and trying to target “devil-worshippers”. The common thread seems to be the “burning things” aspect rather than political coherent political goals, and would make sense why Lucey was still being evaluated for mental competency for a trial almost two years later.

So that no one can be confused, we (“QueerSatanic”, “QS”, etc.) actively don’t like it when people attack TST’s headquarters or attempt to do violent or physical harm to it. Not only is it likely completely undeserving people would get hurt or killed, it also is not likely to actually undermine The Satanic Temple’s operation and grift in any way. They have insurance, and they will definitely fundraise off of the media attention.

If you want to undermine The Satanic Temple, just demand accountability and transparency out of them. If you want to shut down down TST, just apply a minimum level of skepticism to them that involves asking what they’ve actually accomplished specifically and ask who specifically has power in the organization – and ask for proof.

The idea that TST is “Scientology for Mall Goths” is not, actually, an exaggerated or pejorative comparison. But think about how much you dislike Scientology: no matter who little sympathy you have for David Miscavige or the “Religious Technology Center“, you don’t want to see them targeted by mentally unwell rubes primed by right-wing stochastic terrorists who risk nothing and profit everything from priming them.

But, as we’ll likely talk about in the very near future, Doug Misicko and Cevin Soling are inseparable from The Satanic Temple, and they’d rather have a small, tightly controlled, ineffectual organization beneath them than actually accomplish anything worthwhile. The fact that they are stoking a new Satanic Panic to their profit and to the risk of others is actually central to what they see as their mission.

Back to top

5. [WE LIVE IN HELL] Iowa vandalism trial update

Very small update here. The failed Mississippi politician Michael Patrick Cassidy was supposed to begin his trial on Monday, May 6, in regards to an alleged hate crime by vandalizing The Satanic Temple of Iowa’s holiday display.

However when we didn’t see anything, we checked in with a local reporter who confirmed there was a “continuance at the last minute,” and the case has been pushed back to June 3.

See last week’s recap for more on that, and also our December article for more a general description of the dynamics.

The New Heretics Stream (5/3/24)

What makes Cassidy fundamentally different, and therefore fundamentally more dangerous than Terpestra, Palmer, or Lucey, is that he seems to be in possession of his full faculties. The other three men allegedly engaged in plenty of premeditation, what they are accused of is much more immediately dangerous to people, but it’s hard to argue they were well-informed or even “all-there” upstairs. Whereas Cassidy seems like he set himself up pretty well to hit the Christian Nationalist circuit and future political runs regardless of whether he’s convicted or acquitted. 

If Christian Nationalists decide to truly target Satanists for profit, Misicko and Soling may still come out of it well from where they sit at the top of their pyramid, but every other Satanist, Satanist-adjacent, and people falsely given that label cannot say the same.

Back to top

6. [PERMANENT SHITTENING] “Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism” by Spencer Sunshine

Antifascist researcher Spencer Sunshine’s book on James Mason’s Siege and its influence on countercultural fascism, specifically Satanism, is out now.

We excerpted the appendix on The Satanic Temple here:

“The Satanic Temple: The Lasting Influence of the Abraxas Circle” by Spencer Sunshine

For people who have been following our own work for the past four years, this won’t be exactly new; indeed, Dead Domain covered much the same in their recent video essay on TST.

But, The Satanic Temple wasn’t the focus of Sunshine’s book, so what Sunshine does — in addition to going in deeper to why Feral House publisher Adam Parfey plays an important role in all this — is mainly in providing the authority of an academic and the reinforcement that, however much TST apologists want to try to gaslight you about it, Doug Misicko a.k.a. “Doug Mesner” a.k.a. “Lucien Greaves” did not just say something awkwardly antitheistic about Jewish people that seemed antisemitic; Misicko has run in the same circles for decades with the inheritors and propagators of fascism and neo-Nazi terrorism.

Really wish the even more explicit pro-fascism, racism, and eugenics statements had come to light in time for Sunshine’s interviews with Misicko (and collaborator Shane Bugbee), but that’s just the TST interest talking.

“Lucien Greaves” and The Satanic Temple have a lot to answer for

Spencer Sunshine (@transform6789) · May 8, 2024

FINALLY OUT! "Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s 'Siege'" shows how today’s popular neo-Nazi terrorist manual—the “bible” of the Atomwaffen Division—was created.https://t.co/Wunkke5pAJ

— Spencer Sunshine (@transform6789) May 8, 2024

FINALLY OUT! “Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s ‘Siege'” shows how today’s popular neo-Nazi terrorist manual—the “bible” of the Atomwaffen Division—was created.

Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege
A new wave of aspiring neo-Nazi terrorists has arisen—including the infamous Atomwaffen Division. And they have a bible: James Mason’s Siege, which praises terrorism, serial killers, and Charles Manson…

2) Based on years of archival research & interviews (inc with Mason), this wild ride winds through neo-Nazi networks, Satanists, the Manson Family, serial killers, and fascist counterculturalists—inc Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey (Feral House), Michael Moynihan & Nikolas Schreck.

3) The 1st part shows how Mason’s ideas came from 1970s debates among American Nazi Party/NSWPP splinters, inc David Duke, the Skokie neo-Nazis & Larry Flynt’s attempted assassin. A terrorist faction also developed which inc Wm Pierce —“Turner Diaries” author & Mason’s mentor.

4) The 2nd part, based on their own handwritten letters to Mason, documents for the first time how Rice, Moynihan, Parfrey, Schreck & the Church of Satan discovered, promoted & published Mason between 1986 through 1993—and then how they (esp Rice) spent decades covering it up.

5) The appendix includes more on anarchists-turned-neo-nazis Gary/John Jewell & Red Warthan; women & gay men’s roles; 3rd Positionists; lone wolves; R.N. Turner; Thomas Thorn (My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult+Electric Hellfire Club); Varg Vikernes, The Satanic Temple + more!

6) @YIVOinstitute is hosting the online book release talk over zoom on May 30. It’s free but you have to register in advance: https://yivo.org/Countercultural-Fascism

7) I’ll be doing IRL talks in Hamburg on May 29 and 31; Berlin June 4 and 6; Oslo June 10; Leipzig June 14; London June 19 and 20 (+ maybe 1 more?)—plus in November in WNC and PDX. Details TBA later!

8) You can request review copies here. Feel free to DM me if you want to do an interview, set up a talk, or have a questions about what’s in the book—or if you knew these guys & want to share your story!
https://m.email.taylorandfrancis.com/review-copy-request-form

9) Last, I spent a huge amount of my own money to write this. If you would like to support my research & writing on the Far Right, for $2+/month you can sign up for my Patreon and get exclusive content. http://patreon.com/spencersunshine

Book page: Routledge.com

Publisher’s description

A new wave of aspiring neo-Nazi terrorists has arisen—including the infamous Atomwaffen Division. And they have a bible: James Mason’s Siege, which praises terrorism, serial killers, and Charles Manson. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism, based on years of archival work and interviews, documents for the first time the origins of Siege.

First, it shows how Mason’s vision arose from debates by 1970s neo-Nazis who splintered off the American Nazi Party/National Socialist White People’s Party and spun off a terrorist faction. Second, it unveils how four 1980s countercultural figures—musicians Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan, Feral House publisher Adam Parfrey, and Satanist Nikolas Schreck—discovered, promoted, and published Mason. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism explores a previously overlooked period and unearths the hidden connections between a countercultural clique and violent neo-Nazis—which together have set the template for today’s Neo-nazi terrorist underground.

It is obligatory reading for those interested in contemporary terrorism, postwar countercultures, and the history of the U.S. Far Right and neo-Nazism.

Table of Contents

Introduction 

Part I: #ReadSiege 

• 1. A Twenty-First Century Siege: How the Rediscovery of an Obscure Neo-Nazi Book Helped Inspire A New Generation of White Supremacist Terrorism 

Part II: Life Among the Sects (1959–1986) 

• 2. The Party of Rockwell: The American Nazi Party and NSWPP 
• 3. Joseph Tommasi’s NSLF 
• 4. A Tangled Web of Neo-Nazis: David Rust’s NSLF, the NSM, the White Confederacy, and the National Socialist Congress 
• 5. Allen Vincent’s NSWWP and John Duffy’s Shadow NSLF 
• 6. Karl Hand’s NSLF 

Part III: SIEGE the Newsletter (1980–1986)

• 7. The SIEGE Itself: Cult of the Extreme
• 8. Charles Manson as Neo-Nazi “Holy Man”
• 9. Universal Order as Idea and Organization
• 10. Life After SIEGE

Part IV: Countercultural Fascism (1986–1995)

• 11. The Abraxas Clique and Countercultural Fascism
• 12. Boyd Rice: Neo-Nazi Collaborator
• 13. Adam Parfrey: A Neo-Nazi’s Best Friend
• 14. Michael Moynihan: From Mason-Manson-National Socialism to Decentralized Ethno-separatism
• 15. Nazi-Satanism: Nikolas Schreck and the Church of Satan

Part V: Siege the Book (1989–1995)

• 16. The Book and the Reception

Part VI: Coda (1995­–­2017)

• 17. From Prison to Revival
• 18. The Lessons of Siege

Part VII: Appendices

• Appendix 1. The NSM After Mason: Brannen, Herrington, Schoep, and Beyond
• Appendix 2. The Original NSLF and David Duke: Big Nazi on Campus
• Appendix 3. Gary/John Jewell and Perry “Red” Warthan: From Anarchism to National Socialism
• Appendix 4. In Praise of Murder Men: Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Lone Wolves
• Appendix 5. Christianity: Jesus, Hitler, Rockwell, Manson, and UFOs
• Appendix 6. Women, Gay Men, and Extreme Pornography
• Appendix 7. Against Capitalism and the Liberal State: The Left, Third Positionism, Islamists, and Racial Separatism
• Appendix 8. Robert N. Taylor and Thomas Thorn
• Appendix 9. Michael Merritt and Keith Stimely  Appendi
• 10. Varg Vikernes and the Heathen Front
• Appendix 11. The Satanic Temple: The Lasting Influence of the Abraxas Circle

Biography

Spencer Sunshine holds a PhD in Sociology and has written extensively on the U.S. Far Right. He is the co-editor—with Pam Chamberlain, Matthew N. Lyons, and Abby Scher—of the Chip Berlet festschrift Exposing the Right and Fighting for Democracy (Routledge, 2022). Sunshine has also written for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Daily Beast, The Forward, and Truthout and has been translated into numerous languages.

Back to top