Steve Bannon is less than one month away from his sentencing over refusing to cooperate with a congressional subpoena regarding the January 6th insurrection and riot at the United States Capitol. Despite facing a potential year in prison, Bannon has no intention of slowing his far-right political blitz. With Italy’s government swaying towards the nation’s fascist roots, not without the help of Bannon’s signature promotions of ultranationalist populism— the force behind Breitbart and former president Donald Trump’s xenophobic policies is only gaining momentum.
Steve Bannon and newly elected neo-fascist Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, back in 2018.
This Saturday, October 1st, he will be the top billed special guest for the garishly titled “Globalist Puppet Masters” conference at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Torrance, California. If that name wasn’t antisemitic enough, this fascist event’s promotional material emphasizes a buffet of fringe conspiracy theory topics, including “The Great Reset” and “Agenda 21/Agenda 2030.”
The rest of the listed guests and speakers are a who’s who of “anti-woke” culture warriors, conservative authors, and conspiracy theorists. The website for the event expands on the dogwhistles and antisemitism— with baseless fearmongering about the Rockefellers and George Soros. This kind of fringe ilk is usually reserved for the dark corners of the web. But Bannon and company have successfully catapulted such nonsense into the mainstream.
This conference is being organized by the American Freedom Alliance, who have been designated as a hate group by extremism researchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center. This controversial non-profit has an extensive track record of pushing anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric. They’ve also had a longstanding tradition of pushing the “Agenda 21” conspiracy theory, a far-right myth that the United States is at risk of being taken over by the United Nations. In the past, they’ve had friendly ties with fascist vigilante militias like the Minutemen.
Once word about this radical right-wing circus began circulating in liberal and leftist circles, Hilton and DoubleTree found themselves in the hot seat for hosting such blatant authoritarian bigotry. Calls for boycotts against the hotel chain began spreading across Twitter. Others demanded that the Torrance branch drop the event altogether. MSNBC Columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat tweeted at Hilton asking, “is this now your brand?” Ground Game LA, a local mutual aid and activist collective in Los Angeles County, told their 20,000+ followers, “openly antisemitic [fascist] conference in Torrance this weekend. Call the hotel up and tell them what you think about that.” The DoubleTree Hilton in Torrance finally broke their silence today. General Manager Linda Amato stated in an email:
“We were made aware of this speaker yesterday. Unfortunately, we cannot cancel our agreement. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Torrance is in no way affiliated with the American Freedom Alliance or Steve Bannon. The hotel does not discriminate against guests or conferences that wish to utilize our facilities. We welcome everyone to our hotel and do everything we can to ensure a safe place for all. ”
Putting aside that hosting an event for American Freedom Alliance and Steve Bannon can easily be interpreted as an affiliation, Amato’s statement rings hallow to those who highlighted the antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant hate promoted by this conference. I pressed the Hilton on their thoughts on the multifaceted examples of hate speech from American Freedom Alliance and Steve Bannon, but they repeatedly refused to comment on the content of the conference and the violently bigoted backgrounds of those involved. So as it stands, the fascist and antisemitic “Globalist Puppet Masters” conference starring soon-to-be-sentenced insurrection inciter Steve Bannon is set to kick off this weekend in the liberal supermajority of Los Angeles County. And so— the global fascist power grab continues.
