Chip Berlet

Chip Berlet (born November 22, 1949) is an American political writer.

Around the country, ideas that originated on the hard right or in the fevered imaginations of conspiracy theorists are finding their way into the mainstream. In a number of cases, these ideas have become commonplace in American minds.

Quotes

• You can go to any major history and see the effect of unregulation. The very point of developing regulation around industrial society was that they were not only exploiting the workers to death they were befouling the planet, so regulation came because of that. What the right wing wants is for the public to have this role in the societal debate over balance of these issues and no power. The public power to confront these errors of industry is government regulation.
  • Interview (4 November 1994) quoted in Backlash Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement (1996), p. 51

• Around the country, ideas that originated on the hard right or in the fevered imaginations of conspiracy theorists are finding their way into the mainstream. In a number of cases, these ideas have become commonplace in American minds.
  • "Into the Mainstream" in Intelligence Report (Summer 2003) at the Southern Poverty Law Center

• Today, there are still political and social networks that seek to undermine full equality for all Americans. Their messages are spread using the standard tools: prejudice, fear, disdain, misinformation, trivialization, patronizing stereotypes, demonization and even scare-mongering conspiracy theories. While many of the groups within these networks describe themselves as mainstream — and many disagree with one another — they all have helped spread bigoted ideas into American life.
  • "Into the Mainstream" in Intelligence Report (Summer 2003) at the Southern Poverty Law Center

• The political Right currently runs the country. That's very annoying, but pretending it isn't true is foolhardy. What is really annoying is that in the late 1970s some of us were giving speeches and writing articles explaining that rightists intended to take over the country. It wasn't hard to figure that out, since at the same time right-wing ideologues and strategists were also giving speeches and writing articles describing in elaborate detail how they planned to do it. Well, they did it.
  • "Eyes Right: Social Movements Need An Infrastructure To Succeed" (Chop Berlet on countering the rise of the political Right), in Z Magazine, Vol. 18 (2005), p. 17; also quoted in Flanders Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics From the Politicians (2007), p. 109

Quotes about Berlet

• Berlet is really saying that he loves the plutocrats and considers any expose of their crimes to be a fascist conspiracy.
  • Ace R. Hayes, Portland Free Press, July/August 1997 issue

• Berlet is professional political hit man whose specialty is smearing anyone outside the traditional left-right categories as an extremist, at best, and a nascent Nazi at worst. He and his organization have been a veritable fountainhead of anti-Fulani material, which details the political history of Fulani and her group from a leftist perspective. In Berlet’s view, Fulani endorsing Buchanan is a betrayal of leftist principles, a sell-out that does not augur well for the left.
  • Justin Raimondo in "Behind the Headlines" (5 January 2000)

External links

• Profile of Berlet at Political Research Associates
• Profile of Berlet at Center for Millennial Studies
• Chip Berlet on IMDb
• "Race, Class and Gender: Justice in the Intersections" at Unitarian Universalism Association (1999)
• "Researcher Says 'Watchdogs' Exaggerate Hate Group Threat" by Robert Stacy McCain in The Washington Times (9 May 2000)
• Ace R. Hayes, "Berlet for Beginners", Portland Free Press, July/August 1995