Throughout 2015 and 2016, current White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was quoted using the title of an unknown 1973 novel, entitled "The Camp of the Saints," by Jean Raspail. Conservative political commentator Linda Chavez, who worked with former Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, was quoted by the Huffington Post that the book is "shockingly racist," a conclusion that Cenk Uygur, host and co-founder with online newscaster The Young Turks, agreed with. Explaining that, as a journalist, he has been exposed to a great deal of racist material, Uygur said that he was unsure if anything could truly "shock him" any longer.
After reading the Huffington Post published research by Paul Blumenthal and J.M. Rieger on Bannon's statements, and the novel, Cenk Uygur stated "Linda Chavez was right. He is shockingly racist." The TYT host, who closely follows the administration of President Donald Trump admitted that even he "had no idea how racist he was. Wow."
Steve Bannon refers to novel for years
Bannon had come to use "The Camp of the Saints" reference in an almost offhand way, when speaking about the refugee crisis that has engulfed Europe in the wake of the Syrian Civil War. In January 2016, Bannon was said to state about the crisis, "It's really an invasion. I call it The Camp of the Saints." In October 2015, Steve Bannon spoke about a "Camp of the Saints-type invasion into Central and then Western and Northern Europe."
Cécile Alduy, a French language professor with Stanford University, described the novel as "racist in the literal sense of the term.
It uses race as the main characterization of characters." The professor described the plot as being similar to a plague overtaking the European continent. When "The Camp of the Saints" was published in the United States, in 1975, Kirkus Reviews compared its release to the release of "Mein Kampf," an autobiography written by Adolf Hitler, published in 1925.
Cenk Uygur stated that right-wing "philanthropists" have funded reprints of "The Camp of the Saints," keeping the novel's following among right-wing elements in both the United States and Europe, steady. The TYT host noted Linda Chavez's observation about Steve Bannon's use of the novel's title as a metaphor "says volumes about his attitude."
Camp of the Saints refugees led by 'the turd eater'
The plot of "The Camp of the Saints" is said to follow the plight of "800,000 Indians" who are heading to France as refugees, faced with poverty.
The leader of the Indians is said to be a figure known as "the turd eater." Uygur surmised that the use of the term "Indian" was really a reference to all people outside the "Western world."
The novel is said to grapple with the issue of what the best solution of how to handle the refugees is, and to conclude that murdering them all would be most logical. Cenk Uygur noted the difference between refusing 800,000 refugees entry, based on rationales like overcrowding, or lack of resources, and suggesting that they all be killed. The hero of the book is said to be a murderer of both refugees, as well as French "people on the left," who attempt to aid them. Those on the left are referred to as "culturally 'cuckolded' white supporters." The TYT host wondered if this is the origin of the "cuck craze."
A major dilemma faced by the queen of England, in the novel, is her son being forced to marry a woman from Pakistan; another has the mayor of New York being forced to house African-Americans.
Cenk Uygur emphasized that this is what Steve Bannon, a close adviser to President Trump, "thinks is such a great book." "The Camp of the Saints" is said to glorify colonialism, and the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, and to include "hyper-sexualized" accounts of refugees, including details of "rivers of sperm." The protagonist of the novel, Calgues, is quoted, talking to the "hippie he will soon kill," describing the "addled brains" of the youth of the time, lacking the feeling of "scorn of a people for other races."
