American Identity Movement
 |
|
| Formation | March 8, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Patrick Casey |
| Extinction | 2020 |
| Type | Identitarianism |
| Location | |
The American Identity Movement (AIM) was an American identitarian group founded on 8 March 2019 by the former executive director of Identity Evropa, Patrick Casey. The group was dedicated to "defending America against globalism" through five principles: "nationalism, identitarianism, non-interventionism, protectionism, and populism."[1][2] They rejected "political violence, extremism, and supremacism in all of its forms."[3][4]
Activism
The group's first public action was a rally at the Tennessee state capitol in Nashville on 10 March 2019. Executive director Patrick Casey delivered a speech calling for the end of mass immigration and criticizing current trade policies. The group estimated attendance at "nearly one hundred."[5][6]
On 22 April 2019, AIM carried out an action at a Drag Queen Story Hour, an event at which drag queens read to children at a library in New Orleans, Louisiana. AIM activists appeared at the event dressed as clowns to highlight its absurdity and unfurled a banner reading "Drag Queen Story Hour: Adult Entertainment For Kids! Welcome to Clown World."[7][8] In an interview discussing the event, Casey commented that "What has traditionally been seen as normal and healthy in America, and more broadly in the West, has been inverted, and now what was once virtue has been made vice, and what was once vice...they're trying to make it virtue."[9]
On 25 April 2019, AIM announced through their Twitter account that they had carried out a banner drop at UC Berkeley. The banner displayed the text "Close the Border: Build the Wall" along with AIM's name and logo.[10]
On 27 April 2019, AIM members, including Patrick Casey, disrupted an event in Washington, D.C. promoting psychiatrist and professor[11] Jonathan Metzl's book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland. Casey delivered a speech critical of the book and characterized its message as "white workers should trade their homeland for healthcare," arguing that nationalists and identitarians can offer them both.[12][13][14][15][16] Casey later offered to discuss the issues in question with Metzl, but his "many offers to debate" were ignored.[17][18][19]
The group was also involved in flyering at numerous colleges,[20] universities,[21] and other locations.[22][23]
At the 2019 American Renaissance conference, Patrick Casey delivered an address on the subject of "Woke Capital." The speech dealt with the negative influence of major corporations and financial institutions through censorship and deplatforming of identitarians and promotion of social justice causes.[24][25]
Deplatforming
On 27 March 2019, AIM lost its accounts on both Facebook and Instragram.[26]
On 25 April, AIM announced that the online store Shopify had deplatformed an account called Free Speech Land for selling AIM merchandise, citing a clause in their acceptable use policy regarding "hate." Since AIM is "explicitly opposed to racial hatred and extremism," they interpreted the move as politically motivated.[27]
References
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