History YMMV / TheTurnerDiaries

* HarsherInHindsight: Barring every attempt to make this book a SelfFulfillingProphecy, the climax of the book involves the protagonist flying a plane into the Pentagon. The book's author did reject any notion that white supremacists should form an alliance with Arab terrorists, [[WeAREStrugglingTogether though only on the grounds that his racism overrode his desire for terrorism against Jews]]. This book also inspired Timothy [=McVeigh=] to orchestrate the Oklahoma City bombing, and few members of law enforcement were surprised; one FBI agent said that when he heard of the attack, he was reminded of the book "within the hour".

** [[TheHero Earl Turner]] himself is arguably one of the most horrible protagonists in fiction who the audience is asked to root for. Among his "exploits", he: [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero is openly racist and antisemitic]] to the point of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust holocaust denial]] and claiming the Nuremberg trials were a KangarooCourt, blows up an FBI building with a truck full of explosives, [[WouldHurtAChild caves in the skulls of two 13-year old girls]] for "being sluts" (by that, he means just associating with a black man), murders the family of a sheriff who was on his tail, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil stands by his allies committing rape]], willingly participates in [[ThePurge the day of the rope]] and flies a plane into the Pentagon in a suicide attack, with his efforts all culminating in [[NukeEm the entire world being bathed in nuclear fire]] and the complete genocide of all non-whites. In any other story he would be an easy CompleteMonster candidate but he’s seen as the hero of mankind in this story.
* DesignatedLoveInterest: Earl and Catherine full stop. Earl doesn't really talk much about Catherine until he walks in on her in the shower and they immediately wind up [[SexStartsStoryStops having sex for no real reason]]. Their relationship doesn't really evolve much from that despite the author constantly saying they "love" each other.

* MemeticMutation: With the odd fixation of the metric system imposed by The System, even detractors often cite that said adoption of the metric system being the sole benefit of this alternate universe the book describes. Even so, they admit that the tradeoff isn't worth it.

** To be expected in a novel with a white supremacist agenda. At one point, the attorney general of the United States government comes on television to describe the [[DesignatedHero heroes]] as "depraved, racist terrorists."

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There is practically no one worth rooting for in this book. Turner and his cohorts are [[DesignatedHero Designated Heroes]] of the highest order and everyone else seems to be a racial stereotype.

* DesignatedLoveInterest: Earl and Catherine full stop. Earl doesn't really talk much about Catherine until he walks in on her in the shower and they immediately wind up [[CoitusEnsues having sex for no real reason]]. Their relationship doesn't really evolve much from that despite the author constantly saying they "love" each other.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Arguably inverted. The author tries to promote terrorism and genocide against non-Whites, but in the process portrays the Organization's
efforts in that direction as annihilating 90% of humanity and reducing the Earth to an uninhabitable wasteland with humanity forced to live in nuclear bunkers. As such, it ends up showing that the method the author is promoting will ''end the world''.

* {{Narm}}: THE ENTIRE BOOK. It's so stupid and impossible that it can stop being disturbing for readers and just a source of humor. Whether or not it's disturbing that Neo-Nazis actually believe talking points in the book is another matter.

* EsotericHappyEnding: All Jews and non-Whites have been annihilated... in a lengthy campaign involving nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, which has reduced Earth to a tenth its population and will most likely yield a severe fallout. [[KarmicDeath The only upside is that the protagonists are probably going to contract radiation poisoning and die from the ensuing fallout they're wholly responsible for causing]].

** [[TheHero Earl Turner]] himself is arguably one of the most horrible characters in fiction. Among his "exploits", he: [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero is openly racist and antisemitic]] to the point of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust holocaust denial]] and claiming the Nuremberg trials were a KangarooCourt, blows up an FBI building with a truck full of explosives, [[WouldHurtAChild caves in the skulls of two 13-year old girls]] for "being sluts" (by that, he means just associating with a black man), murders the family of a sheriff who was on his tail, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil stands by his allies committing rape]], willingly participates in [[ThePurge the day of the rope]] and flies a plane into the Pentagon in a suicide attack, with his efforts all culminating in [[NukeEm the entire world being bathed in nuclear fire]] and the complete genocide of all non-whites. In any other story he would be an easy CompleteMonster candidate but he’s seen as the hero of mankind in this story.

** A libertarian member of the racist organization early in its existence argues (quite correctly) that their wave of terror is doing nothing more than causing the government to clamp down even harder on normal Americans and that they're killing too many innocents which is causing the general public to hate them, which is entirely true. Of course the main character/narrator ignores the man's observations and has him executed for not being fully committed to [[KillEmAll the]] [[FinalSolution cause]].

* FridgeHorror: Since the whole book is from the [[UnreliableNarrator perspective of Earl Turner]], there is the (very likely) possibility that he's distorting the events he's relating to the audience. It's possible that these "heroic white freedom fighters" are actually deranged terrorists who are murdering innocent people. It's also quite possible that the world he is describing isn't even a dystopia in the first place. For all we know, Earl and his goons might just be grossly exaggerating western society's perceived failings to justify their atrocities.

* IdiotPlot:
** The plot kicks off with the US population, ''including the Supreme Court,'' accepting the outlawing of privately-owned guns, Second Amendment be damned. In fact, let's cut to the chase and say that ''everyone'' who isn't racist is portrayed as a moron nigh-on by default.
** Not only that, but every single action by any organization opposed to The Order is incredibly stupid, to the point that organizations will actively do things that harm themselves for no real reason other than to crudely justify why the revolution is successful in the first place. Three man bands of racist revolutionaries are somehow able to walk right into military bases and steal massive quantities of weapons and even after being caught in the act escape relatively unscathed despite the fact they're driving heavy loaded down trucks full of unsecured explosives.

** Even with literally every single racist stereotype Neo-Nazis have about Blacks, Jews, liberals, gays, feminists, non-Nazi white people, etc, in full effect and taken UpToEleven, the "villains" still seem far less evil and monstrous than the "heroes" due in no small part to the lack of omnicidal extermination campaigns and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness how they treat those among their number who fail in their mission]] ([[CreatorsPet except Turner, obviously]]), and this is with the knowledge that ''[[HeroWithBadPublicity they know they don't have any public support whatsoever]]''. In fact, these omnicidal nuclear terrorists would actually make for great villains in any other setting. As comically tyrannical as the System is in the story, the Organisation often commit acts that are far worse as petty revenge in [[MoralMyopia a staggering display of hypocrisy]].

* OnlySaneByComparison: General Harding of the northern California military administration would be a fairly typical GeneralRipper villain in any normal work. However, in the very much insane world of the book, he comes off as ''somewhat'' reasonable. At least he does not want to associate himself with the genocidal lunatics of the Organization, nor with the government that has abolished the citizens' right to bear arms and which has legalized sexual assault.

** [[TheHero Earl Turner]] himself is arguably one of the most horrible characters in fiction. Among his "exploits", he: [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero is openly racist and antisemitic]] to the point of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust holocaust denial]] and claiming the Nuremburg trials were a KangarooCourt, blows up an FBI building with a truck full of explosives, [[WouldHurtAChild caves in the skulls of two 13-year old girls]] for "being sluts" (by that, he means just associating with a black man), murders the family of a sheriff who was on his tail, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil stands by his allies committing rape]], willingly participates in [[ThePurge the day of the rope]] and flies a plane into the Pentagon in a suicide attack, with his efforts all culminating in [[NukeEm the entire world being bathed in nuclear fire]] and the complete genocide of all non-whites. In any other story he would be an easy CompleteMonster candidate but he’s seen as the hero of mankind in this story.

* DesignatedHero:

** [[TheHero Earl Turner]] himself is arguably one of the most horrible characters in fiction. Among his "exploits", he: [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero is openly racist and antisemitic]] to the point of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust holocaust denial]] and claiming the Nuremburg trials were a KangarooCourt, blows up an FBI building with a truck full of explosives, [[WouldHurtAChild caves in the skulls of two 13-year old girls]] for "being sluts" (by that, he means just associating with a black man), murders the family of a sheriff who was on his tail, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil stands by his allies committing rape]], willingly participates in [[ThePurge the day of the rope]] and flies a plane into the Pentagon in a suicide attack, with his efforts all culminating in [[NukeEm the entire world being bathed in nuclear fire]] and the complete genocide of all non-whites. It's clear that Earl crossed the MoralEventHorizon a ''looooong'' time ago, and is worse than most villains ever written, but since he's the protagonist of a RightWingMilitiaFanatic's wet dream, he's supposed to be seen as anything ''but'' the monster he is.

** [[TheHero Earl Turner]] himself is arguably one of the most horrible characters in fiction. Among his "exploits", he: [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero is openly racist and antisemitic]] to the point of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust holocaust denial]] and claiming the Nuremburg trials were a KangarooCourt, blows up an FBI building with a truck full of explosives, [[WouldHurtAChild caves in the skulls of two 13-year old girls]] for "being sluts" (by that, he means just associating with a black man), murders the family of a sheriff who was on his tail, [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil stands by his allies committing rape]], willingly participates in [[ThePurge the day of the rope]] and flies a plane into the Pentagon in a suicide attack, with his efforts all culminating in [[NukeEm the entire world being bathed in nuclear fire]] and the complete genocide of all non-whites. It's clear that Earl crossed the MoralEventHorizon a ''looooong'' time ago, and is worse than most villains ever written.

* AcceptableTargets: *[[LongList inhales deeply]]*... Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, Arabs, mixed-race people, liberals, conservatives, moderates, libertarians, communists, feminists, LGBTQ people, crossdressers, fetishists, sadomasochists, rednecks, interracial couples, the "unfit", "lesser" whites, all white people who don't also hate the above enough for the Organisation's liking, and just random people on the street.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There is practically no one worth rooting for in this book. Turner and his cohorts are DesignatedHeroes of the highest order and everyone else seems to be a racial stereotype.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There is practically no one worth rooting for in this book. Turner and his cohorts are {{Villain Protagonist}}s (albeit [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic not intended as such]] by the author) and everyone else seems to be a racial stereotype.

* MoralEventHorizon: Earl Turner crossed it after [[spoiler: the bombing of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:All Jews and non-Whites have been annihilated... in a lengthy campaign involving nuclear and chemical warfare, which has reduced Earth to a tenth its population and will most likely yield a severe fallout. [[KarmicDeath The only upside is that the protagonists are probably going to contract radiation poisoning and die from the ensuing fallout they're wholly responsible for causing]].]]

** The plot kicks off with the US population, ''including the Supreme Court,'' accepting the outlawing of privately-owned guns, second amendment be damned. In fact, let's cut to the chase and say that ''everyone'' who isn't racist is a moron nigh-on by default.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There is practically nobody worth rooting for in this book. Turner and his cohorts are {{Villain Protagonist}}s (albeit [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic not intended as such]] by the author) and everyone else seems to be a racial stereotype.

* OvershadowedByControversy: This book is probably best known for its association with Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy [=McVeigh=] and several other acts of terrorism carried out by Neo-Nazis.

* DesignatedHero: Even with literally every single racist stereotype Neo-Nazis have about Blacks, Jews, liberals, gays, feminists, non-Nazi white people, etc, in full effect and taken UpToEleven, the "villains" still seem far less evil and monstrous than the "heroes" due in no small part to the lack of omnicidal extermination campaigns and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness how they treat those among their number who fail in their mission]] ([[CreatorsPet except Turner, obviously]]), and this is with the knowledge that ''[[HeroWithBadPublicity they know they don't have any public support whatsoever]]''. In fact, these omnicidal nuclear terrorists would actually make for great villains in any other setting. As comically tyrannical as the System is in the story, the Organisation often commit acts that are far worse as petty revenge in [[MoralMyopia a staggering display of hypocrisy]].

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: There is practically nobody worth rooting for in this book. Turner and his cohorts are {{Villain Protagonist}}s (albeit [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic not intended as such]] by the author) and everyone else seems to be a racial stereotype.

* OvershadowedByControversy: This book is probably best known for its association with Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy [=McVeigh=] and several other acts of terrorism carried out by Neo-Nazi.