For all of its Narm and ridiculous racist propaganda, The Turner Diaries is still a terrifying look into the mindset held by white nationalists and their ambitions for the world.
- The Organization. They're unashamedly violent and genocidal Neo-Nazis fighting a guerilla war against the United States government, with bombings, assassinations, and sabotage. Not only do they despise Jews, Blacks, and all other non-white peoples, but they loathe any white who doesn't share their fanatical devotion toward racial purity. This includes basically everyone: liberals, conservatives, homosexuals, sadomasochists and fetishists, people who've so much as associated with non-Whites, all of them are race traitors in their eyes. And naturally, the only way to deal with all of these groups is complete and utter extermination. And they're the protagonists.
- Once they take over Los Angeles, the Organization immediately begins a cleansing of Southern California called The Day of the Rope. They proceed to lynch not just all people of colour, but all white people who had sex with or were even friends with people of colour, as well as any whites who opposed them. Heroic.
- Considering that one might think that these people are the target of their hatred, wrong. They have a special contempt for white people who, despite sharing their racist beliefs, didn't support them, or in other words weren't as fanatical or violent as them. Cementing the heroes as bloodthirsty fanatics who just want an excuse to murder as many people as possible including their own.
- Once they take over Los Angeles, the Organization immediately begins a cleansing of Southern California called The Day of the Rope. They proceed to lynch not just all people of colour, but all white people who had sex with or were even friends with people of colour, as well as any whites who opposed them. Heroic.
- Once they acquire nuclear weapons from a military base, the Organization launches them into New York and Tel Aviv, coordinating with their allies across America and the Soviet Union, triggering a nuclear exchange that wipes out entire cities. This also sparks anti-Jewish riots around the world, no doubt with Day of the Rope-style mass lynchings as well.
- After the Organization detonates nukes in Miami and Charleston, they issue an Ultimatum to the System: cease their military buildup near California, do not attempt to retake the state or launch a retaliatory strike, and let the nation and the world know. Fail to comply by noon the next day and the Organization's entire stockpile of 500 nukes hidden across the country will be detonated immediatelynote . And then there's Turner's final promise."Finally, we warn you that, in any event, we intend to liberate, first, the entire United States and then the remainder of this planet. When we have done so we will liquidate all the enemies of our people, including in particular all Whites who have consciously aided those enemies. We are aware now, and we will continue to be aware, of your most confidential plans and of every order you receive from your Jewish masters. Abandon your race-treason now, or abandon all hope for yourselves when you fall into the hands of the people you have betrayed."
- During all of this, Israel is invaded by its neighbors. Thousands of Arabs are mowed down by machine-gun fire, marching across minefields and into radioactive city ruins, fueled entirely by their hatred for the Jews. Within a week, armed with clubs and knives, they slaughter Israel's entire population. While the Organization is thankful for it, there's no mention of the Arabs in the New Era.
- After the Organization detonates nukes in Miami and Charleston, they issue an Ultimatum to the System: cease their military buildup near California, do not attempt to retake the state or launch a retaliatory strike, and let the nation and the world know. Fail to comply by noon the next day and the Organization's entire stockpile of 500 nukes hidden across the country will be detonated immediatelynote . And then there's Turner's final promise.
- After the nuclear attacks, The Organization sets up compounds where food and shelter are provided to whites, but not for free. To gain entry, they're given a bayonet and told to return with the freshly-severed head of a non-white person. Failure means they're left to starve, and the Organization considers their death an improvement for the race.
- Earl Turner, the hero, launching a Suicide Attack with his nuke-mounted plane and blowing up the Pentagon. From the perspective of his allies, of course, it's a tragic and heroic event.
- If you hoped that the death of the "hero" would've put an end to all this, you'd be sadly mistaken. Earl Turner's actions essentially ignite a powder keg where other white nationalist armies rise up across the globe, sparking a full-on race war led by The Organization. America and Europe are purged of minorities, criminals, "race traitors" and their children within a year, more cities are nuked, and entire countries are depopulated and re-colonized by the Organization, who stand knee-deep in their blood.
- Not even whites are safe. After all the destruction the Organization has caused, they leave countless refugees who don't meet their rigorous genetic standards to starve to death. Since they threw around nukes like they were snowballs, chances are their numbers are in the hundreds of thousands.
- Most horrific of all is their solution to when China, after absorbing most of the former Soviet Union following the nuclear exchange, pours across the Ural Mountains to try and take European Russia. While the Organization takes out the comparatively primitive Chinese bombers with ease, the tide of Chinese forces continues with impunity. Still trying to "liberate" Europe, the Organization's solution is a full-on carpet bombing with every WMD they have at their disposal. For four long years, they drop nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological bombs across the entire Asian continent, wiping out billions more and sterilizing the landmass. Even a century later, all that survives in the region are roving bands of mutants.
- By the early 21st century, 90% of humanity has been utterly wiped out in the wars, nuclear bombings have left huge swaths of the planet uninhabitable, and Hitler's vision of a pure Aryan world is finally achieved. This is apparently a happy ending, but perhaps it works within the context of the book's premise and target audience.
- While a prime example of Stupid Evil, the System does some pretty horrible things themselves, like legalizing rape and making it a hate crime for whites to defend themselves from non-whites. Of course, considering who's view the book is from, the events are rather ambiguous.
- A more subtle one are notes to the reader, which explains terms they may not be familiar with. Some are simple, like what a Sitcom is or what the Mafia used to be. And then there's ones that state that Puerto Ricans were a "mongrel race of especially unsavory character" that used to live on what's now the island of New Carolina; "Women's lib" was a form of "mass psychosis" that broke out and caused women to consider themselves people, and the books of Judaism described all non-Jews as cattle to be raped and exploited. Yeah...
- What's easily the most bone-chilling: This book has inspired real violence. The perpetrators of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the 1999 London Nail Bombings, and the murder of James Byrd Jr. all made references to the book and had it or pages of it in their possession. There was even a Neo-Nazi terrorist group active in the United States from 1983-84 led by Robert Jay Matthews who called themselves The Order and modeled themselves off of The Organization practically to the letter. They committed numerous robberies, bombed a synagogue, murdered three people, including Jewish talk show host Alan Berg, and committed other acts of violence in an attempt to start a race war.
- The worst part of it all: Dr. Pierce only criticized said attacks on a tactical level.
- Even still, nothing in the book even shows what they're fighting for. Barely anything about the book's supposed "White utopia" is shown, and what little is given about it is downright miserable. 90% of humanity lies dead, including all non-whites, women are once again considered to be property and that most of the human cultures pre-mass genocide are lost to the ages and the radiation, seemingly surviving only as twisted propagandized caricatures to serve the white supremacist narrative only known in intellectual circles. Anything else relating to its society or culture flat-out isn't mentioned. Dr. Pierce expected this book to inspire fascist terrorists to commit violence and give up everything, up to and including their lives in the name of an imaginary utopia that's barely so much as described. Suffice to say, it worked.
- The book itself isn't written as a manifesto calling for any particular form of society, policies or even ideology to be adopted. In fact, the story itself is very flat and quite poorly written, filled with nonsensical plot points, cardboard cutouts for characters, ridiculous racist stereotypes and an ambiguous conspiracy that's globally powerful and yet still loses fairly easily. Yet that's entirely the point: the book isn't trying to teach a particular lesson, but just trying to glorify and encourage the base desire for violence and hate among all fascists. Most critically, its ambiguity about the System makes it easier to insert whomever they want in its place and says that working to bring them down isn't just noble, it's easy. Is it any wonder why the book is banned in many places around the world?
