A Discussion with Daniel Friberg on the Failure of Boer Nationalism in South Africa

My Facebook friend Daniel Friberg is a relatively well-known publisher and Swedish identitarian. Between the 22nd and 23rd of September, 2021, we had the following interesting exchange on the social media platform, regarding the plight of White South Africans in the Rainbow nation and the failure of White nationalism around the time of the 1992 Rererendum on Apartheid.

First, Daniel posted this rather wordy meme, highlighting the decline in the living conditions and security of South African Whites:

This was accompanied with this message:

"Anons experience growing up in South Africa. It's a must-read, especially for anyone unaware of what has been going on in South Africa in recent decades."

I then replied, sparking off the following exchange.

LIDDELL: Well, they did kind of vote for it, so they're gonna have to take their bumps for a while.

FRIBERG: This person did not vote for it, nor did most white South Africans alive today. And it was hardly a fair election considering the massive sanctions and outside pressure SA was subjected to at the time.

LIDDELL: I didn't say that person did. We all know when the vote was. Although I suspect if a similar vote were held today the result would be even worse due to general cuckery, the Stockholm Syndrome, and "muh Rainbow nation".

Also: "Hey Piet I just heard the USA is going to stop sending us Coca-Cola if we don't vote for decades of rape and murder. I guess we have to vote for Mandiba." Yeh, sanctions are literally THAT powerful.

FRIBERG: I don't agree with your basic premise that because their ancestors at some point in time voted for it, they deserve whatever follows from that vote, including torture and genocide. The same argument could be made for every white population on earth, and that white people deserve to be displaced, killed, raped and ultimately genocided, because "they voted for it". And you know as well as I do how mass democracy works, that you can basically coerce and trick a population to vote for anything, as long as you control the media apparatus and narrative.

LIDDELL: "Deserve it" - there you go springing a straw man on me. Never said that. Words like that are practically useless anyway unless you are making a "feels argument," which is usually totally ghei.

The vote locked them into a certain historical trajectory that involves a lot of suffering. That's all. At least they got to have a vote and a fair number made the right decision.

The ones that didn't of course may have been swayed by the capitalist elites who thought they could pull off a form of neo-colonialism without splitting up the country and losing any assets. But maybe they were able to sway the vote because the nationalist "opposition" was riding around on three-legged swastikas making fools of themselves - a bit like the Alt-Right in 2016.

FRIBERG: Colin, so do you think white South Africans and white Europeans deserve what they have coming, because of how they voted, or not? Your first comment can’t really be interpreted any other way. Do you believe mass democracy is a good and fair system for channeling the will of the people and helping them to look after their interests?

LIDDELL: Daniel we're pushing is different directions. You are still staring at the horror and emoting about it - "victims," "evils of mass democracy" "globalist (or Jewish) manipulation," "don't deserve," etc., etc. Don't mean to be rude, but this just sounds weak and redundant. I am well beyond that point. What interests me is the way their chance to choose a better road was squandered by the failure of the nationalist right at the time to critique and stand up to the blandishments of the big money message. Really feels just like 2016 when almost the entire Alt-Right was led off a cliff. Just look at this asshat to understand why nearly 30 years later this woman is going on about being surrounded by people who want her dead.

FRIBERG: Colin, so there we have it. Because of the bad optics of the AWB and the screwups of the short-lived and marginal American “alternative right” white people basically deserve what’s coming to them.

If only the AWB had a nicer symbol (perhaps a flower) and the AltRight stayed away from the “nazi” stuff, all would be well. Except that it wouldn’t.

Not to be rude, but you’re blowing these very marginal movements and their impact way out of proportion and constructing some sort of imaginary alternative timeline where all would have gone our way if it wasn’t for a few peoples screwups. That’s not a constructive or healthy way of dealing with the past.

LIDDELL: Daniel you seem hung up on that word 'deserve' as if the big man in the sky is going to look down on the world and say, "hey, I guess White South Africans deserve a better deal." It's not going to happen and you don't seem to have any Plan B. Nationalists have to raise their game, but that seems almost as likely not to happen from what I've seem.

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So, what actually happened in the vote referred to in this discussion, namely the 1992 Referendum that led to the dismantling of Apartheid and the implementation of "full democracy"?

Well, the result was that over 68% of White voters voted "YES" to end Apartheid, while over 31% voted "NO" against. One of the main reasons why the YES vote won was because the nationalist right did an extremely poor job, allowing the De Clerk government, representing big business interests, to soften the reality of what they were pushing. The referendum question was full of weasel words which in no way pointed to the actual result of the YES vote, namely complete power by the anti-White Marxist ANC:

Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on 2 February 1990 and which is aimed at a new Constitution through negotiation?

Also the nationalist right allowed the consequences of the NO vote to be misrepresented. In particular the antics of the Neo-Nazi AWB and its leader Eugene Terre'blanche were allowed to take centre stage. Normal South Africans were thus presented with a false choice between what they saw as sensible discussions between their government and the ANC or a chaotic war breaking out with Neo-Nazi thugs attacking Blacks and other Whites. 

Given how badly managed the campaign for the NO vote was, it is surprising that it almost got a third of the White vote. A much better run campaign that emphasised the need to maintain secure majority-White areas might have had a real chance.

My guess is that the Neo-Nazi morons in the AWB were in the pay of Big Business keen to keep a hold on as much of South Africa's assets as possible.