Deep Green Resistance#Beliefs

In the 2011 book Deep Green Resistance, the authors Lierre Keith, Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay state that civilization, particularly industrial civilization, is fundamentally unsustainable and must be actively and urgently dismantled in order to secure a future for all species on the planet.McBay, Aric, Lierre Keith, and Derrick Jensen. 2011. Deep Green Resistance. New York: Seven Stories Press.{{page needed|date=July 2024}}{{secondary source needed|date=February 2024}}

DGR calls for the dismantling of industrial civilization,{{cite web |title=Max Wilbert on the Deep Green Resistance movement |url=https://www.earthtribe.co/activist-voices/max-wilbert-on-the-deep-green-resistance-movement/ |access-date=December 29, 2022 |publisher=Earth Tribe |first1=Max |last1=Wilbert |quote= }}{{cite web |date=December 11, 2018 |title=Ecoextremism - Children of Ted |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html |access-date=December 29, 2022 |publisher=New York |first1=John H. |last1=Richardson |quote= }} and the return to a pre-agricultural lifestyle.{{r | WilbertOnDGR |p=1|q=Let us not mince words: we call for militant, organized underground action to bring down the global industrial economy. Simply put, we need to stop this death economy before it completely destroys the planet.}}{{r | NYorker-TedsAcolytes-Dec2018 |p=1|q=One exception is Deep Green Resistance[...]The group’s openly stated goal, like Kaczynski’s, is the destruction of civilization and a return to preagricultural ways of life. }}

DGR operates as an aboveground movement{{cite book |last1=Zúquete |first1=José Pedro |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Left-Wing Extremism, Volume 2 |date=2023 |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |isbn=978-3-031-36268-2 |pages=257–276 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-36268-2_14 |language=en |chapter=Left-Wing Extremism and the War on Civilization|doi=10.1007/978-3-031-36268-2_14 }} and requires members to take a nonviolence pledge as of 2019,{{cite news |title=Revealed: how the FBI targeted environmental activists in domestic terror investigations |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/23/revealed-how-the-fbi-targeted-environmental-activists-in-domestic-terror-investigations |access-date=10 June 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=24 September 2019 |language=en}} calling on others to use underground and violent tactics such as attacks on infrastructure or assassination. DGR is one of very few environmental groups to endorse lethal violence as sometimes justified.{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Sean |title=Searching for Ecoterrorism: The Crucial Case of the Unabomber |journal=American Political Science Review |date=2024 |volume=118 |issue=4 |pages=1986–1999 |doi=10.1017/S000305542300148X |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/searching-for-ecoterrorism-the-crucial-case-of-the-unabomber/EC862D788A13F848A001D6DD097C272E |language=en |issn=0003-0554}} A repeated claim in DGR literature is that acts of sabotage could cause a cascading effect and lead to the end of civilization. Because the organization advocates sabotage and violence, which it views as necessary tactics to achieve its goal of dismantling industrialized society and capitalism, it can be classified as an apocalyptic or millenarian movement.{{cite journal |last1=LeVasseur |first1=Todd |title=Decisive Ecological Warfare: Triggering Industrial Collapse via Deep Green Resistance |journal=Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture |date=2017 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=109–130 |doi=10.1558/jsrnc.29799 |url=https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JSRNC/article/view/4943 |language=en |issn=1749-4915|url-access=subscription }} DGR and far-right ecofascist groups such as The Green Brigade share similar tactics and an anti-majoritarian and vanguardist approach to activism, and both are accelerationist, seeking systemic collapse.{{cite journal |last1=Loadenthal |first1=Michael |title=Feral fascists and deep green guerrillas: infrastructural attack and accelerationist terror |journal=Critical Studies on Terrorism |date=2022 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=169–208 |doi=10.1080/17539153.2022.2031129|s2cid=247161917 }}

In 2017, DGR filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado arguing that the Colorado River should be recognized as a legal person. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2019.{{cite journal |last1=Burcham |first1=Mia |title=What Is the Grass?: Defining the Ecological Person |journal=Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy |date=2022 |volume=13 |pages=1 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/arijel13&div=12&id=&page=}}{{cite journal |last1=Spitz |first1=Laura |last2=Penalver |first2=Eduardo M. |title=Nature's Personhood and Property's Virtues |journal=Harvard Environmental Law Review |date=2021 |volume=45 |pages=67 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/helr45&div=5&id=&page=}}

An article in Journal of Strategic Security describes the group as a "worrying bioterrorism threat", citing its strategy and propensity towards violence.{{cite journal |last1=Spadaro |first1=Paola Andrea |title=Climate Change, Environmental Terrorism, Eco-Terrorism and Emerging Threats |journal=Journal of Strategic Security |date=2020 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=65–66 |doi=10.5038/1944-0472.13.4.1863 |jstor=26965518 |s2cid=230633873 |issn=1944-0464|doi-access=free }} Beginning in 2014, the FBI investigated Deep Green Resistance.{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Alleen|title=Tilting at Windmills: The FBI Chased Imagined Eco-Activist Enemies, Documents Reveal |url=https://theintercept.com/2020/08/24/fbi-fusion-center-environmental-wind/ |access-date=10 June 2022 |work=The Intercept |date=August 24, 2020 |language=en}}

Anarcho-primitivists John Zerzan, Kevin Tucker and others criticize DGR's promotion of hierarchy in organizing an underground resistance, the code of conduct, the historical understanding of revolution and radical history, and the cult of personality around Jensen and Keith.{{cite web|url=http://www.sproutdistro.com/2013/05/18/deep-green-resistance-a-book-review/ |title=Deep Green Resistance: A Book Review |publisher=Sprout Distro |date=2013-05-18 |access-date=2016-06-25}}{{cite web|url=http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/articles/deep-green-resistance-a-critique|title=Deep Green Resistance — a critique|first1=Michelle|last1=Matisons|first2=Alexander Reid|last2=Ross|author-link2=Alexander Reid Ross|publisher=Earth First! Journal|year=2014–2015|access-date=2015-06-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140803103416/http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/articles/deep-green-resistance-a-critique/|archive-date=2014-08-03|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/AnarchyRadio03-08-2011/ |title=Anarchy Radio 03-08-2011 : John Zerzan : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive |website=Archive.org |access-date=2016-06-25}}{{cite web|url=http://enkidu.anarchyplanet.org/2011/06/10/authority-and-civilization/ |title=Authority and civilization |access-date=May 21, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710101150/http://enkidu.anarchyplanet.org/2011/06/10/authority-and-civilization/ |archive-date=July 10, 2012}} Michelle Renée Matisons and Alexander Reid Ross of the Institute for Anarchist Studies have accused DGR of "emulating right-wing militia rhetoric, with the accompanying hierarchical vanguardism, personality cultism, and reactionary moralism."{{cite web|date=9 August 2015|title=Against Deep Green Resistance|url=https://ecology.iww.org/texts/AlexanderReidRoss/AgainstDeepGreenResistance|author-last=Renée Matisons|author-first=Michelle|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Industrial Workers of the World Environmental Unionist Caucus}}

How to Blow Up a Pipeline author Andreas Malm—who argues that some forms of infrastructural sabotage are justified to advance the environmental movement—condemned DGR, arguing its proposals, if implemented, would spell disaster for the vast majority of people in the world.{{cite book |last1=Malm |first1=Andreas |title=How to Blow Up a Pipeline |date=2021 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-83976-025-9 |language=en}}[https://antipodeonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Book-review_McCreary-on-Malm.pdf Review of How to Blow Up a Pipeline], Tyler McCreary in Antipode

DGR describes itself as a radical feminist organization, and has been described by critics as transphobic and TERF.{{cite book |last1=Houlberg |first1=Laura |title=Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-88657-2 |chapter=The End of Gender or Deep Green Transmisogyny?}}{{cite web|date=20 May 2013|title=I'm Not A Gender Zombie and Neither Are You: Rejecting Anti-Trans Bigotry From Rachel Ivey and Deep Green Resistance|url=https://www.autostraddle.com/im-not-a-gender-zombie-and-neither-are-you-rejecting-anti-trans-bigotry-from-rachel-ivey-and-deep-green-resistance-177735/|author-last=|author-first=|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Autostraddle}}{{cite web|date=29 March 2016|title=Transphobes Still Welcome at Public Interest Environmental Law Conference|url=https://itsgoingdown.org/transphobes-still-welcome-public-interest-environmental-law-conference/|author-last=Borden|author-first=Mitch|access-date=26 June 2022|work=It's Going Down|archive-date=6 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506060512/https://itsgoingdown.org/transphobes-still-welcome-public-interest-environmental-law-conference/|url-status=dead}} The organisation has described hormone therapy for transgender youth as eugenics and excludes transgender women from women's spaces,{{cite web|date=9 February 2022|title=The Environmental Movement Isn't Ready for Transphobia|url=https://gizmodo.com/the-environmental-movement-isn-t-ready-for-transphobia-1848505309|author-last=Taft|author-first=Molly|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Gizmodo}} while Keith has compared gender transitioning to mutilation.{{cite web|date=15 January 2018|title=Environmental group protested for being transphobic|url=https://kmxt.org/2018/01/environmental-group-protested-transphobic/|author-last=Borden|author-first=Mitch|access-date=26 June 2022|work=KMXT}} In 2019, Jensen, Keith, as well as DGR activist Max Wilbert published an article in Feminist Current saying "Hands up everyone who predicted that when Big Brother arrived, he’d be wearing a dress, hauling anyone who refuses to wax his ladyballs before a human rights tribunal, and bellowing ‘It’s Ma’am!’" Keith linked the group's views on transgender issues to the environment, claiming that trans women "want to violate the basic boundaries of women" and comparing that to "violating the boundaries of forests and rivers and prairies".{{sfn|Scheyder|2024|p=139}} During the fight against the Thacker Pass lithium mine, some members of DGR formed another group called Protect Thacker Pass without disclosing their affiliation with DGR. They worked with local Native American group People of Red Mountain, which broke off the affiliation saying that DGR members had not been transparent about their anti-trans views.{{sfn|Scheyder|2024|p=139}}

In 2012, founder McBay left the group, saying that it promoted transphobia. Earth First! Journal repudiated DGR in 2013 and said that it would "no longer print or in any way promote DGR material" because of its leaders' anti-transgender stances.{{cite book |last1=Pellow |first1=David Naguib |title=Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781315619880 |page=112 |chapter=Eco-Defence, Radical Environmentalism and Environmental Justice}} In 2022, during the resistance to the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, Indigenous group People of Red Mountain broke ties with attorney and DGR member Will Falk, citing transphobia as the reason.{{cite web|date=6 February 2022|title=How a fight over transgender rights derailed environmentalists in Nevada|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/06/nevada-transgender-rights-environmentalists-lithium-00001658|author-last=Holzman|author-first=Jael|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Politico}} Other environmental groups involved in opposing the Thacker Pass project have distanced themselves from DGR.{{cite web|date=4 March 2022|title=News reports to the contrary, opposition to proposed Northern Nevada lithium mine continues|url=https://lasvegassun.com/news/2022/mar/04/news-reports-to-the-contrary-opposition-to-propose/|author-last=Hill|author-first=Jessica|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Las Vegas Sun}} The organization has also faced criticism for its association with Jennifer Bilek, an investigative journalist, who has, with antisemitic connotations, argued that transgender rights are a transhumanist conspiracy.{{cite web|date=26 June 2022|title=How paranoia over trans rights became catnip for QAnon and the far right|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/transgender-far-right-qanon-violence-b2108235.html|author-last=Dodds|author-first=Io|access-date=27 June 2022|work=The Independent}}{{cite web|date=20 March 2022|title=ALERT: Transphobic feminism and far-right activism rapidly converging|url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/2021/03/20/alert-transphobic-feminism-and-far-right-activism-rapidly-converging/|author-last=Moore|author-first=Mallory|access-date=26 June 2022|work=Freedom News}}

• Deep ecology
• Ecofeminism
• Eco-terrorism
• Luddite
• Radical environmentalism

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite news |last1=Richardson |first1=John H. |title=The Unlikely New Generation of Unabomber Acolytes |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html |access-date=10 June 2022 |work=Intelligencer |date=11 December 2018 |language=en-us}}
• {{cite book |last1=Scheyder |first1=Ernest |title=The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives |date=2024 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-6680-1182-9 |language=en}}

• [https://www.dw.com/en/could-climate-change-fuel-eco-terrorism/av-53432054 Could climate change fuel eco terrorism?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610033437/https://www.dw.com/en/could-climate-change-fuel-eco-terrorism/av-53432054 |date=2022-06-10 }}, Deutsche Welle 14.05.2020

Category:Environmental organizations based in the United States

Category:Deep ecology

Category:Radical environmentalism

Category:Simple living

Category:Anti-consumerist groups

Category:Anti-capitalism

Category:Organizations that oppose transgender rights in the United States

Category:Anarcho-primitivism

Category:Dark green environmentalism