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About Jeff Sharlet’s Book “The Undertow”
About a week before Jeff Sharlet’s new book, “The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War,” was published in March, a new video was uploaded on YouTube. It was a short documentary from 1983 of when Harry Belafonte visited East Germany to perform in a concert promoting communism. Belafonte gave his blessings to the Soviet-sponsored campaign promoting unilateral Western disarmament.
In “The Undertow,” Sharlet argues that right-wingers, including militia groups, are bent on conflict with the Left. They want a second civil war, and those who stand up to oppose them are American leftists, portrayed as Christlike figures of light and wisdom.
While Sharlet announces that the Right has a strong and growing MAGA force that is armed and dangerous and itching for battle, he smothers any proof that the Left is violent and crazy. His book fails to mention Belafonte’s hardcore leftism, instead portraying him as an inspirational civil rights leader.
Sharlet’s Agitprop and Leftist Piety
Sharlet’s book is pure agitprop that condemns conservatives and treats even the most violent and despicable leftists as messianic. In his essay about Occupy Wall Street, Sharlet claims he felt like Jesus Christ. This leftist sentiment is akin to the religious piety that surrounds liberalism’s self-regard but maintains its “woke” street cred by attaching itself to blasphemous “art.”
Sharlet Takes on Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
Sharlet’s main essay, “The Undertow,” takes on the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Central to the story is Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was killed by a police officer on that day. Here is Sharlet’s description: “Babbitt, shot for her trouble, was a fool who pursued her own death.” This is a cold and despicable take, as it denies even the possibility of questioning why Babbitt was shot and killed. Sharlet perpetuates a vision of the world where asking such questions gets one tossed into prison.
