David Lane and the Origins of Mike Haskins' White Supremacist "Philosophy"

Yesterday, a poster who filed a comment as Anonymous, but was likely none other than Mike Haskins himself (pictured above), threatened us with a defamation lawsuit, presumably for calling him a racist.

So let's double down, shall we?

As we all know by now Mike Haskins is a user of Facebook, but at one point in time he fooled around with a MySpace account. You can find it here: http://www.myspace.com/mikehaskins88


Now, the reason the URL is important is because of Haskins' use of the "88" numerology, which is significant in skinhead circles. The most recurring explanation of the meaning is that "H" are the 8th letter of the alphabet. Two H's is supposed to be skinhead shorthand for "Heil Hitler." This is Haskins' way of coding his skinhead sympathies to potential allies.

A little further down the page in the "Interests" section, we find that Haskins is generally interested in "all things white and right" and enjoys "racially conscious" books. I don't feel the need to deconstruct those aspects of his character because the most objectionable part of the page is who Haskins lists as his hero, a person by the name of David Lane.


By just about any standard, Lane is the lowest form of racist imaginable. Lane didn't just join the Ku Klux Klan, he actually organized a chapter in Denver. He followed up that act by organizing the Colorado state Aryan Nation. Then,

Lane met Robert Jay Mathews in July 1983 at the Aryan Nations world congress. On September 22, 1983, Lane was among the nine founding members to be sworn into The Order, a group which dedicated itself to delivering "our people from the Jew and bring total victory to the Aryan race." The Order was accused of stealing over $4.1 million in armored car hijackings, killing two people, detonating bombs, counterfeiting money, organizing militaristic training camps and carrying out numerous other crimes with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the United States government.

For his role in The Order's crimes, Lane was sentenced to consecutive sentences totaling 190 years, including 20 years for racketeering, 20 years for conspiracy, both under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and 150 years for violating the civil rights of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host who was murdered on June 18, 1984. Berg was shot and killed in the driveway of his Denver home by three members of The Order.

That's quite the role model. The ADL has more on Lane here. Here's a file from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As you can imagine, Lane is seen as something of a martyr to the White Supremacist groups across the country. Lane died in federal prison in 2007, but during his 20+ years in the slammer, he authored several books and articles on his racist ideology which became popular in white supremacist circles. One of those articles was called "88 Precepts." Another is called "The White Genocide Manifesto" and features rhetoric similar to that used by Haskins:

Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, you can find the systematic destruction of our culture in progress. The politically correct media and affirmative action will be the death of european (sic.) culture if we don't start to advocate for ourselves and our brothers and sisters.

Reasonable people can disagree on the social merits of affirmative action, but to claim that it leads to "death of European culture" is ridiculous.

The ties between Haskins and Lane go even deeper. Not only has Mike Haskins essentially built his gang on David Lane's racist ideology, but he's also bought into Lane's Wotanism or Odinism. Yesterday we discussed the Odinic symbolism in the insignia Haskins has chosen for his clique, so it should probably come as no surprise to learn that Lane was also an Odinist. Here's Lane on his religion (note: in Norse mythology Odin and Wotan are the same god):

The fundamental theology of Wotanism is the 2nd of the 88 Precepts as follows: "Whatever people's perception of God, or the Gods, or the motive force of the Universe might be, they can hardly deny that Nature and Nature's Laws are the work of, and therefore the intent of, that force." Since the first and highest Law of Nature is the preservation of one's own kind, then the 14 Words, i.e. "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children" is a divine command of God, All-Father Wotan.

In other words, Lane did everything he possibly could to fuse his racism with his theology.

Mike Haskins' White Ethnic Preservation Coalition is founded on Lane's teachings and seeks not to preserve European heritage and culture, but to propagate Lane's racist ideology. This is not about "white pride," as Haskins claims -- a phrase that is itself a signifier among hate groups. This is about white supremacy. It's hard to argue that Haskins is also trying to create his own version of Lane's "Order," but it certainly does give one a moment of pause to think about his influences.

I'm all for allowing this odious bigot to speak his mind, but let's not pretend for an instant that he "has a point to make," is a champion of free speech or is anything other than a hate-mongering stain on the community.

Related Posts:
Mike Haskins is an Anti-Semite
The Fascist and Racist Origins of Mike Haskins Social Club
Mike Haskins is a Racist. End of Story.

NOTE: There's a long-standing debate about among bloggers about linking to websites that exist solely to spread racism (i.e. Stormfront). We were hesitant about doing so in the post above, but in the end we decided (a.) citing our sources was important, and (b.) it's important to know that this dreck is out there and where it is. Our personal belief is that far more people are turned off by this brand of hate than are converted to it. Also, since nobody really reads this blog anyway, we can't imagine we're pushing much traffic in their direction anyway.