Raising the Banner of Truth
Counter-Currents Fall Retreat 2025

1,072  words

In the autumn of 1961, businessman and author Carleton Putnam visited the Heidelberg Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi to deliver a speech to an audience of segregationists. Putnam’s book Race and Reason: A Yankee View had been released earlier that year. Mississippi governor Ross Barnett was among those who gave introductory remarks before Putnam’s address.

Putnam realized that despite the scientific evidence that supported the race realist position, the white population outside of the South was, by and large, unaware of it. Instead, the rest of White America was being misinformed and misled, and the segregationists were losing the battle of public opinion. Still, Putnam concluded his talk by encouraging his audience to fight on:

Don’t whisper to yourselves “Isn’t it too late? Haven’t we lost this fight?” If you take this road, its not too late. It’s never too late to go to the heart of this kind of an issue, because when you do, eternal forces come over to your side. There’s something about lifting a banner like this, and keeping it clean, that attracts the unseen as well as the visible hosts. And if there is one quality that characterized the breed that built America, it was that they were not afraid to slap the devil in the face. They didn’t sit down and bargain with him and offer him sacrifices. When men do that, the forces of righteousness desert them.

So in the last analysis, if you want to be faithful to the founding fathers, you won’t ask whether you are going to win. That’s not your affair. The fight is your affair. Do the best you can. I’ll put it in the words of George Washington himself: “Erect a standard to which the wise and honest can repair, the event is in the hands of God.”

Last month, myself and other writers and friends of Counter-Currents made the trip south, though to Texas rather than Mississippi, for our fall retreat. Greg Johnson and Cyan Quinn did an outstanding job putting the event together and providing us with an environment where we could meet in person and “lift the banner” for our race by speaking freely about the nature of the threats we face and of how best to go about resisting them.

Thanks to Counter-Currents, I was able to meet several individuals whose work has influenced and inspired me. Throughout the weekend, I enjoyed good food and stimulating conversation. It is amazing how much one can learn in just a few days when surrounded by such intelligent and dedicated comrades.

This was my second Counter-Currents event, and I highly recommend that all readers attend at least one. These events provide the perfect environment for learning and networking, and that alone made it worthwhile. However, I feel that the best reason to go is to experience the sense of camaraderie that comes with being in the same room as others who share our beliefs. It simply cannot be replicated in an online environment.

Holding dissenting opinions can feel lonely; I know that from experience. For many of us, it is necessary to keep our views private for the most part. Physically seeing and speaking to other White Nationalists is an ideal remedy for pessimism and burnout. After both events, I went home full of energy and with a strengthened resolve to work on behalf of my people.

I would also like to note just how normal everyone was. Thanks largely to portrayals in popular media, there is a common stereotype that White Nationalists are a strange and violent bunch of social misfits. My experience has been the precise opposite. The people I have met at Counter-Currents events have been friendly and easy to talk to, and not a single person has seemed at all threatening or dangerous.

As Greg mentioned a few weeks ago, the event was briefly interrupted because Leftist “No Kings” protesters were marching on the street outside of the hotel. Unlike our gathering, they really were a weird-looking bunch, and many marchers were obviously physically and mentally unhealthy. The contrast between our group and theirs could not have been more stark.

The mood of the conference was one of optimism, and I believe this optimism is justified. Barriers to white identity politics are indeed falling. On social media platforms like X, White Nationalist talking points are reaching more people than ever before, and it even appears that racialists are steadily infiltrating the Republican Party and attaining positions of influence.

In just the last year I have watched friends who used to strongly disagree with my views start to come around to our side. The message is spreading, and I don’t think any efforts at censorship will put the genie back into the bottle. As George Lincoln Rockwell was fond of saying, “Once you see the truth, you will never forget it.” Among people my age, the taboo against criticizing Jewish power has all but disappeared, and I doubt that the taboo against explicit white identity will be far behind.

The final speaker at the conference made the point that “nothing costs more than lying.” She could not have been more correct. Our job at Counter-Currents is to tell the truth in its purest and most uncompromising form. As Putnam said, we must “lift the banner” and “keep it clean.” We cannot allow the growing energy behind white identity politics to be subverted and misdirected, and all such efforts must be called out. The urge to water down the message of White Nationalism and compromise with the existing regime must be resisted.

Fortunately, the banner of truth is being lifted higher each day. It is lifted with every time one friend shares with another a post or meme that communicates a suppressed fact about our history. It is lifted every time a white parent raises their child to be proud of his or her people. It is being lifted this very day at college Republican meetings, in group chats, on social media platforms, and in face-to-face conversations. It was raised high at our meeting in Texas, and it is raised with every article published here at Counter-Currents.

Victory will be inevitable on the day when a critical mass of our people, filled with the same indomitable spirit that conquered a continent centuries ago, rally to that banner. I cannot be certain if and when that day will arrive, but my belief that it will has never been stronger.