DezNat

Not to be confused with State of Deseret.
The correct title of this article is #DezNat. The omission of the # is due to technical restrictions.
Left: A Utah beehive crossed with an Italian fasces.
Right: Original flag of the proposed State of Deseret

Deseret nationalism, popularized online as #DezNat,[1] is a far-right Mormon nationalist movement in the United States. It originated in 2018 following the Unite the Right rally by Logan Smith, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[2] The term originated as a Twitter hashtag, collecting upwards of 114,000 original posts.

Contributors to The Daily Beast and The Daily Utah Chronicle have described DezNat as an extremist alt-right, white nationalist movement.[3][4][5] Journalists at The Guardian consider the group right-wing with elements of the far-right.[6] Supporters of DezNat have insisted that their purpose is to gather orthodox Latter-day Saints and defend the Church. Correspondingly, they see the term “alt-right” as inaccurate and even defamatory.[7] Supporters use Bowie knife imagery as a homage to Brigham Young.

Some within the DezNat community have advocated for the restoration of the historical State of Deseret as an independent state outside of U.S. jurisdiction.[8] As well as the secession of a theocratic Mormon state, some DezNat commentators have suggested this should be a white ethnostate using both neo-Nazi and far-right accelerationist imagery.[8][6] Users of the hashtag reject being labeled as alt-right.[4][9][5] Smith says the hashtag recognizes faithful LDS Church members as "a unique people and should be united spiritually, morally, economically, and politically behind Christ, the prophet, and the church."[3][10][11]

The community has been criticized for promoting harassment against members of the LGBTQ community, ex-Mormons, feminists, abortion-rights advocates, and pornographic film actors.[3] Some within DezNat advocate for violent actions under the pretext of blood atonement for certain sins,[3] a practice the LDS Church leadership has disavowed.[12] [13][14]

  1. ^ "#DezNat users say they're defending the church; those they target say it's not Christ-like". KJZZ. 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  2. ^ Paras, Julian (29 September 2021). "ICCU employee no longer works at local branch after being connected to controversial twitter thread". KPVI. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  3. ^ a b c d Hitt, Tarpley (24 January 2019). "The Cult of #DezNat: Alt-Right Mormons Targeting Porn and the LGBTQ Community". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b Reeser, Andrew (30 January 2019). "'Deseret Nation': Alt-right Mormon militants or truth defenders?". ABC4 Utah. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  5. ^ a b Reese, Isaac (10 September 2019). "Reese: The LDS Church has a White Nationalist Problem". The Daily Utah Chronicle. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Revealed: assistant attorney general in Alaska posted racist and antisemitic tweets". The Guardian. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  7. ^ "FarRight and Anti-Feminist Red Pill Influences in the #DezNat Twitter Hashtag" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-07-14.
  8. ^ a b Wilson, Jason (2021-08-09). "New movement of religious extremists push ultra-conservative vision in US". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  9. ^ Clements, Mary (3 February 2021). "'Mormon Land': A deeper look at #DezNat tweeters — who they are, what they want, and why people should, or should not, fear them". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  10. ^ "What is #DezNat?". Twitter. 2018-10-26. Archived from the original on 2019-01-24.
  11. ^ "2-Greenhalgh-Chapman – Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association". Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  12. ^ McConkie, Bruce R. (1978-10-18). "Letter to Thomas B. McAfee". SHIELDS Research.
  13. ^ Mormon Land: A deeper look at #DezNat tweeters | Episode 167, SoundCloud.
  14. ^ ""Come for the memes, stay for defending the faith": Far-right and anti-feminist red pill influences in the #DezNat Twitter hashtag". University of Kentucky. Retrieved 2024-07-11.