Some are Appalled, Others Encouraged

 

Uniformed Oath Keepers at the Capitol Insurrection

Even as ultra-violence and mass shootings accelerate, there are almost no “lone wolves” anymore. They are part of what many believe is a growing patriotic movement aiming to protect their country. Such “Patriots” exchange online hate-driven slogans and fake news, even the identifying potential “not-us” targets and how to buy and use the necessary assault weapons to eliminate them. Chatrooms and dark web connections are full of reassurances that the Trump restructured GOP will not let them down; despite Biden’s pleas to the contrary and a few states beginning (like New York) beginning to take assault weapons off the streets, they take comfort in the fact that no one is even going to try to take those guns aways from them. Mass shooters are their heroes.

Some, more physically linked and organized – like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, etc. – are well-armed, often uniformed, neofascists who train, proselytize and recruit angry bigots, many with military or police experience, to take down anyone who is “not-us” or who opposes their political mission to take over the United States. Conspiracy theories are their bread and butter, their justification for violent overthrow of a government that they believe should a White Christian nation (i.e., they are Christian Nationalists) with an official state religion. The Constitution is an inconvenience that they, with rising help from the US Supreme Court, can ignore. The left-as-pedophiles Q-Anon and Replacement theorists are simply part of their understanding of the world. They are the foot soldiers that will “take back America,” and to them, violence seems to be working. The Capitol insurrection remains their inspiration. And GOP is their enabler.

This sizeable segment is growing both in numbers and the degree of their radicalization. They still worship Donald Trump, but he is losing his grip on that MAGA mantra. Younger, more radical leaders, typified by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and clear and loud mainstream media stars – particularly the most popular “news host” in the nation, replacement theory champion, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson – are their future. But if mainstream, right-wing media seems to be the main problem, it is still followed mostly by older viewers. The younger bigots prefer social media.

We have so legitimized hated speech and racial/ethnic/gender bigotry – there are even laws banning the recognition of these horribles to our young – that there are cloistered communities who believe either a. that bigotry is gone, and those minorities are seeking to cash in on “reparations” and “privilege” or b. there is a serious plot to replace those Christian Whites with radical leftist minorities. As violence escalates, the explosion of “legitimized” and public hate speech has reached new levels. Based on Meta/Facebook’s own numbers, this reality is reported by the June 3rd Varinda.com:

“According to a monthly report released by Meta, there has been a rise of around 37.82 percent in hate speech on social media platform Facebook and 86 percent jump in violent and inciting content on Instagram in April… Facebook detected 53,200 hate speech in April, which is 37.82 percent higher compared to 38,600 detected in March. On the other hand, Instagram acted on 77,000 violence and incitement-related content in April compared to 41,300 in March.

“The majority of the content in the report is based on detection by social media platforms before users reported to them… The report said, ‘We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action on for going against our standards. This metric shows the scale of our enforcement activity. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning.’” Mass shootings, open carry armed “patriots,” and legitimized hate speech now form the basis of many right-wing Republicans running in the midterms.

Look at the post-Buffalo/Uvalde-shootings reaction of the few Republican leaders willing to embrace some gun control. They already oppose the rising movement to take assault weapons out of the mix, they do not want to walk back their open carry or permitless right to carry concealed arms – a matter pending before the Supreme Court – but might consider some form of universal background checks. These GOP leaders hide behind the Second Amendment forgetting that even right-wing Antonin Scalia, when he wrote the 2008 majority opinion for the Supreme Court in Heller vs DC (the first case in US history to interpret that amendment as a ubiquitous American right of gun ownership), stated “like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

More guns in schools are a very desirable result for extremists seeking a new world order, but that is not a solution for gun violence. When confronted with a real life “active shooter,” very few people really know what to do, despite drills that were meant to prepare teachers and students for the threat. The cops in Uvalde just sat around waiting for orders. It took a Border Patrol agent, fearing for his teacher wife, to barge in and shoot the perpetrator. For these official cops and guardians, there is no risk for failing to do the right thing.

“Police in Uvalde, Texas, are unlikely to face civil liability for failing to rush in to confront shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, at Robb Elementary School last week, experts told several publications… Even though police waited on the scene for about an hour before the gunman was shot, police are unlikely to face liability because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions and governmental immunity, report Law & Crime, the Boston Herald, the New York Daily News, the Insurance Journal via Bloomberg and WFAA.” ABA Journal, June 1st. The GOP/NRA balance between lots of guns or keeping children alive appears to favor guns by a wide margin.

I’m Peter Dekom, and these reactionary crazies are no longer an extremist fringe; they are a very large and well-armed political Christian Nationalist movement who intend to take over the entire country under a Republican moniker… we have never been here before.