Hate and Violence

Eleven people were killed in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh yesterday to culminate a rough week. Right wing violence has increased under this administration. Max Boot makes it clear that speech matters.

[H]olding the president of the United States to account for his hateful rhetoric is not the same thing as subscribing to lunatic 'false flag' conspiracy theories that ricochet around the right-wing world.

In their eagerness to protect their leader, Republicans are guilty of the very sin they have spent years decrying — false moral equivalence.

Extremism has been present in America for a long time. But [von Clownstick] is applying a match to the kindling.

Update (October 29):  Heather Digby Parton echos Boot:

Apparently [he] doesn't understand, or simply just doesn't care, that the heinous violence and terror of this past week were the direct result of [using campaign tactics to get his base riled up]. Will anyone be shocked if it happens again?

Update (November 13):  The FBI reports that hate crimes are up 17 percent in 2017 from the previous year. That's the third year in a row with an increase.

Also, Chauncey DeVega, interviewing Justin Frank, comes up with a chilling thought.

[Fuckface von Clownstick] is the Charles Manson of American politics.

Update (November 18):  Henry Giroux points to von Clownstick's language of hate as nourishment for fascism.

Many in [Dear Leader's] fan base suffer from more than a bad-faith act of adoration for the strongman; they also represent a corrosive element of fandom marked by what appears to be a gleeful allegiance to the structures of white supremacy. The rhetoric of violence, hate and intolerance has morphed into the service of fashioning [Fuckface] as the undisputed strongman at the center of a stupefied cult, and as a symbol for criminalizing those individuals and groups considered disposable and outside the ultra-nationalist notion of America as a white public sphere.

Update (November 27):  The Washington Post analyzed global terrorism data.

Over the past decade, attackers motivated by right-wing political ideologies have committed dozens of shootings, bombings and other acts of violence, far more than any other category of domestic extremist. While the data show a decades-long drop-off in violence by left-wing groups, violence by white supremacists and other far-right attackers has been on the rise since Barack Obama’s presidency — and has surged since [January 20, 2017].

Update (March 15, 2019):  A white supremacist who cites Fuckface as an "inspiration" killed 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. And just two days earlier, our obscene "leader" offered this bit of inspiration in an interview with Breitbart.

You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay? I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for [Manbaby] – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. But the left plays it cuter and tougher. Like with all the nonsense that they do in Congress … with all this invest[igations]—that’s all they want to do is –you know, they do things that are nasty. Republicans never played this.

Update (August 7, 2019):  There's basically a mass shooting every day in the United States. The one in El Paso was committed by someone who posted white supremacist beliefs perhaps inspired by over 2000 Republican ads about an immigrant "invasion". Heather Digby Parton knows most mass shooters are not politically motivated, but they do have something in common with Dear Leader:

[A] massive sense of grievance at what they perceive as unfair treatment. The attackers feel entitled to attention, loyalty and reward and what motivates many of these people to take violent action is a desire for vengeance against those who fail to give it to them.

[Fuckface] is someone who shares the immature, entitled worldview that also motivates many of these violent men and he reiterates it every day on social media and television.

Update (August 11, 2019):  Dan Froomkin considers the dangerous rhetoric of Dear Leader.

It’s not just anti-immigration policy [Fuckface] is advocating; it’s anti-immigration hysteria. Actually it’s anti-nonwhite hysteria. Pro-white hysteria.

That explains a lot of what we see at his rallies. His hooting, almost all white supporters are electrified by feeling like part of a reality show that determines whether their white country lives or dies. It brings rapturous excitement to their otherwise mundane lives — like an opiate, only more dangerous to others.

How can one go too far in defense of one’s country? That’s the kind of question [von Clownstick's] framing of the issues can lead his supporters to ask themselves. It’s surely something the El Paso shooter asked himself, and answered.

Update (August 14, 2019):  Heather Digby Parton points out the link between misogyny and white supremacy.

[T]here seems to be a strong correlation between the people who believe they are being robbed of their rightful status by people of color and those who believe they are being robbed of their status by women. These overlapping forms of resentment and anger can all too easily lead to violence. Sometimes this is limited to "ordinary" domestic abuse, which remains widespread in America. Sometimes it results in lethal horror such as Dayton.