I was going to post on the topic of the Missouri State Police report likening political independents to domestic terrorists last week, but with all the family in town and work obligations causing severe time constraints, I passed it over.
Three things contributed to the re-ignition of my empathy on this subject:
#1: This post from Joe.
#2: This post by local collectivist hatemonger, David Neiwert, in which he writes about how, since Tim McVeigh was wearing a Gadsen Flag t-shirt when he was arrested, anyone who wishes to wear, fly, or adhere one is worthy of being suspect.
Does this mean that anyone wearing one of these shirts, or expressing these sentiments, is a crazed militiaman eager and willing to blow up government workers and their children? Er, no. But at the same, the meaning of that T-shirt is actually critical to understanding what happened in Oklahoma City.
…..
What the report reflects is a reality that law enforcement trying to deal with domestic terrorism in America must confront: Their subjects are thoroughly American; many of the people drawn into these movements are, if anything, “hyper-normal.” Their version of “patriotism,” for instance, is so extreme that they actually hate not just their government but their fellow citizens — in essence, their country: because, you see, it has been “perverted” from its original purposes.
The hyper-normality is a kind of intentional camouflage. The Patriot movement, and militias in particular, were a very specific and intentional strategy adopted in the 1990s by the white supremacists and radical tax protesters of the American far right — and the whole purpose of the strategy was to mainstream their belief systems and their agendas. The tactic was to adopt the appearance of normal, “red-blooded” Americanism as a way of pushing out the idea that their radical beliefs are “normal” too.
In the process, they often adopted time-worn “patriotic” sayings and symbols, such as the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag Beck wears, as their own — though with a much more menacing meaning. If you’ve seen that flag at an Aryan Nations compound, as I have, you never quite look at it the same.
Neiwert’s strange fixation of all things Glenn Beck as of late is beginning to creep me out. I feel that I must admit that Beck’s rhetoric is just too saccharin for my tastes and that, although I drive home during his opening hour, I cannot bring myself to listen to him. That, and the fact that Beck doesn’t mind Socialism, so long as it is of the Christian type.
I’ve tangled with Neiwert on a local/blog basis and he has this justification of
“Racial Profiling = Bad / Political Profiling = Good (so long as you aren’t looking at eco-terrorists)“
Which stems from his belief that he should have the freedom to be able to distance himself from the left-wing terrorist acts and actors because he doesn’t support their actions, but that anyone who doesn’t ascribe to his narrow points of view must be supportive of right-wing bad actors in some way, shape or form and that they are therefor, evil.
Lay out in plain language your rebuke of McVeigh, etc. a dozen times and you will still be tied to them at the hip in any discussion.
When Obama had his Greek Column campaign speech in Denver and a carload of skinhead felons were pulled over and a rifle was found in their car, Neiwert was apoplectic for weeks. He wrote numerous posts on the topic of how likely it was that there was some sort of plot by the local federal prosecutor to not investigate/prosecute the skinheads for a conspiracy to assassinate Obama that may have possibly gone all the way up to the Secret Service detail who were doing a shoddy job of protecting him.
Yeah, full-on loon.
I stopped by his place and noted how unlikely it was that a meth-smoking skinhead with no rifle training, using a stolen rifle chambered in .22-250 Remington that he had never shot before and factory ammo would be able to connect with a man-sized target at over 700yards across an urban landscape one mile above sea level and was told that I just wanted to see the attempt on Obama’s life.
I then countered with the detention of a man who was visiting Denver on a hunting trip and the seizure of his weapons as he checked into the hotel he booked months before Obama’s idea of the speech and was told that that was exactly what should have happened to anyone bringing firearms into the city.
Yet he considers himself and those who think like him the ones who should determine who is restricting the freedoms of Americans.
But enough about that asshole, on to reason number three.
#3: The backsides of both of my personal vehicles look similar to this
I know I shouldn’t advertise if I don’t want the attention, but I’ve never been one for the “Daily Incognito”. Plus, it is somewhat difficult to hide a seven foot tall Jeep in the Seattle cityscape.
