The, er, p-HATE-riot? Movement.....

[laughingwillow]

Just came across this article out of Europe concerning the radical right in the U$. While we inside the U$ often read about individual nut cases who kill, we seldom see it connected to mainstream right wing ideology, even though the right is moving  so far off center that it is an appropriate connection to make, imo.  

Here's to hoping the tea baggers get their own political party this next election cycle......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ma ... ist-groups

quote from linked article: The US is facing a surge in anti-government extremist groups and armed militias, driven by deepening hostility on the right to Barack Obama, anger over the economy, and the increasing propagation of conspiracy theories by parts of the mass media such as Fox News.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, the US's most prominent civil rights group focused on hate organisations, said in a report that extremist "patriot" groups "came roaring back to life" last year as their number jumped nearly 250% to more than 500 with deepening ties to conservative mainstream politics.

The SPLC report, called Rage on the Right, said the rise in extremist groups was "a cause for grave concern" given their propensity to use violence during their heyday in the 90s, most notably with the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. It added that the issues driving support for such groups were increasingly populist and that "signs of growing radicalisation are everywhere".

"Patriot groups have been fuelled by anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama that have been branded "socialist" or even "fascist" by his political opponents," the report said......

[laughingwillow]

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2247042/entry/1/

Pentagon Shooter Was an Information-Obsessed Conspiracy Theorist

Officials who are investigating the Thursday shooting at the Pentagon say John Bedell, who died of gunshot wounds sustained when he attacked two police officers, was acting alone..... ....... "At this time it appears to be a single individual that had issues." And what issues they were. After digging into Bedell's extensive online presence, Gawker describes him as a "clearly intelligent" software developer and aspiring engineer who "was nonetheless a certifiable wackjob." Bedell believed the government was responsible for 9/11 and was obsessed with something he called "information currency."............. information currency theories, which led him to create a "marijuana-based monetary system" run out of his California apartment. The cops were less than enthused about the pot-as-money scheme, so Bedell was arrested; he abandoned the marijuana and turned his attention to starting a software-development company......... .....Gawker says that after 2006, almost every one of Bedell's contributions to the Internet (and they were legion) "displays an obsession with information—storing, retrieving, and revealing it—coupled with boilerplate Libertarian and 9/11 conspiracy theory bullshit." But he wasn't a tea-partier: "Simply writing him off as a brain-washed Glenn Beck zombie 'teabagger' or an imbecile anti-government activist can't capture the incomprehensible complexity of his ideas and the singular weirdness going on in his brain."

[Amomynous]

I'm going to be a little controversial here.

First off, violence and extremism (on any side of culture, but currently mostly embodied on the right), is extremely troublesome and worrying. Hate is troublesome and worrying.

(Hopefully I haven't said anything controversial yet .)

But I see hate groups like those mentioned in the article more as a general barometer of the zeitgeist than as thing in and of themselves.  This is not to say that the individuals and groups aren't troubling in themselves--they are, and greatly so--but what is even more troubling is what they represent on a large scale, irrespective of political ideology.

When the Southern Poverty Law Center says things like:

Patriot groups have been fuelled by anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama that have been branded "socialist" or even "fascist" by his political opponents

you have to keep in mind that the SPLC is a partisan group, and they have issues and agendas that are their charge. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in fact I actually agree with some of their agenda, but the fact of the matter is that their mission is to show their issues to be the causative factor in the rise of these troubling trends, and in doing so they actually gloss over what are the most troubling and scariest aspects of these trends.

Until we, as a culture and society, start thinking about the overall structure of the issue, the status quo will be maintained. And despite the good work that groups like the SPLC do (and they do good things), by asserting the primacy of partisan rhetoric they can actually act as an impediment to understanding. The SPLC isn't necessarily wrong--in the quote above, they are probably saying true things, after all--and therein lies the real complexity of the issue. It is not enough to discern truth from falsehood.

[Amomynous]

And on the subject of the Pentagon shooter, and to delve even more into controversy ...

"Whackjobs" are also very good barometers of the zeitgeist, and I actually have great sympathy for this person. I see him as a victim too.

[laughingwillow]

Right on, amom.

Some facets of the zeitgeist of our society currently scared the beejesus out of me. I don't particularly like the direction the country is headed and most seem to agree, regardless of political persuasion. The problem, as I see it is we can't agree on the exact nature and cause of of our economic and societal woes let alone what should be done to right the ship of state. I sense a rift larger than the normal political banter.

And wack-jobs CAN also be victims, imo.

Mark Becker was recently convicted here in Iowa of murder and will be locked away for life. However, the widow of the slain coach has come out and stated that she knows for a fact that the family tried to get help for their troubled son, largely to no avail. Not only did the system fail, in this case, but due to their son's age (adult) the parents had no real ability to help their son past what he was willing to go along with.  Nobody could make Mark Becker take his medicine, nor share his medical information with those in a position to help.

lw

[dendro]

I ignore anything from SPLC.

[laughingwillow]

I don't really care whop wrote the story.

lw

[dendro]

The "story" quotes the SPLC about the alleged exploding rise in "white, conservative hate groups".

SPLC is a close ally of one of the worst, but seldom mentioned, violent hate groups in the US-La Raza.

This "story" is propaganda...