Details are coming in to focus regarding the domestic terrorism attack, which will be charged as a hate crime because the domestic terrorism portion of the Federal terrorism statute does not include penalties, just a definition, at the Chabad of Poway, CA synagogue today. The shooter is a 19 year old named John T. Earnest. Earnest wrote and published a manifesto, in the style of the Christchurch terrorist’s, that included all of the anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic, and racist greatest hits. He claims to be inspired by the attackers of both the Tree of Life Synagogue and the two Christchurch mosques. Earnest also, like the Tree of Life attacker, claims he’s not a supporter of the President because the President isn’t extreme enough, is a “Zionist, Jew loving, anti-White, traitorous cocksucker”. Earnest also manages to work in all the traditional Christian anti-Semitic justifications as well including a Jewish led white genocide. He also claims he’s striking this blow on behalf of the European race, of which he is a member. There is no European race. Regardless, Earnest is clearly asserting that he is doing this on behalf of white Christians in order to protect them and preserve their culture and way of life. So we can confidently say that today’s domestic terrorist attack was motivated by white Christian supremacy. Earnest also makes it very clear that he the Christchurch attacks were the trigger for today’s attack, as well as a failed attempt to burn down a mosque in Escondido, CA the week after the Christchurch attack. So provided his confession checks out, that act of domestic terrorism is now solved.
I’ve read the whole manifesto. It is internally coherent and focused, but, as you can imagine is full of conspiratorial thinking and claims that are unlikely to be verifiable. For instance, Earnest claims an ancestor among the lost Roanoke colonists. This is an attempt by Earnest to tie himself into one of the faux intellectual strains of white supremacy that is centered around a wholly invented mythology for Virginia Dare, the first English colonist born in North America. According to this made in the late 20th century faux history, Dare, referred to as “the White Doe”, was supposed to have survived the destruction of the colony, was raised and lived among the Kroatoan tribe, where she was called the White Doe. There is, of course, no empirical evidence for this as no one knows what happened to the Roanoke colonists after they abandoned their settlement. The biggest proponent of this insanity is former NRO columnist and English expatriate Peter Brimelow. Brimelow is the founder of the site VDare, named for Virginian Dare.
As is always the case after these events, the real concern is copy cats. To a certain extent, Earnest’s attack today, as well as his failed attack on a local mosque three weeks ago, are copy cats of the Christchurch attacker. The other concern is for people who were already planning their own terrorism attacks or sprees and decide, because of the publicity, to accelerate their plans as the media is now primed. I expect that religious congregations, regardless of the actual religion, are currently laying on more security for whatever services and/or events they have tomorrow and for the coming week.
For those interested in how to do anti-terrorism prevention through environmental design, I published on this in Security Journal in 2006. The article is derived from a keynote briefing and an inservice I ran on the topic at Disney University back in October 2004. Below, I’m posting an adaptation of that article I did in 2013 for a contact at DHS. And, as I indicated after the Tree of Life attack, if anyone’s congregation, regardless of religion, sect, and/or denomination has questions or needs some guidance regarding adjusting physical security, please shoot me an email using the contact a front pager tool at the top right and I’ll provide the best answers I can without being able to be on site. And, as I put in a comment earlier, for coverage of these types of attacks, I highly recommend MSNBC because they have my good, long time friend and colleague (from when I was a civilian academic) Brian Levin on as a subject matter expert. Brian is a professor at Cal State San Bernardino where he runs The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Here’s that write up:
USAWC_Cultural_Operations_Report_Securing_People_Places_Things
Open thread!
TaMara (HFG)
I’m sorry you had to read that.
And I’m out of words for the horror of it all.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@TaMara (HFG): This. This is one of those time where words feel wholly inadequate.
Thanks so much for this write-up, Adam.
Mike J
Fox on murdering Jews:
https://twitter.com/Kub64/status/1122284772296814592
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): @(((CassandraLeo))): I’ve been reading this stuff, and analyzing it and writing about it, from a variety of religious, ethnic, and/or ideological backgrounds, since I was 21 years old. This wasn’t the worst one of these I’ve read.
I am getting really tired of having to do these posts though.
Adam L Silverman
@(((CassandraLeo))): And you’re quite welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J:
cs
Ignore The Poway Synagogue Shooter’s Manifesto: Pay Attention To 8chan’s /pol/ Board.
Adam L Silverman
And for those wondering, the chuckleheads who interrupted the book reading and Q&A at Politics and Prose today are from the American Identity Movement (AIM), which is the recently rebranded Identity Europa. The demonstration, for lack of a better term, was led by the leader of AIM/Identity Europa.
Dan B
Thanks for this post. The temperature across the country is rising and many people don’t want to consider the implications because they don’t know what to do. In our neighborhood there are small mosques, buddhist temples and a monastery, Chinese churches, Black churches, and a mike away several synagogues. We’re separated geographically from the whitest parts of the city and from several conservative towns so we’re not much in their consciousness. There are several synagogues in the whiter parts of town and they have round the clock security. It’s an interesting phenomenon that the diversity creates a safe haven. Each group is still a minority so there isn’t one dominant. Yesterday at the park there was API cricket, high school women’s soccer, black and white kids (women too), and a young woman in hijab with her yead in the lap of her white boyfriend. Unremarkable and wonderful. I hope we can retain this community as distant fires burn.
Adam L Silverman
@cs: He’s both right and wrong. Some of it really isn’t shitposting per se. Rather it is speaking in a coded language that only the other 8chaners and other adherents of this type of white, Christian supremacy will understand. And it is important to note those and track them over time. Just as it is important to note and track over time the reaction to the attack, the manifesto, and the media coverage of both.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: There are more of us, and by us I’m referring to the diverse community and the people that comprise it that you are describing, than there are of the extremists. We just have to remember that and be willing to support each other.
JanieM
Thanks as usual, Adam. Like everyone else, I wish there were no occasion for you to write these posts, but the sober analysis is at least, for me, a helpful defense against despair.
debbie
Did the authorities know that Earnest was the one who attempted the mosque arson before today? Was anyone watching him?
I read a bit of the manifesto. This self-interviewing thing seems kind of narcissistic.
And more importantly, is Earnest one of Trump’s good anti-Semites? I’m trying to get a handle on this belief of his.
cs
@Adam L Silverman: No disagreement. But am finding it interesting how 8chan seems to be a growing nexus / cheerleading squad for the recent attacks. Though, from what I’m hearing, the invite-only Discord channels are starting to replace /pol/ in importance. Determining the talking points and /pol/ then follows suit a week or so later.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: That is unclear from the reporting. As in it has not been covered in the reporting, just that the attempted arson was an open case and being investigated.
Adam L Silverman
@cs: Yep.
Redshift
Geez. I’ve heard of VDARE, but had no idea that it was named from Virginia Dare, or that there was fabricated white supremacist mythology about her.
Adam L Silverman
@Redshift: Please see me after class about assigning remedial readings to make up for the fact that you’re clearly not doing the assigned homework.//
Adam L Silverman
It’s funny because it is most likely true, despite this being a parody account:
trollhattan
Every nation has these troubled, misguided hate-mongers; we ensure ours are armed. I think it’s working because government tyranny isn’t rounding up our Nazis and Klansmen.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Well, Putin would know, wouldn’t he?
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Since Trump has come along, every man’s tie looks too long to me. I can’t recall what the proper length is supposed to be.
banditqueen
Thank you for providing the links–I quickly read through them and want to read them more thoroughly tomorrow (the Loss Prevention article can’t be accessed in full–by me anyway), but as they were written in 2006, and given the gun madness and that there have been no significant changes in gun laws and no national consensus on resolution on the endless gun deaths or even recognition of the gun fetish in the US, how would protection measures be put in place that would not seem intrusive or become costly? I hope the question is clear.
Adam L Silverman
@banditqueen: The adaptation and update I did for one of my DHS contacts was done in 2013. And it specifically takes into account the shooting issue. But the problem is the same regardless of whether you’re dealing with a shooter or a suicide bomber or a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED).
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@debbie:
No idea myself. Don’t wear ties on the regular. Putin looks like such a doughy, pale little man in that picture. His age must be catching up with him
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to watch the second over time and give my dogs some attention. I’ll check back in later.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
There is a weird thread within American white supremacy where they claim to have Native American family ties that are meant to shore up their claims to being the only “real” Americans, unlike all of those dirty immigrants. The alleged Native American novel The Education of Little Tree was actually written by a member of the KKK.
That’s one of the reasons there was so much backlash to Elizabeth Warren’s claim of having Cherokee ancestry — Native Americans have had to deal with that bullshit many times before from white racists insisting that their great-great-great-grandpappy was an Indian who refused to live on the reservation and that’s why their family is successful today. Warren walked right into that buzzsaw, and someone should have warned her ahead of time that it would be viewed as a white supremacist act.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve heard some people claim that the Native American tribes’ reaction to genetic testing was anti-scientific (I don’t believe this). How do Native American tribes/nations determine Native American ancestry?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Adam L Silverman: Looks like Putin and Kim were the only celebrities to show up to Nerd Prom.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It’s complicated. For some tribes, tribal affiliation for full inclusion and benefits is determined whether one is on one of the official rolls – as in descended from someone enrolled under the specific act at the time the original registries were created. For the Cherokee, this means one can document descent from someone on the Dawes Roll, which was created by the Dawes Act. This is not, itself, without controversy or contention among Native Americans. For instance, the Cherokee had African slaves and when they were relocated they brought them along. The descendants of these slaves, who are also the descendants of those slaves Cherokee owners, have been pursuing recognition as Cherokee both in arbitration with the tribe and within the Federal courts for decades.
Regardless, each tribe, Federally recognized, only state recognized, or not officially recognized at all, all have their own process for determining tribal membership. And it usually isn’t just as simple as having Native American DNA.
Here’s an article on Native American identity:
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=urh
And here’s one on the fight between the African American descendants of Cherokee and freed slaves:
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=urh
Adam L Silverman
Well now that the hockey is over, I’m going to watch something else and give the dogs some attention.
I’ll check back later.
dc
@Adam L Silverman: Can the people who egg on these murderers and for whose entertainment and approval these mass murders are committed be charged with a crime, accessory to murder or something?
Adam L Silverman
@dc: My understanding, and I am not a lawyer, just a criminologist and political scientist, is that almost all of the rhetoric and statements that motivate the actual attackers are covered under the 1st amendment as protected political and/or religious speech. The burden to prove that someone, whether Tucker Carlson who is constantly pitching and pushing the Great Replacement theory cited by Earnest in his manifesto, or the President with his condemnation of globalists or use of other language like sleepy eyed that convey anti-Semitic or racist meaning to specific people who are hearing the messages or seeing his tweets and/or campaign imagery, is actual responsible for the attacks criminally is very, very, very, very high because of the 1st amendment. Now whether a civil wrongful death suit could be successful is a different question, but I suspect the same 1st amendment issues would still be in play.
SectionH
Only heard about this an hour or so ago, out for dinner after a news/mail embargo since 10am. After my initial “misery, oh fuck not again” visceral reaction, my first thought was “Poway? Not surprised.” Waited to get home before looking for details.
I’m interested to see if the asshole’s professed guilt about the attempted arson at the Escondido mosque is the real thing or just asshole bragging to his supposed cohorts.
I lived in Escondido for 6 years, it’s got way too many massive jacked-up pickup trucks driven by exactly the same asshole types you’ll see in expected places like Tennessee. But it’s also a real place, with a viable downtown, and it’s majority Latinx*. Sadly it’s been governed by some srsly racist assholes from ~forever. That’s changing, and Ammar Campa-Najjar’s campaign last year was important. We didn’t beat Duncan (blame it on his wife) Hunter in ’18, but we’ll get there. (Yeah, I’m an Ammar supporter.)
As a mirror, Poway is in Scott Peters (just fine D) CD, but I’d be surprised if he carried Poway. Poway is a nice polite racism-only-as-a-subtext place afaict. [eta: bedroom suburb] 63% white. I’ve been there a few times, but rarely have any need to even drive through, so I don’t. I think my main take is they’re classic NIMBYs at best. Still so not surprised the underlying shit keeps bubbling to the surface.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: The wide end of the tie should come down to the beltline.
Definitely not Dump’s fondle-yourself-with-it way of wearing a tie. And don’t get me started on the Scotch tape…
dc
@Adam L Silverman: I was referring to people on 8chan or whatever it’s called who know in advance in some cases and who cheer on the live stream (if there is one, and I read a screen capture of the board in question where they were complaining that this killer did not kill and wound enough people and had his Facebook live set to private, so they couldn’t watch the murders).
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Beats using push pins.
;)
dc
Here is a link to JJ MacNab’s tweet with the screen capture of the thread where they complain about not enough bodies or video streaming: https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/1122300049713557504
Mary G
The FTFNYT is going there:
If you don’t feel like clicking, it shows a blind Trump in a yarmulke with a dog on a leash with Bibi Netenyaten’s face wearing a Star of David around its neck.
After an outcry, they pulled it and put up a statement saying: “The image was offensive, and it was an error of judgment to publish it.” Pretty weak sauce to me.
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
The necktie itself is a terrible fashion idea, serving no practical function whatsoever, and any length of it is too long. If that perception helps it go out of style, it won’t be a moment too soon.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
A step of improvement, such as it is, over the ruff.
danielx
NRA convention in my fair city this past week – I live in the burbs now, but have lived most of my life in Indianapolis. Good time to avoid going downtown in the evening, since I have no doubt there were large numbers of well-armed drunken yahoos out on the streets. In the Department of Thunderous Irony, I’m told there was considerable grumbling by attendees when told the rules for the day His Orangeness attended. These included a ban on guns and knives plus anything else which which could be construed as a weapon, but the Secret Service just doesn’t have a sense of humor about these things. Some attendees regarded this as hypocrisy of the finest.
it seems to me that those who commit mass murder aren’t senseless, exactly. There’s a saying to the effect that there’s no such thing as a senseless crime; always make perfect sense to the freak who does it. But they seem to be committed more often for ideological or religious reasons nowadays. Bad enough when solo freaks slaughter people because said freaks are nuts who kill just to make the noise in their heads go away, but people like that are relatively rare. Although given access to modern weaponry, they can kill a lot of people.
Unfortunately, there are a lot more people out there who have convinced themselves that for any of a number or reasons that other people are less than human because of their beliefs, their skin color, sexual orientation, political beliefs…and the list goes on. Once someone crosses the line from seeing people as people to seeing people as less than human, those “others” become evil and the best thing that can happen is for those others to be liquidated as quickly as possible, with more or less pain involved according to whim.
I have read a lot, and I’m still groping for the “why”…..
Aleta
WaPo April 27 at 7:04 PM
eemom
@Amir Khalid:
Neckties/suits in sweltering weather, vs. pregnancy/childbirth. We got the better end of that deal.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Aleta:
What the fuck is that even supposed to mean? It sounds like a good soundbite but makes little sense.
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman:
I suspect the 1st Am. also protects most of what the traitor-in-chief had to say at his latest rally, too. Not a lawyer, but when I read Omnes or PopeHat’s comments I try to pay attention.
I agree with LGM that his baby-killing slander is “another thing that’s going to get people killed” and it makes me sick to my stomach. And yeah it probably fails the legal test for slander, but it’s still sick and wrong… the Republican party is now the party of telling parents of a dying baby that they shouldn’t get to choose whether to go for heroic measures or for palliative care. And as a bonus, the party of endangering all the health professionals supporting… parents of a dying baby. Hard to go lower, except they’re also now the party of stealing children away from their refugee parents and putting them in jails.
Gotta stop, gotta sleep.
At least I am not the only one who is horrified.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
To be clear, I meant “good” as in “slick and some thought went into it”, not that the message behind it is good.
West of the Rockies
@Amir Khalid:
One wants a hint of color…
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Words such as these are not put together to convey a meaning, so don’t bother looking for one. Rather, they signify things that a sloganeer wants to paint as good — “white working class”, “their homeland” — or bad — “handouts” i.e. socialism.
Amir Khalid
@West of the Rockies:
A hint of colour? What on earth for?
//
SectionH
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: A real answer would require a much longer comment than what I wrote above, which got too much into background…
The shorthand is they’re ignorant, and mostly stupid, and built to stay that way, and that whole redneck culture has a longterm simmering resentment of anyone who has anything more or a different life than they do.
Ask Frankensteinbeck. He has them nailed. But Rush and Rupert have packaged that toxic shit and infected millions with it.
Waynski
@debbie: I was taught that a tie is supposed to stop slightly above (i.e., centimeters), or at your belt buckle. BasicaIly, you should try to line it with your hips and it should not exceed your belt buckle in any significant way. In other words, it should not be hanging around your penis – for a particularly practical reason (i.e. you don’t want to pee on it). Hard to get right sometimes. Trump clearly buys extra long ties to cover his fat belly and he pees on everything anyway.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Amir Khalid:
That’s what I thought was going on. The “homeland” bit is particularly stupid, considering, y’know, real Native Americans were here first and if anybody can claim America as their homeland, it’s them.
Sebastian
@Aleta:
This really scared me. Brownshirts.
In other news, spox for the NY AG:
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
At its base, the modern necktie is a relatively inexpensive method for men condemned to live in grey/navy suits to express their individuality. Which is, of course, why they peak as fashion statements whenever business suits are “essential” business wear; back in the Reagan years, I actually had a couple of JosBank ‘ladies ties’ in pretty silk foulard prints (remember those thin strips tied in bows?), which I alternated with my expansive collection of scarves, intended to disguise/dress up the mostly subfusc dark colored dresses & blouses that were the only ‘business’ styles available to short fat women…
As with any ‘essential’ fashion, there’s a complicated dominance subtext that develops around them. Higher-ranking office workers are supposed to wear more expensive ties — I’m sure you remember when ‘prestige’ fashion labels all had their own ‘signature’ prints & styles so one’s peers would appreciate exactly how much money one had spent to demonstrate one’s social status. But the *most* alpha dudes could / should go the opposite route, with very quiet subtle ties that only other alphas would appreciate…
Trump’s tie style got stuck in the 80s, along with so much else about him; his plain red ties are supposed to simultaneous indicate that he doesn’t need aspirational neckwear, but he’s the kind of swashbuckling swinger who wears brightly-colored non-standard ties anyway. And, of course, because he’s a cheap grifter with no taste, he doesn’t buy good ties, or learn to tie them properly.. which is its own form of crass dominance signalling. Except that ties are no longer “important” enough, or Trump isn’t, to inspire all his minions to stock up on plain red ties of their own, which used to be the Mark of Alphadom for Big Swinging Business Dicks back in those days…
Sab
@Anne Laurie: I had Jos Banks lady ties also. Always felt as if I had been impaled in the neck by a low flying bird.
I did love their ladies suits. Still wearing them, 20 or 30 years later. Lovely fabric, beautifully made.
Sloane Ranger
@Mnemosyne: I remember reading that when Virginia (I think) was introducing its anti-miscegenation laws it made an exception to the one drop rule for individuals who were 1/16 or less Native American because several members of the State Legislature at the time claimed descent from John Smith and Pocahontas.
Likewise another State counted members of the Kroatoan nation as white on the theory they were the descendants of the lost colony of Roanoke so that theory has been around for quite a while.
SectionH
@Anne Laurie: Yeah, well, tell the guys to cry me a river, after they have to wear high heels to “look professional”
Sab
@SectionH: In my mispent youth when I was a baby lawyer, I used to do motion day with two sets of shoes in my briefcase. One set of judges hated women in high heels. Other set of judges thought we were disrespectful without high heels.
Carried both sets in my briefcase. Changed shoes in the hall in front of all the clients explaining this particular judge is an idiot.
Good for client relations. Not so good for respect for rule of law. Of course none of those judges were respectful of that either. So here we are.
rikyrah
Thanks for the post
As for those traumatized by the attack: ???
Anne Laurie
@SectionH:
. No argument there! I could never stand up in heels over 1-1/2″, and these days anything over an inch is too much like work for my flat little paws…
But at least high heels gave women more ‘authority’, i.e., made them taller. I know plenty of professional women who relied on those extra inches to be able to stare sexist men in the eye. And for short women, the strategy survives — there was a long fond twitter discussion about Kamala Harris, who is under 5’4″, and who always wears stilettos!
JPL
@Aleta: I just saw a clip and there were children in the book store also.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: There is actually a bit of a schism among white supremacists over this, from what I can see. Varg Vikernes, a notorious Neo-Nazi probably best known for murdering Øystein Aarseth (a.k.a. Euronymous, guitarist of the black metal band Mayhem), though also known for his similar band Burzum (and his involvement in Mayhem before… well, guess), seems to think the American white nationalist movement is completely laughable because our country is founded upon stolen land, and we have no ancestral connection (I think that was his phrase) to our land. Consequentially, he basically agrees with you on this point, and as a result, he is actually a somewhat divisive figure not merely among people who aren’t neo-Nazis but among people who are. Some of them, Vikernes included, actually are intellectually consistent enough to see that the American neo-Nazis’ argument is completely asinine. (We shouldn’t give Vikernes too much credit here; this is one of about three or four stopped clock moments I’ve ever seen from him.)
@Sebastian: If the NRA ends up getting dismantled as an indirect consequence of Dump’s election, that will be a small consolation prize. I must admit to a fair amount of schadenfreude seeing all these bottom-feeders scurry after the stones under which they’d been hiding are lifted.
glory b
@Sab: I know I’m late, but I wonder if Adam has any insight on the Navy Seal chief who was accused of qar crimes by his squad members.
JR
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The heritage analysis done by commercial genetic testing is full of noise, false positives, etc. But the sequencing itself is sound.
germy
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This one of those the WASPs are the TRUE Native American things because of argburble? And I am going to bet this feeds into the American Indians are the 13th tribe of Israel so that makes WASPs TRUE Jews and like something equally stupid with African Americans.
debbie
@mrmoshpotato:
Tape to keep the two parts together? Isn’t there a tab in the back to put the thinner section through?
debbie
@Aleta:
Where the hell was security?
debbie
@Sab:
I had a few that I wore loosely, as in Annie Hall. Just the kind of slouchy, sloppy look I was always trying to get away with!
Citizen Alan
At first, I was disgusted that there is no actual domestic terrorism criminal statute. But then, I grew even more disgusted when I realized that the conservative Congress and the conservative Courts would simply draft such a law in a way that would let them prosecute POCs who look sideways at white people while not touching anyone who plotted a terrorist act for Christianist reasons.
Ohio Mom
@debbie: Politics and Prose is a rather small bookstore in a walkable, upper-income residential neighborhood; it’s one of maybe eight or so small, mom&pop stores in a row in an older, one story building that lines the main road going through the area. You wouldn’t expect there to be security in such an out-of-the-way neighborhood joint.
At the end of the row of stores though is another well known locally owned business: Comet Pizza. So maybe there should be a regular police presence there…
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
I’m familiar with the store, from back when I was in publishing. They had great buyers! I’m still surprised that there wouldn’t be security, even if just a deterrence to shoplifting.
Ohio Mom
@debbie: I would think they probably don’t have enough of a profit margin to pay for a security guard. What little store does?
Sebastian
Epic thread about institutional racism.
Bill Arnold
Found and quick-read that Earnest manifesto, suppressing emotional reactions. (Thanks Adam for reading it and for this post.) First impression is a lot of inside jokes/memes and some insincerity. It does appear to be claiming full-up Christian Terrorism. (Well, except for the bit where he says only ME extremists (and only Moslems) can be terrorists so he is not a terrorist.) I expect some rhetoric emerging about Christians disavowing Christian terrorists. An odd manifesto, very much akin to the christchurch shooter’s manifesto.
(The bellingcat link @cs: about 8chan /pol/ was helpful; I don’t go near 8chan at least not yet.)
(Will do a deeper (more empathic) read later.)
Citizen_X
Maybe this is a dead thread, but here’s a recommendation: Innuendo Studios has a great series called The Alt-Right Playbook that deals with the modern fascist movement and the other pathologies that we have to deal with. The one called “The card says Moops*” is about how the 4channers/8channers fit in. The whole series is insightful and worth watching.
*Yes, it’s a Seinfeld reference.
Ruckus
@debbie:
The proper length for a man’s tie is – zero.
Ad @Amir Khalid: so eloquently states.
When I had to wear a tie I wore Jerry Garcia ties. At least they had color and “style.” Last time I wore a tie or a suit was nearly 20 yrs ago to a funeral. Been to several funerals since, last one 2 yrs ago, about 150 people, I think 3 men in suits. Two of them worked at the funeral home.
Ruckus
@danielx:
Most likely their lives are no where near what they think they should be and need someone to blame. This concept that everyone has a great life except me is never examined realistically, in my opinion. Because most people’s lives really aren’t all that. And humans through out history have measured how well their lives are by how much stuff they have. Why do people hoard newspapers? There’s value in them as waste paper but other than that? Sure it’s a sickness. But what does hoarding a hundred billion dollars really do for you? How many private airliners do you really need to fly to your private mansions? I know that a lot of people are not going to see the connection to the ultra wealthy and a newspaper hoarder but it is still hoarding. So what happens to the almost normal people who need someone else to blame for their crappy little lives? There’s always someone/something to blame your own life’s bumps, cliffs and disasters on. And there’s always someone who will blame everyone else other than it’s just life, some have “luck” and some don’t. Decades ago we could see this all around us because there weren’t as many of us, most everyone got sick and a lot of people died young, most people didn’t have what life looks like today. Now everyone has to have a house with more bedrooms than people, cars, phones, big screens, etc. And there are far more of us and jobs that don’t actually pay well for how much stuff costs so we can’t collect stuff. And we’re back to looking for someone to blame, and that’s the other. Doesn’t matter if that other has a worse life, at least we’re better. Some have called it the blame game. We’ve made it far worse by guns, guns, guns, and more guns. It’s not a disease that doctors or even politicians can fix, we humans all have to do that for ourselves.
debbie
@Ruckus:
I figured that was the real answer. ;) We are allowed to wear jeans where I work, so I haven’t seen ties in a long time. I’m not complaining …
Aleta
Ithink
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Where have you been man? We’ve been missing you.