Surge In Neo-Nazi Demonstrations Explored

 

Emboldened by white supremacist hate speech on social media platforms like "X", on right-wing media outlets, and by Republican politicians, neo-Nazi groups have come out of the shadows and are openly demonstrating their bigotry and anti-Semitism in plain view of the general public. The epicenter for these groups is reported to be Florida, where fascistic demagogue Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis has made a career out of bashing black history, LGBTQ+ communities, immigrants, and the politics of inclusion. From Vice.com:

"This year so far, neo-Nazi appearances have been spread across 15 different states and generally involved members from relatively new groups that initially formed as loose online communities, and then metastasized into formal organizations, such as NSC-131, Aryan Freedom Network, Blood Tribe, Goyim Defense League and a national network of Active Clubs. 

The majority of the newer neo-Nazi groups are headquartered in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, has repeatedly earned extremist praise for his hardline policies against immigration, LGBTQ rights, and “Critical Race Theory.” Which is why some neo-Nazis, like the Order of the Black Sun, like to wave the DESANTIS 2024 flag at their demonstrations. 

Experts say that there’s a direct correlation between aggressive, conspiratorial, and bigoted rhetoric in the mainstream, and how emboldened extremists feel to take action. 

Whether it's a spike in hate crimes against Jews after rapper Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) highly publicized anti-semitic rantings, the transphobic account “Libs of TikTok” inspiring anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida, or an angry mob storming the U.S. Capitol after being fed lies by lawmakers about the 2020 election, it’s clear that the fringes, influencers, right-wing media, and GOP are all part of the same toxic soup." (our emphasis)

The report goes on to note that the majority of demonstrations by neo-Nazi groups in 2023 appeared to be at LGBTQ+ events and drag shows. The Republican / New Confederate / Shooters party has also stirred animosity through its school book banning campaigns by groups like "Moms for Liberty":

"For over a year, 'grooming' conspiracies have had a chokehold on the entire spectrum of the right, from GOP policy-makers down to QAnon conspiracists. What began as a culture war over teaching kids about acceptance and the LGBTQ community via books or movie characters has ballooned into a full blown moral panic and the neo-Nazis took notice. 

A broad constellation of far-right activists around the country have spent the past year showing up to protest outside school board meetings and drag events, including 'parents rights' groups like 'Moms for Liberty,' and 'Gays Against Groomers,' alongside more typical far-right groups like the Proud Boys, Patriot Front—and, increasingly, explicitly neo-Nazi organizations."  (our emphasis)

The Vice report is worth reading in it's entirety. There's a growing connectivity of right-wing politics and media with neo-Nazis, whether the former want to acknowledge it or not.

 

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

On the day we honor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message of hope and nonviolence, gun humpers and neo- Nazis will be in Richmond, VA, to start something:

The convoys and militias are coming, if social media posts are to be believed, headed to Virginia's capital to take a stand for gun rights — or, in the words of some, to fan the flames of a civil war.

“I’ll be rolling into town early. I can’t give you my exact time for security reasons,” said Christian Yingling, head of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia and a leader at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

“I organized a convoy, places we can meet up and drive up together. I’ll be leading it,” said Tammy Lee, a militia activist in Oklahoma.

Both Lee and Yingling were members of groups that signed consent decrees never to return to Charlottesville while armed, part of a lawsuit settlement over the violence there. But there is no restriction against coming to Richmond.

Thousands will join them, they say, for a rally Monday on Capitol Square to protest plans by the new Democratic majority in the General Assembly to pass gun-control laws. State and federal officials were preparing for a volatile mix of weapons, passions and anti-government fervor. Central Richmond was braced for road closures and extensive police presence.

That was before President Trump decided to weigh in Friday afternoon on Twitter.

“Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia,” Trump tweeted. “That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away. Republicans will win Virginia in 2020. Thank you Dems!”  (our emphasis)

Leave it to the divisive, lying, malicious moron to try to gain political advantage regardless of the danger involved.  But these are his "very fine people," and he's prepping them for ... something.

Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein lay to rest several myths about "bipartisanship." That both parties are  equally to blame for hyper- partisanship is one:

... The bipartisanship that was common in the House through the mid-1970s began to fray as racial and cultural differences came to define the increasingly polarized and competitive parties. Partisan polarization began with these shifts in the coalitional bases of the parties, but Republicans, because of their increasingly homogeneous positions on race, religious traditionalism and other cultural issues, had more incentive to move right than Democrats had to move left. In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich and his allies fomented tribalism, using the House ethics process as a political weapon and uniting the GOP into a parliamentary-style opposition party. They had important and vocal allies in partisan media, starting with Rush Limbaugh and talk radio. Much the same happened a bit later in the Senate, where McConnell turned the filibuster into a weapon of mass obstruction and got his party to unite against every Obama initiative.

Today, Republicans are one of the most extreme (even radical) conservative parties in the democratic world, with no members in the House and arguably barely one in the Senate who would qualify as moderates or traditional conservatives, while Democrats look like a traditional center-left party...

Megan Marz reviews a book of essays that captures the experiences of younger Americans fleeing "toxic Christianity":

In “Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church,” mostly Gen X and millennial writers describe their disillusionment with the faith of their youth and their departure from their religious communities. In a foreword, Frank Schaeffer, who in 2007 published a memoir of leaving evangelicalism, calls the thinning of the ranks “a generational exodus from toxic Christianity.” The essayists in the book — who include Carmen Maria Machado, (“Her Body and Other Parties,” “In the Dream House”), Garrard Conley (“Boy Erased”) and Linda Tirado (“Hand to Mouth”) — come from a variety of Christian backgrounds: Mormon, Catholic, mainline Protestant and evangelical. All grew up in schools, social circles, families or churches where religion took a conservative, if not an authoritarian, form. Some faced rejection because of their sexual orientation; some were abused; at least one was taught that black people and white people belonged to different species, and that the Earth was 6,000 years old.  [snip]

A pattern emerges in the narrative arcs of the essays: Childhood faith falters and then dissolves in the face of corruption, hypocrisy, rejection, abuse or beliefs that do not align with reality. While many of the essayists testify to having felt isolated, this collection makes clear that — to paraphrase editor Lauren O’Neal — they were part of a community they did not know existed. Each time I read a piece in which the writer had no one to talk to about their dissipating faith, or the abuse they were enduring, I wished they could reach through the pages and into another essay, where they might find relief or solidarity...  (our emphasis)

Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger, hero of the "miracle on the Hudson," has a few words for yet another contemptible Trump:

As a small boy in Denison, Texas, I remember vividly the anguish of being called on in grade school, knowing that I was going to have a hard time getting the words out; that my words could not keep up with my mind, and they would often come out jumbled. My neck and face would quickly begin to flush a bright red, the searing heat rising all the way to the top of my head; every eye in the room on me; the intense and painful humiliation, and bullying that would follow, all because of my inability to get the words out.

Those feelings came rushing back, when I heard Lara Trump mocking former Vice President Joe Biden at a Trump campaign event, with the very words that caused my childhood agony. “Joe, can you get it out?” Ms. Trump was seen saying onstage, as a few giggles are heard from an otherwise silent audience. “Let’s get the words out, Joe.”

The entire essay is really worth the read, as he later pivots to speak to children who are stutterers.

Among many other topics, Infidel 753 highlights a number of other posts and essays about religious toxicity in his latest link round- up (as well as in his own essays).  Regardless, you're bound to find lots of gold there that he's mined in his weekly internet search.

Stormtrumpers Fight Over Nazi Salute At Inauguration Ball

It seems some of the brownshirt cockroaches celebrating neo- fascist white nationalist Donald "Rump" Trump's inauguration have been having quite a time putting on their "DeploraBall" (Get it? Hur hur).

First, a ballroom in Northern Virginia decided they hadn't actually agreed to host it and told the little stormtrumpers to f*ck off.  Now, having found a new venue (the National Press Club!), they've found something else to get their pure white tighty whities in a knot about:

A major fight has broken out among Trump’s white nationalist fans over whether they should celebrate Trump’s pending inauguration by showering him with Nazi salutes. 

Alt-right leader Mike Cernovich, who is organizing the Deploraball, started a massive fight this week after he told popular alt-right Twitter personality @bakedalaska that he couldn’t attend the party if he was going to do Nazi salutes of the kind that white nationalist Richard Spencer encouraged during his talk at the National Policy Institute conference earlier this month. [snip] 

The neo-Nazis at The Daily Stormer quickly got involved and declared that Cernovich was a member of the “cuck/kike contingent of the Trump movement” who had “banned… heroes such as Richard Spencer and Sam Hyde” from attending the inauguration ball, while still inviting “Alt-Light figures attempting to kike-over the Alt-Right by making it non-racist and accepting of Jews.”  (our emphasis)

(Aside: "@bakedalaska?"  Shouldn't that be "@half-bakedalaska?" Also, Cernovich is a real piece of work.)

Apparently, trolling people on the internet and conducting armed anti- Semitic marches doesn't occupy enough of their time, so some are engaged in bitter warfare over whether Rump's already betrayed their shit wit "cause," especially regarding "The Jews."  Rest easy, dimwits, and be assured Rump has your interests at heart; he'd just like you to keep the profile down for now.

BONUS:  Wonkette has it covered.

(Photo: neo-Nazis at Richard Spencer's konklave in Washington, DC, after the election.)

Prophetic Tweet Of The Week

From Mrs. Betty Bowers, "America's Best Christian":

EXCLUSIVE: Elton John will NOT be singing at Trump’s inauguration. But, thanks to the Gift of Prophecy, I can tell you who will: pic.twitter.com/9BudyKe9ke

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) November 23, 2016

Photo Of The Day - Here's The Swamp That Just Oozed Into Washington

(click on image to enlarge)



That's person semi- known for being semi- known Tila Tequila on the right (luckily her right arm isn't incapacitated for saluting) at this weekend's gathering of anti- Semites, alt- righters, neo- Nazis, "white nationalists" and other assorted misfits and loons at the white supremacist National Policy Institute's annual meeting in Washington, DC.  The other two saluting nitwits are unidentified.  (This picture is from her Twitter, and includes the mis-spelled message "Seig heil!")

Feeling emboldened by the "election" of their hero, neo- fascist demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump, they're emerging from trash heaps, from under rocks and, of course, the swamp, to pledge their loyalty and take credit for Rump's election, when they're not busy spray painting swastikas, assaulting non- whites, or otherwise Making America Great Again.

This is what over 60 million Americans voted for, whether they want to admit it to themselves or not. This is "white nationalism," though it looks an awful lot like Nazism, salutes and all.

(h/t Little Green Footballs)

Where Does Trump Get His Phony Crime Stats? From Neo-Nazis, Of Course

Republican front- runner and bloated demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump (a.k.a., America's Il Douche) blew this retweet out of his twitter hole, following an assault on a "Black Lives Matter" activist at a Trump rally Saturday in (where else?) Alabama:

"@SeanSean252: @WayneDupreeShow @Rockprincess818 @CheriJacobus pic.twitter.com/5GUwhhtvyN"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2015

Wow, lots of black on white crime, huh!  Looks pretty awful.  Well, it is awful if you know how twisted this "data" is.  First of all, there's no such thing as the "Crime Statistics Bureau - San Francisco."  Here's the real information, from the real FBI:

Whites killed by blacks:  15%
Whites killed by whites:  82%
Blacks killed by blacks:  91%

So, what's the source of this agitprop?  Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs did some sleuthing and found the earliest tweet was from someone with the definitely- not anti- Semitic twitter handle "Non Dildo'd Goyim," which featured the symbol of the neo- Nazi German Faith Movement.  Good to know where the Republican front- runner is getting his "information."

BONUS:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has more on the tie- in between the far right- wing disinformation machine and Trump's alienated, proto- fascist (our characterization) supporters.