Category: Rightwing Violence
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The Proud Boys of 2021 and the Potempa Murder of 1932
The following article was originally published in June 2022 on the eve of the January 6th congressional hearings. In the United States, the events of 6 January 2021 are fresh again, with live hearings scheduled to be broadcast on several networks later today. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice brought sedition charges against Enrique…
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A child who is shunned by the village will burn it all to the ground just to feel warmth.
The title is a famous African proverb; I know “African” is an absurd generality, but I’m not seeing where, exactly, it is from. I feel like that simple saying is all you need to know to understand school shooters. When most children are neglected, you get a society where most people are ready to burn…
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There Will be an Incident, and that Incident Will Likely be a Massacre
The Insurrection Act and the Dilemma of Protest While authoritarian regimes can take office both through elections or insurrections, in history there have often been additional incidents that authoritarians use to further catalyze and solidify power. Back when Trump was president the first time around, many talked about a “Reichstag Moment” – an event that…
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On the Street: US Paramilitaries after a Harris Victory
“They’ve been pretty docile this year” -Jared Holt, senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, October 2024 “They might pop up somewhere else, but I have to say: militias in the last year or so have been relatively inactive compared to earlier eras.” -Heidi Beirich, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, October 2024…
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Murder of Brandy Knightly
A protest peacekeeper named Brandy Knightly was murdered in Portland on Saturday, February 19 by a fascist extremist named Benjamin (Ben) Smith. Brandy Knightly was assisting with a march in solidarity with Amir Locke, an innocent man who was tragically murdered by police serving a no-knock warrant in pursuit of a different person. Knightly was…
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How Mike Pence Saved America
Let’s talk about Mike Pence and the little procedural change he made that saved the United States of America from civil war or worse (at least for the time being) and inspired Donald Trump’s followers to try to execute him on January 6, 2021. As you know, each state produces “electors” for the US Presidential…