Entries by tag: violence
I've been interested in human xenophobia (which I think is instinctive) and race and class warfare since I become politically aware some time in my 20's. The more I study the less I know, other than that people naturally cling to those who are like them and mistrust those who are different. Other than that humans are more emotional than rational.
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
I didn't mean to have anything to do with the protests in PDX yesterday but by accident I visited the fringe. I worked until 1pm and then I went into SE PDX for an appointment. My appointment was on Morrison, just a block east of the bridge. When I parked at 1:15pm, the first oddity I saw was two large trucks loaded to the gills with PDX cops dressed out in riot gear. The trucks are set up such that the police can stand around the edges of the back and hang on, and when the truck stops they all step off. They had helmets with face guards and a large assortment of weapons. There appeared to be a medic on each truck.
There was a helicopter hovering overhead, and another helicopter roaming. Soon two more truckloads of police came by my parking spot. I got out of my vehicle and walked around. There were drunken white tourists coming out of a bar. They climbed onto one of those big bicycle carts and rowdied off down the street. Then a crowd of black and camo-clad men sauntered by, wearing masks and armor and carrying medieval looking weapons. There was at least one woman with them. They were scary, intentionally so. I think they were anti-fa. They appeared to simply be making their presence known. Two truckloads of riot police unloaded from their trucks and stood on the street corner. Another two truckloads of riot police came through behind the anti-fa after they left. I read this morning that Rump is talking about treating the anti-fa as another terrorist org. I don't think so. Their goal is not violence. Their goal is to be there and intervene in bigoted violence when the cops aren't around. I am grateful, frankly, that there are local citizens willing to step in and stop white supremacists from hurting/killing for their "cause". I'm not about to risk my own neck.
I walked around the area for a while because I was early to my appointment. I saw three very clean black suburbans slowly creeping through the blocks. I presume those were the feds behind bulletproof glass. Large ford trucks were arriving and parking in the area, and from each truck spilled four white men. They were mostly wearing polo shirts and blue jeans, and were mostly young to middle-aged and in good shape. They looked like they were ready for a brawl. Itching for a fight, maybe. I presume those were the so-called Proud Boys in spite of the fact that none were wearing black polos with yellow trim which is their uniform. That group is required to physically fight for their "western chauvinism" cause in order to reach the top level of membership. They are racist and misogynist and I was glad our local anti-fa and the cops were there ready to suppress their efforts to beat up gay and brown people.
I am proud of Portland with its bubble of relative safety for LGBT and brown people. Oregon doesn't have the finest of history in this regard, but at least now there are a lot of people willing to stick their necks out to stop hate.
Below are some of the links I visited on Saturday morning when trying to understand what is going on. I think McInnes and his crew will continue to come here because they get attention, and that is what they want. Attention and a fight. The PDX goal was to stop the fighting. After the protests the word was that they plan to return every month. It will be expensive for the city to continue to provide the kind of police presence that I saw.
I find it interesting that they call themselves boys. Oh yeah? Not men? So desperate to belong that they'll revert to boyhood? And proud of what, exactly? Their white skin? They had nothing to do with that, they were just born with it. Their tatoos? Their toughness? Not very proud of their independence I guess. Not too proud of their critical thinking or compassion. They may be proud but we are not proud of them.
Wiki on Proud Boys
There was a helicopter hovering overhead, and another helicopter roaming. Soon two more truckloads of police came by my parking spot. I got out of my vehicle and walked around. There were drunken white tourists coming out of a bar. They climbed onto one of those big bicycle carts and rowdied off down the street. Then a crowd of black and camo-clad men sauntered by, wearing masks and armor and carrying medieval looking weapons. There was at least one woman with them. They were scary, intentionally so. I think they were anti-fa. They appeared to simply be making their presence known. Two truckloads of riot police unloaded from their trucks and stood on the street corner. Another two truckloads of riot police came through behind the anti-fa after they left. I read this morning that Rump is talking about treating the anti-fa as another terrorist org. I don't think so. Their goal is not violence. Their goal is to be there and intervene in bigoted violence when the cops aren't around. I am grateful, frankly, that there are local citizens willing to step in and stop white supremacists from hurting/killing for their "cause". I'm not about to risk my own neck.
I walked around the area for a while because I was early to my appointment. I saw three very clean black suburbans slowly creeping through the blocks. I presume those were the feds behind bulletproof glass. Large ford trucks were arriving and parking in the area, and from each truck spilled four white men. They were mostly wearing polo shirts and blue jeans, and were mostly young to middle-aged and in good shape. They looked like they were ready for a brawl. Itching for a fight, maybe. I presume those were the so-called Proud Boys in spite of the fact that none were wearing black polos with yellow trim which is their uniform. That group is required to physically fight for their "western chauvinism" cause in order to reach the top level of membership. They are racist and misogynist and I was glad our local anti-fa and the cops were there ready to suppress their efforts to beat up gay and brown people.
I am proud of Portland with its bubble of relative safety for LGBT and brown people. Oregon doesn't have the finest of history in this regard, but at least now there are a lot of people willing to stick their necks out to stop hate.
Below are some of the links I visited on Saturday morning when trying to understand what is going on. I think McInnes and his crew will continue to come here because they get attention, and that is what they want. Attention and a fight. The PDX goal was to stop the fighting. After the protests the word was that they plan to return every month. It will be expensive for the city to continue to provide the kind of police presence that I saw.
I find it interesting that they call themselves boys. Oh yeah? Not men? So desperate to belong that they'll revert to boyhood? And proud of what, exactly? Their white skin? They had nothing to do with that, they were just born with it. Their tatoos? Their toughness? Not very proud of their independence I guess. Not too proud of their critical thinking or compassion. They may be proud but we are not proud of them.
Wiki on Proud Boys
The Proud Boys say they have an initiation process that has four stages and includes hazing. The first stage is a loyalty oath, on the order of "I’m a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause."
CBS
No one has applied for permits for today's protests
FBI will be there
SPLC
Proud boys = "general hate" white supremacist, misogynist, antisemitic
Gavin McInnes
Gavin's website: http://streetcarnage.com/
He's from NY: https://www.huffpost.com/
Several articles: https://www.huffpost.com/
Rollingstone
Israel
https://www.newsweek.com/An atom-blaster is
a good weapon, but
it can point both ways.
--Isaac Asimov in Foundation
a good weapon, but
it can point both ways.
--Isaac Asimov in Foundation
"Assault rifles aren’t hunting tools, but many of their owners absolutely are."
--Teresa Rogerson
--Teresa Rogerson
I apologize, my in-text links were all lost from the timeline piece, but here are the ones that I read to compile the timeline. Also I learned today that my longer posts are accepted at Dreamwidth but do not crosspost to LJ...link to the dreamwidth blog is https://liveonearth.dreamwidth.org/. I'm getting gradually more frustrated with LJ as you can see the formatting on this entry sucks and I am not going to try to fix it anymore.
INTERESTING LINKS
Blazak's Blog
Watching the Wheels
https://watchingthewheelsdad.net/author/blazakr/
Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime
https://oregoncahc.org/author/blazakr/
2015 MLK Bell in Stone Mtn
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/12/living/stone-mountain-mlk-tower-feat/index.html
Origin of Bell at Stone Mountain Park
https://www.stonemountainpark.com/Activities/History-Nature/Carillon
"The daily concert from our 732-bell Carillon is one of the true joys of Stone Mountain Park. The Carillon was donated by our friends at Coca-Cola after being exhibited in the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. The Park's carillon has been played by Mabel Sharp for over 30 years."
Supreme Court Rules that Odinists in Prison have Religious Rights
even though they are probably racist
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/politics/supreme-court-rules-in-ohio-prison-case.html
Thor's Hammer Allowed on Military Gravestones
https://www.fastcodesign.com/1672968/how-thors-hammer-made-its-way-onto-soldiers-headstones
2015 Odinist Inmate Plot in Virginia
The Killer Kindred (EK)
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/killer-kindred
Measure 11 approved in Oregon
https://multco.us/dcj-juvenile/common-laws/measure-11
A State of Mind; Perspectives on Gangs in Oregon
By Traci Ray in 2016
https://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/16apr/gangs.html
Rise of the Alt Right
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/alt-right/549242/
Randy Blazak is a PhD from Emory University with a specialty in hate crimes. Specifically he studied racist skinheads (he doesn't say just "skin heads" because you can shave your head without being a racist). He's a professor of sociology at PSU where his intro class is opening people's minds, and a professor of criminology at OU.
His talk for the Freedom From Religion Foundation on 1/15/18 was entitled "With Odin on Our Side; The Role of Religion in Right Wing Extremism." I didn't understand why he said Odin in the title until the end of the talk, but it has to do with the fact that an ancient Viking religion is being propagated in our prisons as a cover for white supremacist gangs. I'm going to take the information from his talk and put it in chronological order, and flesh it out with links to articles around the web, trying to make sense of the times.
At the end of his talk Blazak summarized that there are two profiles for violent haters; sociopaths, and lower level thinkers. Sociopaths, or more specifically people with antisocial personality disorder, have no qualms about injuring or killing others because they have no conscience. These are the people we need to imprison long-term. Lower level thinkers are simply regular folks who joined the cause because they were alone and needed to belong. They weren’t philosophical about it, they were simply vulnerable. These are the people that we need to help.
( Timeline behind cut, links in next postCollapse ) "Find someone that's undeserving of your compassion and give it to them."
--Chris Picciolini, ex-white-supremacist,
who says that people who are doing monstrous things are simply broken and need help
--Chris Picciolini, ex-white-supremacist,
who says that people who are doing monstrous things are simply broken and need help
"While we are quick to judge the human rights record of every other country on earth, it is we civilized Americans whose murder rate is ten times that of other Western nations, we civilized Americans who kill women and children with the most alarming frequency. In (sad) fact, if a full jumbo jet crashed into a mountain killing everyone on board, and if that happened every month, month in and month out, the number of people killed still wouldn't equal the number of women murdered by their husbands and boyfriends each year."
-p7 in The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
-p7 in The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife.
Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone
in order to stab him.
A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness.
We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners.
Plus, knives don't ricochet.
And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
- Molly Ivins
Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone
in order to stab him.
A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness.
We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners.
Plus, knives don't ricochet.
And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
- Molly Ivins
I read this morning about a doctor who went mad and shot people in a hospital. As a doctor myself, I know that docs have terrible stresses trying to deal with a corrupt medical-industrial system that impairs our ability to help people regain their health. Then I went to look at the NY times article, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/nyregion/bronx-hospital-shooting.html. He's richly melanated, that is to say, he has lived a life of fear because of his skin color. I infer from his violence that he may have been guilty of the accusation--sexual misconduct. He was a man, and he was angry enough to shoot others and hopeless enough to set himself on fire and shoot himself. He did not see any way out. He knew he would not receive compassion.
What people forget when they demonize any group of humans is that they are human. Dark skinned people. Doctors. Men. Gun owners. Murderers. Whatever group. All humans share the same basic needs. When those needs are not met, we have the same basic emotions. Driven hard enough, any of us could become dangerous. Hitler had reasons. The Arabs that flew airplanes into buildings had reasons. No one is pure evil, we are simply human and if tortured we can lash out, or become cunning.
My hope that that everyone who reads this will take a deep breath or three and think about the kind of pain that drives a person to such horrors. My hope is that compassion will rise in spite of the poisonous atmosphere of shame and blame that dominates our political world. We all deserve an opportunity to be free from fear, long enough to find our centers and our hearts and reach out into the world from that place. It will take a lot of us finding compassion to heal these wounds.
What people forget when they demonize any group of humans is that they are human. Dark skinned people. Doctors. Men. Gun owners. Murderers. Whatever group. All humans share the same basic needs. When those needs are not met, we have the same basic emotions. Driven hard enough, any of us could become dangerous. Hitler had reasons. The Arabs that flew airplanes into buildings had reasons. No one is pure evil, we are simply human and if tortured we can lash out, or become cunning.
My hope that that everyone who reads this will take a deep breath or three and think about the kind of pain that drives a person to such horrors. My hope is that compassion will rise in spite of the poisonous atmosphere of shame and blame that dominates our political world. We all deserve an opportunity to be free from fear, long enough to find our centers and our hearts and reach out into the world from that place. It will take a lot of us finding compassion to heal these wounds.
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