Unless you are wilfully ignorant, you will have noticed the increase in the level of toxicity in political and societal rhetoric this election season. We have a candidate for the GOP nomination who is openly claiming that the system is being rigged against him, has threatened the media with all manner of cocakanmie consequences, because they have been faithfully reporting on his toxic stew of conspiracy theorizing, mean-spirited ranting against opponents, and bizarre and constantly-shifting policy ideas. He also finds mocking disabled people at rallies to be an amusing diversion, and regards the ability to grope, fondle, and verbally harrass women in his employ or in his physical space to be some sort of base entitlement.
The trend towards eliminationist rhetoric against real or imagined opponents is being encouraged by other elected representatives, and some cases, elected law enforcement officers. As is normal, the justification for the promulgation of these ideas is Patriotism. Being a Patriot is now being treated as an entitlement card to propose and take part in all kinds of unconstitutional legal and extra-legal actions.
When self-identified leaders of the “Real American Patriot” communities hear these kinds of pronouncements from elected representatives, and people they perceive as sympathetic authority figures, the impact of the messages is amplified. They can (and will) conclude that the authorities are secretly on their side, and that they are therefore going to be indulged in their actions.
The level of eliminationist rhetoric has snowballed this year, with people openly proposing violent action against perceived enemies on a wide variety of online forums.
More dangerously, people are now moving beyond idle boastful talk in online forums, and have been planning actions.
The sort of pathology that many of these people are imbued with can be seen very clearly from his extract from the Criminal Complaint against Curtis Allen, Patrick Stein and Gavin Wright, arrested last week in Kansas City for conspiring to bomb Somali refugee locations:
Constitutionalists https://t.co/IZ19qT3UkS pic.twitter.com/7FOLkEwRgt
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) October 15, 2016
The complain contains a mind-boggling series of reports of meetings where eliminationist actions were quite openly discussed:
…While they were discussing these plans, WRIGHT pulled up Google Maps on the computer at his
business and began dropping pins on the map at these various locations using the label
“cockroaches.” Prior to the meeting WRIGHT researched guides for making explosives and
printed off a substantial number of pages of this material. The group brainstormed various
methods of attack, including murder, kidnapping, rape, and arson. They decided to pick a
specific target at their next meeting. At one point, ALLEN stated: “We’re going to talk about
killing people and going to prison for life. Less than sixty days, maybe forty days until
something major happens. We need to be preemptive before something happens.” STEIN
responded: “The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.” At another point in the conversation,
STEIN said: “If you’re a Muslim I’m going to enjoy shooting you in the head.” Then he told the
group, “When we go on operations there’s no leaving anyone behind, even if it’s a one-year old,
I’m serious. I guarantee if I go on a mission those little fuckers are going bye-bye.”
These types of discussions are in no way unique or remarkable, based on my watching websites since 2008. The nativist lunatic fringe has convinced themselves and each other that these kinds of murderous actions are right, good and necessary to protect the purity of the USA. Here is a Google Search on another individual, Jim Stachiowak. As you can see, his worldview regards opening fire on BLM activists as perfectly acceptable.
