When James von Brunn was sentenced to jail for the armed kidnap attempt of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors it was only because the Judge was a Jew and the jury was black. No doubt about it. He's been raging about Jews and Black people since most of you were children and he sees something called the Aryan race as victims of such inferior groups.
It's tempting, as a person who despises the growing culture of hate and defamation in the US, to tie this man and his hundreds of thousands of supporters to the hate shouters we're all too familiar with, but in good conscience, I cannot. Even so their endless derision of fabricated scapegoats has inured us to the danger of the terrorists out there among us. Their hate talk legitimizes and breeds more hate talk and we become habituated to it. Those standard scapegoats tend to include Jews, Blacks and the Federal Reserve Bank, all of which are also targets of people like James von Brunn.
Von Brunn has written that the "Holocaust Religion" is destroying Western (by which he means White) culture. It's common amongst people who would like to re-invent themselves as victims of relentless persecution to resent those who have actually been victims and so it's not surprising that the elderly hatemonger chose the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC for what was surely intended to be a suicide attack.
I'm probably less surprised about this than my Christian countrymen, since I've been listening to all the old calumnies and fantasies about baby-eating, blood-drinking, Christ-killing, warmongering, bank-controlling Jews all my life while many of them are just now beginning to accept that the vilification of Jews has been, if not the very backbone, at least a major buttress of Christianity. Certainly not all however and certainly they are not the only ones. Muslim vilification of the Jews in all their fantastic stereotypes is second to none and many of them consider the Jews to be in control of the United States, if not Europe, Canada and Australia as well.
There is a lesson here and it is that we have not only tolerated such people, but made heroes of some of them to a degree: men who will stand up to a government we blame for all our own excesses and deficiencies. They are not and their acts of terrorism are warnings that we should examine our own angers and stop blaming a host of straw men for having messed up our country.
I really don't have anything to add, except to say that this is an excellent post. After two right wing terrorist acts in the last few days, it's time that we face up to what is happening here, before it gets out of hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks for some very thoughtful remarks.
I would ask who let this loonie out, but then I realize that the who of it really doesn't matter since if it wasn't Von Braun, it would have been one of his fringenut compadres.
ReplyDeleteWhat really struck me about this post, Fogg, was the realization that perhaps we are all guilty of allowing hate and bigotry to fester and finally get a head of steam by not speaking out often enough and loudly enough. How many off color remarks have we walked away from rather than confronting the pinhead who uttered it?
And in keeping silent, are we giving some sort of signal that is mistaken for approval?
We allow that the haters amongst us have the right to free speech but then forget our own right - no, our own duty and responsibility - to exercise that same right.
We must step up and be heard so that others, especially our young people understand that for many of us - THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!
Of course most folks will publically state that the act of killing an abortion provider and or the actions of a white surpremist were wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhat they fail to realize it is the hatred that they preach on a daily basis that drives these people on.
Hateful words lead to hurtful actions and until we learn to have discussions on the basis of facts rather than emotions then this is the result of our current debate.
People can be easily incited to do acts, some legal, some not.
ReplyDeleteThose who spew hate speech, then claim their speech had nothing to do with people being motivated to act out. They walk away as if their hate speech had nothing to do with these crimes.
We as citizens have a duty that matches our right of free speech, it is to be critical of what we hear said in public and to talk down the loud mouths of hate speech.
When a person is attacked publicly as racist, the first question we should ask is why use such speech? What is the character of the people using such speech to describe a person? What record does that person have to warrant such vile descriptions.
These killers were not "lone wolves." Both were linked to groups that incited their readers to act. These groups make it clear, that an act outside the law is acceptable, because the law of American won't stop the wrong they perceive.
There are laws against inciting people to commit violence. Those charges are not rare and prosecutions are successful.
It's time to use those laws to silence these spewers of hate, if they cannot soften their own speech.
Just last week a radio talk show host was arrested for promoting the death of a person.
There is a confluence of anti-abortion extremists, anti-immigration fanatics, homophobe hate groups, white supremacists, and radical religious sects that advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and the installment of a self-styled theocracy. Look for a post on this subject sometime tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Captain Fogg, the white supremacist website called “Stormfront” has a West Palm Beach post box address. Does this group operate in West Palm? Is there a real address?
Thanks for the comments, all of you. I absolutely agree that we have been cowed into letting these people scream unopposed - both by the volume of their rage and by the liberal conceit that we're above such things. That's why I do argue with trolls, although I can't say it's effective. I just hope that it reduces their feeling that they are in the majority and in the right because cowards need that comfort.
ReplyDeleteFar more people have at least some sympathy with von Brunn than you might think.
"radical religious sects that advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and the installment of a self-styled theocracy."
Reminds me of a smiling young lady that was here recently. In her own forum she was openly advocating the idea that the constitution not only allows but supports the idea that the Bible is a higher authority when it comes to civil law.
Such smiling, sweet, pastel wearing, Church going people are the backbone of the movement and it's too tempting and too dangerous to see this mad man and his suicide mission as a singularity. Whether or not the Devil wears Prada, she looks very much like your friends and neighbors.
This is all very sad, and I agree whole-heartedly with those who say we all bear responsibility in speaking out against all of the hate speech - much of which we hear hourly on TV, radio, and the internet.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there will be more calamities like this to come. There are a lot of crazy racists out there. I think having a black president pushes some of them over the edge. They have no idea what is really going on, but they feel like our country is on a doomed path. In their minds, they are simply righting the wrongs they see around them. Crazy doesn't begin to describe it.
If we can engage in a national discussion about the need to denounce hate and work together to foster an environment in which hate is not welcome, then we have a silver lining. But there needs to be a lot more attention given to these recent acts - and to preventing future ones from happening.
The phone number of Stormfront is registered to:
ReplyDeleteChloe H Black
203 Lakeland Dr
West Palm Beach, FL 33405
(561) 833-0030
It's on the northeast corner of Lakeland and Washington, nice house but you can't see it from Washington - a busy street - because it's heavily screened by vegetation.
I would take Southern Blvd East to Washington, turn left and the third left again onto Lakeland. First house on the right. Tell him the Jews sent you.
Don Black is the "proprietor" of Stormfront. His son Derek was elected as a member of Palm Beach County's Republican Executive Committee last year although the party Chairman refused last December to seat him, but it was only because of the Jews, says close friend David Duke. Without the Jews, the Republicans would be eager to have Nazi's in important positions. Who knows, he may be right.
You can read more about it than I can handle without throwing up at: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=547545
We need to take back the term pro-life. Far too many average folks allow extremists to define it, and those same folks thoughtlessly promote a hypocritical culture defined by pro-life extremists.
ReplyDeleteFirst we must imagine how to make a country and world where with minimized suffering and maximized peace and comfort. We must use our collective intelligence and sensitivity to define positive paths to a more sane and just world. Then we need to broadcast better lifestyles in every little corner of humanity.
Sounds daunting, but if we don't, the haters will blast the airways with inflamatory ideas that sickos like von Brunn and Scott Roeder use as excuses to blow up all of us in our most sacred spaces.
We've lost too many words -- 'Liberal' for one -- but I don't think any kind of imagining and sensitivity training is going to rid the world of these ancient hate memes and the all too human love of selecting groups to persecute and kill.
ReplyDeleteGermany takes a far less tolerant view, obviously, and considers preaching violence and hate to be a crime and as much as I dislike it, I think it's wise to listen to the voice of experience here.
Of course I don't expect that we can expect to enact such laws here since the Right wing is far too powerful and too supportive of and supported by angry rhetoric.
Last year when that piece of human garbage Reverend Phelps came to make a fuss about gays at a Memorial day service, he was shut up and shut down by hundreds and hundreds of bikers. I was proud and I will be proud again when we stop waiting for the government to make the nasty men go away and we begin as individuals to stand up to the preachers and hate mongers.
As of now,I do what I have to do to protect my family and myself from the fury of the bigots and I'm glad that our constitution gives me the right to do so because we're going to see more of this as their frustration grows and their economic woes increase.
This is no joke:
ReplyDelete"Congress must act now to pass a Neoconservative Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Such legislation should give federal authorities increased capabilities to engage in hate crimes investigations against those motivated by left-wing hatred who intend to cause injury or death to neoconservatives. Such legislation should give the FBI power to gather data on progressive-leftists who excoriate neoconservative activists, writers, and organizations.”
If anyone here wants to know the origin of this, send me a private e-mail and I’ll reply with an answer. I am trying to avoid troll eruptions (that stir the beast and cause the ground to shake and rumble).
Perhaps this is deserving of a new diagnostic category: Neo-Con Paranoid Projective Identification Syndrome (something akin to Münchausen).
"Germany takes a far less tolerant view"
ReplyDeleteGee, I wonder why that might be.
Seriously, most people are just not ready to face this, yet. The New York Times had the Holocaust Museum shooting on page 15. That compares to their major page one story yeaterday on whether Ari Emmanuel is the new big player in Hollywood. Until a lot of people are ready to confront this abominable group of people, they will continue to inflict pain on us.
For a government that's supposed to be controlled by Jews and blacks, there is a surprising lack of interest in making incitement to murder a crime. In fact we hear a lot of faux outrage about "special rights for minorities."
ReplyDeleteYes, and hilarious, despite the misanthropic frenzy it sends me into, to see how they still manage to pretend to be victims.
Captain, you have probably guessed correctly the source of the above quote (@ 11:14 PM, June 11, 2009).
ReplyDeleteWhether the author was wearing a clown suit or meant to be serious is beside the point. When national attention is focused on murder and tragedy, the fool choses to call attention to himself. No matter how terrible the crime, the story always ends up spinning around him ... an act of narcissism that so offensive, it is bereft of any credibility.