HIstory of recent right-wing terrorist attacks in the US:
* Jim D. Adkisson murders two church members in a liberal Unitarian Universalist Church in Tennessee on July 27, 2008. “It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement.”
* Richard Poplawski guns down three Pittsburgh police officers on April 4, 2009. Poplawski, a white supremacist, believes the government is going to take away his guns.
(update) * Joshua Cartwright killed two sheriff’s deputies in Florida on April 25, 2009. Cartwright’s wife said her husband “believed that the US Government was conspiring against him. She said he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.”
* Scott Roeder slays abortion provider George Tiller in his church May 31, 2009.
* James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, opens fire today at the Holocaust museum, killing a guard.
Presciently, Obama’s DHS issued a report in April warning of increased right-wing extremism. Conservatives loudly panned the report, and got all hissy and indignant that their followers were being persecuted.
Fox News and its recently lauded “alternative reality” owns a large chunk of responsibility for the upsurge in violence.
As long as Fox News and the Noise Machine refuse to back off the incendiary language that they’re actively mainstreaming, the political violence, visible just months into Obama’s historic first term, may have only begun.
razib 7:41 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
this seems fair. the only thing i would say that even more frightening would be an organized and institutional movement. right now what you are seeing are crazies who are acting out in response to the leftward shift in american politics. in other words, these are more like the muslim convert killing soldiers in arkansas than the IRA.
Lawrence of Arabia 7:48 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
will second that analysis.
johnpi 8:01 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
“organized and institutional movement”s in terrorism are largely a thing of the past, if you listen to the following from a guy who I pulled off of Ali E’s blogroll (which I discovered right before his blog disappeared into the void). I will provide the link in a post immediately following because I’m sick of comments with links lingering in “pending approval” purgatory…
johnpi 8:02 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
Link here.
johnpi 8:04 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
leftward shift in american politics.
We’re still a long way from center, let alone left, but I guess to these guys it looks that way.
razib 8:15 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
left and right are normalized to particular contexts. there is no absolute “center.” also sometimes there are oranges to apples comparisons. e.g., almost all right-wing parties are far less libertarian in economics than the american republicans, but many are also more ethnically-racially nationalist than the republicans.
razib 8:15 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
meant european right-wing parties.
clay 10:47 am on June 11, 2009 Permalink |
Yes, but how long until the individual crazies become a full-fledged terrorist group?
I never thought I’d be seriously considering that scenario. Doesn’t seem too far-fetched now.
aziz 8:01 pm on June 10, 2009 Permalink |
also, the fruit of conservative demagogery regarding the Second Amendment – nationwide ammunition shortages.
Muffy 11:38 am on June 11, 2009 Permalink |
I don’t think that assassinating/killing specific individuals constitutes “terrorism.” It’s murder, but not terrorism. Bombing an abortion clinic and killing several people inside would be terrorism; killing one particularly well-known abortion doctor is an assassination. When I was in school, I was taught that JFK and MLK died in assassinations, not domestic terrorism. Why should Tiller’s death be different?
I also think that saying that Fox News is partially responsible for murders committed by several distraught, often mentally ill individuals is sleazy, at best. It’s laughable to suggest that Beck’s comments about “Obama taking away your guns” is responsible for violence. So what that certain homicidal individuals use language similar to Glenn Beck’s? Islamic terrorists/fundamentalists use passages directly from the Koran and Hadith all the time.