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comrade-jiang · 7 years

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Tactics of Liberalism (Intro, #1)

This is a new series I'm starting to tackle the most nefarious tactics used by modern-day liberals in defense of authoritarianism, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Unknowingly serving as a pawn for authoritarianism serves the same function as doing so on purpose, and the responsibility and consequences for such an action must be present in both cases.

Without further ado, let's get into Tactics of Liberalism #1: Meatshields for Fascists.

Make no mistake- liberalism has invaded our society and pushed out outside politics, decrying them as "extreme", "radical", "violent", and "terrorist". By doing this, liberals further the state's own monopoly of violence, for the government and police they often defend fit the definitions of the words they use for their opponents.

Most liberals ignore or justify the killings by the states they hold near and dear, with some even saying mass casualties are acceptable "because they get the job done". In reality, mass casualties are acceptable to them because they're happening to people they don't know and can't see.

Talking to the average liberal about defending oneself from fascism usually results in a dismissal from the liberal. Their answer, if they bother to give one, usually goes something like this.

"Neo-Nazis are nonviolent, and if you stoop down to their level, you become just as bad as them. They have a right to free speech and you can't assault them because you disagree with them."

We'll pick this apart piece by piece. Use this as a resource when dealing with your own liberals.

"Neo-Nazis are nonviolent."

Easily disproven by a simple Google search, liberals continue to say this lie as a means of protecting fascists from the consequences of their actions. Within the last 20 years, neo-Nazis and white supremacists have killed at least 60 people. High profile cases like the Charleston Church shooting and the murder of Heather Heyer are included.

Other neo-Nazis applaud these murders and call for more. Their end goal nowadays is to ignite a race war, where they belive their whiteness will assure them victory. To ignore this is to allow it to happen again, and again, and again, until we live in a society of fear, moreso than we already do.

Well-known, high-profile murders by white supremacists include the following. The Charleston Church shooting was a mass shooting, that took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States, on the evening of June 17, 2015. During a prayer service, nine people were killed by domestic terrorist Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist. Three other victims survived. The morning after the attack, police arrested Roof in Shelby, North Carolina. Roof confessed to committing the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war.

The Portland train attack occurred on May 26, 2017, when a man fatally stabbed two people and injured a third, after he was confronted for shouting what were described as racist and anti-Muslim slurs at two teenage girls on a MAX Light Rail train in Portland, Oregon. Jeremy Joseph Christian had previously been convicted in 2002 of kidnapping and robbery of a convenience store, and was sentenced to 90 months in prison for that offense. He was also arrested in 2010 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft, but those charges were later dropped. He held extremist views, posting neo-Nazi, antisemitic, and far-right material on social media, as well as material indicating an affinity for political violence. Christian had been participating in various "alt-right" rallies in Portland. One month prior to the stabbing, Christian spoke at a right-wing "March for Free Speech" in Portland's Montavilla Park, where he wore a Revolutionary War-era flag of the United States and carried a baseball bat, which was confiscated by police. He gave Nazi salutes, and used a racial slur at least once.

At the "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally, a man drove his car into a crowd of counterprotestors, hitting several and slamming into a stopped sedan, which hit a stopped minivan that was in front of it. The impact of the crash pushed the sedan and the minivan further into the crowd. One person was killed and 19 others were injured in what police have called a deliberate attack. The man then reversed the car through the crowd and fled the scene. James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old from Ohio who reportedly had expressed sympathy for Nazi Germany during his time as a student at Cooper High School in Union, Kentucky, was arrested. Fields had been photographed taking part in the rally, holding a shield emblazoned with the logo of Vanguard America, a white supremacist organization.

Also, at the same rally earlier in the day: Harvard professor Cornel West, who organized some of the counter-demonstrators, said that a group of "20 of us who were standing, many of them clergy, we would have been crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anarchists and the anti-fascists who approached, over 300, 350 anti-fascists." West stated, "The neofascists had their own ammunition. And this is very important to keep in mind, because the police, for the most part, pulled back." DeAndre Harris, a black teacher's aide from Charlottesville, was brutally beaten by white supremacists in a parking garage close to Police Headquarters; the assault was captured by photographs and video footage. The footage showed a group of six men beating Harris with poles, metal pipe, and wood slabs, as Harris struggled to pick himself off the ground. Harris suffered a broken wrist and serious head injury.

Fox News and the Daily Caller had instigated running over leftist protesters for years now, but puleld their articles when someone was finally murdered that way, as to avoid responsibility.

As you can see from a few relatively recent cases, neo-Nazis are not nonviolent. Their ideals are not nonviolent. To stand in real, tangible opposition to the ideology whose end goal is total extermination of all unlike them is not violent- it is self-defense.

"If you stoop down to their level, you become just as bad as them."

This one is fairly straightforward. If a liberal's only problem with Nazism is that it's too rowdy, then they are purposely ignoring what the Nazis have done, what they want to do, and what they will do if allowed to.

The only way anyone could "stoop down" to the level of a neo-Nazi is to harbor all their ideals. There are many things wrongs with neo-Nazis besides their propensity for violence, including but in no way limited to their anti-Semitism, anti-blackness, ideals of racial purity, and desire to initiate a global race war and Fourth Reich.

"They have a right to free speech."

In the United States, at least, they actually don't. Inciting genocide, no matter how likely, falls under inciting imminent lawless behavior, as per the Supreme Court's decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, as does anything that presents a clear and present danger. It falls under a type of death threat, and is on the same level, legally, as making bomb threats. However, due to law enforcement and judiciary officials either not understanding this decision or not caring, this is rarely, if ever, prosecuted. Being technically legal due to incompetence or corruption is still illegal.

On top of this, the neo-Nazis' victims have a right to live, and that right is quite a bit more important than their right to repeatedly incite violence until one of them steps up and kills someone.

"You can't assault them because you disagree with them."

This ties into my second point. If a liberal can boil the desire for extermination of an entire race into an "opinion" that you can simply disagree with, then the liberal is, in essence, shifting blame away from the ones who are calling for extermination and onto the ones who wish to stop them.

It is in these manners that liberals are often called "Nazi sympathizers" or the like- by defending aspects of Nazism from criticism or reprisals, the liberal is presenting themselves as little more than a meatshield for fascists, who will gleefully thank them for the help until it's time to round liberals up too.

I must reiterate that liberals are not the enemy, despite their position as ideological opponents. Liberals, unless actively fighting for fascists, should be coached into common sense by those who understand the ramifications of a second Nazi incursion.

#anarchism #liberalism #militant resistance #socialism #antifascism

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plusorminuscongress · 5 years

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New story in Politics from Time: Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Says South Carolinians Saw the Confederate Flag as ‘Service’ Before Dylan Roof ‘Hijacked’ It

Former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told conservative commentator Glenn Beck Friday that white supremacist Dylan Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, which she said South Carolinians saw as representing “service and sacrifice and heritage.”

Haley was speaking about the 2015 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C., in which Roof murdered nine Black churchgoers in in the name of white supremacy. Photographs emerged of Roof posing with the Confederate flag. In the aftermath of the shooting, Haley pushed to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house grounds, where it had been since the 1960s.

A clip of Haley’s comment went viral, as many on social media argued Haley was not fully acknowledging the flag’s Civil War and segregationists origins.

“South Carolina fell to our knees when this happened. This is one of the oldest African-American churches. These 12 people were amazing people. They loved their church. They loved their family. They loved their community,” Haley said. “And here is this guy who that out with his manifesto holding the Confederate flag and just hijacked everything that people thought of.”

Nikki Haley says the Confederate flag was about "service, and sacrifice, and heritage" until Dylan Roof "hijacked" it pic.twitter.com/pqdhKIezRl

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) December 6, 2019

“We don’t have hateful people in South Carolina. There’s always the small minority that’s always going to be there. But people saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage. But once he did that, there was no way to overcome it,” she continued.

Haley also spoke about how she felt the national media tried to connect the massacre to questions around racism, gun control and the death penalty. “And I really pushed off the national media and said there will be a time and place where we talk about it is but it is not now, we’re going to get through the funerals and respect them and we will have that conversation,” she said.

“We had a really tough few weeks of debate, but we didn’t have riots. We had vigils,” Haley said. “We didn’t have protests. We had hugs. And the people of South Carolina stepped up and showed the world what it looks like to show grace and strength in the eyes of tragedy.”

A tweet of Haley’s comments went viral, although the text of the tweet didn’t mention that Haley was speaking to other’s perceptions of the flag, not her own.

The Confederate battle flag was originally flown in the Civil War as American Southern states attempted to succeed from the U.S. Once the Confederacy was defeated, the flag did not reemerge in the South for several decades. It grew more popular in the 20th century, amid white Southern residence to the the growing Civil Rights Movement and federally mandated desegregation. South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond’s segregationist Dixicrat movement flew the Confederate flag, arguing it represented Southern history.

The Confederate flag’s placement at the South Carolina Capitol was confirmed by the state legislature in 1962. It was first raised the year before as part of an official commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, but, as TIME reported back in 2015, historians say the emerge of the flag likely was meant “to symbolize Southern defiance in the face of a burgeoning Civil Rights Movement.”

Regardless, many pushed back against Haley’s characterization of what the flag has embodied for Americans. Other people on Twitter questioned which South Carolinian’s Haley was referring to when she said the saw the flag as heritage. The state is 27% African American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Here is the declaration of causes from Haley's own state, which states explicitly that it is seceding because non-slaveholding states do not wish to uphold the institution of human bondage. https://t.co/3KWj3F8JYb pic.twitter.com/27BNaaAErj

— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) December 6, 2019

Really, Nikki?! The Confederate Flag represented “service, sacrifice and heritage”? To whom? The black people who were terrorized & lynched in its name? You said it should never have been there. Roof didn’t hijack the meaning of that flag, he inherited it. https://t.co/fbjGHgu8tD

— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) December 6, 2019

The “national media” “wanted to make” the story of a Confederate flag wielding white teen who massacred black churchgoers as they prayed in the pews of a historic black congregation and who left behind a white supremacist manifesto “about racism” https://t.co/ZAspowy8vi

— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) December 6, 2019

Haley responded to the criticism on Twitter later on Friday, writing, “2015 was a painful time for our state. The pain was and is still real.”

2015 was a painful time for our state.The pain was and is still real. Below was my call for the removal of the Confederate flag & I stand by it. I continue to be proud of the people of SC and how we turned the hate of a killer into the love for each other.https://t.co/xXanJ8LPTV

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 6, 2019

“For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble,” she said at the time. “Traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry. The hate filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag.”

When announcing the decision to remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds in 2015, Haley also said, “I think the more important part is it should have never been there… these grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain.”

By Madeleine Carlisle on December 07, 2019 at 12:13PM

#Time #politics #PlusOrMinusCongress #±Congress #Indega±#IndegaPlusOrMinus #TimeMag #TimeMagazine

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raceforequality-blog · 5 years

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Hate crimes targeted towards African Americans

Recent reports, surveys, and federal analytics have shown countless times that Black Americans are still the victims of hate crimes more so than any other group, minority or not, in America. When speaking about racially motivated crimes against African Americans, one will never neglect to mention the case of James Byrd Jr. His brutal murder by three white men in 1998 laid the foundation for The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law in America that expanded hate crime legislation to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. Here are 3 of the worst racially motivated hate crimes throughout history.

The murder of James Byrd Jr. (1998)

Betty Boatner and Thurman Byrd at their brother’s grave in the Jasper City Cemetery. The family forgave Mr. Byrd’s three killers long ago and made peace with Jasper, the East Texas town where they have lived for three generations (Picture via NY Times)

Details of the case

James Byrd Jr. was a 49-year-old Black man who was murdered by three white supremacists in Texas in 1998. His three killers were known members of the white supremacist group the Klu Klux Klan. Members Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged Byrd for three miles along a road, leaving him conscious until he was killed when his body hit the edge of a culvert, causing his right arm and head to be severed. They then dumped the remains of his body in front of a segregated black cemetery in Texas.

One of the murderers, John King, had several racist tattoos: a black man hanging from a tree, multiple Nazi symbols, the words "Aryan Pride", as well as the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. The trio were arrested, with two executed and one sentenced to life imprisonment. In a jailhouse letter John King wrote to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime, clearly and outwardly stating "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!". This outward, repulsive display of white supremacy, even for the 1990s, was a blatant display of the extent of hate crimes targeted at Black Americans.

The Charleston Church Shooting (2015)

Faces of the victims of the brutal Charleston Church Massacre, involving a senior church pastor and state senator (Picture via Fox News)

Details of the case

Also known as the Charleston Church Massacre, The Charleston Church Shooting was a mass shooting in which Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, murdered nine African Americans during a prayer service at a Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The perpetrator, Dylann Roof, confessed immediately to committing the shooting in the hope of igniting a race war. Roof perpetuated racial hatred continually in both a website manifesto published before the shooting and a journal written from jail afterward. Photographs posted on the website have shown Roof posing with emblems associated with white supremacy and with photos of the Confederate battle flag.

The significance of the Church that Roof targeted also should not go unsaid. The 203-year-old church has played an important role in the history of the slavery era, the civil rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement as well. It is historically an extremely significant Church with regards to the rights of African Americans. It is the oldest historically Black congregation south of Baltimore. Thus, the systemic, highly planned, coordinated and specifically and strategically target of a historically Black Church remains proof of how, even in the modern era, there remains rampant hate directed towards African Americans.

The Charlottesville Car Attack (2017)

Putilizer award-winning photograph of the 2017 Charlottesville vehicle-ramming attack (Picture via The Daily Progress, Ryan Kelly)

Details of the case

The Unite the Right Rally was a white supremacist rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Protesters included self-identified members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klansmen, among other extremist groups. The marchers chanted racist and antisemitic slogans, carried semi-automatic rifles, and wielded Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols. The organizers' stated goals included unifying the American white nationalist movement. This highly organized and planned Rally celebrating what was essentially white supremacy is disturbing as is, but even more disturbing is how a peaceful protest to said rally was quickly turned into a violent hate crime that killed one and severely injured 28.

On August 12, 2017, a car was deliberately driven into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting the Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The driver of the car, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., had driven from Ohio to attend the rally. The perpetrator previously perpetuated neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs. He was convicted on several counts of violence, hit-and-run, and murder, and was sentenced to life in prison. The sheer recency of this violent racially motivated crime alone should be a clear, telltale sign that such crimes aren't to be eradicated anytime soon. The best thing any of us can do is condemn such acts of racism, hate crime and hate speech, be they small acts or underlying connotations or overt displays of white supremacy like many hate crimes committed. Thus, here at RACEforequality, we stand strongly with the activists at Black Lives Matter who aim to raise awareness for hate crimes like such.

Sources:

https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/black-americans-still-are-victims-of-hate-crimes-more-than-any-other-group/

https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crimes-case-examples

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/every-tally-hate-crimes-blacks-are-most-frequent-victims-n938541

#Stopracialprofiling #Stopdiscrimination #Stopracialdiscrimination #Blacklivesmatter #Wemuststopdiscrimination #Preventasianhatecrimes #Standupagainstracialdiscrimination #Raceforequality #Stopracialstereotyping #Wecandothis

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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Democrats split on cutting recess short after mass shootings

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/democrats-split-on-cutting-recess-short-after-mass-shootings/

Democrats split on cutting recess short after mass shootings

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler wants some of his fellow Democrats back on the Hill from recess to push gun legislation, but not everyone in the caucus is on board. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Democrats are divided on their next stepsin the wake of two deadly mass shootings over the weekend, with some lawmakers demanding the House immediately come back from recess and pass stricter gun control bills, including an assault weapons ban.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back on the idea during a private caucus call Monday, telling Democrats that they should stay focused on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his blanket refusal to consider two gun control bills that passed the House earlier this year.

Story Continued Below

“The president and Mitch McConnell have to feel the public sentiment on this. We have a golden opportunity to save lives,” Pelosi said on the call, according to an aide.

“The grim reaper said he is not going to bring them up,” she added, using McConnell’s nickname. “This is where we have to go.”

Other Democrats, noting McConnell is unlikely to bring Democratic-authored legislation to the Senate floor, pushed for more immediate action in the House. Some lawmakers, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), said his panel should return to Capitol Hill and vote on additional gun-related bills, including an assault weapons ban, according to several sources on the call.

The debate over how the Democratic-controlled House should respond comes after a pair of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend left at least 31 people dead and dozens more wounded.

The alleged shooter in Texas appeared to release a manifesto saying he wanted to target Hispanics and stop immigrants from invading — using language similar to that employed by President Donald Trump as recently as May. The manifesto also referenced the New Zealand mosque shooting that left 51 people dead. Less than 24 hours before the shooting, two dozen House Democrats were in El Paso touring migrant facilities at the border.

In response to the deadly shootings, Trump initially floated the idea of strengthening background checks — and linking the bill to an immigration overhaul — in a tweet Monday morning before backing off the suggestion in a speech later in the day.

In February, the House passed the most sweeping gun control legislation in a decade, including a bill requiring background checks for nearly all gun purchases.

“The bill that is over in the Senate — the bill the House passed — is the bill that all the experts tell us will do the most good the quickest,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), chairman of the House’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said in an interview. “Mitch McConnell needs to do his job.”

The House also passed a bill that would close the so-called Charleston loophole to prevent individuals from buying guns before their background check is completed. That bill, authored by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), came after the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015 in which nine African Americans were murdered by a white supremacist.

“In February, the brand new Democratic majority passed a bipartisan gun violence prevention act and Mr. Clyburn’s bill as well. They have been sitting over there,” Pelosi said on Monday.

Clyburn, who spoke after Nadler on the call, agreed with Pelosi that returning to Washington would take pressure off McConnell to act. But other lawmakers pushed for the full House to return early from its six-week break — or at least members of the Judiciary panel, who could vote on additional gun control measures. The House Homeland Security Committee also plans to hold multiple field hearings on white supremacy around the country this month, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said during the call.

Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) said mass shootings should be treated as a “national emergency” and that Democrats’ first focus is on “forcing” McConnell to call back the Senate and vote on the House-passed gun control measures.

“We need to take immediate action to address domestic terrorism and take further steps on gun violence prevention from every angle,” said Hill, a freshman member of leadership. “I believe the House should come back from recess as well to prepare additional legislation that has overwhelming public support to send to the Senate.”

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), another freshman, also endorsed the idea of the House ending its recess early, but said the chamber should also take action to address domestic terrorism, according to multiple sources on the call. Hill and Malinowksi represent swing districts.

Gun control advocates have long pushed the House to vote on more aggressive legislation — like an assault weapons ban or a bill to limit high-capacity magazines — though none would stand a chance in the GOP-controlled Senate.

But other Democrats argue that they’ve already passed substantial legislation to tackle gun violence and warn that returning to Capitol Hill this summer could cloud Democrats’ message that they’ve already taken action.

“We are having that discussion. There’s a chance that we come back and take up more and do more, and I’m not necessarily opposed to that,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a vice chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “But there’s also value to us being back in our communities, meeting with families, meeting with kids, talking about this issue. … There’s value to that too.”

Crow — whose district includes Aurora, Colo., where 12 people were gunned down in a movie theater in 2012 — said the focus should be on the Senate’s refusal to act.

“If Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate aren’t willing to do something about this public health crisis, there will be a reckoning sooner rather than later,” Crow said.

On the Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said he’ll propose bipartisan legislation encouraging states to adopt “red flag” laws that temporarily restrict people who pose an imminent threat from accessing firearms. Trump on Monday also urged for “red flag” laws. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) renewed their push for legislation to strengthen background checks — an idea they said they each discussed separately with Trump on Monday — though it’s unlikely McConnell would allow a vote on their proposal.

Pelosi spent the weekend talking to the families of gun violence victims and they too want to keep the pressure on McConnell, she told House Democrats.

Pelosi said she spoke to Manuel Oliver, whose son died in the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., last year. Oliver and his wife were in El Paso honoring their son when the shooting broke out this weekend.

“He and others like him are saying, ‘Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell. Help us make Mitch McConnell bring up this bill,’” Pelosi said.

Dozens of Democrats have pointedly criticized McConnell in their response to the shootings — calling him out on Twitter, cable news and statements for failing to take up the House background check bills.

McConnell, who is recovering from an injury at his home in Kentucky this week, condemned the two weekend shootings on Twitter but did not offer a legislative response.

Trump initially suggested in a tweet on Monday that Congress should pass a legislative package to deal with both gun control and immigration — an idea that confounded lawmakers of both parties who realize it would be a politically impossible task.

“That was absolutely ridiculous — we’re not talking about tying bills to one another. We need to take action that will make our communities safer in regard to hatred and gun violence,” Thompson said.

Later on Monday, Trump appeared to clarify his stance and instead focused on mental health laws and more modest red flag laws.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman said she plans to push the House to take up her own gun regulation bills, such as legislation to limit online purchases of ammunition. But the New Jersey Democrat was guardedly optimistic about Trump’s vow to strengthen resources for the FBI to tackle domestic terrorism — which he publicly denounced as white supremacy — and to look at stronger background checks.

“Perhaps this is a reckoning for him,” Watson Coleman said. “Perhaps this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

#Foreign #Politics #shootings #short

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yahoonews7 · 5 years

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More than 175 people have been killed in at least 16 high-profile attacks linked to white nationalism around the world since 2011A prayer vigil in El Paso, Texas, after a shooting at a Walmart in the border town left 20 people dead, on 4 August 2019. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty ImagesReports that the suspected gunman at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, saw his mass shooting as “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” has prompted bipartisan calls for the US to treat the threat of domestic “white terrorists” as seriously as the threat of attacks by supporters of al-Qaida or Isis.But experts who study racist violence say the attack must be understood not just as a domestic problem within the United States, but as part of a global network of white nationalist radicalization and violence.The escalating global death toll from white nationalist attacks puts a spotlight on the social media companies that have allowed white nationalists to organize on their platforms with little interference, as well as on the clear parallels between white terrorists’ justification for their attacks, and the racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric of some mainstream politicians. Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to immigrants and refugees as an “invasion”. A global problemA “manifesto” that appeared to be linked to the El Paso attack on Saturday described the growing number of Latinx people in Texas as an “invasion” that threatened the political power of white residents. The shooting, which left 20 people dead, is being investigated by federal officials as an act of domestic terrorism.Perpetrators of other recent attacks around the world indicated that they, too, believed that white people were under attack, and that immigrants, refugees and other people of color are “invaders” who put the white race at risk.Supporters of the National Socialist Movement, a white nationalist political group, give Nazi salutes while taking part in a swastika burning in Georgia, 21 April 2018. Photograph: Go Nakamura/ReutersThe Canadian man who opened fire at a mosque in Quebec in January 2017. The American man who plowed his car into a crowd of protesters after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, later that year. The 46-year-old American who allegedly attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. The Australian man who allegedly killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, this March.Many of these attacks inspired even more acts of violence. The suspected Christchurch shooter, who is accused of livestreaming his murder of dozens of innocent people in New Zealand in March, appears to have inspired at least two additional mass shootings in the United States within five months. In April, another young white man opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one woman and injuring three other people. He cited the Christchurch attacks as his model, prosecutors said. On Saturday, the manifesto linked to the El Paso shooting, too, referred to the Christchurch massacre as an explicit inspiration.“Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions,” the historian Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, wrote in an opinion column on Sunday. “We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or antisemitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology.” Defining white nationalismAt the center of contemporary white nationalist ideology is the belief that whiteness is under attack, and that a wide range of enemies – from feminists to leftwing politicians to Muslims, Jews, immigrants, refugees and black people – are all conspiring to undermine and destroy the white race, through means as varied as interracial marriage, immigration, “cultural Marxism” and criticism of straight white men.(July 22, 2011) Utøya island and in Oslo, Norway77 killed in a bomb attack, followed by a shooting targeting the island summer youth camp of Norway’s Labor party. The shooter, Anders Breivik, wanted to prevent an 'invasion of Muslims' and deliberately targeted politically active young people who he saw as 'cultural Marxists'. More than half of the dead were teenagers. (November 5, 2012) Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, USSix worshippers, including the temple president, Satwant Singh Kaleka, are killed. The shooter, a ''frustrated neo-Nazi' who had played in white power bands, was a regular on racist websites. He had previously talked to one colleague in the US military about a 'racial holy war that was coming'.(September 18, 2013) Piraeus, GreeceRapper and anti-fascist activist Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death. A senior member of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was imprisoned after confessing to the killing.(April 13, 2014) Overland Park, Kansas, USA former Ku Klux Klan leader shot and killed three people at a Jewish centre and retirement home. One of them just 14 years old. He said he believed Jews were destroying the white race, and that diversity was a kind of genocide. None of his victims were Jewish, but he said he considered two of them to be accomplices to Jewish people.(June 17, 2015) Charleston, South Carolina, USNine people killed during Bible study at a historic black church. The nine victims included elderly longtime church members at the Mother Emanuel AME church, and Clementa Pinckney, a state senator. The shooter, a self-avowed white supremacist, said he wanted to start a race war. (October 22, 2015) Trollhättan, Sweden Three killed in an attack on a local high school. The attacker stabbed students and teachers, targeting those with darker skin, police said. Three died, including 15-year-old Ahmed Hassan, who was born in Somalia and had recently moved to Sweden.(June 16, 2016) Birstall, West Yorkshire, UKLabour MP Jo Cox shot and stabbed to death. A supporter of Britain staying in the EU, Cox was attacked a week before the EU referendum vote in 2016. The man convicted of killing her, a white supremacist obsessed with the Nazis and apartheid-era South Africa, shouted: 'This is for Britain,' 'Keep Britain independent' and 'Britain first' as he killed her.(January 29, 2017) Quebec City, CanadaSix people killed and nineteen injured during evening prayers at a mosque in a shooting which the gunman said was prompted by Justin Trudeau’s tweet that refugees were welcome in Canada, and that 'diversity is strength'. The shooter, who said he feared refugees would kill his family, had previously been known as an aggressive online troll with anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-feminist views.(March 20, 2017) New York, USTimothy Caughman stalked and killed by a white supremacist with a sword. His killer, an American military veteran, said he targeted a random black man on the street in New York City as a 'practice run' for a bigger attack, and as part of a campaign to persuade white women not to enter into interracial relationships.(May 26, 2017) Portland, OregonTwo men were killed and one injured after they tried to intervene to protect young women on a public train who were being targeted with an anti-Muslim tirade. Their alleged killer shouted 'Free speech or die' in the courtroom, and 'Death to Antifa!'(June 19, 2017) Finsbury Park, London, UKOne killed and 12 people injured after a van ploughed into worshippers outside a mosque. The killer shouted 'I want to kill all Muslims – I did my bit' after the van attack, according to witnesses. He had been radicalised online and over Twitter, a judge concluded, and avidly consumed anti-Muslim propaganda from prominent rightwing figures.(August 12, 2017) Charlottesville, Virginia, USHeather Heyer killed and dozens injured after a car ploughed into anti-Nazi protesters. The killer had been obsessed with Hitler as a teenager, according to a former teacher. In phone calls from jail, he was recorded criticising Heyer’s mother as a 'communist' and 'one of those anti-white supremacists'.(October 24, 2018) Kentucky, USMan attempted to enter black church before allegedly killing two black people in a supermarket. A witness said that during the attack, the alleged shooter said: 'Whites don’t kill whites.'(October 27, 2018) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US11 killed in a mass shooting targeting the Tree of Life synagogue. The alleged shooter had an active profile on an extremist social media site, where he accused Jewish people of trying to bring 'evil' Muslims into the US, and wrote that a refugee aid organisation 'likes to bring invaders in that kill our people'.(March 15, 2019) Christchurch, New Zealand51 people were killed and 49 injured in two consecutive attacks on mosques during Friday prayers. The gunman live-streamed the first attack on Facebook Live. They opened the live stream by urging viewers to 'subscribe to PewDiePie', a meme used by the online alt-right and white supremacists.(April 27, 2019) Poway, CaliforniaOne person killed in mass shooting targeting a synagogue in Poway, California, US. The alleged shooter, 19, from California, opened fire in a synagogue during Passover services, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring three others. An“open letter” posted on the 8chan extremist message board before the attack included white nationalist conspiracy rhetoric and said the shooter was inspired by the gunman who had opened fire on Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand the month before.Lois Beckett and Martin BelamTo people who believe in white supremacist conspiracies, demographic change is an “existential threat to white people”, said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor of education and sociology at the American University, and a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right.These conspiracy theories refer to demographic shifts in dramatic, violent terms, as a kind of “genocide” or a “great replacement” of one people with another. The idea of “replacement” is central to this movement: “You will not replace us! Jews will not replace us!” white nationalists and neo-Nazis chanted as they marched with flaming torches through Charlottesville, Virginia. It has echoed in the manifestos of mass murderers, and the chants of Charlottesville marchers, since being coined by a French white nationalist writer and conspiracy theorist in 2011.People take part in a rally against hate a day after a mass shooting at a Walmart store, in El Paso, Texas. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersBut in many of the countries where white nationalist radicalization is a threat – including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – white people are, in fact, not the native population, and are not being displaced.Despite this, recent racist violence in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Europe, is linked by the shared conspiracy that “white people are being displaced from their home countries”, said Heidi Beirich, the intelligence director at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that monitors American hate groups.“At the extreme end of white supremacy you have this group of people who believe that the only way to create change is to create a violent societal collapse, that will lead to apocalyptic end times, and a race war and then eventually to restoration and rebirth,” Miler-Idriss said. Attacks closely linked to mainstream politicsThough antisemitism is at the heart of white nationalist conspiracy theories, many different groups are labeled as enemies. In the past decade, deadly attacks linked to white nationalism have been carried out against Muslims, Jews, African Americans at Bible study in a historic black church, leftwing activists and politicians in the United States and across Europe. More than 175 people have been killed in at least 16 high-profile attacks linked to white nationalism around the world since 2011.And although politicians often label white nationalist violence as “senseless”, analysts suggest that hate crimes often spike alongside political events like elections. Many of these “senseless” attacks have been carried out during key moments of mainstream political debates over immigration and refugee policy.Jo Cox, a British member of parliament, was assassinated by a far-right extremist in June 2016, in the run-up to the Brexit referendum. Pro-Brexit campaigners claimed at the time that voting to remain in the European Union would would result in “swarms” of immigrants entering the UK, and that it would prompt mass sexual attacks. Cox’s killer shouted “Britain first!” as he shot and stabbed her to death.Jo Cox, a British member of parliament, was assassinated by a far-right extremist. Photograph: Jo Cox Foundation/PAThe shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh – the worst antisemitic mass murder in US history – happened during the run up to the midterm elections. At that time, conservative media and Republican politicians were promoting fears of a “caravan” of migrants heading towards the country from Central America. Congressman Matt Gaetz was one of those who suggested that the caravan had been orchestrated by the Jewish financier George Soros.Trump, who spent years questioning the citizenship of America’s first black president, has continuously made public comments that include white nationalist rhetoric. He campaigned on a ban on Muslim immigration, a border wall, and in his campaign announcement suggested that Mexican migrants were rapists. As president, he has characterized migrants as invaders in several tweets. At a rally in May, Trump used the term “invasion” to describe the arrival of immigrants at the southern border. At the same rally he raised the prospect of using weapons on immigrants. When Trump asked “How do you stop these people?” someone in the crowd shouted, “Shoot them!” and Trump laughed.“When you have politicians using language like invasion and infestation, it reinforces extremist beliefs in a way that makes them more legitimate,” Miller-Idriss said. Who mainstreams white nationalist ideas?Conservative and even mainstream media outlets have also played a role in mainstreaming white nationalist ideas. Beirich, of the SPLC, said that the concept of demographic replacement is “definitely cropping up in conservative media”, pointing to the Fox News anchors Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham as having broadcast programs which “may not use the same language” but which convey the same basic narrative of “replacement”.Although white nationalism is far from a new ideology, today’s racist activists have been adept at using social networks to expand their reach and radicalize a new generation of young white men and women. They have worked under a veil of irony and trolling explicitly designed to create uncertainty in the mainstream public about how serious they are. That effort has been extremely successful.Facebook and Instagram only banned content advocating white nationalism, like “The US should be a white-only nation,” four months ago. Previously, the company suggested in a post announcing the ban, it had considered white nationalism or white separatism valid political viewpoints, and had believed in the arguments, rejected by experts, that “white nationalism” was not necessarily racist.“There is so much material on the web – treatises, tracts, and manifestos – that would have been extraordinarily difficult to get hold of 25 years ago,” said Brian Levin, the director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.People take part in a rally against hate a day after a mass shooting at a Walmart store, in El Paso, Texas. Photograph: José Luis González/ReutersWhatever internet platforms do now to crack down on violent white nationalist content, racist activists from across the world have been able to connect and organize online for more than a decade, with little interference, said Joan Donovan, the director and lead researcher of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.That has given them time to share strategies and organize across international borders. “That kind of time, put into this movement, is really dangerous,” Donovan said. By the numbersWhile there are no official surveys of hate crimes in the United States, several organizations that monitor them across disparate jurisdictions and reporting standards say that crimes motivated by white supremacy have been rising in recent years.According to a report last week from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at CSU San Bernardino, there were 17 homicides carried out by white nationalists in the US alone in 2018. This constituted the vast majority of the 22 extremist murders that CSHE counted that year.Earlier in the year, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that all but one of 50 extremist-linked murders they counted were committed by people with direct links to white supremacist movements or ideologies. The exception was a killing by an Islamic extremist who had previously been involved with white supremacy.Since 9/11, the United States has devoted $2.8tn to counterterrorism, according to the Stimson Center, with almost $500bn going to the Department of Homeland Security in that time period. But the small slice of this devoted to rightwing extremists has been further diminished in the Trump era. Earlier this year DHS disbanded a group of intelligence analysts focused on domestic terror threats, after shutting down programs specifically directed at neo-Nazis and other far right groups.According to the Brookings Institution’s Eric Rosand, when it comes to domestic terrorism, “the United States continues to rely almost entirely on the police”.At the local level, law enforcement officials across the country have faced scrutiny for failing to take seriously the threat of white nationalist violence, and for sometimes devoting more attention to policing anti-fascist protesters than violent neo-Nazis. Some American law enforcement officials have said they were unprepared to deal with white nationalist violence.Beirich says that “the FBI has admitted that this is the number one domestic terror threat, but then at the same time federal agencies have been focused on Islamic extremism for so long they are way behind the eight ball on this”.

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