A Real Revolution vs. Extremist Ideas of What a Revolution Is

[yellerpup]

My friend sends out news links to her progressive mailing list. I am posting an article she sent out last week along with a response she received from the linked article in the Guardian and her reply.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/us-surge-rightwing-extremist-groups

Headline: US facing surge in rightwing extremists and militias

Civil rights report shows 250% rise in 'patriot' groups . Economy and media conspiracy theories fuel growth….A report by the Southern Poverty Law Centre says that the rapid increase in rightwing extremist groups is a partly down to government conspiracy theories in the mass media.

Joe’s response:

This article is bologna, it is not "right wing extremists" It is anyone with a brain that is opposing the government.
-Joe

My friend’s response to Joe:

Joe:
It's baloney only until they blow up a building with one of your loved ones in it. Some people, like McVeigh, will actually act out their fantasies.
When they talk about "revolution," they have no idea what they are talking about. I lived through a coup in Latin America. I saw dead bodies floating down the river. I heard the shots, saw the people running for their lives. I lived in fear of my own life. I was taken off a bus and interrogated simply because I was an American. And some of my friends didn't make it out alive. Who did this slaughter and mayhem? Right-wing extremists. Are you willing to pick up a gun and blow my brains out simplybecause I disagree with you? There are certifiable nuts in these militias and the "movement: who would do just that. Until you've had a gun aimed at your heart by an ignorant 17-year-old peasant, you don't know real fear. Making light of these people is a very dangerous thing to do. It doesn't bother me that people oppose our government. But when they start carrying weapons around with the express intent of intimidating ordinary people, it's gone beyond simple dissent. It's slid into lunacy.

Barbara


Edit to remove extra links to same article.

[HopeHoops]

1. How is it that morons who want to overthrow the government are called "patriots"?

Don't we have a correct word for that? Hmm. Let me think - oh yeah - TRAITORS!

[yellerpup]

3. That's what we call them.

They call themselves by the more uplifting term. :hi:

[HopeHoops]

4. Actually, I usually use far less polite terms.

:evilgrin:

[yellerpup]

6. And I encourage you not to change!

[Jim__]

2. Joe's argument is that it's not "right wing extremists."

There's probably some validity to that. There are people on the left who want revolution; and a left wing revolution will be just as bloody as what Barbara describes.

We don't waant violent revolution, except as an absolute last and unavoidable step. The bloodshed that she describes will be the result. If someone wants revolution. they have to accept these consequences; and they should be aware of them before acting out.

[yellerpup]

5. Yes. I hope her reply will cause Joe to think.

But, I'm not sure I care to hear his process. He owns a hot tub rental -- arguably one of the most disgusting business ideas evah!

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. What bothers me is that our "free press" don't touch

this with a ten foot pole.

And when we have domestic terror, and we already have, they don't call it that way.

Hell OKC WAS domestic Terror but I have yet to hear the "free press" call Timothy McVeigh a terrorist.

[yellerpup]

8. MSM does not cover this phenomena as they should.

They are just as much a terrorist organization as AQ. OKC was the first mass murder perpetrated by terrorists in the USA. McVeigh assumed that the paint-ball militia would fall into lockstep and start killing everyone who disagreed with them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Of course he did, that was the premise in the Turner Diaries

(fuck you NSA), but this was exactly what he assumed.

He was wrong, but he was an avid reader of them. The Diaries are a nice Right Wing extreme fantasy, violence and all, but the MSM will not go there.

[yellerpup]

10. They buy into the FEAR phenomenon.

With all that power, why are they afraid?