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Surprisingly, given the inherent fascist nature of American conservativism, the murder of Charlie Kirk has so far resulted in no killings, no bombings, no riots, no arson or looting. There were no calls for forming a new rightist militia to clean house. Instead, there were lots and lots of people praying and giving positive speeches. This must have been a cleverly orchestrated ploy to provide cover for the cadres of redneck shock troops assembling in secret for a MAGA Tet Offensive. Or something other than what it all appears to be. Right?
You can tell a lot about a movement by how its members react to martyrdom (real or imagined). The instant bogus narratives surrounding Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, etc., resulting as they did in organized violence, are diagnostic. The pathetic but very resource-intensive attempt to make "Maryland Man" Abrego Garcia an official victim of the right revealed more about an appetite to create martyrs than the alleged perfidy of the current regime.
It is not the American right that is looking for its next Horst Wessel, the loser SA thug killed by Communist-affiliated thugs in a rental dispute, later brilliantly transformed into a martyr by Goebbels and the subject of the official Nazi Party theme song. Antifa could adopt Horst Wessel Lied as a theme song with remarkably few editorial changes:
Raise the flag! The ranks tightly closed! The SA marches with calm, steady step. Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries March in spirit within our ranks. Clear the streets for the brown battalions, Clear the streets for the storm division man! Millions are looking upon the swastika full of hope, The day of freedom and of bread dawns! For the last time, the call to arms is sounded! For the fight, we all stand prepared! Already Hitler's banners fly over all streets. The time of bondage will last but a little while now! Receive our salute; you died an honorable death! Horst Wessel fell, but thousands newly arise The anthem roars ahead of the brown army The storm-divisions are ready to follow his path. The flags are lowered before the dead who still live The storm-division swears, with hand clenched in a fist, That the day will come for revenge, no forgiveness, When Heil and Sieg will ring through the fatherland.
The weird need to find or invent reasons to hate Charlie Kirk, the retreat to BlueSky to circle the wagons against discordant facts and ideas, the bizarre notion that rejecting the transgender fantasy is “genocide,” and the mental gymnastics needed to make Hamas a victim together evince a mindset that needs to suppress and destroy rational exchange in order to survive. The outpouring of energy and hate the next time a designated victim of American fascism appears will probably come as a relief to the sicker side in American politics and an opportunity to replenish its toxic diet of hate.
In the short term, there may be only the satisfaction of knowing that a respectful invitation to engage in an exchange of ideas will enrage them and make their predictably ugly response look bad to normals. In the longer term, the fight to take back our institutions and restore free inquiry and free speech must be sustained.
Discussion (10)
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I'm glad you got this in there at the end since this is crucial to getting America back on track. The Communist technique is to make people believe all the wrong things, delivering this in the form of lies and distortions. Charlie Kirk saw exactly where this was happening and showed up for debate.
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Radicalism's advance requires that conservatives either become radical themselves or simply remain silent. With rare exception, radicals have no effective response to common sense conservatism.
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The former pre-Trump Republican Establishment was expert at remaining silent. We saw Romney when he was told to shut up. Radicals counter common sense by building ignorance through omission or falsehood. Common sense advocates must persist.
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I thought it had to do with the proper division of the bill at a Berlin whorehouse, but I might have heard that wrong.
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The Left's use of the word "genocide" is as obscene as their Pride Parades.
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