I have published at least a dozen columns saying that America’s slide towards Fascism is overpronounced, particularly because Fascism has always become the basis of governmental authority through the use of massive, armed force, So, it figures that the Fake News Fascist-mongers would come out with some new way of promoting the idea that far-right politics and armed violence is increasing throughout the United States.
I’m referring to an article in yesterday’s Failing New York Times which draws upon work published by an outfit in England, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, which found that in 700 demonstrations in the United States since 2020 where people were allowed to walk around with guns, more than three-quarters of these events attracted gun-carrying schmucks from various alt-right groups.
How many of these gun-toting putzes actually fired even one shot during these public events? Ready? None. How many times did one of these armed jerkoffs actually threaten a demonstrator with a gun? Ready? Zero, as in zilch.
But like Kenny’s mother once said about the possibility that a cow would attack a child who tried to pet the cow’s nose at a petting zoo, “There’s always a first time.”
Meanwhile, if you take the trouble to dig down into the really excellent data aggregated and presented by the Armed Conflict group, you discover that of the 928 public events which occurred between October 22 and November 12, most took place in and around locations between New York City and Washington, D.C., both being cities where open carrying of guns is not allowed, and most of these demonstrations were organized and promoted by alt-left groups supporting LGBTQ rights, women’s choice and – ready? – more restrictions on owning and carrying guns.
Remember all those scare stories about how the Proud Boys and those other alt-right militias were going to attack various polling places to keep everyone from voting for the blue team back on November 8th? In West Bend, WI, a town of some 30,000 out in the middle of nowhere, some guy showed up at a polling station with a knife and demanded that they ‘stop the voting.’ He was promptly arrested and that was the end of political violence in a state which, you may recall, was one of the states which saw more votes stolen from Trump in 2020 than just about anywhere else.
Incidentally, the poor bastard in Wisconsin who got himself arrested and whose appearance got added to the month’s total of political violence published by the Armed Conflict group, not only admitted to being slightly drunk, but also told arresting officers that he probably needed a ‘psychiatric evaluation’ before being taken to court.
Maybe it’s because I live in a town which votes 97% Democrat(ic), maybe it’s because I live in a town which built the first Peace Pagoda (which was actually visited by the Dalai Lama when he came to the United States,) maybe it’s because I live in a town where most of the current residents moved here to raise organic vegetables after the first Whole Earth Catalog came out.
Whatever the reason, I just can’t get all hot and bothered when some kid half my age writes an article for The Failing New York Times in which he’s paid to come up with some narrative that will increase the click-rate for the media venue whose print edition still claims it carries “all the news that’s fit to print,” although I don’t see that statement on the internet version of the NYT.
On Black Friday I briefly found myself in the local shopping mall, not buying anything but just walking around. What impressed me was not just the number of people who were intent on spending some money, even though the economy is in a state of collapse, at least according to Trump and the GOP.
What really impressed me was the racial and ethnic diversity of the shoppers, not to mention the number of gay and lesbian couples walking around who were making no effort to hide what we politely refer to as their ‘sexual orientation’ at all.
I never saw what used to be these ‘hidden’ populations when I was a kid. If you weren’t a White male who belonged to a mainstream, Protestant religion, you kept your mouth shut and knew there wasn’t any other public way to behave.
There wasn’t? Tell that to Maura Healey, my state’s openly gay woman who happens to be the Governor-elect. How did that happen in a state settled by Puritans and now run by the Catholic Archdiocese?
When the Fake Media finally figures that one out, I’ll think about buying some of their bullsh*t about how Fascism is just ahead.