Eugene Robinson: There Are Crazies on One Side

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



There Are Crazies on One Side

Posted on Mar 29, 2010
By Eugene Robinson


The arrests of members of a Michigan-based “Christian” militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism—and potential violence—in the Age of Obama.

I put the word “Christian” in quotes because anyone who plots to assassinate law enforcement officers, as a federal indictment alleges members of the Hutaree militia did, is no follower of Christ. According to federal prosecutors, the Hutaree—the word’s not in my dictionary, but their website claims it means “Christian warrior”—are convinced that their enemies include “state and local law enforcement, who are deemed ‘foot soldiers’ of the federal government, federal law enforcement agencies and employees, participants in the ‘New World Order,’ and anyone who does not share in the Hutaree’s beliefs.”

According to the indictment, the group had been plotting for two years to assassinate federal, state or local police officers. “Possible such acts which were discussed,” the indictment says, “included killing a member of law enforcement after a traffic stop, killing a member of law enforcement and his or her family at home, ambushing a member of law enforcement in rural communities, luring a member of law enforcement with a false 911 emergency call and then killing him or her, and killing a member of law enforcement and then attacking the funeral procession motorcade” with homemade bombs.

....(snip)....

It is disingenuous for mainstream purveyors of incendiary far-right rhetoric to dismiss groups such as the Hutaree by saying that there are “crazies on both sides.” This simply is not true. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/there_are_crazies_on_one_side_20100329/

[ixion]

1. I disagree

there are crazies -- a.k.a. extremists and ideologues -- on both sides.

[COLGATE4]

3. Please provide links

to any reputable information re left wing paramilitary groups in the U.S.

[ixion]

6. extremism doesn't always manifest the same way

that is, left-wing extremism manifests in the form of groups like Earth First! and PETA.

Extremists believe that the world needs to live according to their ideals, no matter what. How that belief manifests is not as significant as the operating motive that drives it. The end result is the same.

[mmonk]

12. So Earth First and PETA reach the same danger level?

So Earth First and PETA have pundits that espouse their views on TV and radio? So Earth First and PETA have politicians openly behind them at rallies? So Earth First and PETA are funded by corporations? So Earth First and PETA push violent imagery in talking about government overthrow and have paramilitary groups? Nonsense.

[ixion]

19. You asked about extremist groups, and I gave you examples

that you want to add qualifiers after the fact show that your goal is to politicize this.

[mmonk]

21. I did?

[ixion]

22. oops... my bad

didn't check who posted the response. apologies. :hi:

[mmonk]

27. No problem.

:hi:

[OHdem10]

16. Earth first and Peta are ideollogically more in turne with the Green

Party than the Democratic Party. Most Code Pink(harmless)
vote Green. Our Centrism does not appeal to them.
The RW Militias are supporting the Republican party

[ixion]

20. The question was "are there extremist groups on the left"

the answer is: "yes, there are." That the RW militias are stupid enough to support the GOP, which couldn't care less about them in return, is their own problem.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Correct. Neither side has a monopoly on insanity. I WISH life were that simple. nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. Care to name another left-wing para-military group operating in the US today?

Disgaree all you want, but that does not make your claim anymore valid.

[ixion]

8. "paramilitary" is not the only qualifier of what constitutes an "extremist" group

It is how this particular extremist group manifests, but extremism is most certainly not limited to the right wing.

[Doctor_J]

14. OK, can you name a left-wing group that is plotting to kill people?

or even do severe damage to property?

[ixion]

18. EarthFirst

for example: their spiking of trees and logging equipment vandalism.

I don't support logging, but I also don't support injuring loggers.

[unblock]

23. i think you're thrown by the use of the same word (extremist) for two very different things.

you can't equate the tie-themselves-to-a-tree or throw-paint-on-fur crazies on the left with the let's-blow-up-buildings-and-murder-masses-of-people-and-assassinate-politicians crazies on the right just because we call both "extremists".

they are not remotely the same thing.

[ixion]

24. Not at all... extremism is the same for both. How it manifests is where it differs.

An extremist is a person who believes their idea are what everyone should live by. How that may manifest can be quite different, but the driving motivation: extemism, is the same.

And (while I'm not trying to defend logging) Earth First has harmed plenty of loggers over the years.

[Mopar151]

25. Well, I might be qualified to comment on this

As a crewman at the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, I can tell you that several cars were sabotaged (including ours), while protestors of a land deal between the Auto Road (oldest tourist attraction in the US) and the White Mountain National Forest were active at the property line. And Earth First took credit for attempting to injure/kill riders in the Barstow - to - Vegas off-road race. None of these, or the resort/animal lab arsons, has held a candle to the insanity of the milita/white supremacy movement.

[emulatorloo]

2. Another important paragraph:

Demagogues scream at people that their government is illegitimate, that their country has been “taken away,” that their elected officials are “traitors” and that their freedom is at risk. They have a right to free speech, which I will always defend. But they shouldn’t be surprised if some listeners take them literally.

=============================

[90-percent]

11. "that their elected officials are “traitors” "

Well, gee, I think Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Yoo, Addington, Libby, Tenant and almost everybody that served in the GWB White House are all TRAITORS and WAR CRIMINALS and should be prosecuted for murder by starting a War based on premises they themselves knew were false.

I merely have facts and proof and reason and logic on my side. Does that make me the left wing equivalent of the members of Hutaree?

-90% Jimmy

[zbdent]

7. remember ... Bush had pacifist organizations investigated as "terrorist organization" ...

and the media didn't scream about that ...

[ixion]

9. quite the opposite... they tweaked their narrative to encourage it

because the media has made it pretty clear they they serve the puppet masters, and no on else.

[chill_wind]

10. He makes his case.

There was a time when the far left was a spawning ground for political violence. The first big story I covered was the San Francisco trial of heiress Patricia Hearst, who had been kidnapped and eventually co-opted by the Symbionese Liberation Army—a far-left group whose philosophy was as apocalyptic and incoherent as that of the Hutaree. There are aging radicals in Cuba today who got to Havana by hijacking airplanes in the 1970s. Left-wing radicals caused mayhem and took innocent lives.

But for the most part, far-left violence in this country has gone the way of the leisure suit and the AMC Gremlin. An anti-globalization movement, including a few window-smashing anarchists, was gaining traction at one point, but it quickly diminished after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. An environmental group and an animal-rights group have been linked with incidents of arson. Beyond those particulars, it is hard to identify any kind of leftist threat.

By contrast, there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, “constitutionalists,” tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold “Christian” values. Most of the groups that posed a real danger, as the Hutaree allegedly did, have been infiltrated and dismantled by authorities before they could do any damage. But we should never forget that the worst act of domestic terrorism ever committed in this country was authored by a member of the government-hating right wing: Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

K & R for him stating what so clearly needs to be said.

[OHdem10]

13. Please tell me what the Lefties today are doing that equates

with the Hate on Right.

So far, the RW Pundits go back to the 60s. No, the
Weather Underground was condemned by the Right and some
on the Left back then.

Now the pundits say, the WeatherUnderground did it in
the 60s so that makes it right for the RW crazies today.

The logic escapes me.

Today. The Left did draw pictures of Bush morphed into Hitler
Teabaggers carried signs with Obama depicted as Hitler, in
white face, and some with N Word.

name calling versus name calling can be equated in the same
time period.

There is nothing on the Left now today, March 30,2010 that
equates with the Militia Activitie. Planning to kill Police
Officers.

[Doctor_J]

15. hartmann appeased some loony recently that made this point

I forget which one, but the apologist said, "Well loggers have been killed by tree spikes". Umm...yeah, that's almost the same.

[Doctor_J]

17. Even the farthest left of the Congress are not calling for violence

like Bachmann, Boner, and others are. Even during the 1960's there weren't any Congress egging on the rioters.

[Hard2believe]

26. I spoke with my brother-in-law

currently living in Ireland. I asked him what the sense was regarding the current debate (now over) on health care and the sudden rise in extremism from the right.

His answer to me was very inspiring. He said that in Ireland (Republic) there is really no party that is strong enough to be effectively right or left. Looking at US politics makes them feel secure in the fact that there will not be a right wing like there is right now.

He stated this and this is fact that the Irish feel that the Republican Party through elected officials , TV pundits and the media seem to believe that being in power or out that it is they and they only that can govern the country. It comes across as though democrats elected to government is an aberration rather than a the will of the people.

Bachmann and Boener(sic) come in for special attention as they are seen as petty, uneducated and willing to spew all sorts of incendiary comments without recourse.

Remember, in Ireland it is a country that has a free press and laws that are basically the same as ours. However, there is a law that should be applied to the first amendment and that is libel.

Telling lies without the any threat of recourse is unacceptable to me and to many others.

That is why we have have extremists like these militia types all over the country. Imagine that the SLPC has stated there has been an increase of 40% since President Obama took office. That should scare anyone.

The person that is saying that extremism on the left is in some way similar to the right is playing semantics.

I for the life of me have never seen the ignorance of the gun yielding idiots that threaten the freedom we have by invoking their sense of freedom espoused through the minority. That is tyranny by the minority.

Name one group on the left with the same ideals. I suggest you buy last weeks Mother Jones and see that we are being attacked from within. It has not yet happened. Lets hope it does not.