These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the law
Charles Pierce in Esquire on the fascist uprising in Oregon:
This is an act of armed sedition against lawful authority. That is all that it is, and that is quite enough. This is not “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” Flipping off the governor as he drives by is “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” What Alex Jones does every day is “an expression of anti-government sentiment,” and god bless them all for it. That’s what the Founders had in mind. This is not an “occupation” following “a peaceful protest.” That would be all those folks who got bludgeoned and pepper-sprayed out of Zuccotti Park a couple of years back. (And when exactly did ABC News decide it wasn’t a news organization anymore?) These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the law. These are men with guns who have taken something that belongs to all of us.
Taken it in order to use it to make money for themselves. That’s not “rebellion” or “protest”; it’s just grabbing public property for yourself.
These are traitors and thieves who got away with this dangerous nonsense once, and have been encouraged to get away with it again, and they draw their inspiration not solely from the wilder fringes of our politics, either. Ammon Bundy and his brothers should have been thrown in jail after they gathered themselves in rebellion the first time.
As should Cliven. Why weren’t they?
This is another step down the road that leads to the broken shell of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. There are respectable people in our respectable politics who have been shamefully silent on the subject, and there are respectable people in our respectable media who seem terrified of calling this what it is. You want an example of the deadening effect of “political correctness” in our politics? Watch what the people running for president have to say about this episode. Look at how it is being framed already—or ignored entirely—by the elite political media. There is a constituency for armed rebellion in this country that is larger than any of our respectable political and social institutions want to admit. It is fueled by reckless, ambitious people who engage in reckless, ambitious rhetoric.
And that’s how fascism takes root and grows. It’s not some kind of mysterious magic; it’s a process of persuasion and incitement.
It does us no good to ignore what is going on in this obscure little corner of the Pacific Northwest. It does us no good to refuse to hold to account the politics that led to this, and the politicians who sought to profit from it. It does us no good to deny that there is a substantial constituency for armed sedition in this country, and to deny the necessity of delegitimizing that constituency in our politics, and the first step in that process is to face it and to call it what it is.
And, in related news, of course, Tamir Rice is still dead.
God bless America.
This is the ‘new’ reality of the Rural West. Armed, well off, mostly white males looking for a fight. These are not the hunters and ‘varmint’ shooters of previous generations, but NRA and talk radio fueled bullies open carrying through parking lots and grocery stores looking for some reason to show off their faux manhood, any reason.
They have no reason for rebellion other than repeated refrains of “Government Comin’ for Your Guns” and palpable fears of the Pending Race War.
I’ve lived in the rural PNW for over 30 years, and I’ve watched this generation of “Patriots” with growing concern, and I have counted some of these guys as friends and co-workers. Some of these folks are even liberal in every way you can count, except for the fact that they “need to arm themselves for the upcoming “. They spend their weekends either on the shooting range or at any one of the local fair grounds sure to have a “gun show” where they can add to their collections.
Or, if they happen to own acreage, they’re out target practicing on it usually with semi-automatic weapons, making any given weekend afternoon sound like a war zone in my back yard.
I’ve even been a unwilling party to a near shooting incident in a state campground where one person decided to challenge another’s right to camp in a certain spot, ending in nearly all the males in the whole campground strapping on their holsters and parading around a campground where infants and children were present. After the Sheriff left, things quieted down, until after midnight and one brave soul decided to punctuate his displeasure by starting up drunken ‘target practice’ in the woods.
Personally, I blame the NRA. At one time, more that 30 years ago, the NRA stood for gun safety and responsible gun ownership. Sometime after that, they became what has to be the most successful marketing entity in the US, using fear of “Government Gun Grabs” and fictional race wars as effective as any jingle or slogan ever was.
[…] a comment by cazz on These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the […]
Guns don’t kill people.
People with guns kill people.