When Will We Wake Up?

So this week in Norway Anders B. Breivik, a right-wing nationalist, injured 90 people and killed 17. He went on a shooting spree at a youth camp for a center-left party and then blew up a government building the same day. Here is a link to video of when police arrived at the mass murder scene at the camp [link - warning, graphic and liable to make you extreme angry]. He described himself as "conservative", "Christian" and "nationalist", and posted comments on anti-Islamic websites on multiple occasions.


People keep saying that we need to pull back on the right-wing rhetoric or else someone will get hurt. Well, wake-up people. We are way past that point. People are in denial - we have been attacked by a serious of right-wing terrorists and nobody is connecting the dots. When these people commit mass murder, they think it is ok and justified. They are trying to set an example. They are trying to challenge the State's monopoly on the use of legitimate violence by stating that their racial and ideological supremacy gives them the right to execute the racially and/or ideologically incorrect persons around them.


There is now a long list of right-wing terrorist incidents. The threshold of this right-wing political rhetoric leading to violent has been crossed. It has been crossed over and over again, yet we somehow cannot connect the dots. Here is a list of recent events:


1. US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was attacked and shot in the head. The shooter shot 19 people, killing six, including a nine-year-old girl and a Federal judge who had been targetted by right-wingers shortly before the shooting.
2. In my hometown of Wichita, KS, a right-winger entered a church, and then gun-downed and killed a well-known abortion provider in front of his family and friends while he was serving as an usher. Bill O'Reilly of Fox News for years, in over two dozen incidents, called Tiller a "Baby Killer" and accusing him of doing "Nazi stuff," while warning of a "Judgement Day" for Tiller. (source). May 31, 2009.
3. Jim Addison, after reading popular right-wing books and watching Fox News, goes to what he perceives as a 'liberal church', and opens fire. July 27, 2008.
4. Neo-nazi right-winger James van Brunn entered a holocaust memorial museum and opens fires, killing a security guard (link). June 10, 2009.
5. Right-winger neo-Nazi Richard Poplawski shoots and kills three police officers. He has previous told his friends that he, "heard that Obama is coming for my guns". April 4, 2009.
6. Joshua Cartwright shoots and kills two sheriff's deputies in Okaloosa County, Florida. His wife reported that he said, 'the government is coming for my guns'. April 25, 2009.
7. Gilbert Ortez killed a police deputy in Chambers County, Texas with an assault rifle. He feared the 'big government' was "coming for his guns' and that he 'had to stop them". July 13, 2009.
8. Jerry Kane, Jr. and son Joseph Kane shot and killed two Arkansas police officer with AK-47 assault rifles. They were pulled over while they were on their way to "kill liberals". May 20, 2010.
9. Byron Williams is arrested after he shot over 60 rounds at police. Police intercepted Williams while he was on his way to the ACLU and Tides Foundation. They wanted to go there to commit mass murder because Glenn Beck of Fox News told him that that is where the liberals are. July 18, 2010. (link).
10. Charles Turner Haberman, who was already on probation for threatening to kill a Seattle Democratic politician, twice called US Representative Jim McDermitt and threatened to kill him if he votes to raise any taxes. (link).


The point where we sit around and debate whether the kind of vitriolic bullshit we hear from right-winger co-conspirators may someday lead to violence is over. We are under attack now. They are murdering politicians, supporters, and literally murdering our children. When will we wake up? Our societies are under attack by people whose values are fundamentally incongruous with a free society.


To show how incompatible their values are with our free societies one needs only to look at the fact that popular right-winger Geert Wilders from The Netherlands wants to change Article 1 of the Constitution (equality under the law). The current first principle of the foundation of the society is preventing him from doing what he wants. That really should tell you something about his agenda. In its place, he wants to install a statement supporting the superiority of "Christian, Jewish and humanists values" over other values. This is an idea that, in his own words, he borrowed from Adolf Hitler. He just argues that Hitler gave it a bad name.


This month in The Netherlands Geert Wilders was acquitted for inciting hatred after a serious of vicious statements against Muslims. When I say vicious I am not exaggerating. Here are some examples: "The Koran is a fascist book which incites violence. That is why this book, just like [Adolf Hitler's] Mein Kampf, must be banned"; "I've had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate."; "I hate Islam"; "there is no such thing as 'moderate Islam'"; Muhammed is "the devil"; "Take a walk down the street and see where this is going. You no longer feel like you are living in your own country. There is a battle going on and we have to defend ourselves. Before you know it there will be more mosques than churches!"; "Islam is not a religion, but rather a totalitarian political ideology such as communism and fascism."; there is a tsunami of immigrants overrunning our country and threatening our culture." He also advocates, as part of his top ten proposals: Replacing the present Article 1 of the Dutch constitution, guaranteeing equality under the law, with a clause stating the cultural dominance of the Christian, Jewish and humanist traditions (as stated above); a five year 100% ban on the immigration of non-Western persons (including oppressed Christian and gay refugees from Muslim countries); revoking municipal voting rights of permanent resident non-citizens; a five year ban on building any mosques or Muslim schools (in a country where Christian schools are fully subsidized by the state as public schools); criminalizing preaching in any language other than Dutch; closing Mosques he considers 'radical' (remember, he also said that there is no such thing as a 'moderate' Muslim or 'moderate' Islam...); treating inner-city minority petty crime as "street terrorism" and punishing it with denaturalisation and deportation, as well as locking "street scum" (here, read minorities) in work camps away from the cities.


When governments try to protect us from these terrorists, the government's efforts are stalled by terrorist sympathizers. For example, in 2009 after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation accurately warned about right-wing terrorism, mainstream conservatives criticized the government as authoritarian for wanting to protect us from these criminal fascists (link). There were reports that the FBI subsequently backed off, but it is impossible to know in reality if the FBI kept their full guard up despite media criticism by terrorist sympathizers. I hope that they did not back off, and I hope that we do not back off.


Finally, I hope that those who previously sympathized with and provided cover for these fascists and terrorists take back their comments, denounce support for these people and their mass murder, and finally, help to assure others that they are now committed to stopping these dangerous terrorists.




Follow-Up:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqmZs0VoPw&feature=related
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjmGyjeRrOs&feature=relmfu
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7FHA51d8c&feature=related