2024: We all need to get off X/Twitter or the fascists will win!
2025: If you're not planning to torch a Tesla dealership, what are you even doing with your life?
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I'm just going to be happy about Leonard Peltier finally being released from prison, and no amount of "but you forgot to mention..." is going to guilt me out of that.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-leonard-peltier-clemency_n_67608b04e4b0d06419ec6367
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This is true: it's more a rally than an inauguration. It's also just the latest in a series of breaks with those vaunted "democratic norms" we keep hearing about, such as the fact that Italian PM Giorgia Meloni recently pushed through Italian citizenship for Argentinian President Javier Milei on the basis of his Italian grandparents (while immigrants who actually live in Italy languish for years waiting for their citizenship applications to clear), or the fact that Trump® (and now, separately, even Melania) has just started up his own personal cryptocurrency, which is both one of the most egregious conflicts of interest by a high-ranking pol in US history (a high bar) and a guaranteed pipeline for bribery from within and outside the US. And "our institutions" have no real mechanism for reining these people in.
This really is an emerging global network of reactionary super-elites: billionaires, heads of state, billionaire heads of state, and their second-tier minons who endlessly scratch each other's backs and have only contempt for their inferiors. And they're doing it in the name of combating "globalists" and elites. Go figure.
You can say it's always been like this (maybe since the end of WWII? maybe even earlier?), and that's sort of true, but it's a bit like when mere capitalism lurched toward today's neoliberal model at the end of the Cold War: it's the same thing in principle, but amped up and now with very little pretense of being less brutal than it actually is. The mask is off, and so are the gloves.
The point here isn't to be a doomsayer or anything. It's just to recognize the current situation for what it is. There is no single solution to this particular crisis/set of crises. The things that are in our power to work toward are the same as always: take care of ourselves, take care of our communities, organize in whatever way is appropriate for our situations, look out for people who are under (greater) threat, and try to ensure that everyone's needs are met, to the greatest extent possible.
Stay safe out there. Stay dangerous too.
https://spore.social/@ayoub/113855539890571688
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Interesting talk by @spencersunshine on the history and ideology of Nazi Satanism.
https://www.youtube.com/live/JrlX9fooj4k
[#]Satanism #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism
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A member of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League was arrested in for trespassing at a Jewish Community Center in Nashville.
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An East Tennessee man with ties to a neo-Nazi group has been arrested in conjunction with a stunt he pulled Monday evening at Nashville's Gordon Jewish Community Center, NewsChannel 5 has learned.
Travis Keith Garland, 31, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Maryville, Tennessee, on a warrant for criminal trespassing, according to Metro Nashville police. Detectives with the MNPD Specialized Investigations Division later took out an assault warrant for putting a Jewish Community Center security guard in fear as he tried to get Garland off the property.
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/confronting-hate/member-of-neo-nazi-group-charged-with-trespassing-assault-for-stunt-at-jewish-community-center
[#]NeoNazis #GoyimDefenseLeague #Nashville #TravisGarland #Tennessee #fascism #antisemitism
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In his speech last night, apparently Biden made an earnest appeal to the US military, asking them to "remember your oath" under the incoming administration. I can only assume he meant that he was advising them to defend the US Constitution and not to turn on US citizens (US soldiers are, of course, expected to go overseas before they start killing civilians).
This is great. I'm glad he said it. Because I just can't think of a better example of liberal faith in "democratic norms" and "institutions." And it's complete horseshit.
There's a reason why lawyers get so hair-splitty about legal phrasing: it's because words really can and do mean different things to different people. And also because people will sometimes interpret words in bad faith to their own advantage.
With that in mind, allow me to reintroduce you to an organization that you probably have heard a few things about (but maybe not enough) if you've paid any attention to the events of January 6, 2021. They're literally called "Oath Keepers."
And what oath are they keeping? From the start, the Oath Keepers have always been made up of current and former law enforcement officers and members of the US military. Founder Stewart Rhodes is a delusional prepper who believes that the US is constantly on the verge of becoming a "totalitarian state," and the only thing that can save us is the Constitution and those who have sworn to loyally uphold it, even if that means disobeying orders from their superiors. Those Constitution upholders are, specifically, the aforementioned cops and soldiers.
So that's who they are: a bunch of (overwhelmingly) dudes who think they are saving us all from totalitarianism by sticking to the Constitution.
But what, there's more...
After the 2020 election, when the right-wing conspiracy theorists were convinced that Ragnarök was upon us, there was a lot of talk about Trump invoking the Insurrection Act -- effectively declaring martial law, presumably nationwide. We don't really know what sort of scale it would have taken, because it just didn't happen, but it would have been a big deal, and the active duty military would have been stretched really thin, even with support from the National Guard. So who was going to step into the breach? Yup, the Oath Keepers.
The thing is, the Oath Keepers had a statement that they were all supposed to agree to containing a list of "orders we will not obey" on the grounds that those orders would ostensibly violate the Constitution. The list includes things like a refusal to blockade cities and turn them into giant concentration camps (The Road Warrior was just a movie, Stewart). It also includes a refusal to participate in imposing martial law. Stewart Rhodes very loudly called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, and as far as I know, he never publicly explained the apparent contradiction between that call and his opposition to martial law. But the thing is, it didn't matter. Rhodes and his minions were "Oath Keepers"! They're the most committed Constitution upholders in the country! If they're doing something, by god, that must be what the Constitution commands! Logic? Contradictions? Who cares?!
Anyways, the point is: cajoling people to adhere to some sort of abstract convention really means nothing if they've got a different understanding of what that convention is -- or if they're just bad actors who want power. The fact that people didn't learn that after Trump I is unfortunate; the fact that they still don't get it heading into Trump II is scary.
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People often talk about David Lynch's style being hard to understand or just "weird for the sake of weird." But it wasn't arbitrary, and he really was capable of conveying serious emotional depth amid all that weirdness. I'm not sure if this clip is necessarily the best example of that, but it also doesn't give away anything much about the story, so I think it'll do (and if you haven't watched the original 'Twin Peaks' series, I do recommend).
RIP, old man.
[Edit: There are strobe lights in this clip. If that's an issue for you, it might still be worth listening to, fyi.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vOg0HyJpvI
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It's been over 20 years, but I'm still kind of haunted by a particular press conference during the Bush II administration. It was two weeks before he invaded Iraq and about three weeks after the massive, record-setting demonstrations across the US and around the planet in opposition to the coming war. Millions of people participated in those rallies and marches, and collectively they have been acknowledged as the single largest political demonstration in human history.
And when someone in the press corps asked Bush what he thought about the enormous amount of popular worldwide opposition to his invasion plans, he smiled and told them how much he loves free speech and how great it is that people can say whatever they want. And that was that.
A few weeks later, the US invaded another country that had done nothing to provoke it, resulting in mass death, extreme political instability (which did not remain exclusively within Iraq's borders), ecological destruction, and large-scale loss of irreplaceable historical artifacts in what, by now, is recognized by a very broad swath of the political spectrum as a pointless war justified through deceit and outright fraud.
The transcript of the press conference is at the link below, but it doesn't do justice to his delivery: the patronizing smile, the fratty camaraderie with the fawning press corps, the disarming affability. I was really jaded already, but if I still retained any shred of confidence in the power of big marches to accomplish anything much, that was really the end of it. Bush's reply was arguably the most cynical act of rhetorical jujitsu I've ever seen, which is saying a lot at this point.
When people ask why I believe in direct action and, yeah, even "violence"* as a means to political ends, it's because I've seen, through the example of people like Bush, that power doesn't listen if it doesn't see a cost in not listening. They hear us and they know what we need from them, but they just don't care. Asking politely just isn't even an option.
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030306-8.html
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Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, former leader of the French neo-Nazi group les Zouaves Paris, was just sentenced for attacking members of SOS Racisme in December 2021 outside an event held by Éric Zemmour, who had just declared his candidacy in the presidential race and was launching his new far-right party Reconquête.
The sentence amounts to 18 months: 9 at home under house arrest and 9 on probation.
Cacqueray-Valmenier was previously convicted in 2019 for attacking people involved in the Yellow Vest demonstrations.
Les Zouaves Paris were banned in Jan. 2022 on account of their violence, incitement to violence, overt racism, and use of Nazi iconography.
https://www.ouest-france.fr/societe/justice/lex-leadeur-du-groupuscule-zouaves-paris-condamne-pour-lagression-de-militants-antiracistes-642c1212-d403-11ef-a472-523f8d5502d1
[#]ZouavesParis #Zemmour #Reconquete #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #racism #FuckThatGuy #Cacqueray
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I do, admittedly, have a masters, but I'm really committed to the "no gods" thing, I swear.
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Some good news, at least provisionally, for Gino, the antifascist who was arrested in France a few months ago on a Hungarian warrant based on allegations of violence against Nazis in Budapest in Feb. 2023.
Gino's lawyers filed a motion against extradition to Hungary on the basis that the Hungarian courts are not in a position to give Gino a fair trial, and the French court accepted that motion. The French court has asked Hungarian officials for additional information regarding possible prison conditions as well as whether or not there would be any chance that Gino would get a trial based on actual facts, rather than on his political orientation. Hungary has 15 days to respond, and there is another hearing scheduled for February 12.
This is a hopeful development in part because it is a reminder of Gabri's case last year in Italy. Gabri was also arrested on a Hungarian warrant arising from the same events in Budapest in 2023, but an Italian court ruled that, no, he couldn't get a fair trial and wouldn't be held under humane conditions if he were extradited, so the Italian court just let him go.
It remains to be seen what will happen next for Gino, but at least for the next several weeks he won't be going to Hungary.
https://www.basc.news/gino-anhoerung-ueber-auslieferung/
[#]FreeGino #FreeMaja #FreeHanna #FreeTobi #FreeAllAntifas #fcknzs #fascism #Hungary #Orban #Budapest #antifa #antifascism #alerta
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I'm all but tech-illiterate, and I have a really dumb question for any of the more patient web design/development people out there: Am I losing my mind, or are websites just not bothering to include a "search" function anymore? And if it's not just me, then why, for the love of all that is holy, are they ditching the single most useful component of just about any website?
Okay, sorry, that's more like 1.5 questions, really.
I may actually just be losing it, so feel free to tell me so or to just ignore.
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Here's a good, short analysis of what the State Dept. designation of Terrorgram and its leaders as global terrorists actually means and what it doesn't:
Writing in July 2020, academic Anna Meier noted that the impact of these designations are not always direct.
“Designation may combat political violence in some circumstances, but its largest effects lie elsewhere,” Meier wrote in Lawfare. “In particular, designation signals what kinds of political contention are unacceptable to the U.S. government—and preserves this categorization as much as possible as public sentiment shifts.”
The same, I think, could be said of types of extremism. Under Trump’s prior administration, his Department of Justice officials went after groups like Atomwaffen Division, The Base, Feuerkreig Division, and other violent white supremacists. Yet he ended his term with a spectacular display of political violence that the mainstream right has come to embrace. And he promises to start [t]his one with a round of pardons for at least some individuals convicted of charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
https://postsfromunderground.ghost.io/the-choice-is-yours-white-man-th/
[#]Terrorgram #Terrorism #StateDepartment #fascism #NeoNazis #fcknzs
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Patriot Front lost in court today and, while they'll never actually pay all of what they now owe, it's nice that they just got hit with a good seven figures in damages: $2,755,000 in total.
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A federal judge on Monday ordered the white supremacist group Patriot Front and its leader to pay more than $2.7 million in damages to a Black musician for violating his civil rights by attacking him in Boston’s Back Bay in 2022 during a “flash march” through the city over the Fourth of July weekend.
The assault on Charles M. Murrel III as he walked along Dartmouth Street on his way to the Boston Public Library to play his saxophone was encouraged by the group’s leader, Thomas Rousseau, who led the marchers and “glorified” the attack afterward by celebrating a video clip that had been posted online, US District Judge Indira Talwani wrote in a 27-page decision.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/13/metro/patriot-front-civil-rights-black-musician-boston-attack/
[#]PatriotFront #ThomasRousseau #Boston #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #WhiteSupremacy #racism #FuckThoseGuys
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The US State Department has just designated Terrorgram and three of its leaders as "Global Terrorists". It seems unlikely to change much, but it may complicate the lives of those leaders a little bit.
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Today, the Department of State is designating The Terrorgram Collective (Terrorgram) and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended.
https://www.state.gov/office-of-the-spokesperson/releases/2025/01/terrorist-designations-of-the-terrorgram-collective-and-three-leaders
[#]Terrorgram #Telegram #PavelDurov #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #racism #homophobia #AntiLGBT #Antisemitism
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Reactionary pundits in 2020, when Black people were protesting against police murder: They’re burning our cities to the ground! Police need new powers so they can be punished!
Reactionary pundits in 2025, when the fossil fuel industry is responsible for actually burning a US city to the ground: Let’s annex Canada and Greenland!
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A very good thread from David Neiwert on the career in Proud Boy chuddery of Ethan Nordean, aka "Rufio Panman". Nordean is currently serving a lengthy federal sentence on a Jan. 6-related conspiracy charge, but will almost certainly be pardoned not too long after Jan. 20.
https://bsky.app/profile/davidneiwert.bsky.social/post/3lfkzzcde5k27
[#]KnowYourFascist #Jan6 #J20 #ProudBoys #EthanNordean #RufioPanman #fascism #FuckThatGuy #RoidRage #fcknzs
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The neo-Nazi organisation Blood and Honour, which is linked to parts of the skinhead music scene, has become the first extreme right-wing group to have financial sanctions imposed by the UK government.
Treasury ministers said they had "reasonable grounds to suspect" Blood and Honour of being involved in "terrorist activities through promoting and encouraging terrorism, seeking to recruit people for that purpose and making funds available for the purposes of its terrorist activities".
The assets freeze - which was extended to all aliases or affiliate groups including Combat 18 and 28 Radio - means nobody in the UK can provide funding or financial services to those named organisations.
This is a different government response from proscription - in which the Home Office issues banning orders on extremist groups.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjzj4zrppko
[#]BloodAndHonour #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #skinheads #racism #fascism
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It's sort of fun to mock Elon Musk and Alice Weidel for calling Hitler a "Communist" as though they don't actually know anything at all about history, and I'm all for the judicious use of mockery as a tool for discouraging fascists from speaking up for fear of looking stupid.
It's also worth keeping in mind that this kind of obviously dumb, ahistorical bullshit is always a step toward normalizing said bullshit. It's not that they don't know anything about history, it's that they want to reconstruct history to their own advantage. They do it in a lot of ways, but this particular thing about Hitler is a long-standing project on the right and a good example of how it works. Dinesh D'Souza has been trying to convince anyone who would listen that Hitler was a leftist for a long time now, including through his 2017 book 'The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left.' Even the 2008 book 'The Liberal Fascism' by NPR's favorite right-wing nerd Jonah Goldberg was a step in that direction. We've all mocked them for this same thing for years, and it's well deserved, but at this point, we're on track for this idea -- that Hitler was some kind of leftist, rather than someone who specifically sought to "liquidate" Communists and other leftists -- to become accepted historiography, and not just something your dumb uncle spits out at the bar after grandma's funeral.
In short: "we're not the Nazis, you're the Nazis" is not an incidental thing. It's not a slip of the tongue or just a mistake made by people who don't know better. They really want people to believe that, and they definitely have the means to make it sound like consensus knowledge. Mock them if that seems like a useful way to keep their bullshit in check, but take it seriously too.
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Here's an article with more details on Augustus Invictus' sentencing. Yesterday I left out an important detail from Emily Gorcenski's initial post: most of his five-year sentence is suspended, and he's only slated to spend 9.5 months in jail. He has, of course, already said he'd appeal (in his usual grandstanding style, he's promising to take it to the Supreme Court), but it sounds like he doesn't have much of a case (he's actually a lawyer, but he's also a violent kook, go figure).
https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/goats-blood-drinking-florida-man-gets-9-1-2-months-for-role-in-torch-carrying/article_1a26be9e-ceb1-11ef-919b-2fccf28af730.html
[#]UTR #UniteTheRight #AugustusSolInvictus #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #FuckThatGuy
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