One co-lead story in Sunday’s New York Times regarding the aftermath of the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residency screamed “As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence.” According to reporter Alan Feuer, this violence is taking place almost exclusively on the right, the actual fact of violence by Black Lives Matter riots and ANTIFA notwithstanding.
An armed Trump supporter attacked an FBI office and the story became the key to this story.
This week, an F.B.I. office was the victim of an armed attack. office in Ohio by a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump who was enraged by the bureau’s search of Mr. Trump’s private residence in Florida was one of the most disturbing episodes of right-wing political violence in recent months.
It was not the only one.
In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.
….
This welter may feel dissimilar because it occurs at different times, places, and with different people. However, political violence scholars have found a common thread in the increased use bellicose dehumanizing language. Particularly by right-wing media and politicians.
The following paragraph was found in the exact same newspaper that published an opinion piece calling for the doxxing border agents in 2019.
That threat was ignored when Breitbart News, a right-wing media outlet, published the warrant that underpinned the Mar-a-Lago searches, despite the threats. The F.B.I. agents were not removed from the document. The document was signed by agents. Almost immediately afterward, posts on a pro-Trump chat board referred to them as “traitors.”
Feuer nodded at best towards reality.
There have also been some high-profile recent criminal cases involving political violence by left-leaning defendants, including one filed against a California man who was charged with attempted murder for showing up armed with a pistol, a knife and other weapons near the Maryland home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in June.
He felt the urge to continue pro-Democratic damage mitigation.
Republicans often criticize Democrats for not paying enough attention to Kavanaugh’s incident and only caring about aggressive behavior when it comes out of the right. Some people have pointed out several episodes that are not related to violence political, but which date back as far as 2017.
It above is a bizarrely elliptical way not to mention the June 2017 attempted assassination of Republican congressmen on a baseball field by a Bernie Sanders supporter.
The Times When it comes to recognizing threats from conservatives, the bar is low.
Experts point out that threats can be made by rhetoric, which does not necessarily have to refer to violence directly. A role is also played by dehumanizing language.
They point to efforts to label immigrants as invaders and people who support teaching about transgender and gay rights as “groomers.”….
Meanwhile, Democratic politicians and liberals are free to call conservatives Nazis, deplorables, Rethuglicans, MAGAt’s….
Feuer is a conspiracy theorist with a deep-seated blind spot. He sees danger only on the left. Feuer was oblivious to Ray Epps’ mysterious role in Capitol Hill riots. He also dismissed the possibility that Epps is a federal informant. Epps encouraged people to enter the Capitol Building that night, and was caught on video. Before President Trump’s infamous speech.
Feuer doesn’t find all conspiracy theories dangerous. In June 2006, a convention of Truthers who considered the 9-11 terrorist attacks an inside job by the Bush administration received a respectful hearing from him.
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