A Weak White Supremacist Movement Is Even More Threatening Than a Strong One! Donate Now!
A New York Times story views "white power" music with alarm, noting Sikh temple shooter Wade M. Page's history in bands such as End Apathy and Definite Hate. It warns that the genre, a.k.a. hatecore, is "helping keep the [white supremacist] movement energized and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected." How powerful? The Times notes in passing that Arno Michaelis, a former white supremacist who founded the organization Life After Hate, used to lead Centurion, a band with a CD that "has sold 20,000 copies worldwide." Apparently that's a monster hit for a hatecore album, but it is three orders of magnitude shy of the sales generated by top-selling mainstream albums. Michael Bublé's Christmas album sold more copies in three days last year than Centurion ever will.
Even so, the number of people who bought Centurion's CD seems to be much bigger than the number of organized white supremacists in the United States. Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) counted 1,018 "active hate groups," an umbrella term covering various different flavors of bigotry and including every local chapter of groups such as the KKK and the Nation of Islam, even if they had only a handful of members. According to the Times, the SPLC's research indicates that "the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organizations has grown sharply since the election of President Obama in 2008," but "the movement is more decentralized and in many ways more disorganized than ever." It might even be smaller, as measured by total members, although The Christian Science Monitor claims it's "on the rise." Stormfront's Don Black, the go-to white supremacist for major news outlets, tells the Times "there is plenty of frustration and defeatism in the white nationalist movement."
But according to the SPLC, a weaker, smaller, disorganized, frustrated, and defeated white supremacist movement is especially dangerous:
The decentralization of the white supremacy movement may also encourage isolated actors—as Mr. Page appears to have been—to strike out, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"When there are not large organizations, you are more likely to see lone wolves like Wade Page," he said. "We are seeing a movement full of white-hot rage and frustration because they feel they have lost the battle to make America a white country."
In other words, no matter how many people are joining these groups, the threat is dire. A shrinking movement is just as worrisome as a growing movement. And did you know that donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center are tax-deductible?
Puzzled by the fizzling of organized racism, "despite the recruiting opportunities presented by an economic recession and the election of a black president," the Times settles on a tentative explanation:
One reason for the disarray might be the growth of a more mainstream movement, the Tea Party, whose successful forays into electoral politics have siphoned energy and support from violent fringe groups, said Chip Berlet, a Boston-based journalist who writes about right-wing groups.
Don't you see? The KKK attracts angry white people, and so does the Tea Party. Hence the Tea Party is a "more mainstream" version of the KKK, siphoning off violent racists from older organizations. By that logic, the same thing is true of the Occupy movement.
More on the Tea Party's alleged racism here.
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The SPLC just won the gold medal for mental gymnastics.
Remember how the SPLC determines hate groups:
Any gathering of two or more people, who are not Democrats, are “hate groups”.
Nation of Islam doesn’t fit that bill.
Well, of course not. Neither does the NBPP.
“has sold 20,000 copies worldwide.”
lolworthy quote right there.
Should add in a bit about how napster’s obviously the cause for such low sales too.
The decreasing threat of racial violence is resulting in an increasing threat of racial violence!
It’s springtime for Hitler!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay!
We’re marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!
Michael Bubl?’s Christmas album sold more copies in three days last year than Centurion ever will.
Even white supremacists don’t deserve to be hit below the belt like that.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, like any similar group, needs a threat to make its existence necessary. SPLC will never find a dearth of racists, no matter how few Klansmen we have in the Senate or how many blackish presidents we elect.
Fuck me. I thought SPLC was a joke. I am now othered.
Especially if they ignore the actual *definition* of racism. “Because we said so” does not a racist make.
So now white supremacists aren’t racists?
You have missed the entire point, shithead.
Actually, white supremacists are, indeed, racists. People who DON’T engage in such racial supremacy, however, are not automatically racist just because someone like you *says* they are.
Right, that was my point in calling Tony out. The initial post claimed that the SPLC would never find a dearth of racists. Tony twisted that in his tiny little peanut brain to mean “SO RACISTS AREN’T RACIST!?!?”
To Tony, anyone not like him = racist.
Even if they aren’t actually racist.
If I really hated people, I’d force them to liston to Michael Buble.
Who the fuck is Michael Buble?
The argument the SPLC is making is not entirely invalid. Look at the example of the Soviets with a thousand nukes vs. 23 former Soviet republics with a few dozen nukes each. That was a very scary situation, since the grim realists heading the USSR were very unlikely to launch a nuclear attack as they had too much to lose.
Now, I seriously doubt there was ever a grim realist cadre on top of the white supremacist movement, so that dog probably doesn’t hunt in this case. But the argument that a weak movement can be more dangerous than a strong one is not ipso facto absurd.
It’s pretty absurd.
I hereby denounce the SPLC, Michael Buble’ and T o n y.
That would make you a white supremacist, Citizen, because disagreeing with Tony = racist hillbilly.
He went to college, y’know.
You’re right, Mr. F. I hereby denounce myself and all I believe in. That should about cover it.
Doesn’t it feel better now that you’ve admitted how much you hate brown people, Citizen?
/snark
Wait, brown people? I thought we were talking about homos.
Brown homos?
Is that a thing?
They keep it on the down-low, so it’s hard to tell how much of a thing it is.
Tractor Pulls!
Fixin’ carburetors!
I actually am fixing a carb this weekend : (
(on a motorcycle)
This reminded me of an annual tractor pull nearby too; I forget when it is though.
If I have fuel injection on my bikes, does that make me a Cosmosupremecist?
Yes. And probably a homo too.
The sad thing here is the FBI knew about this guy by virtue of the existing surveilance state, and they still did nothing.
What exactly are they going to do? He was a racist, which is legal. He bought a handgun, which is also legal. Where do they step in there? It’s not like he started buying up fertilizer or something.
Gonna try an experiment here:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
Supposedly, using the actual definition of that word is “pedantic”. However, upon further review:
http://www.merriam-webster.com…..1344442452
Nope, doesn’t fit. Looks like a certain self-appointed college-educated genius needs to rethink a few things.
Why do you ignore the prejudice part? I forgot what the dispute was about. That tends to happen when someone stops making arguments for weeks on end, preferring to wave a dictionary in my face. When did I accuse you of racism and what was it about?
Please. I’ve seen you call someone a racist, homophobe, bigot, or some variation at least once a day when I read the comments.
Well I’m called a slaver, brownshirt, state-fellator, and other names on a daily basis, so maybe we should all grow up?
Well that’ll take all the fun out of it.
Well I’m called a slaver, brownshirt, state-fellator, and other names on a daily basis,
But, these are all true.
Though I reserve the right to push FIFY’s buttons for my own amusement.
Even I gotta agree with Choney on this one. Button pushing = for everyone.
A New York Times story views “white power” music with alarm
Nobody needs an assault guitar. It’s time for a rational discussion of guitar control.
The government recently was speaking to Gibson about just this…
SPLC had jolly well better have this site on its list.
I was briefly tricked into thinking that one billboard had a woman sticking her middle finger up when it was actually her ring finger. I, nor the FCC, should tolerate them making me think obscene thoughts.
Isn’t the SPLC the organization that decided Jared Loughner was some sort of right-wing militia famatic, because he claimed to have enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Animal Farm?
Okay, I had to dig up that article so I could have a good long laugh …
Here it is …
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/…..-loughner/
Loughner talks about how you “can’t trust the government” and someone burns a U.S. flag in one of the videos attributed to him. Although certain right-wing websites are already using that (and his listing of The Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books) to claim that Loughner was a “left-winger,” that does not strike me as true. The main enemy of the Patriot movement is certainly the federal government. And so-called Patriots have certainly engaged in acts like burning the flag.
Finally, I think Loughner’s reading list, although it included children’s books and a few classics, had an underlying theme ? the individual versus the totalitarian state. Certainly, that’s the explicit central theme of Ayn Rand’s We the Living and Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, among others. I would argue that that’s the way Loughner seems to be reading The Communist Manifesto and Hitler’s Mein Kampf ? as variants of a kind of generalized “smash the state” attitude.
See … clear as day Obviously Jared Loughner must be a Tea Party guy.
I’ve always thought that the hysteria in official channels (The Media, The Gov, various Law Enforcement, etc, etc.) over the threat that “White Power” music poses was always nothing short of laughable. It really does cement my long held belief that these boobs are nothing short of a slapstick comedy routine from back in the vaudeville days. If you guys really wanna know what a White Power music event is all about, Here it is in a nutshell:
(to the loud and rancorous sounds of Punk and/or Metal music)
1. Raise your right arm in nazi salute while repeating a variety of white racialist slogans.
2. Lower your right arm and while firmly grasping your favorite 12oz beverage in your left hand proceed to take a healthy slug.
3. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary over the course of the evening for you to consider it to have been a great time.
Yes, really. No shit. I know, I’m part of the scene.
It’s sort of like Christian contemporary music’s parasitic relationship with pop, except you replace “love” with “nigger” instead of “Jesus”.
Well, the Occupy movement siphons off violent Marxists from the communists and anarchists.
And white people. Lotta white kidz in the OM.
But according to the SPLC, a weaker, smaller, disorganized, frustrated, and defeated white supremacist movement is especially dangerous:
So if we wipe them out completely, the nation will be taken over by white supremecists?
I was at a Tea Party event a few months ago. I didn’t see any white hoods or Nazi flags in attendence. What I did see were several different skin tones and two men holding hands wearing matching T-shirts saying ‘LGBTs for Ron Paul’. This Tea Party gathering wasn’t in New York or California either. It was right in the middle of Texas!
http://wisconsintempleshooting.blogspot.com/