Posted on 03/22/2021 1:22:58 PM PDT by PoliticallyShort
The narrative is here, and it doesn’t like you very much.
In recent remarks before members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, the chief of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency claimed that domestic extremism has become “part of the cultural mainstream.” Former DHS official and USA Today contributor Elizabeth Neumann agrees: “Far-Right Extremists went mainstream under Trump.”
“Extremists have gone mainstream,” echoes journalist Zahra Ahmad. “Lawyers, realtors and every-day folks make up their ranks.” Ahmad cites a figure suggesting a quarter of Americans hold “ideas incubated by white nationalists.” Not to be left out, NPR warns that white extremism “seeps” into the mainstream. The Atlantic says the mainstream has gone extremist too. A study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats warns that most January 6 “insurrectionists” were mainstream to the extreme:
They work as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants. Strikingly, court documents indicate that only 9 percent are unemployed. Of the earlier far-right extremist suspects we studied, 61 percent were under 35, 25 percent were unemployed, and almost none worked in white-collar occupations.
The Chicago Project is led by Robert Pape, a University of Chicago academic best known for declaring that Islamic extremism plays no role in suicide bombings and who once urged a U.S. government-identified front group for the terror organization Hamas to purchase copies to promote his book. So it’s an open question whether Pape and company can actually identify extremism when they see it.
But what does it say about America’s elites—security officials, academics, and media personalities—that they are all convinced that those holding the prevailing attitudes and values of our society are a dangerous threat? And a threat to whom?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmind.org ...
If your going to do the time, why not do the crime. White Americans have been found guilty en masse. The crucify crowd strikes again.
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... Barry Goldwater.
Ayn rand would also call extremism a garbage word -- an anti concept.
He had me at 'Ahmad'.
Ditto.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.