Trump losing the 2020 election has only increased the chance of right-wing violence

[Nevilledog]

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Shane Burley
@shane_burley1
Many far-right groups have seen their efficacy wane, which can lead to dangerously impulsive acts of violence. This makes these incursions from the far-right, such as their descent on Portland on Sunday, all the more frightening. New from me:

Opinion | Why Trump losing only increases the chance of right-wing violence
As white nationalism organizations feel politically powerless, they are more likely to turn to force. This could be their most volatile period in recent memory.
nbcnews.com
4:10 PM · Aug 19, 2021

There had been some hope that the threat of far-right violence that marked Donald Trump’s presidency would decline after Joe Biden became president and promised to deal with white nationalist groups. Once Biden took office, the thinking went, Trump’s movement would have been proven to be a failure, while Trump himself would no longer have the world’s most powerful bully pulpit. That would deflate the nativist street movement that acted as part of his base.

Instead, this sense of loss, government crackdowns, removal from social media platforms and difficulties presented by anti-fascist activism could make these groups more militant — and potentially dangerous. In a recent Department of Homeland Security memo, officials tried to “sound the alarm” about right-wing violence that false claims of election-tampering could be stoking. The department is communicating with security agencies in major urban areas, it said, calling our current period a “heightened terrorism-related threat environment.”

That’s partly because the radical ideologies and claims that motivate the often-violent behavior at the edges of the right have gained millions of adherents through conspiracy-peddling. And they now collectively believe that the political process is tainted, thereby undermining the legitimacy of working through it.

This pattern of mainstreaming hate, gathering more adherents, experiencing disillusion when the political system doesn’t deliver and in turn resorting to greater violence has repeated throughout modern U.S. history. And it suggests this could be the most volatile period for right-wing violence in recent memory.

*snip*

[tanyev]

1. It was going to get ugly, no matter what.

I'd rather have it be ugly with Trump OUT of the White House.

[TheRealNorth]

5. Exactly

Had the top brass in the military been on board with TFG prior to 1/6, it would have bad.

[gratuitous]

2. I'm still glad the former guy lost in 2020

We'll outlast these sore losers. Their rage will carry them only so far.

[Hoyt]

3. +1.

[rockfordfile]

4. Then put the un-American pos in prison.

It's a long ways but President Biden will be re-elected.

[uponit7771]

6. We need to stomp their terrorism into the ground