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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"America’s angriest white men: Up close with racism, rage and Southern supremacy"
Theres a large rural component. Although the spread of far-right groups over the last decade has not been limited to rural areas alone, writes Osha Gray Davidson, the social and economic unraveling of rural communitiesespecially in the midwesthas provided far-right groups with new audiences for their messages of hate. Some of these groups have enjoyed considerable success in their rural campaign. For many farmers facing foreclosures, the Far Right promises to help them save their land have been appealing, offering farmers various schemes and legal maneuvers to help prevent foreclosures, blaming the farmers troubles on Jewish bankers and the one-world government. As rural communities started to collapse, Davidson writes, the Far Right could be seen at farm auctions comforting families . . . confirming what rural people knew to be true: that their livelihoods, their families, their communitiestheir very liveswere falling apart. In stark contrast to the government indifference encountered by rural Americans, a range of Far Right groups, most recently the militias, have seemingly provided support, community, and answers.
In that sense, the contemporary militias and other white supremacist groups are following in the footsteps of the Ku Klux Klan, the Posse Comitatus, and other Far Right patriot groups who recruited members in rural America throughout the 1980s. They tap into a long history of racial and ethnic paranoia in rural America, as well as an equally long tradition of collective local action and vigilante justice. There remains a widespread notion that Jews, African-Americans, and other minority-group members do not entirely belong, which may, in part, be responsible for rural peoples easy acceptance of the far rights agenda of hate, writes Matthew Snipp. The far right didnt create bigotry in the Midwest; it didnt need to, Davidson concludes. It merely had to tap into the existing undercurrent of prejudice once this had been inflamed by widespread economic failure and social discontent.
And many have moved from their deindustrializing cities, foreclosed suburban tracts, and wasted farmlands to smaller rural areas because they seek the companionship of like-minded fellows, in relatively remote areas far from large numbers of nonwhites and Jews and where they can organize, train, and build protective fortresses. Many groups have established refuge in rural communities, where they can practice military tactics, stockpile food and weapons, hone their survivalist skills, and become self-sufficient in preparation for Armageddon, the final race war, or whatever cataclysm they envision. Think of it as the twenty-first-century version of postwar suburban white flightbut on steroids.
THE REST:
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/17/americas_angriest_white_men_up_close_with_racism_rage_and_southern_supremacy/
polichick
(37,152 posts)they are preyed upon by far-right proselytizers.
Mopar151
(9,983 posts)Simplicisim, cloaked in big words
KG
(28,751 posts)GreenEyedLefty
(2,073 posts)I mean, if you never met a Jewish or African American person because you live in an area that is so remote as to not even be considered an "exurb," it's easy to hate them as a whole group. It's clear to me that it's easier to justify hating "the other," than to ponder the racial makeup of who ultimately wrought the economic misfortunes upon them.
My MIL rails against "the blacks" and "the Mexicans" and any other group that she perceives as having been given preferential treatment by the government. She thinks that their supposed advantages automatically put her and her family at a disadvantage. Totally irrational. But I do think there is a kernel of truth there... the government does give preferential treatment. To corporations, to Wall Street, corporate media, etc., who in turn create smoke and mirrors by ginning up stories of welfare/food stamp cheats, affirmative action "injustices" against white people, etc. And they know "the base" will buy it.
DinahMoeHum
(21,787 posts)(snip)
So, who are they really, these hundred thousand white supremacists? Theyre every white guy who believed that this land was his land, was made for you and me. Theyre every down-on-his-luck guy who just wanted to live a decent life but got stepped on, every character in a Bruce Springsteen or Merle Haggard song, every cop, soldier, auto mechanic, steelworker, and construction worker in Americas small towns who cant make ends meet and wonders why everyone else is getting a break except him. But instead of becoming Tom Joad, a left-leaning populist, they take a hard right turn, ultimately supporting the very people who have dispossessed them.
Theyre Americas Everymen, whose pain at downward mobility and whose anger at what they see as an indifferent government have become twisted by a hate that tells them they are better than others, disfigured by a resentment so deep that there are no more bridges to be built, no more ladders of upward mobility to be climbed, a howl of pain mangled into the scream of a warrior. Their rage is as sad as it is frightening, as impotent as it is shrill.
(snip)
*the boldface emphasis is mine - DMH
treestar
(82,383 posts)Really getting into the underlying errors of these people and why they feel so sorry for themselves.
tabbycat31
(6,336 posts)Face it, the younger people this article is talking about (the author said the average age is 36) was screwed by their parents, who lost the family business, farm, etc that supported the family for generations. (As a 33 year old, I know that barring a winning lottery ticket, I'm never going to have the financial status of my parents, in fact I doubt I'll see any of the SS that I am paying into).
Instead of doing what the previous generations did, these younger Americans (in an area where jobs are not abundant) must work Burger King style jobs (and wages) and are not getting by. They should be the first people fighting to raise the minimum wage.
Good thread, great replies.
Thx.
Solly Mack
(90,766 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)rbrnmw
(7,160 posts)but I was raised by subperb parents who spoke of the racial inequelities and explained how horrible and unjust it all was. They had Black Like Me. I read it at 12 and again at 17 it changed my point of view my parents campaigned for The Democratic Party and were quite liberal so I heard things at the dinner table that most kids didn't my parents were political and that's what they chose to teach us through example and open honesty. My Parents both cried tears of joys the day President Obama won my Dad got to see him before he died I am so glad I was here to take him. He said he never thought he'd live to see the day. He also felt in some ways PBO win brought the ugly racists to the surface they were kind of quiet with their racist rhetoric and kept it mostly to themselves. I do believe that's true.
kydo
(2,679 posts)Southern Pride = Nazi Germany
Only in the USA, we are too chicken shit to call out the "southern pride" crap for what it truly is, Racism. Ironically the Nazi Channel, oops History Channel, lays it all out there. I don't know why but I was watching one of those Nazi Gospel's the other day. I've seen it before and its intention is to show how evil, deranged, extreme, and total bat shit crazy, the members, leaders, and ideology of the Nazi Party were. It is scary how eerily similar the Nazis and the Tea Party aka Republicans, really are.
But it took the death of millions in concentration camps and gas chambers before Germany finally understood the magnitude of what racism does. Now many symbols of Nazi Germany are illegal in Germany and shunned in most civilized areas of the world.
Look at Prince Harry when he wore the Nazi costume at a party. What would have happened to him if he had picked a rebel costume instead? Probably nothing, that's the sad part.
I find symbols of the confederacy passing as southern pride terrifying. The glorification of hate and racism is disgusting.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)These men feel emasculated by big money and big government. In their eyes, most white American men collude in their emasculation. Theyve grown soft, feminized, weak.
I need to read the whole book, but I think this idea is central.
-Laelth