Thomas ZimmerMay 14, 2023
It’s really hard to overstate how acutely dangerous this is: All strands of the Right - leading Republicans, the media machine, the reactionary intellectual sphere, the conservative base - are openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence.
Show threadThomas ZimmerMay 14, 2023

Not that more evidence was really needed, but the mask has fully slipped in the reactions to the killing of Jordan Neely.

Look at this, for instance, from a rightwing “thinker”: Very difficult to construct a plausible version of who “these people” are supposed to be that’s not brutally racist.

Show threadThomas ZimmerMay 14, 2023
This sends a clear message: It encourages white militants to use whatever force they please to “fight back” against anything and anyone associated with “the Left” by protecting and glorifying those who have engaged in vigilante violence – call it the Kyle Rittenhouse dogma.
Show threadThomas ZimmerMay 14, 2023
The Right is defined by a political and social culture of white grievance, ethno-religious nationalism, gun fundamentalism, toxic masculinity, and glorified militancy - it is bound to produce many iterations of Kyle Rittenhouse. Very hard to sustain democracy under such circumstances.
Show threadsandywb14
@tzimmer_history Isn’t destroying democracy their end goal?
May 14, 2023 at 5:27pmWeb