Post AVijRe0oSRsRY6bOzY by vy@sciencemastodon.com
(DIR) More posts by vy@sciencemastodon.com
(DIR) Post #AViHt71NlrSVIk3ojA by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:04:48Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
All strands of the Right – GOP officials, the media machine, reactionary intellectuals, the conservative base – are openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence against “the Left.” It’s becoming harder to shake the Weimar Republic vibes. A thread, outlining some key arguments from my new Democracy Americana: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/vigilante-violence-is-part-of-the
(DIR) Post #AViHt7eNQsePFgIxVY by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:06:41Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The mask has fully slipped in the reactions to the killing of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway. We are staring at the contemporary American Right’s true face, at the essence of what defines the reactionary political project. It is a terrifying sight. 2/
(DIR) Post #AViHt8LGrOxhOiNDMm by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:08:08Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
The message is clear: White militants are being encouraged 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. 3/
(DIR) Post #AViHt8vmfeAXDxSNHM by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:08:47Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The Right envisions a society in which white conservatives are enabled to serve as deputies of the white nationalist state to help keep those “others” in check, and to enforce a reactionary social and moral order through the threat of vigilante violence. 4/
(DIR) Post #AViHt9gvqLsnaBW1lg by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:10:26Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
White vigilante violence is obviously not a new phenomenon. It was especially prevalent during moments of racial progress, in response to the first attempt of interracial democracy after the Civil War, for instance, or to the civil rights advances of the 1950s and 60s. 5/
(DIR) Post #AViHtAJvVN4hX7lAY4 by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:11:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But the celebration of Kyle Rittenhouse on the Right still marked a key moment because it captured the significant radicalization of conservative politics in the past few years, after the election of the first Black president and again since the anti-racist protests of 2020. 6/
(DIR) Post #AViHtAuRJcHXMMqKSe by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:12:23Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
We need to think about the embrace of vigilante violence as a strategy in the Right’s fight against democracy and as a part of the broader reactionary counter-mobilization: It serves as a tool to suppress protest and intimidate the majority. 7/
(DIR) Post #AViHtDSBr6T3FceJLU by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:13:09Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Beyond just functioning as a tool for upholding political power, white vigilante violence also serves as a way to enforce the underlying reactionary vision for which there is no majority support in America – and no one understands this better than the Right itself. 8/
(DIR) Post #AViHtFzwOaeZ8sSIEK by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:13:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The Right envisions a society in which white conservatives are enabled to serve as deputies of the white nationalist state to help keep those “others” in check, and to enforce a reactionary social and moral order through the threat of vigilante. 9/
(DIR) Post #AViHtIXKxOYV125zYu by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:14:13Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I generally try to stay away from references to the rise of the Nazis and the demise of democracy in Europe’s interwar period as analogies for the current moment. But the Right’s embrace of vigilante violence is undeniably reminiscent of the situation in Weimar Germany. 10/
(DIR) Post #AViHtL9LF48z7TtN4q by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:14:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
My default position is that the most instructive analogies are not to be found in Europe’s past, but in U.S. history. Specifically, we should pay more attention to how moments of social and racial progress in the United States were met with violent counter-mobilizations. 11/
(DIR) Post #AViHtNXANSOEVx3QUS by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:15:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
And yet, the Weimar analogy is quite apt because it emphasizes a constellation in which vigilantism and political violence were widely seen as justified and necessary among Germany’s radical Right, but also among its more mainstream conservative enablers. 12/
(DIR) Post #AViHtPwlPG3Nzv2tfM by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:16:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Scholars of German and European history have contended that a key element of the Weimar constellation is missing in the current U.S. context: The presence of strong communist movements and parties that could be perceived as a credible leftwing threat. 13/
(DIR) Post #AViHtSOqHphbbaCLi4 by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:16:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This particular criticism of the Weimar analogy, however, doesn’t adequately grapple with the fact that in the minds of the American Right, such a radical leftist threat does absolutely exist. In fact, the Right derives the permission to radicalize ever further entirely from this idea. 14/
(DIR) Post #AViHtUmJRXfGyxC7ZQ by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:17:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Every time I mention how the Right is embracing vigilantism, I get a flurry of “Where were you when those woke barbarians destroyed our cities in the summer of 2020?! The violence is coming from the Left!!!” replies. 15/
(DIR) Post #AViHtX2L2vfjzEhwpM by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:17:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This idea has become dogma on the Right: That the country is facing an onslaught from a powerful, radically “Un-American,” extremist “Left” that is violently threatening to destroy everything the nation is supposed to stand for. 16/
(DIR) Post #AViHtZJ4bgFN1iYLBo by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:19:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
There is a long tradition of conservatives deriding anything that threatens the social and racial hierarchy, any sort of leveling attempt, as “communism” or “socialism” and using those terms to demonize anyone who dares to question the righteousness of white reactionary elite rule. 17/
(DIR) Post #AViHtbczyZNEE5tHWa by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:19:57Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Rightwing extremism was never fully purged from mainstream conservatism. And after Obama – often derided as a radical “socialist” – was elected president, the idea that more drastic action was urgently needed was spreading fast into the center of conservative politics. 18/
(DIR) Post #AViHte2b0N2Ni3skhU by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:20:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The summer of 2020 further escalated this perception of imminent threat: It has become a key element of rightwing political identity to view the protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd as – as irrefutable proof that “the Left” had started its full-on assault. 19/
(DIR) Post #AViHtgOeFLrj12DOLo by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:21:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This interpretation provides a permission structure for the embrace of political violence. Building up this supposedly totalitarian threat from the “Left” enables the Right to justify its actions within the long-established framework of conservative self-victimization. 20/
(DIR) Post #AViHtiUkRdvvWX5I8W by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:22:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
It’s a permission structure that doesn’t ever allow de-escalation, or retreat. Clinging to the idea that “They won’t go *that* far” is futile: They absolutely will, because they have convinced themselves that the other side has already gone *much further*. 21/
(DIR) Post #AViHtktdW51uyIkCCu by tzimmer_history@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T12:24:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
What are they giving themselves permission to do? That is the key question when dealing with the Right. And an honest assessment of that question should leave no doubt that American democracy is currently in an acutely perilous situation. More here: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/vigilante-violence-is-part-of-the
(DIR) Post #AViI9WWOjHYH1RORlY by Ducking@freespeechextremist.com
2023-05-16T13:08:37.323455Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tzimmer_history Based if true
(DIR) Post #AVijRe0oSRsRY6bOzY by vy@sciencemastodon.com
2023-05-16T12:26:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tzimmer_history I am not sure if they even believe it - because they certainly believe and celebrate that they are the ones with the guns and cop sympathizers - just as the Confederates believed before the Civil War that the North was outmatched.
(DIR) Post #AVijRm4eU3hYYKSa5Q by Npars01@mstdn.social
2023-05-16T17:20:21Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@vy @tzimmer_history The Right is losing for the same reasons the Slave-Owning States lost.1. Democrat states have stronger & more diverse economies.2. Republican billionaires are cheap. They don't invest in their states for future growth. They just extract wealth. They attack public education, voting, public health.3. Republicans are short-term thinkers. Immediate gratification. Thrilled by "owning the libs" while their homes are destroyed by climate change.4. They hang onto the past
(DIR) Post #AVilNmaSplrktUZ2bQ by voron@mstdn.party
2023-05-16T16:47:27Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@tzimmer_history @GottaLaff with the well known strong MAGA contingent within law enforcement this will be supported see: the leak about the subway murderer of the homeless man in New York
(DIR) Post #AVilunvUsLywbV9F56 by GreenFire@mstdn.social
2023-05-16T14:38:57Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@tzimmer_history Over the past few years, people have thrown around the word "fascism" to criticize any number of issues—stay-at-home orders during a global pandemic, proposed environmental regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and even legislation limiting the size of soft drinks.What do experts agree on about what fascism is? https://world101.cfr.org/historical-context/world-war/what-fascism
(DIR) Post #AVj9tKOZaFTZcpZpyK by KatM@mastodon.social
2023-05-16T15:04:56Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@tzimmer_history A few months ago I asked on here why left leaning Texans weren’t out in the streets protesting what their state government is doing to diminish their rights. The number one response was *fear of being shot.* Terror works.@GottaLaff - See this thread if you haven’t already.