NEW: Docs we obtained show how @FBI equates protected online speech to violence. According to @FBI using the terms “based” or “red pilled” are signs of "Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism" pic.twitter.com/JSQiCoiKdT — Oversight Project (@OversightPR) April 3, 2023 The FBI uses a “glossary of terms” to look for online that could indicate someone is involved with “violent extremism. According to the FBI glossary, “based” means “someone who has been converted to racist ideology.” “Red pill” or being “redpilled” means someone is accepting racist, antisemitic or fascist beliefs, according to the FBI. I’ve never heard those definitions. I’ve heard “based” used in tech culture to admire, sometimes ironically, someone’s authenticity and boldness. Let’s run it by ChatGPT: The word “based” is often used to indicate that something has a foundation, source, or origin in something else. It means that a particular thing, person, or concept is rooted or founded… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Fascism
Messaging vs. Reality
I live in California. Gavin Newsom’s main flaw is that he’s very stupid. Democrats are not getting destroyed on messaging. I don’t even know what the Republican message is. I know the Democratic message is “MAGA Republicans, extreme MAGA Republicans, fascists.” Now that is a losing message, I grant you, because Democrats who aren’t insane, for whom politics does not play a destructive force in their life, have friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc., who are Republicans and understand that while Republicans have different political views, they aren’t trying to put Democrats in gulags. Democrats are getting destroyed by reality. Republicans are running on GDP, inflation, lying about inflation, recession, lying about recession, gas prices, food prices, stock market, crime, border security, fentanyl deaths, energy independence, foreign policy, supply chain, social corruption, silencing, lies, pronouns and fucking with children. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the Republicans could… Read more →
In Which We Learn That You’re Much More Likely to be Killed by a Bed Than by a Political Extremist
‘We are a tinderbox’: Political violence is ramping up, experts warn — Los Angeles Times Politically motivated violence has ebbed and flowed throughout U.S. history. Currently, America is going through an upsurge in right-wing violence, according to researchers who track attacks and other incidents. They say today’s climate is comparable to that in the mid-1990s, when a similar wave of right-wing violence culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. I’ll call bullshit on that. In fact, to avoid having to repeat myself, I’ll call bullshit on most of the article. It’s extremely slanted. There were 9,625 threats against members of Congress and their families last year, according to the Capitol Police — more than twice as many as in 2017. How many of the threats were carried out? I’ll estimate zero. “Death threats” are the biggest scam . . .… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: MAGA Republicans
My fellow Americans – I have to confess I have not figured out the difference between a “MAGA Republican” and a plain old Republican. A “Make America Great Again” Republican. It doesn’t sound so bad. And with that still unresolved, we are now confronted with “extreme MAGA Republicans,” who apparently want to make America extremely great again. .@RepJeffries on midterms: "Extreme MAGA Republicans apparently do not believe in democracy anymore. […] We'll have an opportunity to make our case to the American people […] and the consequences of what might happen if extreme MAGA Republicans are allowed to seize power." pic.twitter.com/T4LAMCxuyx — The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2022 Midterm elections are not far away and if I were a Democrat, I wouldn’t be looking forward to them with great optimism. Every Democratic policy has failed. They are under water with the economy, we are in a recession based on the… Read more →
Woke White Boy: Antifa vs. Anti-Vaxxers
You can have any kind of left-wing demonstration — women’s marches, Gay Pride parades, Black Lives Matter, pro-choice, political rallies — and you never have violent right-wing nutjobs turn up to disrupt them. I don’t know why. But when we hear about right-wing demonstrations like the anti-vaccine Freedom Rally in Santa Monica this weekend, that means it’s time to break out the black togs, bats and bike locks to give those fuckers a nice warm Antifa welcome. [Editor’s note: Isn’t violent suppression of opposing views the actual definition of fascism?] I don’t fucking know. I just know these fuckers better get vaccinated and maybe a good beating is just the incentive they need. [Editor’s note: Shouldn’t there be more fellow feeling for a group that doesn’t want the government to tell them what to do?] No! It’s not the government telling them what to do, it’s Antifa telling them what… Read more →
Fighting Fascism With Mob Violence
Here’s how different media outlets covered yesterday’s Berkeley rally . . . USA Today and the Sun-Sentinel, a Florida paper, play it straight up, telling us what happened and who was responsible: Black-clad anarchists stormed the rally, fighting against hate by kicking and punching people until police intervened. Even the Washington Post, the most left-wing, anti-Trump paper in America, which recently informed readers that there is no political violence on the left, got this one right. The Daily Mail uses the same photo as USA Today but reports only that violence broke out between the two sides. If they know any more about who was responsible, they’re not saying. Finally, NPR reports that scattered violence between left and right marred an otherwise peaceful protest. NPR notes that a radio host tried to protect a man he was afraid would be beaten to death by “a group of protestors.” If you… Read more →
EppsNet Book Reviews: The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch
The Sleepwalkers is one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read, very close to the edge of what can be accomplished with the written word. I had never heard of either the book or the author — neither seems to have any following here in the States — but Amazon for some reason started recommending me post-WWI Austrian modernists. (I also read Robert Musil’s A Man Without Qualities, which was extremely tedious.) I don’t know who to compare Broch with, in terms of language, wit, psychological and historical insight — maybe Nietzsche, if Nietzsche had decided to write historical fiction. The book chronicles, via multiple overlapping narratives, the moral history of Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the disintegration of values that led to fascism. And in his fear of the voice of judgment that threatens to issue from the darkness, there awakens within him… Read more →
It’s Hard to Tell the Violent, Intolerant Fascists Without a Scorecard
Sometimes it’s hard to remember which side the violent, intolerant fascists are on. 🙂 Mario Savio is spinning in his grave (I hope) . . . Read more →
See You in Hell
[See You in Hell is a feature by our guest blogger, Satan — PE] Greetings from the underworld! I see that Pope Francis put a bee in Turkey’s bonnet a couple of weeks ago by calling the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 a genocide. According to the Turks, the Vatican should look to its own history before casting stones. Tu quoque! On that note, the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography was just awarded to David I. Kertzer for The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe. Historically, popes have been far more circumspect in condemning genocide and other atrocities when committed by countries willing to aggrandize the Church (or when committed by the Church itself!) See you in Hell, clerics of all stripes . . . Read more →
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Angela Davis
I still believe that capitalism is the most dangerous kind of future we can imagine. — Angela Davis Alternatives to capitalism have resulted in shortages, famine, mass murder and societal collapse (cf., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, Venezuela … I could go on and on but I think we both get the point). Can anyone list a few capitalist countries where this has occurred? If not, what does the word “dangerous” mean in this context? Angela Davis is now 70 years old. Can anyone list a few well-known Angela Davis-style radicals who lived a long life in any of the aforementioned countries? Read more →