Michael Edison Hayden on Far-Right Extremists and Cryptocurrency

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://lucid.substack.com/p/michael-edison-hayden-on-far-right


*snip*

MEH: The number of hate groups that we track in total is going down, which may startle people who say, oh really? I thought I saw all those people storm the Capitol building! The number of hate groups is going down largely because older groups like the Ku Klux Klan no longer have the kind of strength they once did.

What's happening now is there are softer barriers between the mainstream Republican party and the fringe far right. Radicalization through the Internet has eroded those barriers, to the point that after Jan. 6 one could argue that they've broken down altogether. Now extremist ideologies live in households all over the country: they are on people's phones and in their lives in very intimate ways. People don't need to show up at a group or put on a uniform.

RBG: So, the landscape is dynamic, with fewer older-style hate organizations, but more extremists overall.

MEH: That's what is so scary about this particular moment. My recent piece on the state of far-right extremism one year after Jan. 6 should alarm people. Six or seven years ago, Trump was considered an unelectable sideshow. Now the GOP is behind Trump even after people threatened to kill Republicans in his name on that day.

And just two years ago, the Republicans, almost in unison, denounced Rep. Steve King for his white nationalism. Now House members like Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Green are arguably more extreme than King.

*snip*

[lapfog_1]

1. in other words, the GOP is a radical hate group

and in other news... the sky is blue and the ocean is wet