No one wants mud on their face in the weeks to come, so as a result we’re seeing mobilization, we’re seeing engagement, we’re seeing taking these threats very seriously.When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty Flag 2nd Amendment Bear Arms Quote Flag Show your Support with this Beautiful 2nd Amendment Flag!īeautiful Betsy Ross Patriotic Flag with III% design has a vintage look to it. We saw a dark historical moment that our country sunk to, and I think this served as a clear wake-up call. The concept of “now or never” - that is what they’re talking about.Īre the threats being taken more seriously this time? And violent actions are perceived as justified. No credible threats currently, but certainly there are calls for violence. We’re seeing violent chatter and calls to arms. What do you “read in the tea leaves” for the next few weeks? Right now, we’re looking at the next platform where they’re going to crop up, and the next space they’re going to mobilize and recruit. Parler was - and I say “was” because it was shut down - in some ways a little bit of an echo chamber for the right, a social media site that was increasingly popular among conservatives while simultaneously attracting this substantial range of extremists. This is a whack-a-mole game, it really is. President Trump has been banned from Twitter and other social media platforms, and the company has also kicked some 70,000 other accounts off the platform. To curtail and denounce and take action against some of these elements on their platforms was bad for business. Why didn’t the platforms that host this extremist talk take action beforehand?įor far too long, platforms were giving ample space to help elevate extremist, racist and bigoted voices. There were very clear indicators, and real-world events that took place across the nation, that lent themselves to an understanding that what happened at the Capitol wasn’t new. This is not something that happened in isolation. We wrote a memo a week prior saying we were concerned about the violence and the rhetoric, and unfortunately, we read the tea leaves too well. Did you see evidence something like this could happen? We now know there were plenty of warnings that violence was coming. As a result, he’s been demonized by some right-wing extremists for being a puppet of the Jews. Some lambaste Donald Trump as being a friend of Israel, as having Jewish family members, as making real-world actions that have supported the State of Israel. We see from right-wing extremists and antisemites a potpourri of perspectives on this administration. We saw antisemites and anti-Zionist thought leaders deride pro-Trump extremists as fighting for the “Zionist quo.” We do see a strain of QAnon adherents who ascribe antisemitic elements to this cabal, and so they’ll specifically talk about this global conspiracy being controlled and manipulated by the Jews. And according to this conspiracy, President Donald Trump is positioned to take on these forces head-on. If you look in particular at QAnon, adherents believe that there is a global cabal of individuals helping to manipulate and control the world - namely, the progressives and the Democrats. Conspiracies have become the lifeblood for this worldview. It notoriously, and predictably, dominated the live-feed streams.Ĭonspiracies and disinformation are essentially what help to foment this fear, and ultimately violence, that manifested at the Capitol. Overwhelmingly, on many of the extremist livestreams that we viewed, there was antisemitic content. Joanna Mendelson: Our team across the country was tuning into livestreams to help gauge reactions and activity. How do antisemitic beliefs converge with the kind of right-wing extremism that led to the violence of that day? 6 storming of the Capitol have been frightening. J.: Pictures and rhetoric coming out of the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., how antisemitism and conspiracy theories fueled the action, and what might be next. Joanna Mendelson is the Los Angeles-based associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, which monitors extremist activity, hate and terrorism in the U.S., both online and on the ground.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |