It’s so depressing watching all this unfolding. None of this can be addressed if good people don’t stand up, get informed and engage in our political system.
1.13.2022
Far-right extremism is a growing threat in the United States. In recent years, white supremacist movements have seen a resurgence, while anti-government militias have become more active and conspiracy theories associated with violence have spread.
Several recent mass shootings, an increase in extremist activity, and the January 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol have drawn national attention to violent far-right extremism. With the rise of these threats, understanding the ideologies that motivate them is vital.
Increasingly, experts have identified misogyny as one such ideology that motivates violence and can be a component of far-right extremism. In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center began identifying male supremacy as a hate ideology,1
and the Anti-Defamation League released an extensive report examining misogyny and extremism.2
In 2019, the Department of Homeland Security awarded a grant to fund research that aimed to understand the misogynistic incel movement,3
and a year later, a US Secret Service report named online misogyny as a concerning source of radicalization for mass attackers.4
Violent misogyny garnered the Biden’s administration’s attention as a growing threat, and in 2020, the president called for a national task force to study “the connection between [the online harassment of women], mass shootings, extremism, and violence against women.”5
In addition to motivating deadly and violent behavior on its own, misogyny in the US also has well-documented ties to other extremist movements, whose far-right supporters have both adopted misogynist attitudes and used hatred of women to recruit new supporters.6
Online subcultures that hold misogynistic views have been fast-growing and violent, presenting an imminent public safety threat. While parts of these communities have histories dating back decades, the internet has helped accelerate and radicalize these views.7
The incel worldview is based on the notion that attractiveness is pre-determined by genetic factors, which dictate our physical appearance, and these are the main features that women find attractive in men (Baele et al., 2019; Ging 2019; Hoffman et al., 2020). Those who subscribe to the incel ideology believe these physical traits to be substandard in themselves and that they are “doomed to a life of involuntary celibacy”. Thus, the portmanteau “InCel”.
The empirical evidence indicates that this notion contributes to a sense of being isolated and lonely, which drives individuals to become increasingly frustrated and jealous of those around them who they perceive to be in happy sexual relationships (Van Brunt & Taylor, 2021).
Specifically, the “incel” community shares a misogynistic ideology of women as being genetically inferior to men, driven by their sexual desire to reproduce with genetically superior males, thereby excluding unattractive men such as themselves (Baele et al., 2019).
Sad stuff there. So many lost lonely people out there. Who thought the internet would become such a tool for dysfunctionality. Then they tell me there’s no population explosion, why are we creating so many lost souls? Because there ain’t no one around to raise our kids. It’s a vicious cycle.
We start out so utterly amazing and devolve into this mess, during a period in Earth history when humanity never had it so good materially. But we’ve lost our souls in the Faustian Bargain.
Maybe hating the human species, but then again, it maybe life as a whole. What do they do to other animals? Often when something uses and abuses one species, they often abuse another. So, maybe it is or it’s a mental illness.
You can mistreat someone you don’t hate, just because it pleases you for any motives, just because of indifference to him, his dignity, his well-being.
And be careful, one can love animals and hate Humans or some of them. Nazi Animal Laws were among the most advanced of the times.
I don’t think you understand. Stats show those who abuse animals are more likely to abuse women, children, others. In that respect, it could also be a mental illness.
Nazism was a total brainwashing. I cannot fathom how anyone can have a love for other animals and not respect human lives. If one can see animals needing rights, then even if they were to dehumanize a group of humans, then that group of humans should be another species of animal, thereby needing rights too. Nazis not only dehumanized Jews, but de-animalize them too. Humans are animals. To do both makes that species what? Nothing, not even deserving the respect of other people’s property even. The U.S. attempted genocide of the Native Americans, but they didn’t de-animalize them. Natives were considered savages, dogs (Dog Soldiers), even attempted to make them slaves, but that failed. Even slaves were considered property and one doesn’t harm another man’s property. The Jews weren’t even given that much “respect”. IMHO, if you give other animals more respect than another group of humans, not even giving them the right to food (slaves, like dogs, got scraps), clean water (even slaves got fresh water), descent shelter (slaves got as good as a dog house), clothing (slaves got maybe two sets of clothing per year), medical care (slaves got a vet)… The Nazis didn’t even give the Jews that much. Jews were science experiments, if they were allowed not to be gassed. They got maybe gruel or maybe bread and water, if they were lucky. Dogs get more than that. They got what looked like a nightgown 24/7, some who had some sort of useful skill or talent got a trousers and shirt or dresses, but they weren’t much better than slave clothes. Slaves got buried, lest they died of a pandemic or were tarred, feathered, and set on fire, but the Jews got a mass grave after a mass gassing, unless they were cremated. Of course, the Native Americans at Wounded Knee, also got a mass grave.
It’s just as sick, mentally, to degrade humans to a lesser position than other animals. If humans don’t at least have the same rights as other animals, what are they? Equal to a toy or hairbrush?
There’s an excellent book detailing where so much of the current right-wing crap comes from, and the violence, misogyny, etc. It’s called Jesus and John Wayne. The author makes it clear why Trump was just the result of decades of Evangelical effort. Spoiler - the evangelicals starting in the 50’s pushed a militant masculinity through their brand of conservative religion. And its effects are seen today, when someone as flawed as Trump can be appealing to so many. In his day John Wayne was a hero of theirs even though he had multiple wives/divorces, low morality, etc. Google the title.
Well I never did like John Wayne, although honorable mention definitely belongs to Billy Graham, whom I grew to detest.
“… Graham’s sermons and columns at the time reflected that same shift, as he took an increasingly hostile stance against the rights of LGBTQ persons. (The elder Graham’s shift eventually opened the way for his son, Franklin, to join forces with other members of the Religious Right to support and elect Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016.) …”
“… Over Graham’s lengthy public ministry, white evangelical Protestants adjusted, wedding themselves socially and politically to a form of religion that theologian Dorothee Sölle referred to as “Christofascism”: The perpetuation of a societal status quo in which Christians maintain power, frame the aim of Christianity as a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” and retain all the ills of white Christian society like patriarchy, colonization, and heterosexism. …”
By Karl E. H. Seigfried
“… Graham was only the fourth private citizen whose body was honored in a ritual normally reserved for presidents, elected officials, and military officers. … Graham is the first religious leader to be awarded this honor by the government of the United States of America. The first clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Laying out a preacher’s dead body in the central building of the nation’s legislative branch does not establish his form of Christianity as an official federal religion, of course, but it is a bold break with 166 years of tradition at the Capitol, and it clearly gives an official stamp of approval to a man who made his living selling one branch of one faith. …”
“Synagogue of Satan”
“… Richard Nixon’s infamous tape recordings … A notorious passage from their discussion in the Oval Office on February 1, 1972, is transcribed in The Nixon Tapes: 1971-1972 by Douglas Brinkley and Luke A. Nichter. Graham enthusiastically agrees with Nixon’s statements that Jews control Hollywood and the news media; that “most Jews are left-wing,” “way out,” and “radical”; and that “the best Jews, actually, are the Israeli Jews.” Graham himself states that American Jews control the media, and “they’re the ones putting out the pornographic stuff.””
“This Insidious Temptation”
“… “Let me say this loud and clear!” replied the preacher. “We traffic in homosexuality at the peril of our spiritual welfare. Your affection for another of your own sex is misdirected, and you will be judged by God’s holy standards.” …” {side note, Pretty much the only people who are emotionally invested in demonizing homosexuality, are those who are struggling with their own sexual identity. With the exception being limited to the cynical out of lust for cash and/or power. Okay perhaps the also victims of childhood indoctrination.}
“… This shameful episode occurred the year before Graham publicly lied about his anti-Semitic conversations with Nixon. He clearly had no qualms about lying to the public about his beliefs and documented statements. … Graham was consistent across the decades in his hate speech against members of the LGBTQ+ community, despite the manufactured media quotes he provided after his statements were challenged.”
“The little white children of Alabama”
In August of (1965), after King gave his rightfully remembered and celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Graham sneered at the idea that African-Americans could lead social change and pave the way to a truly integrated society. “Only when Christ comes again,” Graham responded, “will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.” "
#NotMyPastor
"This is the first religious leader to be honored with a postmortem display in the nation’s Capitol Building. This is the citizen chosen to follow Rosa Parks in this exclusive club of four. This is the anti-Semitic homophobe who regularly smacked down Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for asking too much of white people. "
The long March 24, 2018 article ends with:
“The Graham era is now officially over. How long will his hateful attitudes prevail?”