The Assumed Invisibility of White Extremists

With the horrifying events at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. today, suddenly the mainstream media has discovered that white supremacists and white separatists have not ceased to exist.  Since 9-11, many of these groups and their more dangerous fringe members have purposely tried to decrease their visibility.  But make no mistake, their efforts at invisibility aside, these groups are still a threat.

Some points for media reflection:

1. The National Holocaust Museum was chosen specifically because it is a symbolic target to white racial extremists.  It is no accident that a violent crime of this nature occurred there.  Most white supremacists and separatists believe in the Holocaust revisionism that has been so widely disseminated by Ernst Zundel and others.  "The true holocaust" -- as they see it -- is a systematic attack by ZOG - the Zionist Occupied Government (sometimes called JOG - Jewish Occupied Government, it can also go by many other names) "on the white race."

2. These groups believe that they are fighting in a racially-bound historical revolutionary war in which they WILL win.  These racist activists believe it is inevitable that they will succeed in some racial apocalypse.  No rapture for these theoloonies... it is the belief that they must stay and fight that makes them even more dangerous.  Heck, even Oral Roberts believed that he could be "called home."

3. This shooter is not alone.  There are others like him in the white racial extremists movements and they are considering their next steps in the days, weeks, and months ahead.  Do not expect a rash of domestic terrorism but do not rule it out in the future either. 

4. Do not believe that law enforcement knows about all of these jokers.  Remember that if not for a dropped gun at a robbery, the FBI would never have traced members of the violent splinter group of the Aryan Nations called The Order.

5. They see themselves as warriors.  Just reading their websites will reveal that they see themselves as fighting for "their people."  These individuals believe that their "race is their nation" and they are fighting to create or protect that "nation."  This is why so many supremacists and separatists say that they hate no one.  They "love their own people and want to protect them."

6. Due to the influence of what some call Christian Identity (Michael Barkin's excellent book on white supremacist theology is highly recommended), when they kill they do not believe that they have killed a human being.  Through some very strange reinterpretation of basic Christian theology they see people of color and people of Jewish descent as either animals or soulless evil children of Lucifer.  Yeah, I know... but they believe it.

7. It is normally not the leaders who commit the violent crimes. Typically it is the even angrier disaffected and alienated members of these groups who perpetrate the violent crimes, not the leaders of these organizations.  Benjamin Smith, Robert Jay Matthews, and Timothy McVeigh are just a few examples of this trend.

8. Supremacists and separatists are not the same.  Benjamin Smith was a Church of the Creator believer, Robert Jay Matthews was a Christian Identity and Aryan Nations follower, Timothy McVeigh spent time with the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord in their Arkansas compound.  However, the violence that is created comes from the same sense of anger at a tyrannical culture and society.  The motivations may be different but the violence is the same.

We could go on but the main point is this:  These groups are still here and their members are still dangerous.  The mainstream media needs to consider the consequences of historically ignoring this threat.