Pirate's Cove

Yes, yes, I haven’t blogged anything on the two shootings, one in El Paso and one in Dayton, Ohio, as there’s too much information, too much Narrative, and too much coming out. And too little time in my day. But, this one written by Juliette Kayyem, who is a “former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government,” caught my eye based on things written on Twitter and other sites yesterday. Not mentioned is that she is very much a Democrat

There are no lone wolves

There are no lone wolves. A mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso on Saturday was allegedly perpetrated by a young, white male, according to police, who appears to have posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto online minutes before the attack, declaring the need to fight the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Such white-supremacist hatred isn’t just a poisonous belief held by isolated individuals. It is a group phenomenon that is, according to the FBI, the greatest terrorist threat to America. The El Paso shooting, which left 20 dead and more than two dozen wounded, was followed hours later by a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that killed nine. The shooter also died, and on Sunday, police were still unsure of his motive.

If the El Paso massacre turns out to have been the hate crime that police suspect, it will be one more example why viewing what is happening in America today as anything short of an ideological conflict — with one side heavily armed, the other side shopping for school supplies at a Walmart — is to disengage each individual incident from the terrorist rhetoric that breeds it.

White-supremacist terror is rooted in a pack, a community. And its violent strand today is being fed by three distinct, but complementary, creeds. The community has essentially found a mission, kinship and acceptance.

Now, she goes on to describe the three creeds, and she isn’t necessarily wrong. But, what’s interesting is that Islamist terrorists are painted as lone wolves, that even big attacks by Islamist groups are painted as isolated incidents. Because they not only do not want to blame the whole of Islam (nor do most counter jihad folks, which is why we use the word Islamist), they do not even want to say it has anything to do with Islam at all, and work hard to divorce the root cause from Islam, the Koran, and Muhammed.

She talks about the 3 creeds being The Mission, The Kinship, and The Acceptance. Read the article for the details, but, this could be applied exactly to radicalized Muslims. And you can bet that everyone in the media will be throwing out the phrase “lone wolf” the next time there’s an Islamist attack

Now, just imagine the Outrage from @AOC and others if we blamed ALL Latinos for the actions of MS-13.

Blaming all white people for the actions of a few is a road to electoral loss, and scapegoats people who aren't involved in the least.

— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) August 4, 2019

What Ms. Kayyem is attempting to do is shift focus to all white people, much like AOC and others, and to Trump and Republicans. That’s the real point

The similarities between Trump’s language about Hispanics, immigrants and African Americans marks them as the “other” and is mimicked by white supremacists. He fails to shame them. His rhetoric winks and nods, curries favor, embraces both sides and, while not promoting violence specifically, certainly does not condemn it (until after it occurs).

Public speech that may incite violence, even without that specific intent, has been given a name: stochastic terrorism, for a pattern that can’t be predicted precisely but can be analyzed statistically. It is the demonization of groups through mass media and other propaganda that can result in a violent act because listeners interpret it as promoting targeted violence — terrorism. And the language is vague enough that it leaves room for plausible deniability and outraged, how-could-you-say-that attacks on critics of the rhetoric.

Yup, it’s Blame Trump. But, um, did she, or the person who edited her opinion piece, read the Washington Post?

(Breitbart) The Washington Post reported Sunday: “Authorities believe … [the shooter] wrote the document, though they are still gathering evidence.” It also noted that the author “stresses that he has maintained his white supremacist ideology for many years, predating President Trump and his 2016 campaign, which he says did not influence his reasons for carrying out the attack.”

CNN added: “The writer wrote that their opinions on immigration predate President Trump, and the writer appears to have held these beliefs for years.

Huh. Further, what of the Dayton shooter? Notice that Ms. Kayyem never mentions him

Heavy.com reported: “Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio mass shooter, was a self-described ‘leftist,’ who wrote that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, ‘I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.’”

So, is Betts a lone wolf, or did the public speech and creeds of Leftists incite him? Do we blame Elizabeth Warren? Hardcore socialism? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her concentration camp comments?

I wouldn’t. But, based on the Narrative, everyone should Blame them.

But, because Betts is a hardcore socialist, was a registered Democrat, his crime is being slowly downplayed, and the whole thing will soon move to gun grabbing.

Read: Hot Take: Washington Post Suddenly Says There’s No Such Thing As Lone Wolves »