Anyone who hasn’t yet seen this riveting footage, should take a look.
And then note the guy taking the video you’re watching, he’s the guy screaming “Show me your faces!” repeatedly at this phalanx of Neo-Nazis, who according to Frank Figliuzzi, national security analyst for MSNBC and former Asst Dir. of Counterintelligence at the FBI, call themselves ‘Blood Tribe’, and are led by a former Marine named Christopher Pohlhaus. The group dispersed fairly quickly after this minor confrontation.
That’s telling. First, that these ‘tough guys’, considered the fringe of the fringe, are insecure enough to hide their identities, just like the KKK found it was necessary to do because their ‘ideas’ have no legitimate purchase in majorities of mainstream America, who consider their activities as irresponsibly provocative.
Second, that it didn’t take much to scare them off, in Nashville, Tennessee, no less. It doesn’t appear from the video there was much public affinity by passersby to the spectacle of uniformed — but masked — Blood Tribe neo Nazis. In fact, the last part of the clip with Blood Tribe marchers passes by a bystander watching the videographer, and also shouting “Cowards!” at the group, for hiding under their masks.
Sure, it could’ve been designed as a test run, by a group that only organized three years ago. But what was their takeaway here? That they were not confronting a passive constituency, even under short notice public displays in a Southern state.
So far, the provocation methods of groups like this are designed to invite a confrontational overreach that would justify a violent response. Which they don’t usually get. Just bigger crowds that can yell just as loudly, when there’s enough response time to confront them. Luckily, Americans are used to people getting in their faces for one thing or another, while honoring the right to speak your mind.
Yet, it’s another sign, small as it is here, that there’s an America out there waking up. We’re capable of distinguishing between free speech and hate speech. If we persevere, if we keep up the pressure, while Trump keeps faith with his pathological belief that his flamethrower of lawlessness and chaos is something Silent Majority America is pining for, Trumpism is going down.
We’re a long way from beating this thing, but the signs are looking good that Good People are not willing to make the same allowances to political intimidation that occurred in the 1930’s, that their grandfathers lost their lives to defeat militarily in Europe and Asia in defense of democracy. Unwilling to remain silent, in this country, re-consecrated after the Civil War, with the passage of the 13, 14, and 15th Amendments, providing suffrage for all free [p]ersons and the protection of the Law, for the purpose of political representation as citizens of the United States, to go back and and allow ‘Evil to reign’ again, after already pulling back that promise and sacrificing Black suffrage for a hundred years on the altar of White race fears of that era, to finally repatriating that promise in the aftermath of the Fight against Fascism (WWII) that became the Struggle against Totalitarianism (the Cold War) that was the backdrop of the 1960’s. While plenty of mistakes were made in the name of that ‘Cold War’, some good things came about domestically that held Americans to their better natures, in order to demonstrate a reasonable fidelity to the words written on pieces of paper. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, once again guaranteeing political suffrage to structurally-disenfranchised peoples in America, was one of those things.
Nearly 60 years later, it’s evident that Jim Crow is not coming back to town, as long as people like this videographer are there to get in their faces and make their hate accountable to the community. To my community. To your community. This video shows how it’s done.
We are gonna beat this thing. Election 2024 is just the start of something Big. I’m tired of lawlessness being given a long leash, both here and abroad, and I’m willing to bet you are too. In this struggle, of our time, fought closer to home, often without uniforms, it is an honor to serve with all of you, as our grandparent’s generation did when they were confronted with lawlessness. Once again, citizens stepping up, in ways large and small, to defend Democracy and make it their own. Let’s continue to ‘show our faces’ and confront this narcissistic Menace to our society.