The impact of Russia, globally, on far-right movements is not understated here. There are influences in several movements ranging from European identitarian movements to Trump to other conservative organizations.
-
-
Show this thread
-
And it's even plausible that someone like Richard Spencer, who has proximity and access to wealth, may be entangled in the broader scheme of Russian influence. Several TWP members recently traveled to Brno, Czechia, too.
Show this thread -
But the bread and butter of white supremacist movements are homegrown American racists. And the harsh reality is that their racism is enabled by liberalism.
Show this thread -
The people who attacked me were not speaking Russian. Nor were they speaking with an Appalachian drawl. They were Americans, often suburban.
Show this thread -
We cannot and should not attempt to blame Russia for the violent extremist racism growing right here in our country. That violent racism that led to Heather Heyer's death and the deaths of many, many others recently is as American as apple pie and baseball.
Show this thread -
We can moralize as much as we want, but violent racism is inseparable from modern American life and in order to eradicate it we must address it as such and call it by its name. It's no more removable from American culture than fluid mechanics is from aircraft engineering.
Show this thread -
Trump may have been empowered by Russian. And racism may be empowered by Trump. But Trump's racism existed long before Russia meddled with our elections, and the racism in our culture is what allowed Russia's meddling to work.
Show this thread -
Honey, violent racism existed long before Steve Bannon was even conceived.https://twitter.com/Casfriend/status/976543134766202881 …
Show this thread -
"This is not us." Yes it is. It is Charlottesville. It is Portland. It is San Francisco. It is Austin. It is Boston. It is Topeka. It is every town in every state in America. This is intricately us. And that's why we have to handle it. Because it is us.
Show this thread -
Someone pointed out that this could be read as a de-Americanization of Appalachia. It is not meant that way, but rather is a critique of wealthy liberal views that racism isn't something they are complicit in.https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/976542895665643521?s=19 …
Show this thread -
I appreciate very much the check that it's possible to read it that way. I think contextually with the thread it's clear but I want to be explicit.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Those ideas are not mutually exclusive. The neo-Nazi groups of Germany, Austria, France and Italy are also homegrown, but receive funding from Russia that makes them more capable than they would otherwise be. We have no idea whether any US hate groups are Kremlin-funded.
-
I am sure some are. There's no reason to suspect they're not. But Russian funding is *not* the problem here, and removing it would have little to no near-term impact at this point.
-
The people that came to our city largely fund-pooled and crowdfunded and everything else. This was not enabled by an influx of money. There were concerted efforts over weeks and months to chip in cash for vans, lodging, etc.
-
That is definitely true. The Discord material shows that.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Are you really going to explain what happened in Charlottesville to a Charlottesville activist?
-
Nope. Building my case with documentation that it's well known there are ties and connections between Putin (sometimes called the Russians) and US white supremacists. Putin is tied to US separatist movements too. He's part of the problem. https://www.politico.eu/article/why-russia-loves-the-idea-of-california-seceding/ …pic.twitter.com/H6ECQ1qtqO
-
This is a lot of effort to make American racism Russia’s fault.
-
Yeah, I can't wait for the hot takes about how Russia was financially backing Jim Crow or how the 3/4ths rule was a Kremlin plot. Any damn day now.
End of conversation
New conversation
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.