Mar 04 2010
Rage on the Right: Domestic Terrorism On the Rise
A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center has confirmed fears of a growing white American nationalist movement with violent tendancies. Rage on the Right, reveals that extremist, so-called patriot groups grew 244 percent since 2009. Additionally the number of armed militias in the US nearly tripled in number from 44 in 2008 to 127 in 2009. And nativist extremist groups also sharply increased from 173 in 2008 to 309 a year later. The numbers are cause for serious concern, given that similar groups proliferated in the 1990s fomenting extreme violence, culminating in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The recent plane crash into an IRS office by an anti-tax, anti-government man from Austin, Texas named Joe Stack has sparked internet praise from some individuals and groups who identify with the “tea party” and “patriot” groups.
GUEST: Mark Potok, editor of “The Intelligence Report”, Southern Poverty Law Center
2 Responses to “Rage on the Right: Domestic Terrorism On the Rise”
This is just fear-mongering. Joe Stack was not a white nationalist. In fact, the real white nationalists are at a very low ebb, they aren’t in the news, they haven’t committed any crimes, and all this “You’re a racist” stuff on TV every day is phoney name-calling between people that aren’t racists and aren’t white nationalists.
Sorry for commenting 8 months after you posted this, but I was searching for info on domestic terrorism info and this was one of the top hits.
I have to agree with Helen, Joe Stack is a terrible example of a rise of “rage on the right”. The man was clearly unstable. If you read his letter, though, most of his views were progressive. His basic issue with taxes, in fact, was that the rich don’t pay them and the poor do (which is demonstrably untrue).
He had a lot of trouble with the IRS, mostly it seems because he didn’t feel like it was fair that he pay his taxes. That’s where all his anger came from.
The final statement in the letter is the communist creed, followed by a perverted capitalist creed (often used as a slam against capitalism).
He may have been angry at the government, but he was definitely not a right-winger.
The rest of your post was interesting though.