See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Fight No Evil 

Mainstreaming Violence: The Big Lie, far right media, and violent political ideology

Ammon Bundy

Ammon Bundy of the Bundy militia stand-off just happens to be an independent candidate for governor of Idaho. If you're thinking he has changed since 2016, think again. He managed to get himself involved in the child custody case of a neighbor whose child was severely malnourished.

Bundy falsely accused Child Protective Services of being a "child trafficking ring," resulting harassment of the hospital staff, including profane phone calls. Bundy doxxed the judge in the case, sending out her name, address, and VIN number to his followers with the false accusation, "She is known to take children from loving parents." He invited people to protest outside her home. Doxxing is an invasion of privacy, and it puts people in danger. It is not free speech.

Nicholas Fuentes

Nicholas Fuentes may look like a choir boy, but he's a hateful white nationalist, misogynist, and anti-Semite who often hides his intent by speaking in a "joking" manner. On January 4, 2021, two days before the insurrection, he posted a video on DLive containing a veiled threat to legislators, stating, "What can you and I do to state legislators besides kill them? Although, I'm not advising that, I mean, but what else are you going to do?"

Talking about Black Lives Matter, Fuentes railed the right-wing version of American history, “White people founded this country. This country wouldn’t exist without white people…people are done being bullied.”

When asked by an audience member how to handle his wife, who had gotten out of line, Fuentes responded, “Why don’t you give her a vicious and forceful backhanded slap with your knuckles right across her face – disrespectfully – and make it hurt?...Just kidding of course…just a joke…I would never lay a hand on a women, unless she had it coming.” 

Madison Cawthorn

Here's another fascist who looks like a choir boy. Cawthorn is one of the most virulent promoters of The Big Lie. At an August 2021 Macon County GOP event, Cawthorn said, "The things that we are wanting to fight for, it doesn’t matter if our votes don’t count because you know if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen then it’s going to lead to one place and that’s bloodshed."

He also said he would hate to use weapons against his fellow Americans, but if it came to that, the implication is that he would follow through. He also stated that he would prosecute Anthony Fauci for "the crimes that he has done," which amounts to protecting the public health during a killer pandemic. His ignorance knows no bounds.

Cawthorn also admits being armed during the J6 insurrection, calling into a radio station and stating, “So, you know,” Cawthorn went on to say, “obviously having the wheelchair I’m able to carry many multiple weapons at one time. So you know, everyone around me is armed and you know, I think an armed society is a polite society, so I feel very safe. We don’t have any high nerves here. Everybody’s very, very calm, very sober-minded,” he added, despite multiple reports to the contrary.

Michael Flynn

You'll see Michael Flynn throughout this website because he's one of the most dangerous men in the nation. He has openly advocated for a coup, stating “I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here? I mean, it can. It should happen here.” Trump's former National Security Adviser has advocated for violence several times, and even floated the idea of martial law to return Trump to power. This link is one that should be read in depth for a true understanding of his twisted thinking. 

He is the only member of Trump's cabinet to plead guilty in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation but was pardoned by his fearless leader. In March of this year at a ReAwaken America event in Southern California he stated, "We need you to charge the machine gun nest…. Maybe I'm just asking you to dig a little bit deeper there or hold this side of the line, or form up cause we're gonna counterattack over here, and that counterattack is, we're gonna go after school boards." A former intelligence officer with an understanding of psyops, Flynn knew exactly what he was calling for.

Rick Scott

Rick Scott gave the keynote address at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where he struck a familiar right-wing tone: The liberals are responsible for the destruction of the U.S. "We survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I and World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War. But today we face the greatest danger we have ever faced. The militant left-wing in our country has become the enemy within."

This kind of hyperbole is what leads right-wing armed America to take action. It is not just unimportant rhetoric. Rick Scott knows exactly who he's talking to and what he is trying to do, especially when he continues on to say, "This is not the time to be timid. This is the time to be bold. Our nation's future can be bright, but we need a plan to take this country back. I warn you before you read it, though. This plan is not for the faint of heart, it will trigger a lot of people..." If you explore Rick Scott's oppressive 11-point plan to 'save' America, you'll see directly into the twisted logic of the Republican brain.

What seems irrational to most clear-thinking individuals is not irrational to the present composition of the GOP and its followers and, if they are returned to power, there's no reason to believe they will not move forward with it.

Donald Trump

We couldn't possibly leave the man at the heart of the nation's collective collapse out of this discussion. His speech on January 6, 2021, led to the storming of the Capitol building. You can read the entire transcript here for yourself.

More recently, Trump has used incendiary speech when discussing the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our schools at a rally in South Carolina, saying “Getting critical race theory out of our schools is not just a matter of values, it’s also a matter of national survival. We have no choice, the fate of any nation ultimately depends upon the willingness of its citizens to lay down and they must do this, lay down their very lives to defend their country. If we allow the Marxists and Communists and Socialists to teach our children to hate America, there will be no one left to defend our flag or to protect our great country or its freedom.” 

In fact, Donald Trump has a long history of inspiring violence. In 2019, a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, left 23 dead. In his manifesto, the perpetrator parroted Trump's incendiary comments about immigrants. In Boston, where I live, two men urinated on a homeless man and beat him with a metal pipe back in 2015. After his arrest, one of the men said "Trump was right. All of these illegals need to be deported." It should be noted that the victim was, in fact, a permanent U.S. resident.