WildProtest (the site created by Alexander) also ran a crowdfunding campaign - receiving over $180k worth of donations from ~2000 individual donors in advance of Jan 6th.
I have no idea why I'm optimistic about this one; probably because no continent could have been bombarded with more right-wing propaganda for four generations, than Latin America, and that area also has awful experiences with communists and Chavez-istas...and yet, the "pink tide" has basically won a huge majority of those nations, recently.
So I think populations can resist this stuff, at least in majority. And 2020-2022 says that that American majority is already large enough to beat out out their unbalanced electoral system. In Canada, polling today: https://mstdn.ca/@CanadianPolling/109682566446419026
..has not budged more than a few percent from numbers late LAST January, for all their bloviation about it. A hypothetical "Convoy Party" would be crushed in Canadian elections. So, what I'd challenge is whether this, ahem, messaging, can *grow* their adherents, or just gather people already disposed to go nuts when somebody says "they're going to come for your stove".
Also, the way they hoover money out of supporters has got to stop passing a smell test with those supporters, at some point. People like results.
It's really great you dug into this, though, Justin, I was riveted, because we didn't get this already, despite the oceans of January 6 coverage. Which is odd.
You're quite right. Our antibodies seem to be working. But...
While I'm normally allergic to drawing parallels to Germany — the Weimar Republic survived, and thrived, fully a decade after the Beerhall Putsch. (I am, for the record, decidedly not saying that the Jan6 types are equivalent to Hitler's brownshirts. It's just to say that threats from within tend to ebb and flow.)
I think we overestimate the efficacy of particular groups and movements, but underestimate the undercurrent of anger and frustration out there. I just finished watching This Place Rules, the HBO doc about the lead-up to Jan6 (the filmmaker, unfortunately, was just accused of sexual misconduct by two women.) It's a very, very unsettling look at our current alienation.
WildProtest (the site created by Alexander) also ran a crowdfunding campaign - receiving over $180k worth of donations from ~2000 individual donors in advance of Jan 6th.
I have no idea why I'm optimistic about this one; probably because no continent could have been bombarded with more right-wing propaganda for four generations, than Latin America, and that area also has awful experiences with communists and Chavez-istas...and yet, the "pink tide" has basically won a huge majority of those nations, recently.
So I think populations can resist this stuff, at least in majority. And 2020-2022 says that that American majority is already large enough to beat out out their unbalanced electoral system. In Canada, polling today: https://mstdn.ca/@CanadianPolling/109682566446419026
..has not budged more than a few percent from numbers late LAST January, for all their bloviation about it. A hypothetical "Convoy Party" would be crushed in Canadian elections. So, what I'd challenge is whether this, ahem, messaging, can *grow* their adherents, or just gather people already disposed to go nuts when somebody says "they're going to come for your stove".
Also, the way they hoover money out of supporters has got to stop passing a smell test with those supporters, at some point. People like results.
It's really great you dug into this, though, Justin, I was riveted, because we didn't get this already, despite the oceans of January 6 coverage. Which is odd.
You're quite right. Our antibodies seem to be working. But...
While I'm normally allergic to drawing parallels to Germany — the Weimar Republic survived, and thrived, fully a decade after the Beerhall Putsch. (I am, for the record, decidedly not saying that the Jan6 types are equivalent to Hitler's brownshirts. It's just to say that threats from within tend to ebb and flow.)
I think we overestimate the efficacy of particular groups and movements, but underestimate the undercurrent of anger and frustration out there. I just finished watching This Place Rules, the HBO doc about the lead-up to Jan6 (the filmmaker, unfortunately, was just accused of sexual misconduct by two women.) It's a very, very unsettling look at our current alienation.
So, you're counseling that "eternal vigilance" stuff, then. Damn. Back to work.
Get the minor spell check thing out of the way:
"Alexander, for all of his many faults, left the *capital* on January 6 "
...Capitol ? or did he leave D.C. entirely?
D'oh!