Here's the thing. A lot of important Guelph issues are really complex. And to understand them we need more than "sound bites" and knee-jerk ideology. The Guelph Back-Grounder is a place where people can read the background information that explains why things are the way they are, and, the complex issues that people have to negotiate if they want to make Guelph a better city. No anger, just the facts.
Kelly called Nate into a private meeting the next day. When he
showed up in the room, he saw that Sally was there. He didn’t know
much about her and only recognized her from early morning martial
arts classes. She had struck him as being somewhat angry looking, not
the sort of person who was friendly or even wanted to make friends.
But oddly enough, she looked like a very different person today.
Nate was no expert, but he would have described what she was
wearing as a “women’s business suit”---and not a cheap one
either. Her hair had obviously been brushed, newly cut in a short,
stylish way, and, it even looked as if a little styling jell had been
applied to control loose strands. There was even a very fine pastel
scarf knotted around her neck. She also seemed to have a very small,
yet quite effective, bit of make up. And if Nate’s sense of smell
was working properly, she seemed to have just a hint of perfume.
Nate was surprised.
“Didn’t expect me, did you?” Her voice a sort of
“professional---take command” sound to it. She shifted on her
chair. “Didn’t expect this different me, either---”.
“Well, I guess you aren’t a morning person. You see kind of
grumpy in the martial arts classes.”
“No, you mean ‘grumpy and frumpy’.” A small laugh “That’s
not it. I choose to project the persona of being like that there
because it doesn’t suit my purposes to get too friendly with those
other people. You see, part of the expertise that I bring to the Old
Ones is the ability to control the persona I project to others. Think
of me as a bit of a chameleon. That’s what they want me to teach
you---how to ‘blend in’ to different types of situations and
exert some subtle forms of psychological control when it suits our
purposes.”
“In order to do that, you are going to be developed as a ‘key’
that fits a specific type of ‘lock’ and the Elders will present
you with an opportunity to fit into it. Once you have done that, we
want you to change the direction of some of the force that the
Alt-Right is aiming at democracy. The hope is that you will at least
be able to deflect it away so it won’t create damage, and, at best
bounce it back at the people who sent it so it will neutralize their
organization.”
“As I see it, the first part is to open your eyes to the ways
that subtle types of behaviour can exert significant influence on
others. The very first part of that was having you come into this
room and see me when I have consciously changed my outward being from
what I had allowed you to see when we were learning about violence.
We’re also going to get you some new clothes, a hair cut, and, do
some ‘field trips’ together. Before that, I’ll email you some
materials I want you to look at.”
She got up, slinked over to the door, and, turned as she opened it
to leave. “One last thing, think about how much you can draw
another person’s attention towards you by looking and acting in a
way that you totally don’t expect---especially when they make a
dramatic exit.”
"It's also important to leave people guessing. Let them 'fill in the blanks' instead of trying to explain everything all at once." She blew him a kiss, “I’ll be in touch”.
&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
I have read a lot of novels in my life, but generally not the sort that dig deep into human psychology. Instead, I have been attracted to ones that work with ideas. I've read Tolstoy's War and Peace many times (I've lost track---over six times for sure), lots of science fiction (I just finished reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy)---both of these books are mostly philosophy of history. I also like formulaic mysteries---during this pandemic I've read just about all the Kathy Reichs forensic whodunits and Craig Johnson's "magic Western" Walt Longmire books. These books are inspired by current events and meditate on how human beings navigate larger social forces.
This isn't to say that there is no value in novels that delve deep into the human psyche, just that for one reason or another I find learning how other people think somewhat intimidating. I'm a lot more comfortable thinking about ideas than instincts and emotions, so what passes for a "entertaining leisurely activity" gets chosen accordingly. That's probably a good reason why I should read them---but that doesn't mean that I find it any easier to do so.
I remember reading once that novels of psychological introspection only became popular in the late 19th century and this was part of a significant change in the way human beings looked at society. This makes sense to me. Pretty much the only way any of us can really put ourselves into the skin of someone else is by reading the introspective descriptions put out by that subclass of novelists who do this sort of writing. And with the decline of religion in people's lives and rise of social sciences like sociology and psychology, it only made sense that art would decide to spend less time looking outward towards God and philosophy, and instead direct our gaze inward towards the human psyche.
&&&&
This gets me to Tsveti Nacheva's book Fault Lines. It's a mystery, but it's told from the point-of-view of someone---Laurie---who about as alien to me as a Martian. When the novel begins, she's a good-looking university student who's involved with a young man, Nate. She's at a Halloween party where she has too much to drink and wakes up in bed and notices her boyfriend nowhere around.
She looks around and finds a set of his clothes drenched in blood. He comes back from a five-mile "morning run", and explains the clothes as being a result of a malfunction of an elaborate Halloween installation that involved a fountain of pig's blood.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the woman Laurie shares an apartment with, Ashley---who was also at the party---has disappeared without a trace.
This results in a latent distance between herself and Nate. Laurie never asks him directly about whether he killed Ashley, and lets his suspicious behavior the next morning hang over the relationship until it strangles it. Eventually they split up. She leaves the small university town they live in---"Solway", which is obviously based on Guelph---gets involved with a minor television/movie star, and, works as a producer for a schlocky television show titled Fault Lines.
I'm not going to go into any details, because the book is plot-driven and I understand many people enjoy being surprised with twists and endings, and don't like "spoilers". Suffice it to say, she goes back to Solway to research a potential episode of Fault Lines which brings her back into Nate's world. Revelations present themselves, there may or may not be a Ghost involved, someone is framed for Ashley's murder, and, Laurie ends up back with Nate and lives "happily ever after".
&&&&
I paid a $180 bill to SoundCloud today. That's the service that I use to host the audio part of the interviews I do for this blog. This month I cancelled my subscription to the Toronto Star because at $204/year I felt that I wasn't getting "value for my money". I've been using Scribd instead, which costs a little over half as much, but gives me access to a huge number of information sources. (I also sell three books on Scribd, and receive what I consider very fair royalties per reader.)
I'm sharing this info just to tell you that I do have costs incurred while publishing this blog. That's a significant part of the reason why I suggest to readers that if they can afford it, a subscription would be greatly appreciated. Patreon and Paypal make it easy to do.
&&&&
Tsveti Nacheva, supplied by author.
Being who I am, I was struck with the idea that Nacheva's novel wrestles with epistemological issues. That is to say, what is it that we do or do not really know about the world around us?
Laurie suffers from a lack of memory from the night when Ashley disappeared. She ascribes this to the fact that she was very drunk and she simply "blacked out". But she does have the odd strange dream. Moreover, once in a while she hallucinates things like blood dripping from her hands.
Moreover, in her relationships there is also a level of ambiguity. She is conflicted when she meets Nate again, she can't really tell if she wants to reconnect with him, or, if she is happy being involved with her rich, movie star beau who is on the other side of the continent filming a movie.
When paparazzi catch this guy in the company of a cute young thing from his film shoot---and the photos get spread all over the web---he maintains that he is faithful to her and this is just the media being salacious.
As a tv producer, Laurie is also not above "fudging the facts" if it creates an entertaining (and profitable) end result. She goes back to Solway to research a pretty lame story about a young child who says he has memories of a previous life as a young woman. This girl died under tragic circumstances in Solway at the time that Nate's grandfather was a town doctor. Through research in pursuit of creating some sort of "fig leaf" to justify a television show that supports the idea of reincarnation, she ends up pulling apart the "official court findings", and, unearths yet another hushed-up scandal.
By the end of the novel the reader is left wondering what exactly happened anywhere. There are lots of objective facts that happen because the first-person narrative structure puts them in front of the reader. But there are also a lot of "facts" that get dug up on old newspaper microfilm, and, attested by people who are neither objective nor good witnesses. These lead to untested hypotheses, based on slim intuitions. And all the characters also seem to be prey to motivated reasoning: they need a good story to put on tv, to stay out of jail, and, to end up with the person you love.
&&&&
As I pointed out in the intro, the introspective novel was a creation of the late 19th century. So was the novel of ideas, which is what I am primarily more attracted to. But I'd say Fault Lines is an example that shows sometimes there isn't a hard and fast difference between the two. Modern psychology has shown our memories are a very weak reed to lean upon. It is far too easy to confuse imagination with remembering because the way the brain our processes them. In addition, it is a fact that the brain will suppress traumatic memories.
Where does that leave Laurie and the reader? This is a novel where there are a lot of stories. Some might be true, but a lot of them are obviously constructed by people because it makes life a little more convenient to remember things one way as opposed to another. Beyond that, what physical records we may have---be they old court documents, television documentaries, or, photos from paparazzi---are all constructed by people with their own particular agendas.
Whatever reality we may objectively inhabit, it is mediated by the stories we tell ourselves and each other. Nacheva's novel reminds the reader of how much of our lives are just collections of stories.
Not a bad message for an writer to convey.
&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
Nate was cleaning tables when Kelly came over. “I want you to
come to a special meeting I’m having tonight. It’s immediately
after supper at meeting room number two, upstairs. It’ll be for
about two hours, so you’ll have to ‘beg out’ of helping with
clean up and prep for tomorrow’s breakfast.”
“I should tell Renatta so she can find someone else.”
“OK. Go right now. I’ve got a some time free, so I’ll take
over cleaning up the dishes until you’ve told her. Feel free to tie
up other loose ends about tonight too before you come back and finish
the work.” Nat walked off to the kitchen as the head of security
and martial arts master collected dirty dishes and took them into the
kitchen for washing.
That night Nat met several new people. He showed up early---more
to see if he could get there before Kelly than anything else---but
once again, the martial arts master was there before him. But so were
several others. He recognized Olive and Sally, but the rest were new
to him.
Hughson started the meeting. “I’m not going to ask each of you
to introduce yourselves to each other. Unfortunately, given the job
we’re setting out to do, I think it’s important to follow a
modicum of security protocols as our organization needs to remain
secret.” He looked around the room and glanced into everyone’s
eyes for at least a moment to emphasize the importance of what they
were doing.
“Each of you has a specific skill set that I want to take
advantage of to pursue an important project that the Elders have
initiated. I’ll talk to each of you independently as needed, but I
thought it would be worthwhile for each of you to at least see what
the other folks involved look like, just in case something unexpected
happens and we need to ‘improvise’.”
“It’s also important that each of you understand the ‘big
picture’ so you can better deal with the specific elements you will
be responsible for achieving. Again, it’s hard to know when and how
to improvise if you don’t understand exactly what the overall goal
is supposed to be. Besides, it’s easier to talk to you all at once
than each separately.”
“As you know, the previous president of the USA attempted to
stage a coup d’etat against the newly elected President-elect so he
could retain power. He did this with the help of a broad-based,
amorphous movement known as the ‘alt-right’. Fortunately, the
American military establishment---in keeping with their sworn duty to
protect the constitution from enemies ‘both foreign and
domestic’---stepped in and arrested Norbert Blunt and sent in
commandos to free the Congress from terrorists who had taken them
hostage.”
“But having done this, America has been placed on the horns of a
dilemma. On the one hand, our sources say that the Joint Chiefs want
to hand back authority to the civilians ASAP. On the other hand, they
find themselves in the situation of the woman who took a ride on the
back of a tiger and found it hard to dismount without catastrophic
results.”
“The reason for this is that the white nationalists never really
believed that the coup attempt would keep Blunt in power. Instead,
their long-term goal is instead to undermine the legitimacy of the
American government. To that end, the insurrection worked remarkably
well. What they want to do now is to create mayhem in society, make
it as difficult as possible for the military to hand power back to
elected officials, and, make everyday ‘quality of life’ for
everyday citizens seem to be getting worse as time goes by.”
“The goal isn’t to seize power themselves, but rather to make
American society less and less ‘free’ and more and more
authoritarian. The idea is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy where
a growing minority of people think that there is a conspiracy to
create a totalitarian state and join the alt right because it says
that it is the only way to oppose it.”
“This is the same policy that terrorists have used for
generations. It was what the Baader-Meinhof Gang pursued in Germany
and why Osama Bin Ladin staged the 9/11 attacks. If people fall for
it, in the short term, it works like a charm. That’s why the brain
dead response by the Americans to the Al-Qaeda attacks led directly
to the rise of Isis.”
“Eventually people get so pissed with the chaos that all the
people who usually stand on the sidelines and watch get involved and
rub-out the terrorists. But in the interim, a lot of damage gets
done. The Elders want to get involved and minimize the damage as much
as possible. That’s the project, and I’ve invited you here to
help with one part of that”.
Nate was a bit confused by this. Kelly had said everyone there had
some specific skills that were needed for this project, yet he was
just a newbie trying to learn the ropes at the centre. What did he
have to offer? After the meeting, he asked Hughson about this.
“Don’t sell yourself short. You have a mixture of abilities we
need for this specific job. First, you’re young and resilient.
Secondly, you are quite fit. You are also a quick study and can think
on your feet. Finally, you are single and here, which means you are
available on a moment’s notice. We may need someone with all of
these traits.”
This ended the confusion, but added a significant bit of concern.
“Are you going to send me out on some sort of James Bond, high
risk, undercover assignment?”
“Possibly undercover, but not ‘high risk’.”
“I don’t have anything specific in mind, so I won’t get into
details. But we would like you to undergo some training with the idea
that you can become one of the people I send out on specific tasks.
You’re something of an ‘apprentice’, so we won’t be asking
you to do anything illegal or dangerous. You’ll be more of a ‘bit
player’ than the ‘lead’ in this scenario. The Elders believe in
being subtle, and violence is far from that.”
&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
Nate Kunstler was serving breakfast at the retreat centre a week later
when the “big cheeses” again wheeled out the big tv to present
some news coverage. This time it was about the backlash that happened
after the military stepped-in to arrest the President and free the
hostages.
A significant number of the hostages had died. Contrary to what
the movies show, there is no such thing as a “safe” and
“effective” knock-out gas. That’s why there are doctors called
“anesthesiologists”--- because it’s very easy to overdose and
die if someone isn’t monitoring your vital signs. It’s also why
you are asked to fast before surgery, because it’s easy to vomit
while under and then choke to death. The commandos knew that
carfentanil gas would kill those who didn’t receive a dose of
Narcan relatively soon after being incapacitated. So, there were also
hostages who choked on their own vomit and a couple with underlying
health conditions that resulted in heart attacks. Moreover, some of
the Senators, Congressional staffers, reporters, or, pages who had
hidden away in an over-looked closet or been among the last ones
dragged out by Delta Force who ended up dying because they didn’t get
their Narcan soon enough.
This was also why the soldiers hadn’t tried to help any of the
occupiers. There simply wasn’t enough time to try to save everyone.
The coupe de grรขce
administered by the commandos was generally unnecessary, as the
hostage takers wouldn’t have woken up to cause any problems. The
real reason for the bullets to the head was to absolutely
ensure there were
no survivors to convict, therefore no trial, therefore no media
circus. Having been forced to
stage a counter coup to stop Blunt from seizing power after losing
the election, the military was damned if it
was going to give the
Republicans any room to maneuver
After the situation had been explained to them, the friends and
relatives of the dead hostages tended to say that they thought Delta
Force had made the best of a bad situation and placed the deaths of
their loved ones at the feet of the “Put America Back On Top”
types who’d stormed the Capital in the first place. The families of
occupiers generally tended to refuse comment and kept a low profile,
mostly out of embarrassment at the behaviour of their dead relations.
When the bodies were being sorted-out, several Republican members
of Congress plus more of their staff were found among those who’d
been shot and left behind by Delta Force. Most of these people had
been found wearing PABOT hats---although one had been a staffer with
a confederate flag patch on his jacket. None of them had zip-tied
wrists or were otherwise obviously being kept hostage. Two had been
recorded giving speeches decrying the “stolen election” and
arguing against certifying the new president just before the mob
stormed the building.
At this point the real news coverage ended and the usual “talking
heads” showed up to pad the time. The tv went black.
Kelly Hughson walked onto the stage with two people that Nate
had never seen before and said they were going to brief everyone on
what was happening. One was a tall, very thin, elderly black man with
a mid-sized, salt-and-pepper “Afro” hairdo. He spoke first.
“The Old Ones have been gathering information across the USA so
our in-house experts can analyze it. They’ve come to the conclusion
that soon there will be a “blossoming” of radicalization as it
sinks in among the right-wing radicals that the armed forces have
staged a very effective “counter-coup” against their saviour
Norbert Blunt. The prime driver behind this backlash will be a spate of
“lone wolf” attacks against whatever target that particular
individual decides is important or easy to hit.”
“The theorists have been priming supporters for this behaviour
for years. This started when it became obvious that the
counter-terrorist security organizations are very good at preventing
complex plots before they happen and “rolling-up” organized
groups after an event. What they haven’t been able to stop are
randomized individuals who act totally on their own. To that end,
their propaganda has been aimed at convincing individuals that the
best action is for someone deeply committed and has ‘nothing left
to lose’ to ‘martyr themselves’ for the cause.”
“Having said that, there are specific types of terror attacks
that we can expect won’t be successful. Using hijacked airliners as
guided missiles, for example, has been relegated to the past for two
reasons. First: reinforced, locked doors were installed in airliners
to protect the crew cabin and pilots have been instructed to never
allow hijackers to take over a plane no matter what they do. Second:
passengers realize that they are doomed if they allow hijackers to
take over---which means that since 9-11 every attempt to take over a
plane has resulted in the passengers violently assaulting the
would-be terrorists and quickly putting them out of action.”
“Unfortunately, what does still work are much simple
things---like driving a motor vehicle into a crowd of people. Or
taking a firearm into a mosque, nightclub, shopping mall, etc, and
shooting everyone in sight. Because of the Republican ‘roll backs’
of the restrictions on gun laws, this has been made even easier by
‘open carry’ laws that have normalized the sight of individuals
walking around with military grade weaponry in urban settings.”
The other person in front of the video screen was a short, very
white elderly woman with very thick, very long hair that had been put
into two thick braids that hung down over her shoulders. She added to
what the first man had said: “The big threat that comes from this
sort of terrorism aren’t the actual deaths, it’s the emotional
backlash that comes from the general public and the politicians that
pander to these strong feelings.”
“Osama Bin Ladin was very up front about the goal of 9/11 terror
attacks on the US. Primarily, they were designed to goad the Bush
administration into large-scale military adventures that would turn
the majority of Arab and Islamic people against America. The idea was
that this would mobilize large numbers of ordinary Muslims into an
international war against modernity. He was remarkably successful.”
“America staggered around the world like a wounded bear. It
invaded countries that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11
attacks, destabilized the middle East, destroyed the internal unity
of their own democratic process, wasted enormous amounts of good
will, threw away huge amounts of capital, and, reduced the USA from
being the preeminent world power into being just one of several.”
“Probably the worst result of all this is that it served as a huge
distraction from the existential threat of runaway climate change.
The doomsday clock has been ticking away for decades and we have
already wasted far too much time over what future generations will
consider an extremely minor issue.”
“With this in mind, the Old Ones have decided that the
fundamental focus of our response needs to be one of avoiding future
distractions. To that end, we have decided to devote significant
resources to fighting a two-pronged struggle against those elements
whipping the ‘lone wolves’ into a frenzy and the populist
politicians who attempt to use what every outrages happen into an
excuse to go into “wounded bear” mode again. We will be asking
many of you to help us with your specialized skills in the upcoming
months. Be ready.”
The two Elders walked over to a table and started their breakfast
like everyone else.
&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
I have spent a lot of hours researching and writing the past three articles about white supremacy. And readers have a right to ask "Why bother?". I'm not saying that there is much chance of these guys seizing power, or even building their numbers in the near or any future. I believe racism is on its way out. Unfortunately, however, I think that as racism becomes less influential in society it may become---in a specific, limited sense---more dangerous.
&&&&
Lone Wolves
Part of the reason why I say this comes from my research into the influence that William Luther Pierce's novels had on white nationalism. His books were like that Biblical saying:
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 King James Version
What concerns me is that he did this before the World Wide Web and social media. Back then, someone had to make an effort to find a copy of The Turner Diaries. Timothy McVeigh, for example, had to find a classified advert in the back pages of Soldier of FortuneMagazine, and write to an address, sending a cheque, to buy a copy. In contrast, it took me only a few minutes at a computer to get free Ebook versions of all the texts I mentioned in my previous articles.
Yeah, that's the Truth Social logo.
Having said that, it is the case that the major tech companies have erased a lot of the most overt white nationalism from their media systems. I have had a hard time, for example, posting examples of white nationalist propaganda on this blog because YouTube and Blogger are getting better at editing this crap out with their AI. (They are still totally worthless at making the distinction between using it for recruitment versus public education, though, hence my problems.) But all the while this has been happening, there has been significant growth in alternative social media platforms. And the worst types of racist propaganda have moved from the mainstream providers to them. For example, Donald Trump wants his followers to move to one of them---Truth Social---since he was dumped from Twitter. So purging hate from the mainstream hasn't eliminated it, it's just put it into a "walled garden" where it can fester safely away from public view.
I'm concerned about this, because social media is just about the best possible medium I can think of for engaging and cranking up "loan wolf" terrorists. And, those are the folks who are doing most of the damage.
&&&&
What is a "lone wolf" anyway?
On the face of it, a lone wolf is someone who sets out to make a terrorist attack without being affiliated with a group. But when you think about it, there are layers to this isolation. Here are three groupings---I illustrated each with an example---that I got from an academic paper on the subject (Brian J. Phillips (2015): Deadlier in the US? On Lone Wolves, Terrorist Groups, and Attack Lethality, in Terrorism and Political Violence).
Someone who dreams up his motivation and then does the deed without any support from anyone else: Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber")
Someone indoctrinated and inspired by a group or movement, but then goes on to do the deed all by himself: Alek Minassian (Toronto van attack)
A person indoctrinated and inspired, who plans the deed and also gets the support of a small number of like-minded friends to help: Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City bombing)
I'd suggest that guys like Ted Kaczynski are extremely rare. Not only is he a genius, but incredibly self-motivated. Luckily, people like him who decide to declare war on society are very rare. Not only because of his intelligence, but also because his extreme isolation made him very difficult to catch. Indeed, he was only caught because his brother recognized his writing style from the manifesto that he sent out to be published in the Washington Post. Had he been an only child, he might still be on the loose.
My big concern are the second and third types. Alek Minassian is a frustrated young man who is neuroatypical on the autism spectrum. As near as I can tell, he's pretty high functioning (like some of my relatives and friends), but he has had some problems dealing with people of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, he fell down the Incel rabbit hole and ended up believing all sorts of crazy things about women. The end result was a drive down the sidewalk in a rented van and the death of lots of random, innocent people.
And, as I pointed out in previous articles, Timothy McVeigh was an intense young man with a very strong gun fetish who read The Turner Diaries and decided to take them from the realm of fiction to history. He seems to have had some trauma from his parent's divorce and PTSD from his experience in the First Gulf War. It does seem that by the end, people who knew him weren't at all surprised by what he did.
What I'm concerned about is the ability of the Web to collect 'lost souls' like Minassian and McVeigh, and nurture whatever problems they have into full-blown, dangerous paranoid fantasies about the world we live in. Cast your net wide enough, and throw enough chum in the water, and you will end up bringing up some pretty terrible monsters from the deep.
From politics we have the term "useful idiot". It describes someone who is willing to support some sort of nefarious cause for idealistic reasons because they don't really understand what they are getting into. I suppose it depends on your particular beliefs about human psychology, but I would suggest that a great many naive people can get themselves talked into believing some pretty ridiculous things---and can then go on to do some pretty horrible acts.
Please stick with me as I split a pretty thin hair---.
Who has more moral culpability? The naive person with "issues" who gets talked into doing something pretty awful, or the person behind the scenes who winds him up like a clockwork doll? Even deeper, who's worse: the "true believer" who actually thinks turning the keys of his army of dolls is a good thing? or the cynic who knows that this is all nonsense but goes along because he thinks it serves his purpose (eg: career or party policy objectives)?
I don't generally believe in evil, or even guilt for that matter. But I do believe that some systems of thought and organizations can cause a lot of damage and it is important to work against them as much as possible. I'd like to see a world where people like Minassian and McVeigh get proper counselling and support before they commit crimes. I'd also like to see things like the Incel and Gun fetish cultures get excluded from the Web before they get out of control and damage society. I'm not talking about government censorship, but rather governments forcing Internet companies to exert editorial control in order to prevent legal liability. These are the rules that already exist for magazines and newspapers---but which have, for some reason that has never been explained to me, are not applied to anything that involves the World Wide Web.
&&&&
I'm especially concerned about this problem because one of the lessons that white nationalists have learned over the last few decades is the same thing that Islamic terrorists and other groups bent on violence have figured out. If the general public is against them, it isn't that hard for the police to infiltrate and shut them down.
This doesn't mean the end of terrorism, though. That's because groups don't have to recruit and train people anymore. Instead, all they have to do is spread the message and add the odd suggestion about what would be the best way to achieve the best "bang for the buck". They know that if you spread the message wide enough, you will find someone who is willing to commit the violence you want. And because there is no membership list for the FBI to look at, it is almost impossible to predict when and where the next lone wolf actor will hit.
Indeed, I read an academic study on the issue of lone wolf terror attacks and it seems that while in less-developed nations (ie: with less sophisticated police forces), the worst attacks are done by organized groups, the opposite seems to be the case in First World countries. Consider the following table of figures.
Brian J. Phillips (2015): Deadlier in the US? On Lone Wolves, Terrorist Groups, and Attack Lethality, in Terrorism and Political Violence, 0:1-17, 2015.
If you remove the one event that skews the numbers (the air attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon), you can see that the number of casualties caused by lone wolf attacks in the US are between seven and eight times higher than those initiated by groups in the years between 1970 and 2010, and in 15 developed countries there is near parity. Contrast that with the result from the Global sample that includes developing nations.
If you think about Canadian examples, I'd suggest that the same phenomenon is at work. Wikipedia has a list of massacres that have occurred over Canadian history. I've removed various battles involving the First Nations, obvious random mental illness, and, organized crime. Please note, that these are just massacres, as there have been a great many other politically-motivated killings that certainly fall under the title "terrorism", but I'm just trying to identify the worst ones that have happened relatively recently. Here's the list that remains plus the casualty count and motivation:
Ecole Polytechnique, (15 killed/14 injured), hatred of women
Quebec City Mosque (6/19), Islamophobia
Toronto Van Attack (11/15), hatred of women
London Ontario Truck Attack (4/1), Islamophobia
Every single one of these was a lone wolf attack. The only recent attempt at a group attack that I can think of was the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot. Personally, I don't know what to make of that event because parts of the story seem somewhat farcical while others seem to have been legitimate cause for concern. But whether or not it was a serious conspiracy, the fact remains that it was quickly infiltrated by police and shut down.
&&&&
This has been the most disturbing series of articles that I've written for this blog. At times it's got me to question whether or not humanity is such a good idea. But I do think that the result is useful. If you think so too---and you can afford it---why not subscribe? Patreon and Pay Pal make it easy to do.
&&&&
Ghost Skins
Most Saturdays I walk to the Guelph Farmer's Market, and I often pass through the parking lot across from the Guelph Police Services building. One thing that I sometimes see that creeps me out is a giant black pickup truck with a big Canadian "thin blue line" flag held up by a hockey stick (of course) anchored on the trailer hitch.
I'm not about to ascribe any motives to the individual who parks their truck in that parking lot on Saturdays. I have no idea who it is, and I don't even know if he is a police officer. (I think a lot of people park in that lot.) But I would like to point out that this image is completely at odds with the official doctrine of policing that has guided Commonwealth nations since the late 19th century.
Just like modern nursing---which draws much of its philosophy and ethos from Florence Nightingale---our core policing ideas come from one man, Sir Robert Peel. His "Nine Principles of Policing" are commonly held up by police departments all over the English-speaking world and I've even heard a past Chief of Police in Guelph quote from them at a breakfast meeting. Here's a video that does a good job explaining them.
First, I'd like to draw reader's attention to one part of the 7th of Peel's Nine Principles:
"the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police
being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time
attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the
interests of community welfare and existence"
Peel's emphasis is on the idea that the police aren't distinct from the general public (ie: "the police are the public---etc"). Indeed, the only difference is that the police are paid to do full-time what all citizens are expected to be doing as citizens.
Instead of seeing a difference between the "good" and the "bad", with the police standing in between, Peel sees everyone as being part of the public. He emphasizes this point by saying that the mark of an effective police force isn't by how many criminals it has arrested, but rather how few crimes there are in a community.
"To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of
crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in
dealing with them."
I'd like to contrast the above with the following quote I found on a website explaining the significance of the thin blue line flag:
"The Thin Blue Line emblem was established to symbolize all law
enforcement personnel similar to the Red Cross symbol representing all
medical personnel. The Thin Blue Line embodies the unbreakable component
of law enforcement standing as a safety barrier between the law-abiding
citizens of America and the criminally inclined."
The thin blue line flag is profoundly different from the Peelian vision. Peel sees everyone as part of the public, whereas the thin blue line mentality makes a distinction between "the law-abiding citizens of America and the criminally inclined".
Think about this distinction. How is a police officer supposed to actually believe that people are innocent until proved guilty if he sees himself as being part of a wall that separates "law-abiding" from "the criminally inclined"? Moreover, notice the other part of the distinction---one part are "citizens of America" as opposed to the others who we are left to assume arenot real Americans?
Really apply the philosophy behind Peel's Nine Principles and you end up with the stereotype of the friendly British Bobbie who sees his job as keeping the peace and who is a friend to everyone in the community. Follow the principles of the thin blue line and you get Ferguson Missouri, where people see the cops as an occupying army who's job it is to suck as much money out of "the criminal element" (who happen to be mostly black) as it can in order to keep taxes low for real "citizens of America" (their colour, probably not of dusky hue).
&&&&
This gets me back to white nationalism. I don't think that it's much of a stretch to go from seeing "us and them" in terms of "honest citizens" versus "the criminal element" to seeing the distinction in terms of "whites" versus "non-whites". This is the point where police go from being alienated from the community to racists.
And this is where we have to discuss "Ghost Skins".
This term originated decades ago, before the creation of the alt-right and social media, when white nationalism was dominated by the "skinheads". They took on this name because many members took on a "style" that involved shaved heads, steel-toed boots, and, suspenders.
Here's a photo from a 2009 Alberta rally of the "Aryan Front". Image from the Southern Poverty Law Centre, used under the "Fair Dealing" copyright provision.
The "ghost" part of the name involves someone not showing any overt signs of white nationalism (shaved head, tattoos, espoused beliefs, etc) so they can function undercover in mainstream society.
In The Turner Diaries and Hunter certain elements of the plot turned around the fact that there were sympathizers to the white nationalist terrorists within the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. They helped by sharing information and by protecting racists. Let's also not forget that in times past, the KKK in the South often had members in police, government, and, political parties.
Consider, if you will, that in at least one US city there exists two different predominately white and black police unions. Saint Louis Missouri has the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 68 and the Ethical Society of Police (wow, the difference in titles says a lot). Here's a video that explains why a group of officers went to the trouble of setting up the new organization.
As if to underline what I've been talking about, take a look at 1:20 in the above video. You'll see this frame:
I doubt Marvel approved this use.
Pay attention to the image at the top left of my screen grab from the video. It's an avatar that is a conflation of both the thin blue line flag and the icon of The Punisher, a Marvel "super-hero" who recently gained a high profile because of a recent two season mini-series put out by Netflixs. (My wife and I are actually big fans.)
It's extremely troubling to see this image being used because the Punisher is not like Superman or Batman. He's a damaged ex US Marine with PTSD who has been pushed into taking the law into his own hands by combination of extreme police corruption and incompetence. He wages a one-man war against vicious killers who work for organized crime and rogue government agencies.
And make no mistake, it's a WAR. Unlike every other comic superhero I've ever heard of, the Punisher simply kills people---with pistols, grenades, mines, heavy machine guns, etc. He tries not to kill innocent bystanders and protects people from his enemies. But make no mistake, he's judge, jury, and, executioner all wrapped up into one angry ball of rage. In short, the Punisher is the absolutely last role model you ever want the police to emulate.
And yet, here's Jeff Roorda, the Business Manager for the Saint Louis Police Union using the icon as his social media avatar. (I wonder if this attitude might have something to do with all the police shootings in Saint Louis?)
&&&&
I'll tone down my anger at this point a wee bit and make a few points.
There are all sorts of subtleties involved in discrimination. People can simply draw a line between "law-abiding citizens" and "criminals" without being racist. I'll just raise but then ignore the point that a lot of white-collar criminals create a lot of misery while looking like peaceful, middle-class folks (dare I say "real American citizens"?). And that a lot of people who lead important social justice movements get viewed as "dangerous radicals". (Remember Martin Luther King was hated by many 'establishment types' before he was assassinated and his ideas edited to take out the bits where he opposed the Vietnam war and called for redistribution of wealth to end poverty. That might be why the head of the FBI had people trying to convince him to commit suicide.)
People can also discriminate against others because they are afraid of them, not because they hate them.
If my memory serves, the first chapter of Gwynne Dyer's latest edition of the book Warsays that anthropology suggests that through most of humanity's existence people lived in a constant state of low-intensity warfare between different tribes. The "Other" was anyone who wasn't a member of one's own group, and generally the first instinct was to kill anyone that you didn't know---if you thought you could get away with it. And if you'd asked any of those people, they probably would have suggested that the reason why would be because if you didn't kill them first, they'd kill you.
I'm not the sort of person who says that human beings are totally at the mercy of instincts created by evolution. Human cultural adaptation is far more important to to our behaviour. But I do think that some people---if they don't get the right type of education---are prone to projecting their fear onto people who can be easily identified as being from a different "tribe". I believe in a lot of cases this results in people who are irrationally afraid of people of colour or poor folks.
Part of the education designed to overcome this tribalism is encapsulated in Peel's Nine Principles. You select for a certain type of police officer and train them in the idea that "the people are the police, and the police are the people". In contrast, the thin blue line teaches police that not only are there two types of people: "American citizens" and "the criminally inclined", there is in fact a third tribe, the people who make up "the thin blue line".
If you don't see some of the people you interact with (the poor and the non-white) as being of "your tribe", it's easy to get into the mindset that they are potentially dangerous. And then you get into the warrior-cop mindset that suggests it is better to be judged by twelve members of a jury than to be carried to your grave by six pall bearers.
&&&&
Even if a lot of bad police behaviour can be explained by irrational fear instead of out-and-out white nationalism, this fear creates a cloud that allows the white nationalist to hide behind. They get protected by the "blue wall" of silence that says that no matter what a fellow officer does, they should be protected. (Hence the Saint Louis Ethical Society of Police.)
But beyond the people who are irrationally afraid of the Other, there do seem to be self-consciously racist police officers (and in other positions of authority too, no doubt). This is such a problem that in 2006 the FBI published a report titled White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement. Unfortunately the public version has been so heavily redacted that it's pretty much worthless as an information source.
What might be underneath this layer of secrecy can be inferred from a story I found from an Associated Press article under the by-line of Jason Dearen that was published on December 22, 2021. It describes the 10 year career of Joseph Moore who worked as an undercover agent under contract to the FBI. His job was to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in Florida.
The FBI first asked Moore to infiltrate a klan group called the
United Northern and Southern Knights of the KKK in rural north
Florida in 2007. At klan gatherings, Moore noted license plate
numbers and other identifying information of suspected law
enforcement officers who were members.
Moore said he noted connections between the hate group and law
enforcement in Florida and Georgia. He said he came across dozens of
police officers, prison guards, sheriff deputies and other law
enforcement officers who were involved with the klan and outlaw
motorcycle clubs.
Moore says that connections between the Ku Klux Klan were extensive both in law enforcement and prisons. As part of his work, he uncovered a plot to murder a man that was being organized by several prison guards. Unfortunately, as part of the legal case that was used to protect the individual under threat, his cover was blown and he had to roll up that part of his work.
Over his decade inside, Moore said his list of other law
enforcement officers tied to the klan grew. The links, he said, were
commonplace in Florida and Georgia, and easier to identify once he
was inside.
“I was on track to uncover more activity in law enforcement, but
the immediate threat to the public with the murder plot was a
priority,” Moore said. “And I was only one person. There was only
so much I could do.”
Moore said the three current and former prison guards implicated
in the murder plot case operated among a group of other officer-klan
members at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, Florida,
a prison where new inmates are processed and given health checks. He
said the officers he knew were actively recruiting at the prison.
The Florida Department of Corrections pushes back on Moore statement, suggesting that Moore is overstating the situation, but he sticks to his guns.
“That statement by the state is not accurate based on the
facts,” said Moore, who asserts he saw evidence of a more pervasive
problem than the state is publicly acknowledging. He said he gave the
FBI information about other active white supremacists who were
working as state prison guards and at other law enforcement agencies.
He said he also provided information about klansmen applying to be
state prison guards.
After testifying in the murder conspiracy case against the
klansmen he’d spent years working with, Moore’s work with the FBI
ended. He’d been publicly identified, and in 2018 he began life
under a new name.
Dearen ends his story with a last quote from Moore about law enforcement and it's relationship to the police that apropos.
“If you want to know why people don’t trust the police, it’s
because they have a relative or friend that they witness being
targeted by an extremist who happens to have a badge and a gun. And I
know as a fact that this has occurred. I stopped a murder plot of law
enforcement officers,” said Moore.
&&&&
This is as good a point as any other to end this series of articles. It is yet one more deep dig that has left me really depressed. Next time, look for something more uplifting from The Guelph-Back-Grounder.
I know this Omicron wave sucks. But because it spreads so fast, it'll peak and decline really fast too---maybe it will on its way out by the end of January. In the interim, you know what to do.
&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
Kelly also had a systems analyst from the Pentagon on his list. He
was a enlisted man who was a PABOT (“Put America Back On Top”)
dweeb that hadn’t been identified yet by Pentagon
counter-intelligence. Kelly had scooped him up on-line from the 8chan
web forum and convinced him that he should become his eye on
officialdom for “the cause”. Hughson had done this by convincing
this numbskull that he was a security operative for Atom Waffen. The
fact that this guy thought he was helping these violent morons was a
real bonus, as it meant that Kelly had no qualms at all about getting
him to take stupid risks. It simply didn’t matter if this guy got
caught and thrown in the slammer for a very long time. The Elders
were in agreement---the world would be a better place if the military
would get their act together and do a better job of purging these
goofs from their ranks.
After he got his info from O’Reilly about the commandos, Kelly
decided it was time to ‘sell the family silver’ and get his PABOT
chiphead to use a backdoor he’d installed in the Pentagon mainframe
to find out what was going on with the security detail they’d sent
to augment the President’s body guards. There really wasn’t much
there except some expense accounts stuff detailing civilian suits and
issuing non-standard Glock semi-auto pistols and P-90 submachine
guns. (And, of course, as Kelly suspected, a hidden sub-routine that
alerted the cyber-security branch of the military that this server
was being snooped upon. For sure the PABOT guy was going to get
arrested in a couple days.)
What the doomed spy didn’t realize, however, was that in the
process of going in where he wasn’t supposed to be going, he’d
installed Elder spyware that was designed to send Hughson any
information that referred to the POTUS through an automatic messaging
app. It did this through an elaborate series of Virtual Private
Networks that---if found---was designed to appear to be a clever
network devised by the Chinese government.
This was how the Elders found out days before everyone else that
the Pentagon’s body guards had arrested the President after a quite
intense fire-fight with his Secret Service guards---who had consisted
of mostly PABOT “true believers” and the odd naive soul who
believed that they were bound to follow every order they received
from the President---whether it was lawful or not. (Luckily, the
generals and admirals mostly remembered that they swore an oath to
the constitution and not any one particular person.) At that point,
the brass hats had given the order that unleashed Delta Force and got
most of the hostages out alive.
&&&&
Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
