About 10 years ago, my Fox News viewer dad warned me about the threat of Arab terrorists going to Mexico and then coming across the border to appear in civilian spaces and blowing themselves up or killing many with automatic weapons. He insisted the only way to stop them was not gun control legislation, but to simply crack down hard on immigration across the Southern border. Aside from the complete absurdity of the idea that terrorists from the middle east would go into Mexico before coming into the US, I do find some irony and tragedy in the reality that now we are most endangered by the very people who buy into this fear mongering and misinformation from the president himself, the increasingly unhinged voices on Fox News, and the even crazier voices from the right wing internet community.
76
The alliance is much more extensive than you suggest, Charles.
White supremacists in the military and in law enforcement are the most lethal because they are the only entities that enjoy a legal right to bear arms.
And let us not forget the corporate honchos.
48
No. 1: As in it's the economy, stupid, in this case it's assault weapons, stupid. All of these "tragedies" have the same element, which is weapons of mass destruction designed for warfare.
No. 2: It's the republicans, stupid. If republicans would stop selling themselves to the NRA and gun makers, and if they would ban assault weapons, demand universal background checks, and do away with the gun show loophole, mass slaughter would be diminished.
No 3: Again, it's the republicans, stupid. If trump and the republicans didn't incite white nationalist/supremacist hatred and violence, and if republicans would stand up to him and his ilk, domestic terrorism would be diminished.
Hold the thoughts and prayers already.
7
What the Country could do when the President himself is a White Nationalist ?
Everyone of the Citizen needs to register to vote to throw this President out of the office.
As trump have said he will never leave , then handcuff him and kich him out to the curb.
Our patience is running out listening to trump`s venom all the time.
9
I think we need a new 1/32nd law. 1/32nd white and you are legally white for the purposes of the census.
And I would be willing to bet that most of the southern white nationalists would flunk the old 1/32nd law.
2
White nationalism, white supremacists, and white terrorists are collectively and mutually supported, promoted, and encouraged by the Vietnam War draft dodger and the Republican Party who aggressively escalate the vicious racial internecine, paranoiac xenophobia, and divisive antiimmigrant toxic atmosphere. This caustically poisonous symbiotic race based relationship will increase the temperature in America through heightened and dangerously provocative rhetorical protestations scapegoating individuals of colour, of different sounding names, different religious beliefs, and diverse cultures. 2020 is the golden opportunity for Americans to standup and take back their nation from the myopically skewed, abjectly incompetent, race baiting, and xenophobic GOP and vote out the obesely rotund occupant of the West Wing. The Republican Party and 45 hold deeply sacred Caucasian white privilege to be protected and preserved at any and all costs. Lacking education beyond the 8th or 12th grade, blue collar worker status, and intentionally rejecting racial diversity, multiculturalism, and multi religious awareness, much less the patent absence of respect, the GOP and 45 desperately depend upon this increasingly shrinking electoral base. They steadfastly refuse to recognize the irrefutable, incontrovertible fact that the racial and ethnic demographic developments here will render Caucasians to a permanent minority status, and that they refuse to remotely accept without a fight. Race matters.
7
What is happening to the New York Times? I expect tabloids to add fuel to fires, but this column by Charles Blow makes me wonder if the Times aspires to be a tabloid as well. It is just nothing but rage, without any evidence of the kind of restraint that's necessary to make an argument based on reason. It condemns not only Trump, but all the people who voted for him and will vote for him next year. The Democrats can't hope to win with people like Mr. Blow leading the way. It makes me wonder if people like Blow really want the Dems to lose next year, since they enjoy their self-righteousness so much.
11
Right on Mr. Blow.
4
The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip. - Well stated!
6
No one got to vote on the uptake of 20 million illegals who basically have the same rights as legal Americans.
10
Some of my friends who are most against illegal immigrants are African-American. This is not just a white issue, but it seems to be about taking jobs from legal Americans. I would love to see a story about this.
6
This is a good column, with a lot of Truth. But it misses something. The white nationalist politicians are motivated more by greed than whiteness. They are racist because the continuing consolidation of wealth cannot generally risk the inclusion of outsiders. People who are not part of the established, tight knit circle of power are to be exploited.
The "average" whites who commit these acts of violence are as outside of this circle as the groups they attack. They have far more in common, practically, with the brown humans that they murder than with the politicians who stoke their rage with guttural rhetoric.
And this is precisely why the Republican party has been the party of dog-whistle racism; is now the party of overtly spoken racism. Should the rank and file, those who necks the elite whites tread on through economic exploitation, recognize their similarities and unite... The consolidation of wealth would be severely threatened.
5
Something else someone needs to dissect, is whether or not these websites like 8chan and 4chan etc are full of fake people that are really bot automation, put there by enemies of the USA government; and enemies of the Western world, so as to cause these mass murders. Are the killers actually being fired up by bot automation and not real people.
7
So, in essence, Blow is saying Trump and mad murderers are 2 sides of the same coin. Who would vote for people who think this way? I can't imagine the Dems winning with such extreme views.
5
Mr. Blow, I disagree with you. These inconceivable mass shootings are beyond anyone's words to explain...including yours. These guys are obviously mentally ill and do not represent all of young white men anymore than the black gang members in major cities represent all black youth. It would behoove all of us to not fan the flames of division. The political sect has jumped on this like it was a gift. POTUS is no choir boy but I am convinced that he does not condone murder. He can be voted out without turning this country into two nations.
6
TS Elliot: weapons and hate, a love between them that always in time this fate.
2
The haters that wear bed sheets and pillowcases have always been there. But they usually keep to themselves and until recently had a near zero profile because they were pariahs among decent people. When Republicans (plus Trump) declared a race war against Obama, closet racists heard a reveille and no longer felt under quarantine.
Latent, deep and without legitimacy, racism seethes. A chain of thoughts dark, hateful and foreboding that never fully rumbles to life as long as cultural taboos prevail and social consensus deny racism any oxygen.
Like a virus that sets up camp in a body silent and lethal for a decade until the ideal conditions emerge years later, to unleash its fury and wreak havoc.
When the President effectively wraps himself in a Confederate flag and praises the many fine people who also hate Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Gender+, Women, immigrants, how does a racist not swell with pride and declare themselves now that their hate is propagated from the highest office in the land?
The reality is that the electricity that flows between Trump and his true believers is high voltage racism. Not taxes. Not trade. Not jobs.
The question for all those Republicans and Independents who voted for Trump is where they stand now that the pillowcases and bed sheets are out and Trump is the Grand Imperial Wizard.
16
Outstanding, thank you
3
Here's one for the lawyers - the Modus Operandi of many of these white racists is to post online before they start their killing sprees. Did the technology platforms do anything about it or inform the police? I doubt it. Do such postings encourage such violence? Absolutely.
So why aren't the technology platforms being sued for criminal negligence?
4
YES!!!! THIS is the through-line we must be constantly repeating until elections..... Thank you for such clarity, Mr. Blow.
4
There are a lot of shootings in Chicago, Baltimore an other cities just about every weekend?
Is Black and Brown nationalism at fault?
Of course not.
Unfortunately, Charles Blow uses every tragedy to bash the President and the GOP with collective guilt.
4
"But, I think laying all the blame at their [Republican] feet is too convenient and simplistic."
Perhaps, but remember, the Republican party nominated a candidate for president who started off his campaign by categorizing Mexicans as rapists and criminals.
Trump then went on to mock a disabled reporter, insult the Gold Star parents of a soldier who happened to be Muslim, advocated a ban of Muslims coming into this country and on and on.
Yet, Republicans not only nominated him to POTUS but actively supported his election and continue to support him regardless of his irresponsible words and actions.
Trump brought hate and xenophobia from the margins to the mainstream and the Republicans have stood--and continue to stand--by him.
So, yeah, racists and xenophobes may not be just Republicans, but the Republicans sure seem to have more than their fair share.
6
Charles, agree 100%, but I don't think you go far enough. The "go slow" ones are an integral part of today's Republican Party. They live happily and undisturbed in the broader party owing to the moral laxity and spinelessness of the rest. The Republican Party in its entirety is the root of this awful mess.
4
In these perilous times, we minorities might want to start regulated self-defense militias with like minded whites. It's what the founding fathers would have advised.
4
Was the first civil war not enough? Is there any resolution possible without violence and mayhem? Is such a resolution beyond the American imagination? I certainly hope not!
2
I read the manifesto. The guy is NOT mentally ill. Period.
4
Mr Blow you leave me confused but satisfied. You propose That Trump and his deplorables (Ooops - Republicans) are not the problem: "But, I think laying all the blame at their feet is too convenient and simplistic." But you conclude with "It’s just that their methods differ. The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip." Who is "their" that you refer to? Somebody other than Trump and his deplorables (Ooops - Republicans)? Who?
1
"Joined at the hip" puts it very aptly and succinctly. It's a crucial point for all to get.
Thank you Mr. Blow for never relenting in your fervent stand for justice.
3
It would be nice if people on the left, such as the readers of the Times, would stop grouping all white people together and grouping we conservatives with crazed shooters. Like everyone else, we deplore these shootings, whether the gunman is a crazed white supremacist, Muslim, or alienated high school kid. You know I dislike Trump intensely, though I am both a conservative and a Christian, but why would I vote for a party that constantly denigrates my race, gender and religion?
2
Mr. Blow may think that he is speaking our for justice when he says that "White lawmakers" and "White nationalists" are "bound at the hip."
He is not; Mr. Blow like all revolutionaries wants Cart Blanche (no pun intended) to eliminate a whole class of people he considers his enemies.
History gives us lots of examples of well meaning revolutionaries that turned their revolts into slaughter-houses:
To wit: The French revolution with its executions of all enemies of the lower classes. In the end though the guillotines didn't make a distinction between a aristocratic class enemy and a Robespierre.
Same with the Bolshevik revolution , first they executed the Czar then they went after members of his class as well all "bourgeois enemies of the people."
Name a revolution and the record shows that they executed more people that the regimes they replaced, Mao in China; Pol Pot in Cambodia.
When you identify a whole class as the enemy (white lawmakers) you will not be able stop with your chosen victims.
The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound by their anger. I am not sure there is a remedy for that anger since it is founded in so many issues such as loss of power and prestige as well as position. I do know the only solution is to take the guns away from the supremacist terrorists meaning strict gun control and taking the legislative power away from the white supremacist policymakers by voting them out of office.
4
God is good and wise. Everyone has the power to say yes or no to God. There is a Heaven for those who follow the word of God. Those that fail to follow the goodness of God live in a state of confusion. There is darkness for those who wish to do as they wish. Atheists say they do not believe in the existence of God nor in the existence of Satan. Atheists are asked how they are able to discern between decent and indecent, between moral and immoral, and between right and wrong when raising a family and little children. Atheists are asked if they depend on the supreme court jesters and man’s laws to provide those answers. Atheists are asked if their parents and families taught them right from wrong. Atheists are asked if their past generations of family histories were founded in Christianity, the Bible, church and God. Their answer is I believe in no one, I am who I am, I answer to no one, and I do what I want to do.
Blessed are those who do not see yet believe. To those who believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
In the end as Jesus was crucified Jesus said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” And among believers He lives forever. These words will only have meaning to Christians, but not to atheists and agnostics.
@manoflamancha
no--just...NO!
3
@manoflamancha
This Buddhist atheist is wondering when all these Republican “Christians” are going to step up and take a stand against the hate this president, and so many of their own ranks, are perpetuating.
Personally, this atheist is sick of the self righteous faux Christian hypocrisy that is empowering and enabling right wing hate and destroying our country.
5
An excellent reminder that, just because certain political figures feign "disgust" about the latest act of violence from an erstwhile supporter, and may even deploy the rhetoric of "disavowal", one must not let they're words distract from their actual agenda.
Over the next few days, the President, and his surrogates and supporters will make a public show of condemnation over these shooters, and their respective views on immigration. They will utter kind words about the victims, and platitudes about the importance of unity in times of crisis. They will make a performance of mourning with the rest of us.
Then, when we've all moved-on to the next news item, they'll go right back to trying to ban, reduce, and obstruct immigration, and will once again denigrate the immigrants.
Don't let them fool you. They're still the same people. They're still advocating the same, hateful, policies. And we must vote-them out of office as soon as possible.
4
Thank you for this article and for not sparing truth for comfort.
Fear is always looking for a fight, and white nationalism is armed. We have a POTUS who wants to lead the gang by fiat, and his Congressional posse controlling white nationalistic policy, along with supporting corporations. They use Trump for the tool he is.
2
The actions of these shooters are completely predictable, though the shooters themselves are less so. The "leadership" in this country has propagated the idea of whites being "better" than the other races.
If a) the message white males keep hearing is that all other races but white are inferior and b) they see people in other races succeeding (appearing happier, getting an education, having a stable life-sustaining job, saving for retirement, etc.) then the equation resolves only through the admission of "failure".
These guys know in their heart of hearts that people of color actually do have it harder than they do just by the nature of the color of their skin - and if people of color can make it while bearing the burden our society puts on them based on their skin tone, then what does that make white males who are not "succeeding"? I surmise they internalize that as failing, which many then personalize to "I am a failure". This self-loathing often turns into addiction to numb the pain, or lashing out like a cornered animal.
I don't see the sense in providing wounded, cornered animals with high-velocity rifles and high-capacity magazines.
2
This is exactly accurate assessment of the current situation, but how do we get our country out of this mess, before it deteriorates into a Yugoslavia type slaughter. Dr. King had the right idea. Show people the graphic ugliness of hateful policies and they will be repelled by the consequences of such evil. Most people don't recognize the end result of such policies, but this they cannot help but view. Is this what we want our country to become? Do you really want your children to be afraid to go to school? Does keeping white men in power mean that much to you? Can you see how they are destroying the American dream for everyone? Justice must be served. The day of reckoning will come. "Darkness only lasts for the night, joy comes in the morning."
2
Go back to Reconstruction to get a better understanding of white (I call it) anxiety, fear, and insecurity. What did Lincoln not do in his term in office? He failed to complete the job- cut short by an assassin's bullet. Even HE hoped Blacks might opt out of this broken society and return to their homeland, but since 1619 they only knew about living here (if you could call it "living"). In any case the movie "Birth of a Nation" hit the theaters, and was even viewed at the White House- talking about the wonderful Klan cleaning up "the mess" caused by emancipation. Thousands were happily lynched (even white abolitionists). Washington did little or nothing for decades, as hard as educated Blacks tried to live like everyone else. And now, ignorance and a bigoted upbringing leads to immense frustration. Guns are OK, just as long as a bullet costs $50. Shooters aren't always crazy- they're misguided fools who can't figure out what they want to do with their lives. Surely if they had a girlfriend and a job they liked, it would be less likely they would be preoccupied with sick ideas.
Some are ex-military which is especially troublesome. Register ALL guns every year, and if you leave the house with one, you have to serve jail-time AND pay a stiff fine. Go hunt or target practice, then lock up your weapon THERE. Most shootings happen in the home- not at the Mall- so let's get real. When you lose your life you lose everything, so the 2nd Amendment should- no MUST- be revised.
Any kind of terrorist attack or mass murdering, has a target and reason. In general, they do not kill anonymously. Look in the political and intelligence alignations of the victims. In El Paso, it could be showing Mexican citizens on the American ground, a border issue. In this case, Trump bought it to ignite a fight.
It is said, look for the beneficiary, there is the criminal.
2
Mr. Blow may think that he is speaking our for justice when he says that "White lawmakers" and "White nationalists" are "bound at the hip."
He is not; Mr. Blow like all revolutionaries wants Cart Blanche (no pun intended) to eliminate a whole class of people he considers his enemies.
History gives us lots of examples of well meaning revolutionaries that turned their revolts into slaughter-houses:
To wit: The French revolution with its executions of all enemies of the lower classes. In the end though the guillotines didn't make a distinction between a aristocratic class enemy and a Robespierre.
Same with the Bolshevik revolution , first they executed the Czar then they went after members of his class as well all "bourgeois enemies of the people."
Name a revolution and the record shows that they executed more people that the regimes they replaced, Mao in China; Pol Pot in Cambodia.
When you identify a whole class as the enemy (white lawmakers) you will not be able stop with your chosen victims.
Mr. Blow should learn some history.
9
I think Mr. Blow is on the correct track here, but it all goes even further and deeper. The Rethuglicans want us all to be frightened, even terrorized. Why? Because a frightened population is easier to dominate than a nation full of people that have some sense of security.
Currently, we have a terroristic campaign aimed at our school children. As if the school shootings themselves were not bad enough, the media crams these images into their young minds while drills at school remind them weekly of the peril they are in. These kids could very well become conservatives when they grow up, if they were not being reminded daily of the risk guns are now putting them in.
There was a time when I was frequently voting for Republicans. That was before the party changed into Rethuglicans.
3
White nationalist politicians depend on the violent acts of the white nationalist terrorists to intimidate and kill their opponents-they work in tandem. The Republicans support for the NRA is to supply arms and ammunition to these allies to threaten and kill their opponents. "Political power grows out of the the barrel of a gun." Mao Tse Tung
1
Another theory could be that these so called real people posting on 8chan etc; that is run from out of the Philippines, are really foreign government bots edging on disturbed people with mental health problems and overstating the fact that USA is being overtaken by Mexicans when the facts don't prove this, logically European ethnicities are still the biggest majority in the USA if you look at USA government statistics.
Enemies of the USA could be encouraging USA citizens to murder their own people, as they know they won't win if they go to war and get nuked by USA. Could be foreign governments posing as people, when in fact the are automated bot comments on 8chan etc.
3
Republicans and gun control opponents maintain a claim that they have a Constitutional right to uncontrolled gun ownership and usage. This stand has enabled the rise of a supremacist movement that seems to be bent on eliminating people of a certain race, creed or color, and anyone else in their way.
Without gun control, we will likely be subject to increased and uncontrolled violence and death. With gun control, we greatly diminish the opportunities for lethal violence -- especially on such a large scale as we have seen recently.
Gun control does not and should not prohibit ownership by responsible individuals who:
1. purchase their firearms legally,
2. are fully trained in their safe usage and storage,
3. register them properly with government authorities,
4. Hold no negative bias based upon race, creed or color, and
4. only permit the use by others who are mature, responsible
adults with no tendencies toward violence, and who are fully
trained in the safe operation and care of firearms
In addition, gun owners should also be required to:
1. renew their registration on an annual basis, just as they have to do with their automobile (another potentially lethal, but controlled, weapon).
2. deal with the disposal of such weapons only through law enforcement agencies or registered gun dealers, and not as gifts or private sales to others.
Then, and only then, will we be able to put a huge dent in the lethal dreams and actions of supremacist terrorists.
3
@Jim B Reasonable, but no thought control. Better to say automatic and semi-automatic weapons are illegal. These guns are designed to do one thing - kill people. So, unless we want to add that goal to gun sports, let's just get rid of them.
This also means no manufacture or import of such weapons. Ouch! Big toes stepped on here.
1
The Democrats seem to have a mission of not impeaching Trump so as to guarantee his victory. In politics - strength is what is sought and respected. This is how Adolph won in Germany while Germany’s liberal intellectuals just cluck clucked. Impeach Trump or lose, Democrats.
1
Well, Blow continues to blow. I'm still waiting for him or any progressive to call for a crackdown on the regular assaults on visibly Orthodox Jews in NY City despite the fact almost all the attackers over the past weeks and months are Black and Hispanic as proven by the surveillance cameras. Guess it doesn't quite fit the rampant white supremacy/MAGA hat story line.
7
The writer of the El Paso manifesto actually grasped a kernel of truth -- “Many factions within the Republican Party are pro-corporation. Pro-corporation = pro-immigration." -- but then drew the wrong conclusion from it. Instead of blaming immigrants for his declining prospects, he should have been blaming the corporations which have been ever so willing to chase higher profits at the cost of American jobs. Corporate boards were ever so willing to move operations to "right-to-work" states, so they wouldn't have to deal with those pesky unions and their demands for pay and benefits. Corporate managers are quite willing to hire immigrants who will work for less and never complain. Corporations love to move factories out of the USA altogether. But somehow the right wingers never seem to blame the (mostly still) white men at the top, who make those decisions.
5
Our president is fueling the white nationalists, not because he identifies with them, but it fits his plan. It gets him what he wants; a distraction for those who might get in his way. Donald Trump behaves like a gangster. Analyze his behavior and his motivation aligns with that of a gangster. We could all move forward with a solution to repair and stop the destruction he is making in the community of Americans if we saw clearly that Trump doesn’t care about racism or nationalists. They are distractions that he stirs up to throw normally level headed people off balance. To pit one American against another. Meanwhile he holds on to the presidency, he exerts executive power, puts his inexperienced supporters in high ranking positions, maintains the family business with US and foreign government dollars, and bullies everyone else. It’s clear. Are your eyes wide shut?
4
If this unites the center and left, maybe we can address a key problem: the white supremacist sitting in the white house, and his rapid impeachment. Along with him, the iron grip that the religious right has on the nation - which is white supremacy by another name - also needs loosening. I.e., Pence too has to go.
3
Charles, the really brutal truth is that we, the people of America, value our guns above our own children, and even our own lives. You say you don't agree? Then do something to prove it, go into the streets shouting "children are more valuable than guns." Go in the hundreds of thousands. You, Charles, and other reputable journalists, are actually doing what you do best. But the rest of us? We value guns above all. And if we don't, it is time we proclaim that loud and clear.
3
Trump once claimed that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not loose any votes. This is the same person who today could not even offer a poultice of comfort by suggesting that assault weapons of war are not suitable for use by any sportsman or hunter. The Republican Party has no moral center if they are unable to openly demand even basic requirements such as a national gun registry. that alone will do little to stop the madmen. Weapons of war should not be sold at all. Walmart is only one source, parking lots are an easier source of supply. If congress takes a vacation and McConnell waits for the current mayhem to "blow over' we are lost as a unified country. I really am disgusted and I do not want to accept another mass shooting. It is not business as usually in this country. We sensible folks must unite to demand that congress act now, not after the next election.
3
Why are we concerting ourselves with motives? Are we trying to stop mass murder or make people nicer? Government can’t legislate civility but government can control mass murder machinery. As Max Fisher and Josh Keller pointed out in this publication two days ago, “Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns.” It’s just that simple. But then they pointed out that “Once America decided killing children (Sandy Hook) was bearable, [the gun control debate] was over.”
6
This was a straightforward assessment that seemed fair and perhaps a little too understated in assigning responsibility to the white nationalist party, also know as the Republican Party, for its role in the violence in America. For awhile, I have thought that Trump was aiming to start another civil war. But maybe we must now ask if that civil war has already begun?
2
Nooo! so wrong you can get any results you want by what you put into your article and what you leave out.
The El Paso shooter looked more part black than some of his victims; i.e. that blond haired mother shielding her child from the shooter looked more white than the shooter.
What you need to do to deconstruct white or black nationalism is to show a DNA pye showing the ethic DNA make up of victims and the shooters.
Your article is based on emotion and not DNA facts.
5
@CK This is a repetition of the "it's not racist because he shot white people too". As a white supremacist, the shooter hated brown people and he also hated the white people who didn't mind associating with brown people. One is his enemy and the other is a collaborator with his enemy. In a race war both have to be killed.
Moreover, the Walmart was a multicultural, multiracial space. It's very existence is an affront to a white supremacist who doesn't want that level of association between Mexicans and White Americans. Like ISIS, the idea is to make everyone choose a side to be on. Like Trump, the idea is to make everyone choose a side to be on.
Those are the reasons why the shooter drove eight hours rather than walking into a bar frequented by Mexicans and shooting it up.
1
Where are you Janet Reno, now when we need you!
1
I have said for a long time, that The iDJiT was more of a symptom than a cause. I knew the haters were out there, but I was in denial about how large their numbers were. While it makes me sad to see so many of my fellow Americans filled with such hate and rage, it also inspires me to fight back even harder to make sure America lives up to its ideals.
4
While I generally agree with Mr. Blow, he should understand that there is no evidence that African Americans were targeted by the shooter in Dayton. His sister was among those killed, and we don't even know yet if she was targeted. Dayton is a diverse community, as are many in Ohio. All we know, for now, is that the victims reflect that diversity.
5
@Dee S-Thanks for pointing this fact out.
I might add that I am no fan of Mr. Blow, but this is no doubt because I am a racist as all we on the right are.
The veneer of civilization is so very thin.
We forget that if we don't act for good, we lay ourselves open to evil. Even if it's only pretend, behaving well to each other leads to good, while behaving badly makes evil normal.
5
It may be that we really don't have "national unity" and that it never really did exist despite "e pluribus unum" on dollar bills.
How could there be? From the outset the country was based on genocide and slavery, oppression of women, oppression of whoever last got off the boat at Ellis Island, or was sent to work on the railroads or is now going to lose their job from artificial intelligence and technology, or is sent overseas to fight corporate wars for the US. Trump calls on these divisions for self-gain, believing that there are more oppressors that can be unilaterally called to his side of the racist national gang war going on. This is still a volatile, violent country and there is no reason to believe that rather than just singular persons attacking helpless shoppers in malls will not morph into something much more politically directed, as in the attack at a baseball game beginning with the question -- "Where are the Republicans?" The violence can cut both ways and we see the growing Antifa rising up against the white supremacists. There will be a latino Malcolm X or John Brown, at some point who decides that "We're not gonna take it anymore." The philosophy of "an eye for an eye" hasn't gone away. The rhetoric of Trump is incendiary and stupid and will result in far more damage than he even imagines at this time. It has been accelerating ever since he came into office rising from his viciousness and oppression of the e pluribus and election interference.
3
Like Speaker Pelosi said, Trump has always been about making america white again.
5
@Mick. Feel good about adding to the hatred?
1
@Jackson
Hate?
“How do you stop these people? You can’t, there’s —” Trump said, cutting himself off as a rally attendee yelled back, “Shoot them.”
Trump paused and smirked, before responding, “That’s only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.” The crowd cheered for nearly 10 seconds before Trump continued.
1
Scholars know what is bogus and what is real. The media need to access scholars, not just one or two experts in a field. We've been studying and publishing about the current epidemic for years, since Jonestown and Waco exploded on the national scene and paramilitary movements began a low-level insurrection in the US in the 1970s.
It is the proliferation and number of lethal guns that is the primary factor in shootings. All other explanations are cowardly and devious attempts to mislead the public.
The attack on science and knowledge has led us to a stalemate where the people suffer this plague without knowing where to turn. We have an under appreciated and under powered Public Health sector in our nation.
This leaves us vulnerable to severe, life-threatening epidemics. Remember the gaslighting by the tobacco industry? We are now being gaslighted by white supremacists enablers. Paramilitary action precedes and accompanies fascist regimes. Get busy and vote out all
enablers.
3
Please note that wishing this problem away will not work. They see the birthrate among white European women as an accelerator on their shrinking world and world view. However, this is global concern so what happens on your block is only one very small piece of the puzzle. If someone would drive several hundred miles to kill based on race...they will fly several thousand to do the same. It seems lost on people that no one wakes up on a Monday and decides to be a racist. These are the same people who for years people of color have said are running a muck in the workplace,college campuses,and politically but have been told it is an overreach to say they are problematic. The feelings and perspectives were there all along and yes, words were used to excite these actions. What should be closely looked at is who and what institutions have gone loudly, silent. The air waves to the shame of many Christians are now being used to spout Republican ideology and causes rather than the Word, which is now only a side bar. This should not happen no matter the party but it seems no one is willing to ask them to stop. Even more shameful is that those similarly placed are suddenly unaware of "right from wrong" and no-longer seem to know "who is his brothers keeper".
I'm old enough to remember well when Nikita Kruschev stated "we will bury you" at an embassy meeting in 1956. He was, of course, referring to the West. He didn't live to see the fruition on his words, but Putin, I'm sure, remembers them on a daily basis. The radical uptick in the division and violence in this country may not lay directly at their feet, but make no mistake -they are stirring the pot. The intelligence community has been warning us about it for years now. All of this is part and parcel of the same vile societal sickness - fear and hatred of "The Other" being stoked by outsiders and by our own national politics, aligned because it benefits them both. Until we stop taking the bait, we will all suffer for it. At the end of the day we are ALL human beings and that should the only message.
5
@WesternMass
Yes, but human beings are intermittenly rotten to the core.
Can love or rational thought conquer hate?
Not very thoroughly or very often. Usually, it requires physical involvement, stretching from logical essays and inspiring sermons on love to armed conflict on a vast scale.
Many Americans seem ready now to "go outside to the parking lot" to settle our civil disagreements. Afterwards, most of them from both sides will be wondering if they had lost their minds. In fact, they had: Their animal natures had taken over.
Hate is not a mental illness; it is an inborn human trait, like fear, anger, revenge, lust, etc. Any of these traits can be stirred up or tamped down. Obviously and undeniably, our president is stirring them up, the wrong man doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
What the future holds no one can accurately predict; nonetheless, let me try: McConnell will let H.R.8 be voted on. (He's so confident that it will be rejected that he might even vote for it. Unlikely, though.)
Walmart will very soon begin to initiate strong safety measures in its stores -- maybe armed guards patrolling the store and metal detectors.
And, of course, copycat acts of terrorism will follow. Why would it not?
We are not fully rational, loving animals. Some might be, though, most of the time. Welcome to planet Earth.
Judging from some of the replies here, Blow has hit a sensitive spot with some. I guess is cuts too close to home with folks.
Blow's columns have dealt with the race issue a lot of late. However they are so intelligently written, and so insightful for those of us who are seeking to understand our role in helping to heal, that I for one really appreciate hearing his views.
Charging him with reverse racism and with stoking the issue for political advantage, may make you feel better. But it tells the rest of us of your own insecurity in these matters, and of your unwillingness to examine your part in the larger problem of white nationalism and the terrorist acts that it inspires.
17
@Margo Wendorf Blow only deals with race. He never considers he is adding fuel to the fire.
5
Your last paragraph is riddled with logical flaws
2
@Margo Wendorf-"Charging him with reverse racism and with stoking the issue for political advantage...".
That's pretty much what he does.
1
The Spanish first arrived in El Paso in 1598: the valley, with the Rio Grande flowing through the middle, was settled by the Spanish by the mid-1600's. For the next two hundred years, the valley was Spanish and Native American. Texas was made a state in 1845 (and, unfortunately, promptly sided with the Confederacy). Today, El Paso is >80% Hispanic and most have family members on both sides of the border who have lived there for hundreds of years.
So who is the immigrant here?
I had a shoddy world-history education in the seventies and obviously our Anglo-centric, English-speaking-centric high school teachers are still telling the same fables about the brave Pilgrims being the beginning of everything now, forty years later. Maybe white supremacy wouldn't have so much to feed upon if we would acknowledge that Asia, Africa, the Native Americas and Europe south of Paris actually have also always been around, contributing to our world culture that exists today.
8
@Gregory Howell Yes. I remember Americans of Mexican descent saying, 'we didn't cross the border, the border crossed over us". How about these white nationalists learn some history. relatively recent history.
6
I'm old enough to have heard and witnessed all of the GOP President's disgusting and deafening dog whistles: Nixon's "southern strategy," Reagan's "welfare queen," GWBush's "Willie Horton"; GBush's "heck of a job" response to Katrina; and forty years of GOP starve the beast tax cuts (i.e., leaving flimsy or no safety net for minorities - not to mention the 40-year evisceration of the middle class and blue collar workers). And with Trump - the dog whistles are gone - devolved into out-and-open racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ call - and the silence of the complicit GOP is disgusting and deafening.
12
While I agree with Charles Blow article premise, I would go one step further and say that the effects of these "truths" he enunciates is that US is in significant trouble of continuing to exist as a sane 'United' country.
Why such forethought?
Because even the white liberals, denigrated Native Americans, Eskimos, Latinos, blacks and shunned Asians immigrants still cling fervently to the sad notion that .."USA is greatest Nation on Earth" (sic) and will continue to do so even while the country sinks into the abyss of insanity.
Fun fact - the Chinese and Indians (from India) are watching closely and preparing to use their entire populations and natural talents - some 1.7 billion people - to swamp the West.
2
It is mostly Trumps fault. Hillary would never have let this happen. Hillary could have integrated white American without conflict. Too bad the forces of anger and extremism seem to have taken over.
2
@AS With Hilary, We would have created several more Libyas & would probably be involved in a 3rd WW with Russia. She was such a fan of the military insustrial complex, she made John McCaine look like a pacifist.
Mental illness is present in every population of every country on the planet. Young people playing violent video games is also common around the world. What is uncommon are these heinous acts of mass murder. Until there is honest reflection about the issues that make U.S. unique (i.e. access to 100 round magazines and assault rifles), the carnage will continue.
4
@Basic Of course it's the guns, but it's also the fact that (apparently) many Americans seem to have a crass disregard for human life. I mean, one of th shooters of the past week claimed his sister among his victims!
Mr. Blow- I'm a little confused...aren't we in this predicament (in large part) thanks to Vladimir Putin?? It seems that Vlad has strategically placed a deadly Trumpian dagger in America. And, as Mueller warned, he continues his hacking virtually unabated. The MAGA's are so enthralled with Trump that they refuse to acknowledge the attack on our nation by a foreign power. 17 US intelligence agencies confirmed the Russian attack, but Trump rejects their work. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/us/politics/trump-russia-intelligence-agencies-cia-fbi-nsa.html Shocking numbers of our citizenry are drifting to the brink, fueled by anger & resentment in a new world where facts are routinely ignored. Our nation is seized by a delirium where truth and rational discourse are under attack, both internally and externally. We won't be able to address white supremacy, or any of our most vexing problems without a return to truth. Truth...where have you gone?
3
@Deborah We know Russia tried to interfere in the election of 2016, but we don't know what effect it have - if any. I mean those who supported Trump seem to support him still on his 'record' or perhaps his charming personality.
Bravo for truth, for real news. How we escape the nightmare....no earthly idea with one of our major parties enabling, championing, and catalyzing the carnage. If only there was a place to send them all, and a way to do it. Ignorance and hatred should not be allowed to ruin the lives of those of us who know better.
8
White supremacists are in deep trouble. When whites were 80 to ninety percent of the population and racism was a popular notion, white supremacy had a chance. But today, never. So these bigots seek white nationalism. If they cannot expel all non-whites, then they want a new country reserved for whites and independent from the non-white controlled government as it is. These are vicious and serious people who have been disregarded for too long. We as a country must oppose these people and face up to the remaining racist notions that people continue to hold.
5
"...the same goal: To maintain and ensure white dominance and white supremacy..."
That is the reason that this issue loses focus. The belief that Jim Crow never left and whites are controlling this country according to racism.
The racist views of people were never addressed fully and racist beliefs do persist among a large proportion of white people. But they are reciprocated by many non-white people with stereotyping of white people, too.
The facts are clear, race based disparities of social measures of well being and serious difficulties are irrefutable. But the causes are less than clear. They exist regardless of the mixture of the races of people in authority, of public servants, of all of the factors expected to make any difference. It's clear that if whites worry about being displaced, it excludes at least 40 percent, maybe even a majority.
Blow is holding onto a familiar view about race relations in this country but it really is not as simple as he perceives it to be.
2
I don't think violence is a black or white issue. We should stop making it a political issue.
At least 7 killed, 48 wounded in Chicago’s most violent weekend this year, West Side bears brunt of the violence. Chicago's most violent weekend this year began Friday evening when a 5-year-old boy was shot in the leg while sitting in a car as adults around him argued.
It peaked early Sunday morning when 17 people were shot in two hours in a two-mile area on the West Side, accounting for about a third of those shot over the weekend. Three women and four men were wounded in Douglas Park by someone in a passing black Camaro; two woman were shot an hour later on the other side of the park; eight people were hit about an hour later, just blocks away, including a man who died. The three shootings occurred in the Ogden police district, where the department deployed 50 extra officers on Sunday. “Area saturation teams and organized crime officers flooded Chicago’s west side following several multi-victim shooting incidents,” Guglielmi tweeted. Ambulances flooded Mount Sinai and Stroger hospitals on the West Side.
By Monday morning, 55 people had been shot across the city, seven of them fatally. The victims ranged from 5 to 56 years old, and the shootings stretched from Rogers Park on the North Side to West Pullman on the Far South Side. Nearly all the gun violence happened on the West and South sides.
10
@Just 4 Play
We seldom see race riots since the end of Jim Crow. The prevalence of racism and white supremacy shrunk precipitously because of Adolf Hitler. He actually embraced many ideas that were accepted in this country at the start of the 1930's. By 1945, Americans were rejecting them because of what they saw to which they led.
But the belief in race and the continued self identification with race did not end. Neither did racist ideas among a large proportion of Americans.
1
@Just 4 Play
Thank you for this. I used to follow a website, Chicago Murders, that tracks murders and other shootings among blacks in Chicago—with the same outcomes week in and week out—dead and injured blacks galore—drive-by shootings, shootings at so-called parties, random shootings, et al. Depictions of young black men cruising around in lack cars, seeking out potential victims with whom they had disagreements or just looking to kill were and are the norm. Yet never ONCE has Charles Blow written a column about this ongoing carnage~~and this is because of his own blatant racism. Blow’s hatred of whites is so extreme that he himself promotes violence, at least indirectly.
I wonder why the paper of record, which claims to welcome diverse opinions, does not employ opinion writers who slam blacks likes Blow slams whites—en masse.
2
I See you plastered Chicago Tribune story here to draw moral equivalence, violence on both sides. Blow is not talking about violence in general, we know about Chicago gang violence and yes black and Latinos causes violence in America and the subject has been exhausted and nobody denies that. what he is talking about and what many still denies is white supremacist ideology that is fought on both violent and policymaking front.
1
We revere our guaranteed Freedom of Speech but few understand what it entails. It's primary intent is to protect against the government coming after you for expressing an idea or position not in line with official thinking. All well and good, although the government has many times found ways to work around it while we rely on the court system to protect us, imperfect though its actions may be. We do not yell "Fire" in a crowded theater. That steps over the line. It is not a stretch to connect this standard to a hate group or person, white or otherwise that seeks the death or injury of others. The U.S. has at other time in it's history, been pretty liberal with it's interpretation of protected speech, going back to the earliest days of the Republic. John Adams, Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson to name a few at times are criticized for playing fast and loose with free speech.
There are limits to free speech and we must rely on the courts and public awareness to monitor the inevitable over reach of the government in using it to identify and prosecute domestic terrorism and those that would use it to harm others. The same might be extended to the right to bear arms, for it seems that the First and Second Amendment are closely entwined and after 230 yrs or so, we need to freshen up the house.
1
@Martin Perry
The first clause of the 2nd is what's missed, about having an armed citizenry to form a militia should the state have a need for such defense. In an era before we could afford a standing army this made sense. Now, maybe not so much.
7
I have been saying for a long time that Republicans in Congress are nothing more than home-grown terrorists in expensive suits. They are more insidious than ISIS, which makes them even more dangerous. This is especially true for Moscow McConnell.
11
@Mark Republicans are "home-grown terrorists?" Tjeu are "More insidious than ISIS?" And you wonder why the worst president in American history stands a good chance of being re-elected. When you conflate "Republican" with "white supremacist", you lose 60 million votes at a minimum. The shooters this weekend across the country came from very ugly places on both the Left and the Right.
4
So everyone who disagrees with you politically is a white supremacist? And people wonder how a giant, bloviating middle finger to race-baiting, self-proclaimed moral authority democrats was elected president... disgusting opinion Mr. Blow.
9
@Greg No, everyone who behaves in a racist manner and recites white supremacist talking points is a white supremacist. See how simple that is? "Disagreement" has nothing to do with it.
1
@Greg-Thank you for your true and funny post.
There are now reports that the Walmart shooter killed his own manager. That might well be more of a motive than race. It is appropriate to investigate further, before declaring this was an example of incipient race war.
4
@Mark Thomason are you suggesting that killing based on skin color was just a convenient smoke screen for an ulterior target?
@Mark Thomason So your theory is that the shooter may have put a racist manifesto online and killed twenty people because he thought it's better to go down in history as a racist mass murderer than for a single murder that is a boss-icide?
How much investigation does that line of thought deserve? Because I think the answer is "none unless you're really really trying to find a way that this isn't a white supremacy terror attack"
4
Your scope of the purpose of white supremacy both by the avowed and by the thinly veiled, is noted, but in doing so, Trump should not be lumped in with the bunch.
His hate-filled speeches, as president of thie United States of America, has emboldened white supremacist to carry out the massacre of our citizens and citizens in other countries. During his entire tenure, he has relished demonizing people of color as less than, and a threat.
Now faced with the unspeakable devastation that his drum beat of anti-people of color has wrought, and fingers pointed at him, he has been forced , in a prepared speech, to condemn hate toward people of color, as if he had nothing to do with it. That speech was the ultimate hypocrisy.
In hypocrisy.
9
It’s not just White Supremecy. It’s White Male Supremacy. And it’s not just in America. It’s tied to the authoritarianism happening world-wide. It’s not just the law makers and those that carry out the shootings. It’s Facebook microtargeting and those that manipulate the terrorist. This is a world-wide fight. Democracy vs White Male Authoritarianism.
8
@MidWest
White male christian authoritarianism.
4
Don’t blame the faith for the rantings of people who misuse it. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor - then went on to point out what that meant by a parable that praised the actions of one who would have been looked down upon by the people listening to him. It is clear that actually following Christ required acting with love toward ALL people.
1
@MidWest
No racism in these comments.
1
This piece in Slate has a good perspective: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/el-paso-mass-shooting-white-nationalism.html
Scocca notes at the end the similarity to the shooter's manifesto and questions asked by Dana Bash: “Sen. Sanders, you want to provide undocumented immigrants free health care and free college. Why won’t this drive even more people to come to the U.S. illegally?"
And from the shooter's manifesto: "“They intend to use open borders, free healthcare for illegals, citizenship and more to enact a political coup by importing and then legalizing millions of new voters.” Scocca notes: "Here was the person CNN wanted the Democrats to reassure."
5
@John You know, I heard a lot of things during the Republican primary that I disagreed with. I didn't feel compelled to go out and shoot people because I wasn't reassured. For one thing, I'm not afraid of brown people "replacing" me.
3
These attacks are sure to heighten voter turnout, especially among blacks and Hispanics. That may well spell the beginning of the end for the institutional white supremacists, assuming elections are not perverted through gross irregularities. Reforms will have to enacted to basically ensure the one-man-one-vote ideal of our democracy. That means curbing the gerrymander and limiting big money in politics. It very probably also means finally getting rid of the Electoral College, which undermines voter equality. As for the white supremacist terrorists, let the police and the FBI clean up that "infestation." Regardless, it's well to remember that fascism - which is what we're talking about - invariably leads to corruption, oppression and, eventually, death and destruction. There's a lot riding on 2020.
4
Why in the world aren’t all flags at half mast after three mass shootings in one week in our nation?
Why aren’t they at half mast after ANY mass shooting?
4
@Jean I'm sorry. That's just an empty gesture under this regime.
Next week or so, Trump will go back on the stump continuing to spew his vile rhetoric as if nothing ever happened.
Flags should remain at full mast as a symbol of our indomitability.
2
@Jean
Why aren’t they at half mast in Chicago every weekend?
3
Most white nationalists seem to know that large corporations are not on their side. They know big business supports replacing them with cheaper illegal immigrant labor or with workers in other countries. The illegals and foreign workers are merely pawns in their quest for more return on their investments.
But white nationalist animus towards big business is incidental. Effectively preventing businesses from hiring illegal immigrants would do a lot to stem illegal immigration, but could only be done through increasing government power and regulation. So the nationalists go for the more psychologically satisfying but less effective way of terrorizing illegal and even legal immigrants into leaving. This terrorism makes illegals less likely to organize and press back against abuse by their employers, who find it useful in getting more for less from their illegal employees.
2
And what about the other huge factor? It's mega donor money in politics, legalizing the control of the guns-for-all message by NRA lobbyists for gun maker profits.
Now, sensible gun laws and background checks are supported by 90% of the public and 80% of gun owners ---says the spokesman from GUN SENSE, just on CNN. But they've been blocked.
The NRA has controlled the gun message, equating needed sensible gun control for public safety with big govt interference in our 'Freedoms'.
The supreme court equated limits on corporate donor money in elections with anti-1st Amendment Free Speech.
So, they use our own American constitutional ideals against us. This connection must be made by columnists, pundits and politicians. These distortions are ruining our safety and our democracy.
Countries with strict gun laws don't turn their elections over to corporations to invest in for profit. It's all related in a system with huge ripple effects on society.
Now a US movement is building. Senators Schiff, Schumer, Udall, etc introduced a constitutional amendment Tuesday to undo the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Voter majorities and many politicians favor it.
Schumer says ‘ Citizens United is the embodiment of the swamp. Overturning it is probably more important than any other single thing we could do...’
Says they tried it in 2014, but Mitch McConnell filibustered it.
Our media must put this issue at the top of the news. Relate it to the body counts.
5
Of course our problems are directly attributed to our politicians. They make the laws. They have the bully pulpit upon which they spew their hatred. It is they who are the problem for not lifting a finger to try to stop the carnage. Find out what's in it for them because that's the real story why they keep us living in constant chaos and fear. Interview the families of the GOP politicians to find out what happened to their souls and compassion. Embarrassment and humiliation are strong motivators.
4
@Phil M...except for Donald Trump....with most people, yes.
2
This article is full of false equivalency. Wanting to control the boarder is not inherently white supremacist. Trump does show himself to have racist attitudes but that doesn’t reflect most of the government or congress. White Supremacists are an extremely small percentage of the population as are white nationalists. In reality, minorities are far more likely to be shot and killed by a member of their own race than by a white person and the same goes the other way. There is no proven threat to white people from minorities and there is no proven threat to minorities from white people. If people want something to worry about then improve your diet, drive carefully, don’t use drugs, exercise, and get regular checkups. That advice is far more likely to save lives.
7
Thank you for this insightful look at White Supremacy and its parallel universes. Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with mental illness, as The Occupant (and GOP) would like us to believe. Mental illness is not a choice, being a white supremacist is. Domestic white male terrorists are a political movement, backed by the GOP and The Occupant who can claim that the movement has nothing to do with them. However, mental illness is at play in The Occupant, who is an aggressive narcissist who only cares about himself and those in his gilded cage. The Occupant deliberately stokes the flames of racism, misogyny, violence and fear and is directly responsible for the lives shattered. He joked about Texans shooting migrants along the Texas panhandle...signaling that it was ok with him. His dreams have come true.
5
@Lilnomad
Although mental illness might make people who have never been able to connect with others more vulnerable to destructive ideologies like white supremacy. I'm not saying that you are wrong, but resolving these issues will require many policy steps, in many policy areas -- including but certainly not limited to mental health.
Everyone knows this. Anyone who votes for any Republican either agrees or just doesn’t care. They are complicit either way,
6
Maybe both sides are to blame. Maybe if the Democrats, as opposed to demanding open immigration and welfare for these new entrants, actually stuck more closely to the policies of Obama there wouldn't be such a horrible uptick in this sort of behavior.
Here you are a white kid. Maybe you cant afford to go to college. Maybe you blame the lack of student aid on your ethnicity. Maybe you can't get into the school you want.
Maybe your celebrity Democrat parents aren't wealthy enough to bribe your way into a top school. Maybe you are clinically depressed and because of Obamacare, the cost of insurance has skyrocketed and you are on a basic plan so you can't afford out of network coverage.
And all you hear about is the plight of refugees and 'immigrants'. Not traditional refugees or immigrants, but groups of people who show up, claiming refugee status because of gang violence in their country. If gang violence makes you a refugee, does that mean residents of Chicago are refugees?
And no one seems to care about you. In fact, you are, simply because of your skin color, labeled as the problem. All of wrongs ever done in this world are laid squarely on your shoulders, even though you, personally, have done nothing.
So maybe if everyone ratcheted back the rhetoric, and tried to come to a compromise solution this wouldn't be happening. But then self righteous columnists would have nowhere to lay the blame except at their own doorstep, and compromise doesn't sell papers.
5
@Rob
Isn’t that exactly what’s been happening to blacks for centuries in this Great Nation? That doesn’t cause is to gun up and kill people at random in mass shootings, but it has caused a great deal of self-loathing and its resultant fallout, which then causes more blame the victim by the majority society.
4
The Dayton killer apparently went there to kill his (white) sister, and then shot everyone else in sight in the less than 30 seconds he lived after opening fire. Most of them were black because the line outside the club his sister went to was mostly black at that moment.
It is seeing too much in those murders to see them as racial.
In the Walmart shooting, the killer seems to have shot whoever was in Walmart. He post a racist screed, but he just shot anyone in Walmart.
We've no idea what the guy at the Garlic Festival was doing, since he killed himself without ever explaining, and the forensic work hasn't been public yet.
We need to know more than that blacks were killed. We would need to know that the killer went looking to kill blacks for specifically racist reasons. In these cases, that is not entirely clear, at least not yet.
To instantly conclude this was about killing blacks for racist reasons amounts to incitement to kill more blacks. That is the wrong direction to take this.
New Zealand had a better approach, to avoid giving a killer a platform in death, and to avoid making social tensions worse.
8
@Mark Thomason
I don’t know what your information source is for claiming his sister was the target when he went with full body armor and rapid fire weapons aimed at dozens and dozens of people.
It certainly is NOT what is being reported in Ohio.
But in Ohio we are being told That school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people in Dayton say he was suspended years ago for compiling a “hit list” and a “rape list,” of schoolmates during his junior year. He posted the information on a bathroom wall of the school.
Alas, that did not prevent him from purchasing ammo and weapons as an adult.
10
Whatever the cause of the racial disparity at Dayton, blacks in America still have a pretty good idea of the primary group that is still being targeted these days.
8
@Mark Thomason
"In the Walmart shooting, the killer seems to have shot whoever was in Walmart. He post a racist screed, but he just shot anyone in Walmart."
Yes, because the Walmart was a place where Mexicans, Americans, Mexican Americans and Anglo Americans mixed. He wanted to kill brown people and anyone who would mix with brown people. One is the enemy, the other consorts with the enemy. Together they create a multicultural space that white supremacists hate.
This is a strategy deployed by ISIS, called "eliminating the gray areas". It seeks to make everyone choose a side. The fear, the backlash, the backlash to the backlash is to make everyone retreat to their own side and stay there. Little acts of community like shopping at the same Wal Mart is a threat to their goals.
4
Charles: There is no arguing your premises here. I think you are absolutely on the money, and have been so for some time. What do you see as a solution? I think that, on the political level, the GOP rot needs to be eliminated through immediate presidential impeachment, the ballot box, and full committee investigations of GOP crimes. On the social level, I think that blacks, browns, and whites need to come together in community to form citizens' groups to protect each other from "militias" and other self-styled "vigilantes" of psychotic origin. The police, for the most part, are on the terrorists' side. The Great Migration was a courageous act needed for survival. The Great Integration (my label) will help us all to survive and thrive. Together, as one people.
1
@MickNamVet
@Rob
Isn’t that exactly what’s been happening to blacks for centuries in this Great Nation? That doesn’t cause is to gun up and kill people at random in mass shootings, but it has caused a great deal of self-loathing and its resultant fallout, which then causes more blame the victim by the majority society.
@MickNamVet...What happens to the Deplorable Base that enables the criminal GOP? How can those racists, sexists, xenophobes, misogynists etc be afforded a home in your Great Integration? Will your "citizens' groups" wear distinction uniforms that differentiate them from self-styled "vigilantes" who are supported by the Police? Premises that are not arguable is the bastion of totalitarianism. Is that your solution?
1
The Civil War never ended. The North allowed traitor monuments to go up all over the old south. Then they let these same fine traitors tell the lies about the reason for the war.
The only reason for the Civil War is that most of the old south was populated by slaves. In Alabama and Mississippi some areas were 80% slave. The other 20% was mostly poor whites and a very few very rich slave holders.
The very rich slave holders lied to the poor white southerners until they finally went to war against the Untied States.
If the traitor Robert E. Lee had just upheld his oath to God that he would defend the United States and it's Constitution against all enemies both Foreign and Domestic the war would have failed. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi would have been quickly rolled up by the Army of Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. They had no industry and no way to build a substantial army without Virginia.
If Robert E. Lee had upheld his oath over 600,000 mostly white Americans would not have been murdered by the traitorous South.
I'm white and I grew up in Alabama in the fifties and sixties.
It's going to get much worse until the old south finally surrenders.
Thanks for all the fish
Dave
USAF Ret
9
Mitch McConnell's fractured shoulder is the perfect metaphor for his fractured moral, ethical,and disgraceful Trump sycophancy. After the massacres in El Paso and Dayton Mitch McConnell should understand that " Karma has no menu, you get what you deserve".
4
Thank you.
We have to disavow the idea that this horrific violence is caused by disturbed individuals. This is not a mental health issue, it is a hate issue.
Think back to the Nazi Brown Shirts. Were they all disturbed individuals or were they a mob incited by a crazed leader?
The link from rhetoric to violence is clear.
7
I have been woking very hard....imagining our current President singing Amazing Grace at a funeral for gun victims.
My head hurts. It just cannot stretch that far.......
5
The right to bear arms may be needed by police authorities, and by the military. The right to bear arms may be used by families for their protection. However, it was also used by those who murdered others to satisfy their own twisted view of life. Multiple mental disorders may be at the forefront of these twisted minds. But the right to bear arms is also used by criminals, the mafia, the Mexican Mafia, drug cartels, drug traffickers, street gangs, the "hell angel's" and other motorcycle gangs, rapists, aryan nation racist groups, extremist Islamic Isis, Muslim terrorist groups, skinhead racist groups, KKK, neo nazi groups, and other criminal groups. These criminals will always have weapons legally or illegally.
In the final analysis Constitutional laws don't prevent or make people do things. People will make their own choices whether that choice is constitutional or unconstitutional, whether that choice is decent or indecent, whether that choice is moral or immoral, or whether that choice is right or wrong.
The 6th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20.13.
4
Mick Mulvanney on some weekend talk show:
"“I don’t think it’s at all fair to sit here and say that he doesn’t think that white nationalism is bad for the nation,” he said on “This Week” on ABC. “These are sick people. You cannot be a white supremacist and be normal in the head. These are sick people. You know it, I know it, the president knows it. And this type of thing has to stop. And we have to figure out a way to fix the problem, not figure out a way to lay blame.”"
And any thinking American, or human being, knows this description pretty much fits the so called president of the United States.
We must remember that Adolph Hitler did not start out murdering 6 million Jews and millions of others.
He started out encouraging his cultists to beat up and harm other Germans who did not agree with them.
The language that comes out of this administration and its sycophants in the republican party should be enough to tell any and all thinking voters that republicans need to be soundly defeated in next years elections.
22
There’s no Republican Party anymore...only the RWPP / Restful White People Party.
1
The Dayton killer, Connor Betts, was an avowed leftist who wanted to vote for Warren and hated Trump. He wanted the Biden generation to go ahead and die.
So how does that fit into your narrative. Perhaps you and others should stop spewing so much hate at our duly elected President.
6
@Jackie I've seen one news report that the Dayton killer was an avowed leftist. Maybe we should wait for corroboration.
Dayton aside - almost every other mass killing where there was a political motive since Trump was elected was an avowed white supremacist (or misogynist or anti-Semite).
Some other observations. During the Trump administration, there have been 53 mass shootings resulting in 325 deaths. During the same period of time during the second Obama administration there were 20 mass shootings resulting in 124 deaths.
So, yes, we have a white supremacist problem and a gun problem. Mitch McConnell has stalled votes in the Senate on the latter issue. And Republicans generally have put a stop to CDC research of the issue and otherwise followed the NRA party line for fear of losing NRA funding and getting anything less than an A+ by the gun lobby.
One more thing. The hate "spewed" by those of us in the reality-based universe doesn't begin to approach the hate demonstrated by Trump and his followers.
Just sayin'.
8
@Jackie You may well be right but I haven't seen anything yet regarding his motives, or anything else about him beyond his name. If this is indeed the case, provide a source and prove it, please.
Some in the media are refusing to mentions the shooters names. I guess Blow has no problem with that. Why no mention of the shootings in Chicago? I guess it doesn’t fit the narrative.
2
@Jackson. What a sad attempt to deflect from the problem of white nationalist terrorism. It's also pretty stupid. There is no political agenda behind the killing in Chicago or any other community of people of color. It's poor people forced to live in an enclosed space killing other. White supremacists believe they are carrying out a political mission. It's really sad that I have to explain this to you.
6
I grew up in post fascist Italy when the fascists circumvent the new constitution grouping themselves around a new party and wearing a tie and a vest with a jacket. Fascism in Italy never died, just changed the exterior dress and now is de facto in power. I say this because in my opinion many in the republican party are in fact fascists, just dressed in a nice dress. The fact that we have elections does mean nothing as it did not in Germany when Hitler was elected to the parliament or in Italy when Mussolini was elected with a coalition of catholic and conservatives.
Part of the irreversible damage was done when a majority of culturally inadequate people were appointed to the supreme court which will be the the bastion of the right wing ideology for the years to come. And to me this is the most important aspect: change the constitution limit the mandate of the Justices may be to ten years, no more. From a court free from the political power but nominated by the President and the senate ( both political entities, big contradiction!) the supreme court must become independent and with changing justices more in tune with the times in which they serve.
6
And yet, Mr. Trump and the GOPers will continue to have us believe that is the hordes of brown folks overwhelming our borders and Muslim terrorists that are the biggest threats to our nation. No! It is out of control, privileged, entitled, angry at the world white men that are the biggest threat to our nation.
9
Thank you for calling them white supremacist terrorist rather than white nationalist terrorists.
3
Republicans aren't interested in democracy. Long ago conservative billionaires decided it was oligarchy or nothing, and they are on the verge of success. With each passing day we get more clarity - the only solution is to eviscerate the republican party, rendering it impotent forever. Eventually the GOP will be compared to organizations like the KKK and the Nazi party, and held in the same esteem.
10
@markymark...Eventually? Shoot, many of y'all are already comparing the GOP to the KKK and the Nazis. What next? Comparing the GOP to the Party of Jim Crow, Segregation, the KKK? That would be the Democratic Party of Lester Maddox, Strom Thurmond and Richard Byrd.
A third group you should include, Mr. Blow: White centrists— both working class and professional—who resist changes to a status quo that benefits whites at the expense of blacks. Martin Luther King Jr said it best and I think of it often as I hear white "moderates" condemn the progressives for being too extreme in their push for justice:
"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
11
@617to416
Thank you for posting this quote. MLK’s greatness lives on in his words. I’ve copied it and am sending it to my moderate fence sitting Democratic congressman.
3
White supremacy.
The white part makes sense. Not so sure about the supremacy.
Hate-filled idiots who shoot large numbers of innocent victims. What exactly is it that makes them superior to anyone else?
Hate-filled right-wing politicians who cheat and steal and lie their way to power and wealth. What makes them better and more deserving than the rest of us?
Nothing, that's what. Not their whiteness, or their warped brand of Christianity, or their miserable failings as sadistic human beings, or anything else.
White, yes. Superior, no.
6
@Ken
Racism means belief in superior or inferior races, or the political implementation of social order in accordance with it. White supremacists would seek such an order.
That order existed once in the U.S. but not anymore.
1
The President's racist apologists and co-conspirators in the GOP are out making excuses, focusing on the terrorist's mental health instead of his motivations and inspirations. Trump couldn't possibly be responsible. Just look at the sick and cowardly murder's screed:
"We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country ... The U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it ... How do you stop these people? You can't ... Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame ... you are losing your culture ... our own country is going to hell”
Of course those are actually some of the less famous and inflammatory quotes from our white nationalist President. Here's some quotes from our latest white nationalist terrorist's manifesto:
"Hispanic invasion of Texas ... With Republicans, the process of mass immigration and citizenship can be greatly reduced ... The Hispanic population is willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive ... Stronger and/or more appealing cultures overtake weaker and/or undesirable ones. ... Our European comrades don’t have the gun rights needed to repel the millions of invaders that plaque their country. ... America is rotting from the inside out"
Mr. Blow, you are exactly right: "The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip".
And they speak the same language.
4
There is more to this story, Mr. Blow. One of your competitors published an editorial recently in WAPO. In it she noted that many ideas motivating Trump and his ilk are not just pre-LBJ, but pre-Pearl Harbor, too. The isolationist, racist, anti-immigrant strain that Trump adheres to today represents a throwback to pre-Pearl Harbor US politics of the 20th century. It encompasses not only that era's Republicans like Roosevelt and Hoover, but its Democrats, too, like Woodrow Wilson, the most racist president since the Civil War and FDR, one of the most isolationist, anti-immigrant, racist presidents of his time. FDR refused entry to a Jewish refugee ship in the 1930's after Hitler began his purges; he thumbed his nose at Churchill's importunings to join the war against the fascist Mussolini and the nazi Hitler. Who knows how many lives could have been saved if FDR only said "yes?" After Pearl Harbor, he put US citizens of Japanese heritage into camps and stripped them of their possessions. He refused to integrate the US military, even though Truman did it shortly after his death. Trump may not be as dumb as he appears. When he says MAGA he is talking about the US of both parties before WWll. Now that he has force fed us this ugly chapter in our history, how long will it take to regurgitate it after Trump is gone.
2
Why do all the headlines say "White Nationalism" when the text usually and rightly says "white supremacy"? Be consistent NY Times and stop using the softer version.
2
“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.”
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
“Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths.”
“That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.”
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”
--- Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, 1933 -- 1945.
If you want to understand Donald Trump properly, think of him as a man standing on the shoulders of Joseph Goebbels.
10
We need to call them what they are: Radical White Terrorists.
Where is Ted Cruz and the others critical of President Obama for not using the phrase: Radical Islamic Terrorists?
3
Nothing you say is wrong, but still, what to do about it? Rail even more at the white men who dominate and cheat and murder and rape? Corner them like rats - and then what? White nationalism is still just a drop in the ocean of American violence. That is the trouble with identity politics of the sort you are exemplifying. No empathy for the "other". By all means, vote out the Republican rat's nest but save some energy for building bridges, community and above all, empathy for all your fellow humans.
1
Some white nationalists just have higher thread count.
2
Thank you for writing such thoughtful and thought provoking pieces. Today's column hits the nail on the head. You figured out what I couldn't quite put my finger on. My heart is still heavy, and to hear Trump's platitudes after these tragedies makes me so angry I could just spit. Thanks for reminding me that I'm not the only one he isn't fooling.
3
I am torn this weekend. Torn between the eloquent humanity of Ty Law and Ed Reed this weekend at their Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, and the incessant racial politics of Mr. Blow and his media compatriots. One group provides the sentiment that can bring us together and Mr. Blow spouts the garbage that tears us apart. Better men with humility can do what all of the elitist blowhards in the NY Times will never manage. Then again, if things were better, what would Mr. Blow and the NY Times write about. So maybe it's in the NY Times interest to keep the anger and hate going.
3
@TL Ed Reed's speech was very moving.
It's illuminating that Mr. Blow likes to remark when ever there is a reduction "white male patriarchy". Language that describes the reduction in "white control" and the corresponding rising power of people of color, may stoke fear in some, very few, people.
Language such as...
"The manifesto is heavily anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic. It’s riddled with the fear of white “displacement” and fear that changing demographics will favor Democrats and turn America into “a one party-state.”
It appears Mr. Texas was a racist nut. The next time he is outside a prison, he'll be in a hearse.
Mr. Ohio was a cat with different stripes. He wrote,
Heavy.com reported: “Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio mass shooter, was a self-described ‘leftist,’ who wrote that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, ‘I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.’
Maybe that's why he wasn't wearing a MAGA hat.
2
Mr. Blow, once again, your insights from your recent articles are most prescient... Now we have lived to see the carnage that follows from the philosophy of White Supremacy/White Nationalism. As most astute historians have noted, There is No Justice in History, so either we rise up and face the threat to our democratic values head on or succumb to the scourge of White Supremacy and its many mutations... At least we have a chance... Vote... Mobilize... Volunteer... November 2020 will be upon us sooner than later...
2
All white supremacists lurked in the background until Trump ran for president. He aroused them, emboldened them and, yes, incited them. It IS Trump. Whatever machinations are at work, Trump drives them. There violence lies at his feet.
6
Six of the eight people who died in Dayton were African American – one of the others was the shooter’s sister. I hate to use the word crossroads - because it implies an ending and a beginning in an age where displacement angst seems to roll on and on and a single, guided missile of a person who can - with one savage act - seize the attention of all of America…..but if we are fortunate, this day will be a crossroads because racist political rhetoric is no longer nuanced - is no longer hidden – is no longer deniable – Lee Atwater is roosting on the shoulders of the manipulators of hate-passion and the no-dimensional chess game of stoking flames in order to obscure the effect of confirming radical judges or hiding the inexorable shredding the safety net using trillions of dollars of tax cuts as the not-so-hidden blade. Who knows?….we may finally raze the house of someone other than the intended victims. The question used to be “why are they burning down their own neighborhoods” and the answer used to be “because they couldn't afford a token for the bus” These days, people can reach everywhere – nobody is safe – bang-bang-bang – mommies and babies down - thoughts and prayers - Governor Abbott of Texas declares racism a mental illness - already yesterday’s news....while the unrepentant toady, Mike Mulvaney, whines ....what…me worry?.... delivering a sound bite that will linger...for a day or two.
1
Do we all remember Mrs Trump jacket when she was down at the border “I really don’t care do u” ..... instead of doing anything about guns and background checks they double down on metal illness or a rogue individual when something like this happens. No other country including the UK which has had its own share of rogue individuals have they ever based there carnage on metal illness. It’s the guns man!
Interesting. When Dewayne Craddock shot up Virginia Beach, killing eleven, there was no outcry from the NY Times. I wonder why? Could it be because he was not white, so there was no way to leverage that tragedy for political gain.
2
Charles—I find it interesting how you feel the need to write the killers were white. When a black man kills someone are you as quick to highlight their race? I notice you didn’t mention that Betts was white. Hedging your bets? You, and everyone else at the Times for that matter, have all seemed to have conveniently forgotten to mention that Crusius’s politics were all over the map, as is to be expected from a deranged mad man. Even more glaringly, you fail to mention that Betts appears to be a far left radical who supported Warren. For the record, I blame neither Trump nor Warren. You don’t think your rhetoric is inflammatory? If you feel the need to place blame on the political climate, might I suggest a look inward?
3
Crusius's manifesto is largely free of typos and grammatical errors suggesting to me that he had given it a lot thought and had written it over a considerable period of time.
He’s not stupid or crazy. His ideas are scattered -- some pro-environment, some anti-capitalist -- but overall hold together quite well.
He claims no liking for Republicans or Democrats or Trump, but don't let his disavowal of Trump fool you. He's joined in his mind at the hips with him.
There was no mention of Jews, who ordinarily feature prominently in screeds like these. He does, however, refer to The Great Replacement, and we all know what that means.
There was no mention of family or a girlfriend.
There is no single story line apart from his antipathy towards persons of Hispanic descent, and I could never get interested in his hero who, of course, is himself.
Nevertheless -- for a 21 year -- it is a considerable accomplishment.
He is clearly engaged in recruiting followers and imitators for the cause and I will not be surprised if he now finds himself becoming a popular figure on the internet. And besieged by white nationalists seeking autographed copies of his manifesto while he is awaiting execution.
Trump, of course, will promptly disavow him, but we all know what that means.
3
There is no doubt that racism is being exploited to promote chaos. But racism and intolerance are means to an end, not the overall goal. The replacement of democracy by a narrow-minded so-called “Christian” Oligarchy is the driving force.
Already a cabal of miscreant billionaires run the most successful brainwashing apparatus of modern times with Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh, Murdoch media, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Trump tweets, and virulent web sites. They are behind Trump’s appointment of anti-regulation fanatics, and behind the GOP blockade of mitigating legislation.
Like Nazis demonized the Jews, these wealthy instigators of chaos demonize identifiable groups, inflaming the subterranean recesses of the mind, suppressing rational thought and instead, spreading intolerance and violence. Almost half of voters are glued to sources of alternative facts and conspiracy theories. With growing chaos the would-be Oligarchs expect rigid crackdown and opportunity to advance their agenda.
4
White supremists preaching hate against non-whites and Jews
must be equally condemned. There must be "no sanction for bigotry in America" as Washington famously wrote to the Truro synagogue in his day.
Just as GOP Congressman King of Iowa was criticized and dropped from his committee assignments for his white supremacy and bigotry, Representatives Omar and Tlaib should
be treated in the same way for their antisemitism which preceded the killing of Jews in Pittsburgh and Poway.
Their claim that they are women "women of color" cannot be a sanction for bigotry, to paraphrase President George Washington.
Today is was hispanics and others who were killed by senseless violence,
yesterday it was Jews who were killed by senseless violence.
Hate speech must not be a partisan or racial issue.
2
Red summer, very apt. This is White Era, brought to you by the NRA/GOP Party. A reaction to the Obama Presidency and the growing percentage of non-white Americans. The old white men and the Trump Youth are running scared, their hegemony is threatened, they will NOT go quietly OR peacefully.
Vote them out. ALL of them. Their is no such thing as a moderate Republican. They vote in goosestep.
Seriously.
2
I totally agree with you that the terrorism is not just a gun problem, but a white racism (nationalism) problem. I've followed you since you started writing at the Times. You are a valuable source of information and analysis. Keep writing.
1
Charles, I think you should also endeavor to not name these parasitic dredges of society. Let them be nameless. They took lives away--take their names away from them. They don't deserve to be treated as human.
"The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip."
'Conjoined twins of the type Craniopagus' would be infinitely more apt.
1
There will never be such folk epiphanies about the other 40,000 yearly gun deaths, whether the 15,000 homicides mostly committed by blacks (53.5% in 2017) or the 25,000 suicides mostly committed by white men (69.67% in 2017)
I'll try my best to find a way to lie to these young men I come across online in such a way that can convince them we haven't abandoned the common disgust of ethno-tribalism held by the likes of Gandhi and Cesar Chavez. Dialog is nothing now, and I have no faith that this post will be assimilated as anything other than a liberal Jew's de facto full-throated embrace of neo-nazism, but we might at least agree on stalling our subservience to the unalterable demagoguery and proofs by induction of Mr Blow and Mr Hannity etc until forth-generation antidepressants are made available, which could be fairly soon.
Ironically, I particularly agree with Mr Blow on one thing: the unrecognizably beneficial heuristics of Andrew Yang.
Aided, abetted,and incited by their cheerleader Trump
and the gutless Repulicans who murmur "thoughts
and prrayers" and do absolutely NOTHING
4
“Most of those killed were black.“
Important piece. But there is no need to fit Dayton into your narrative without facts to back it up. Your argument stands without speculation about the killer’s motives in Dayton. (Sadly we have more than enough white supremacist violence to substantiate your points without using a situation where the only apparently motive that we know of at this time is a man killed his sister and her boyfriend and then went off).
Please, we need honest reporting and thoroughly vetted op ed pieces at times like these.
2
@Allentown But most of those killed were black. That is not fake news.
2
Thank you Mr. Blow for making the lines so clear. I just wish the "white" boys with guns and murder as their method, and the "white" men making suppression policy would wake up and realize that:
a) they are not "white" - whatever that means......
and
b) the hue of one's skin, hair, eyes, does not create superiority, or inferiority.
We are ALL human beings.
2
"...so the terrorists stew in their anger."
Perhaps someone should give them an outlet, say, a regular opinion column in some paper.
Anyone who saw Charles Blow on CNN the evening after Trump was elected has no doubt that he knows all about stewing in anger. He has done little else since that evening, and everyone is to blame for his anger except Charles Blow.
2
The terrorists and politicians may be "on the same team" or "share the same "mission." I don't know. I absolutely know that Republicans court white nationalist voters, actively repress American voters and make sure the path is clear for Russian interference in our elections on behalf of the Republican party.
There are good and kind-hearted people who are Republicans. At this point they are as guilty as the good and kind-hearted Germans standing by in 1933 as their leaders and fellows dehumanized Jews who "infested" and "invaded" German society.
Nothing extenuates racism. People supporting this revolting party should be called out for their support and empowerment of the hate mongering and xenophobia that caused so much death and violence in the 20th century.
Racism in support of anti-democratic policy to insure their minority rule has become the foundationof the party.
2
How many more of these idiotic killings are we going to sit through before we do something? I thought that Sandy Hook would have been the watershed moment and that is going to be seven years ago. The first step at solving a problem is acknowledging that you have one.
1
Please publish the text of the El Paso shooter's manifesto next to the text of the gun regulation bill which Mitch McConnell will not allow onto the Senate floor.
1
@Siara Delyn...The Times and the rest of the MSM don't need to publish any original documents. It is their self-appointed sacred duty to filter and interpret the content of original documents. That sacred duty is enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Or, so they pontificate. Just trust The Times, WaPo, CNN, SNL and so on to tell us what Facts and Truth we need to know. Remember, a Free Press is the moral spine of a democracy. Just ask the Free Press. In the meantime, some traitor will sneak the original documents onto the internet, just like BuzzFeed did with the "dossier".
Why isn’t chan8 shut down? Why aren’t the titans of social Media working 24/7 to scour their search engines and delete each and every one of white nationalist and black terrorist groups like Antifa and their hate-filled websites?
1
this is interesting. there is another deeper level perhaps...who are the majority Isis? young men. who are the kidnappers and terrorists of central Africa? young men. who are the latino and African American gangstas killing each other? young men. etc.etc etc there is some way that young males have a kind of energy and lack of decision making ability that traditional cultures had a knowledge and means of channeling for the social good. this idea is not instead of mr blows ideas or the need for gun control, but is an aspect that deserves a deeper look.
1
Yes, 100% correct, and thank you for tying in the ‘incel’ faction. Any movement focused on racist ideology is also inherently misogynist.
2
We will either come together as country, a people, and a species, or perish as complete fools.
1
Conflation of unrelated phenomena, and false narratives, are the speciality of this column, and here is more.
Blow can read the minds of everyone.
But he refuses to read the policy statements.
1
I know that many will write that we can stop this by just listening to what the white supremacists have to say, as if they are screaming for help. And yes, this is usually the opinion of white people. We should listen but understand that many of these people are irrational. They have their own set of facts that the policy makers and right wing media uses to manipulate them.
These people are terrorists and must be treated as such.
2
Mr Blow says: "The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip."
Spot on!
3
Te very idea that a POTUS could share the same sentiments as the El Paso mass killer is chilling
2
Thank you for emphasizing that the perpetrators are white MALE supremacists. And repeating that these are white MEN.
2
@Hannah Aron And, if the shooters were black, might there be a crescendo calling not to racially identify that characteristic? I'm pretty sure.
Trump and the Republicans, with their support of white nationalism, and tacit approval of interference in our democracy by our enemies, represent the greatest threat to our nation today. We are are on the threshold of a fascist dictatorship being imposed upon us. The echoes of Hitler and Nazism are growing louder. We've not been this divided since the run up to the Civil War. The only question is: what will be our Fort Sumter that ignites open conflict?
Meanwhile, our leaders do nothing but spew empty words.
1
The warning is understood. But was not necessary.
We rely on you, Mr. Charles Blow, to speak unvarnished truth without the usual NYT softening of the message.
Thank you.
4
I see a common thread in the lives of these killers. A nihilist impulse, anger, rage, frustration. lashing out at a convenient scapegoat. These mass killers are always men. How many female mass killers have we seen? None. This is not an irrelevant fact. 8chan is said to be a haven for "incel" online discussion, as well as the alt-right, white, neo-nazi discourse that it is known for. Incel, or "involuntary celibacy", is another word for male sexual frustration. This is the driving force behind many of these young men's murderous nihilism.
The clearly visible misogyny behind the male Gamergate ethic is tied to this same biologic frustration. The suicidal missions given to young Islamic males in the 911 disaster were sold to them, cynically, by the older leaders who would never do the job themselves. The white supremist mass murders of America are brothers to the pathetic dupes who killed so many by hijacking airplanes in 911. They are frustrated and angry young men who take revenge upon us all, because they are unable to find a way to grow and become a whole person. Frustrated in personal lives, frustrated in jobs, frustrated in lack of status or respect, frustrated in their human need to find a partner, a life, a future.
And now we have Trump, the crude, grinning egotist, who is only too ready to blame the "other" for all the problems in life. The immigrant, the black, the Hispanic, the liberal, the city dweller, the woman...they are the cause of your frustration.
1
Mr. Blow is always insightful. This column is another example of his good work. He brilliantly synthesized ideas and agendas of the white supremacist activists and policymakers.
3
Apparently the Dayton killer hated Trump and supported Elizabeth Warren. https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/4/connor-betts-ohio-gunman-was-elizabeth-warren-supp/. I wonder what conclusions Mr. Blow draws from those inconvenient facts?
1
@Douglas
As we know, Washington Times is often a sensational and incorrect publication.
If the information were correct, it seems odd that there is zero such news coverage in Ohio yet!!!
1
White Nationalism seems to me to be inextricably linked to science denial. When 4 in 10 Americans deny evolution outright and and believe God created the Earth and anatomically modern humans, less than 10,000 years ago, then this is what follows. There is nowhere to go if you think that your whiteness is special and that you are somehow not of the creature which crawled out of the sea a very, very long time ago.
2
And yet he remains silent on the violence behind Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
Is it any wonder an immature 21 year old kid watching these alleged "adults" blasting each other with rage and racism and labels unfit for a lockeroom?
The world's gone made and the Left is unwilling or unable to even confront it's own complicity in making this a very very confusing place for a young person today.
Are they suppose to follow the laws of the country, or just the one's Democrats decide are worthwhile?
Are we really at "war" with one another as Charles Blow, Paul Krugman and other NYT columnists suggest each week?
If we're at war, that would explain these young people taking action when all they see from the adults is inaction.
Lead, follow or get out of the way!!!
Human reason and rational thought didn't go out the window the day Donald Trump became President.
Seems like the entire NYT has TDS...and for some poor sucker out their yearning to be like AntiFa or BLM or ProudBoys...all they have to do is consume a few hours of the NYT to get their inner drive motivated to do something about this war we're in...with each other.
I'm optimistic that cooler heads will prevail, but blaming every person who voted for Trump as complicit in outright racism is the most intellectually dishonest thing one can utter to another human being.
Grow up !
What's missing is context. And as we all know, Charles Blow doesn't do context.
1
Charles Blow has the "white supremacy" problem diagnosed. No cure yet, but the disease has been identified.
Maybe it's time to diagnose this sickness:
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A West Side hospital was forced to stop accepting patients on the tail end of a violent weekend that has left 47 people been shot, four fatally, across the city.
These are "people of color" shooting other "people of color".
@Pono Guns and young males. Oughta be a law against that. No male under the age of 40 should be alliwed to own or even touch a gun.
The grand wizard sets in our White House. The chief racist of the 21st century is the president of the United States. No amount of talk or excuses by his minions can convince any decent human otherwise. And any one who is willing to shake hands with this devil is as guilty as he is. He says he doesn’t have a bone of racism in his body but the opposite is the truth. Ask any one who happen to be born NOT from a north European White stock. This subhuman is a danger to every principle America stands for and the peace of our vulnerable planet. And the sooner he is voted out of office the better America and the world will be. My hope that this nation and the world will survive long enough to outlast him.
1
A desperate, angry man is in the WH.
A desperate, angry people put him there.
These people see the desperate angry person in the WH say angry, vengeful things.
They act on his rhetoric and kill people in an effort to seek vengeance.
Others get inspired and seek vengeance too.
This feedback loop must be broken. Soon.
3
Mr. Blow is a sharp analyst and a national treasure.
4
If White Nationalist terrorism is mentally ill, what is stoking it for political advantage?
77
@Tim ~
"If White Nationalist terrorism is mentally ill, what is stoking it for political advantage?"
Deplorable! Beyond Deplorable!!
10
@Tim Interesting point. Anyone who randomly kills 20 people is mentally ill, regardless of whether Allah, Adolf Hitler or other voices in his head told him to do it.
Will equating white nationalism with mental illness kill off the efforts to do something about the latter?
1
@Tim Brilliant, kinda like handing matches to an arsonist.
6
Unless we find a way to put a stop to these attacks by weird white men and do it together, soon there will be more militant groups forming against these subhuman attacks and the battle will be fought on many fronts.
I don't know what can be so "Supremest" about firing on unarmed people. If you placed all these mass-shooters in a room; it would be very apparent that if you were looking to clean up your gene pool to make a superior race, this room would be a good place to start.
White people should never let a racial or ethnic slur go unchallenged in any conversation.
1
The GOP are members of an old western movie, where the white man shoots up the Indians, enslaves minorities, pass a law to keep the Chinese people who built the railroads to go back home.
These are the white men who know the answer to everything as the stock market crashes and white drs refuse to provide services of quality in urban areas.
Our American myth was always better than the reality of white hate. White men are in the process of destroying this country and the leadership of Trump,Moscow Mitch and Putin are trying to live in the past . The era of white man in charge is never going to return. The world has moved on from the temper tantrums of Trump and no one is waiting for him to acknowledge that he is a bigot.
The world of Trump his KKK father and these Nazis will come to an end sooner than later. They are murders and they will be stopped. Hitler is buried and these murderers are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison or six feet under.
Thank you Mr. Blow for an excellent outline on the state of affairs in white minds.
1
Finally, the correct name is applied the sickness that spreads like an ebola disease through America - White Nationalism here, for me the preferred term neo-Nazi.
But the ebola virus kills only its individual tar gets. The neo-Nazi virus in America kills the targets of those in whom the virus has taken hold. And these men do not repent. Not Anders Behring Breivik in Norway or his counterparts in New Zealand or the USA.
Use those words,do not let these men hide behind the euphemism alt-right. These men are not the alternative we want.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
I can never understand how someone can hate another person for simply being born black or of Mexican descent. Racism is utter ignorance.
Thank you for connecting those ugly dots clearly and without over simplifying. This is a good example of being clear without being cold or so passionate that the volume becomes the message. Today I got it into my heart that it is not just about racism, but any nonwhite people and power, always power.
As a resident of Houston TX - I am a daily witness to the melting pot access that exists not just to Hispanics but to many immigrants from around the world which is one of the reasons I chose to live here-! Houston will likely overtake Chicago as the third largest city in the country-(#3- Chicago 2.6M vs #4-Houston 2.4M ) sometime soon as the exodus continues from Chicago- Mr. Blow, what I would like your help in understanding is the voting performance of Latinos in the most recent senate race- Cruz vs Beto. Thirty-five percent of Latinos voted against there own interest by supporting the republican candidate- while for instance blacks in Texas voted 89 percent for Beto and the democrats-? Why is there such a broad disconnect between Latino rhetoric and how they actually vote? Thanks in advance-
1
America is "running Amok" in the full historical sense (look it up) - young males disenfranchised by a new social order are committing random killings (fully intending to die themselves) with the approval of a significant portion of "their" society - in our case social media and a bizarre president who doesn't understanding the impact of words. Won't end until the adults take back control.
1
@Paul de Silva
The 'disenfranchised' are the minorities living in gerrymandered districts where polling places have been closed, purged from the rolls or not even allowed to register to vote in the first place.
The white supremacist terrorists and the the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip. Fine. But this is known by all and is obvious.
Better to discuss how it got so bad for the nation and WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Clinton-Obama did not satisfy the people of our nation. Wages for the working class and the middle-class stagnated during their tenure, while the income of the very wealthy grew outrageously. That is why so many in the working class, voting for improvement, blindly accepted a demagogue, unleashing both white supremacists and white terrorists.
The point, the need at present, is to point out what can be done to rid our government of the demagogue and the party that supports him, and to describe faithfully what was done wrong in the past to bring about this threat to our democracy, to stress a positive AGENDA that will serve the people, that will effectively gain the vote in the coming election to get rid of the demagogue.
Without this emphasis on policy, without making it apparent that the Democratic party stands for the people by supporting Health Care For All, a minimum wage of $15, free tuition in state colleges, and restriction of the banks that had so much to do with the debacle of '08, merely leaves a bewildered public in the hands of the racists and xenophobes.
Every terrorist act committed by a Muslim was followed by criticism of Muslim clerics that apparently encouraged such violence. Politicians and right wing mouthpieces played cause and effect. And now with the oh so obvious white domestic terrorists that have been at work in the US for decades, yes decades, these same right wing voices tell us, oh no, it’s video games, it’s mental illness or anything other than what it is. They hypocritically refuse to associate the right wing (Trump) voices of fear and anger toward the other.....people of color. The simplest expiation is staring at us. It is entirely the availability of firearms. Every other country has mental illness issues but no other country allows its residents to engage in unfettered gun possession.
The common sense steps required to eliminate these mass killings are easily listed but not easily enacted. For you see, the arrogant and selfish gun owners among us hold fast to their guns, refusing to accept that the common sense steps won’t impact their ability to hunt or keep their pistol within the confines of their houses.
For all the columns by Charles Blow and like-minded writers, all the warnings by Democrats, and all the pleas by a few conservatives who are persona non grata among their peers, things won't improve. The conservative establishment and most of the business establishment complacently protect their mutually advantageous dollar ecosystem, and the general public is mostly apathetic, worrying about problems that (they think) more directly affect them.
Godwin's Law or no Godwin's Law - the decay of the Weimar Republic is a warning of how quickly a civilized nation and its institutions can succumb to Fascism.
It CAN happen here.
11:50 EDT, 8/05
1
It is sad but interesting to see Trump’s lackeys try to deny that he is a racist in the face of the obvious. There is a commonality to Trump defenders when called upon to publicly defend his deeply offensive rhetoric. They know there is no defending the indefensible so they deflect, lie, ‘blame the accusers’ . Note, they all speak really fast, not allowing any room for dissension or questioning. Often they’re trying to get away, backing out of the room as the verbal diarrhea is spewing forth. It’s probably not easy to be glib when you’re lying. Then there’s Kellyanne Conway - the high priestess of “doublespeak” and master of “fast talking” irrelevant gibberish to fill the otherwise moral void that swirls around the Trump administration. Have the others embraced these tricks of the trade or is fast talking doublespeak a condition associated with a deep discomfort in having to lie publicly, of having to convince people of something you know not to be true. I offer an definition of “fast-talk” and “doublespeak” from the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
Fast talk: to influence or persuade by fluent, facile, and usually deceptive or tricky talk fast-talked him into buying a lemon
Doublespeak: : language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth
Sadly, that’s all you’re going to get from Trump defenders…
I have no argument with the notion that the upsurge in violence against immigrants and people of color by "white nationalists" should be laid at the feet of Trump. He's the instigator - providing just enough spark and fuel to get the fire started. Then he stands back with that self-satisfied smirk.
2
Another excellent commentary. Keep 'em coming, Mr. Blow.
Small quibble. I don't think white nationalist terrorists and white nationalist government officials are on parallel tracks. Their goals are the same; they differ only on the means of achieving those goals. Those "parallel" track have to converge at some point, and the results won't be pretty.
By the way, do you think that the white nationalist government officials are particularly horrified by the events in El Paso, Gilroy, and Dayton? I don't.
1
Exactly, Precisely, Totally agree with every word you wrote -
Both sides have strangle hold on our country due to Trump's rhetoric of hate.
Thank you, Mr Blow - keep voicing your thoughts - we all need to hear you speak what we all know is The Truth.
1
Whether it in DC or state capitols or on 8chan it is white nationalism. Main goals seem to be legal white dominance, separation of the races, or genocide. Bogus biological theories and conspiracy theories play big roles in white nationalism. Both racism is particularly driven by bogus science and antisemitism is driving largely by conspiracies. We cannot rid of racism or antisemitism but we need to successfully contain both. This has be done by through elections and appointments tot he courts. This strategy actually had been successful for several decades but through a combination of things such as the growth of the right wing media ecosystem and the advent of social media and the unlikely rise of Donald Trump to become president all the gains are now threatened.
1
You strongly implied but stopped short of saying white nationalist terrorism will continue after Trump leaves office. I believe it will. Trump is responsible for much of this violence, but it is also rooted in white fear of losing control of, and majority standing in, what they consider "their" country. They can't increase their own birth rates while more and more immigrants enter the country. Relying on adding "white Hispanics" to the numbers of non-Hispanic whites to maintain a white majority won't work.
The Democrats offer background checks and gun control... While those are good, they won't eliminate white nationalist terrorism. The ideology must be exposed and adherents dealt with through the criminal justice system before lethal attacks are carried out. Pass federal laws and ask states to adopt the same laws with money as a carrot (isn't that right Joe Biden?) and go after the people advocating and planning violence.
1
You are absolutely right. The Republican Party, since adopting it's "Southern Strategy," which is the very same as a "Make America White Again" strategy, has been working, assiduously, in exactly the same direction as these white nationalist killers. And, of course, it's the only way they can maintain their hold on power, that is, except for that power they have already locked in with a Republican Supreme Court, and hundreds of Republican judges.
1
What a sad picture, white colonists as the initial invaders of American Land, that conveniently forget they assaulted the 'real native Americans', and then brought black slaves to do their work. Can 'whites' be so obtuse, and arrogant, not to realize how cruel and unjust their stance, blaming others for their own stupidity, all to retain power...to abuse it? It is easy to blame Trump, open racist as he is; but republicans have been discrete in being vocal about their racism...while exercising their persistent segregationist zeal to dominate and exclude 'the other' (read, non-white)? Could it be that our educational system is not teaching our youth about history, and 'whites' sore and destructive moves to take land and treasure at will...while destroying their legitimate owners? Otherwise, how to explain the supine ignorance of 'White Supremacists' arrogance in their hate of diversity and our common values? One more point: why do we keep selling military style weapons in civil society, specifically aimed to slaughter the enemy as fast and as efficiently as possible? Who are we, exactly, as we try to dehumanize others for having a bit more color on their skin? Why so much arrogance, and vanity, in pretending we are the best in everything, including the mowing down of our neighbors, just because we can? Shame on us, and on a system allowing indiscriminate violence, with unmitigated pain. Majestic words as condolence are just hypocrisy...unless followed by action.
"Most of those killed [in Dayton] were black? Seriously Charles, you think that the fact that 6 of 9 victims were black has any significance? Did you undertake a statistical analysis before you came to this conclusion? This is a classic example of interpreting facts through politically or ideologically-tinted lenses.
These kinds of partisan reaction (which come from both sides) to the latest mass shootings are unhelpful. It is not just white nationalism or white supremacy. It is not just mental illness. It is not just Trump's hateful rhetoric. It is not just too many guns and ineffective gun control. It is not just social media. It is not just violent video games. It is not just the lack of meaning in many people's lives. IT IS ALL OF THE ABOVE AND MORE. But God forbid you mention mental illness to Democrats or too many guns to Republicans when talking about mass shootings and you are immediately attacked. If we really care about preventing further mass shootings we will leave our political leanings aside. Otherwise, we will just have more and more useless talk and more and more senseless deaths.
3
You have correctly pointed out the issues. Wonderful analysis. This article must be a required reading along with Mr. James Cindy's recent article, for all Americans, specifically students. Thank you!
5
Voting out Trump would be the single best action we can take. Voting out Moscow Mitch would be the second.
We are at war and the voting booth is our battlefield. Everybody, who can, must vote. And whether your candidate wins the nomination, or not, you must support the democratic nominee 100%.
8
Bring back the paper offline ballot and the lucite ballot box. Entire nations use this rather foolproof method of keeping elections as honest as possible.
@Sparky
I’d say getting rid of McConnell has a higher priority. trump can’t do anything on his own.
Yesterday, on Meet the Press, Trump's Chief in Staff Mick Mulvaney placed the blame on "crazy people" when asked if Trump's comments had anything to do with these recent shootings. He deflected the question and ultimately refused to address the point of the question. While the host, Chuck Todd, pressed Mulvaney, he did not succeed in getting him to answer a "yes" or "no" question as to any effect Trump's comments may have had. While Trump did not explicitly call for the shootings, his comments since at least 2015 regarding immigration and immigrants have certainly created an atmosphere where White Nationalists/racists may feel more comfortable expressing their views and possibly on acting on them. Those who speak for Trump are well versed in how not to answer a question and can make it sound as if the Trump administration is "doing all it can" to support minorities and immigrants. This claim is patently false, and they must be pressed and called-out for their deflections and obfuscation of the facts. That is the job of a free press.
If this means that they will not appear on certain news shows, so be it. The shows should still request their appearance and then state that the WH refused to participate in the discussion. If they do not participate, it will result in depriving them of a forum in which to lie to the public. If they do participate, the public will have the opportunity to judge for themselves their mendacity. We must not condone hate speech by the gov't.
8
We are in perilous times when we put the right to own a weapon of war above the right to live a full life. There is one party that boasts of their support from the NRA, they have so much blood on their hands. I cannot begin to understand the hatred that underlies the motives of these terrorists. One thing is clear, we are a nation at war with each other and one side is armed to the teeth. We must get rid of Mitch McConnell and bring in sensible gun laws and for the love of life stop giving people access to war weapons.
14
There are two problems at play here. First, America has a race problem. Second, America has a gun problem. We all need to hate both problems enough to solve them.
Having not been raised to hate brown people. I now live in a predominately brown area. It is possible not to hate brown people as well as to not hate black people. Donald Trump has made it okay in this country to hate brown people as much as black people. His black racism is a given, the brown racism is new to many.
There is nothing to be said about the gun problem that hasn't been said time and again and more eloquently than here. Those angry white men are killing my neighbors and friends and I say enough. If more say enough, we can take care of this gun problem.
The solution involves gun control. Most thought it would come after Sandy Hook. Now it's not safe to go to the Walmart and do school shopping on a Saturday. Everyone can relate to that. Here's hoping that gets the traction that all those darling babies could not.
12
I am delighted to see in print what I have believed for a long time, that is, the “ right to life” position is not about saving all babies, but white babies. Black or brown babies, not so much. In driving through Kansas, in particular, nearly every town boasts an anti abortion billboard. Often a beautiful white baby is featured with an anti abortion slogan such as “she is a child, not a choice”. Never once have I seen a black or brown baby depicted. I do not think this is by accident.
16
These groups are often at odds? Not really, and not seriously.
The respectable Republicans who engage in illegal voter suppression in violation of the voting-rights laws, and in refugee exclusion and abuse in violation of federal and international law, are on a short spectrum with the foul-mouthed shooters who kill as many people as possible in public venues. They share a contempt for law and a hatred for people they consider inferior, and any differences in the degree and extent of destruction they wreak reflect differences in opportunity rater than in character.
Try to imagine a sitting Republican U.S. Senator who could possibly muster any serious concern about besmirchment. Not likely.
2
@Jim Robinson
I don't think that 'white nationalists' actually believe that they are superior. They look around and perceive that non whites, gays, immigrants and women are just as likely to achieve higher education, financial success and society's respect as they are. This infuriates them.
Abolish ammunition. There are hundreds of missions of rounds of ammunition all over the world. Without it guns will become useless.
3
@Bob: because banning drugs worked out perfectly! we made them illegal and soon....all drugs disappeared from usage.
Right?
@Bob, Billions of rounds of ammunition in the United States....
Young men (boys, emotionally/mentally) ages 19-24. Where do they get these irrational ideas in their heads? I don't get how they think they are having any sort of an impact on their own warped ideology. Surely someone who has reached 19 years has interacted enough with fellow human beings to understand right from wrong, or am I wrong? Are these the losers living in their parents basements, unemployed, no life direction, stuck on the internet?
We all get angry. We all have a dragon inside desperate to get out (if you deny this recall your most recent traffic experience). It's not that we have the dragon or get angry, it's how we deal with it that separates us from insanity.
It doesn't help to have a POTUS fomenting the same racial fears and hatred, just in more coded language. He shares responsibility for these attacks, as do the silent GOP cohorts. The terrorists to fear aren't the immigrants or foreigners, they are white men 19-24.
El Paso and Dayton are the 250-251st mass shootings THIS YEAR! Isn't that enough to stimulate legislation restricting purchase of certain types of firearms and requiring coordinated background checks? Allowing these mass shootings to continue is in itself a form of societal insanity.
I wish it were easier to emigrate to Canada, I'd be gone in a flash.
6
@LaPine
The problem with your hypothesis is the limitation to ages 19-24. The Las Vegas shooter was in his fifties. The Orlando nightclub shooter was in his thirties, I believe. Several school shooters have been younger than 19.
Simple summaries such as you presented generally lead to simple, and wrong, solutions.
3
Discussing any of this with my two republican senators and republican congresswoman, is like shouting in a black hole. After the Charlottesville riot and murder of Heather Heuer, we spoke to the staff of one of our senators who was offended that we said that their party was racist. Impossible to agree on the facts made it impossible to have a discussion. I have not been back since August of 2017.
It’s a systemic play. It’s getting new leadership in that can affect change. It’s having impeachment hearings.
Deepest condolences to everyone who is a victim of gun violence. No justice, no peace.
5
There is nothing else to be said, about the long existing White Nationalists who rage, and have been raging, across our nation, since it's birth, except to suggest that evil such as this must be excised from any civilized society.
Mr. Blow says it all, pulling no punches.
Truthfulness mandates, if we are decent caring human beings, that we show our solidarity with him by indicating such by posting words of support and agreement, and sharing this critical report so it becomes impossible to not encounter daily.
"I think a better way to look at it is to understand that white nationalist terrorists — young and rash — and white nationalist policymakers — older and more methodical — live on parallel planes, both aiming in the same direction, both with the same goal: To maintain and ensure white dominance and white supremacy."
5
In the 1960s, Democrats began the process of sloughing off the diseased skin of racism with their support of civil rights and voting rights. At the same time, Republicans were all too willing to pick up and wear that profane dermis — the Southern Strategy and Law and Order policies.
Over the decades, Republicans spewed their hatred, targeting several more groups: women; other races/ethnic groups; LGBT persons; the poor; and, of course, immigrants. Policies, like the 1996 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (aka welfare reform), served to attack multiple targets: the poor, who were disproportionately women of color... and immigrants. Republicans fine-tuned their wordsmithing to keep emotions simmering and to stifle critical thinking, doing whatever it took to win elections no matter how loathsome.
After almost 60 years of Republicans nurturing the monstrous capacities within human nature, no one should be surprised to find so many monsters living among us... including the current White House occupant.
7
Nice. Not to mention their delusions about being Christian.
1
I don't agree with Mr Blow often, but he is spot on with this column.
I was listening to Thomas Chatterton Williams, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, et al., on The Fifth Column -- those traitorous blacks who don't agree with progressives on everything -- and Thomas said something when they started drifting into "white people aren't racist" territory, that I know is true. He said he was shocked by how much racism there was among his wife's family (she's white). If people could see what's said behind whites' closed doors, especially in the South, many would be shocked.
Whites tend to assume that there's something innate about blacks that keeps them impoverished. Why don't we allow blacks to enslave us for the next 200 years, then terrorize us for the century after that, and then we'll have some semblance of freedom for 50 years -- with stigmas and prejudices and discriminations left over. Let's see how we're doing.
However, I do think foregrounding groups instead of individuals, the way progressives do, is sowing the dragon's teeth. We really have to think about how to calm average whites down instead of constantly vilifying them. Calling them racists, one and all, could well increase the number of racists; and if everything is racism, nothing is. Their hysteria about demographic change will abate in time, but for now we have to live with it. That's just a fact.
We need to devote more resources to dealing with white racist terrorism, of course -- that was true even before the attack -- but our whole atmosphere needs cleaning. It's miasmatic.
2
Oh. We cannot call things what they are, because racists might get their fee-fees hurt and do violence. Meanwhile back at the ranch, racists get to call everybody else whatever they choose.
Do you think a support animal might help?
1
Trump may not have pulled the trigger in El Paso, but the blood of the victims is all over his hands and he will not be able to wash it off. History will show that our nation died on November 8th, 2016.
5
This echoes the connection between the KKK and southern segregationist politicians in the first half of the 20th century. The segregationists were more baldly racist, and the KKK was group actions versus the lone wolf shooters of today. The tactics have changed, but the goal is the same.
3
Thank you Charles M. Blow, to echo another reader, I read you every time you write. You speak my mind; thanks for this brilliant column. You and AOC keep me going.
I am a member of Coming To The Table.org where we sit in a circle, and listen to each others stories, across the colour line. Truth and Reconciliation, one person at a time. Let it begin with me. We also do genealogy, searching for our cousins, who are related to us by the rapes of our white ancestors, against their enslaved ancestors. PS I am European American, and am 77 years old.
4
The racism is there. Latent, deep and without legitimacy. A chain of thoughts dark, hateful and foreboding that never fully rumbles to life as long as cultural taboos prevail and social consensus deny racism any oxygen.
Like a virus that sets up camp in a body silent and lethal for a decade until the ideal conditions emerge years later, to unleash its fury and wreak havoc.
The haters that wear bed sheets and pillowcases have always been there. But they usually keep to themselves and until recently had a near zero profile because they were pariahs among decent people. When Republicans (plus Trump) declared a race war against Obama, closet racists heard a reveille and no longer felt under quarantine.
When the President effectively wraps himself in a Confederate flag and praises the many fine people who also hate Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Gender+, Women, immigrants, how does a racist not swell with pride that their hate is propagated from the highest office in the land?
The reality is that the electricity that flows between Trump and his true believers is high voltage racism. Not taxes. Not trade. Not jobs.
The question for all those Republicans and Independents who voted for Trump is where they stand now that the pillowcases and bed sheets are out and Trump is the Grand Imperial Wizard.
9
White males have been in charge for a long time; it's past time to let women and people of color run things. I think we would do better; we couldn't do worse.
3
Neither Mr. Blow nor the Editorial Board seems to have read the so-called manifesto posted by the El Paso shooter. While it excoriates hispanics as invaders, there is also plenty of criticism for corporations to whom blame is given for encouraging unfettered immigration as well as praise for leftist policies.
It may fit with preconceived notions of the NYT and Blow that the shooter is a white nationalist with only that as motivation, but it's not that cut and dried.
Like the shooter in New Zealand, this one hopes that his actions could bring about confiscation of firearms, a dream of the left.
3
You haven’t read the Editorial Board on exactly that issue.
Mr. Blow is exactly on point. The white patriarchy has held on to power since the founding of America both through religion and legal stratagem with holy books and legal tomes, and through violence with the gun, the torch, the whip and the lash. What has happened recently is that Trump and his Republican cronies have ripped off their white sheet hoods and are openly practicing this nexus of policy and violence.
3
Terrorists crave seeing their names in the media. Don’t pander to them. Let their dark deeds stay as anonymous as possible.
5
We are at a crux where we allow violence to have freedom of speech as long as it is right wing violence.
The president has coddled no group more than he has law enforcement, which grows more powerful and more militant every day, and which is strongly pro gun and pro Trump, who jokes about whether he will abide by election results, which is a clear instigation of violence.
Openly hateful racists wearing swastikas have the right to brandish dangerous weapons as they demonstrate in the streets.
It feels like one group, the violent, racist, one, is very well protected by our conventions, by the way we look at the Constitution.
Im not sure we're being intelligent, that we are thinking clearly.
Certainly not in the perverse interpretation of the 2nd amendment, which is utterly and venally stupid.
But what about the way we look at threats?
Isn't owning a cache of hundreds of guns threatening?
Isn't carrying a gun on your belt a threat?
Isn't right wing hate speech and threatening displays of violence being disproportionately supported by our political class?
1
And, to prove Blow right, already this morning Trump is proposing linking gun legislation to immigration reform, an implicit agreement with the shooter. Another Charlottesville moment; what a disgrace.
6
I read the rambling manifesto and it sound like it came from a 21 year old regurgitating talking-points memorized from a mashup of White grievance- illogical point & counterpoint:
Native Americans should have wiped-out Europeans (but somehow that proves his points). Political parties are failures; Corporations own America...yet the marginalized and powerless must be exterminated.
This individual just wanted to murder.
3
Many of us are disappointed about our inheritance. We're lied to. Just do this and your life will turn out okay.
I, too got the rap, but my mother always added, "The world doesn't leave you alone!" So when the world didn't leave me alone, I didn't think about guns. Never owned one!
Somehow, someway some of our kids learn that they are due an inheritance. They are White Christians. They are never taught to look inside themselves to find themselves. they learn to curse and blame out. They are easily manipulated especially when they become isolated.
Some find solace in drugs. Some commit suicide, others homicide. Europe has it's stabbings. The USA, AR-15's.
Access to health care. Access to therapy. Perhaps that's the inheritance we can give them.
2
I am white and I agree with every single point Mr. Blow makes in this excellent writing.
3
Yes, they ARE bound at the hip.
It's not the guns that are the problem: ALL guns were developed as weapons of war. Today's bolt-action hunting rifle was the standard killing machine in WWI. The lever action rifle, famed in cowboy westerns, was devised in the Civil War so a Union soldier could: "Load on Sunday and shoot all week!". Standard semi-auto handguns, used by police and security everywhere all descend from John Browning's "1911" .45 developed for the US Army.
My son likes to say "The problem with your computer is between the keyboard and the chair." Today's problem with guns is the finger on the trigger, and that's where we should be focused.
The GOP has been pushing a racist theme since 1964, to capture the angry dixiecrats who, after 100 years of the KKK keeping them in control, had the Civil Rights Act passed under their noses forcing them to relinquish their absolute power to free and fair elections. And they responded with even more violence.
These young losers, are convinced that their ineptness that keeps them from being rich and "getting the girl" is the fault of....someone else. And that "someone" has a darker skin than they do. And this plays RIGHT into what the GOP has hawked since Goldwater. Sure, lots of Republicans abhored that, like Jacob Javits and John McCain. But they are all gone. Even the Bushes, who, clearly on a personal level aren't at all racist, used racism to get elected in 1988 and 2000. And Ronald Reagan CLEARLY used it.
1
Mr. Blow will always contend that any Republican position supports white supremacy but he never thinks through his assertions. Abortions kill far more black fetuses in proportion to white ones. Illegal immigration undercuts wages for low-income blacks and strains social services to blacks in need. The arch enemy, Trump, champions a new extensive immigration system that would keep the U.S. as the nation accepting more immigrants than any other, with the majority of these immigrants coming from non-white countries. In the heat of the moment, it is more important than ever to grasp basic facts.
3
In a couple of generations there will be no more whites and this problem will partially be solved. People are not all that smart and they see someone that looks different as a threat to their existence. Mixing of gene pools so that everyone looks the same is part of the solution. Another solution is to make all Central Americans and Mexicans and Haitians US citizens and to have those countries join the US so it is not an us vs. them situation. Mr. Blow you have synthesized the problem well.
1
@AS: so we should go to war with Central America, Mexico and Haiti and ANNEX THEM? hello?
You do realize they are sovereign nations, and do not WANT to be absorbed into the US? why do you think they would ever desire this?
Be careful about over-reach. Not every person who supports tighter control over immigrstion also supports white nationalism. This kind of op-ed may make readers feel more self-righteous, but it also can drive perfectly decent people, with whom you disagree about immigration policy, right into the arms of Donald Trump. I myself abhor Trump, but I do think immigration is a complex topic with many trade-offs involved. And I am used to liberals calling me a dumb racist homophobic redneck, and I still support most liberal policies. But most people are not like me.
5
Mr. Blow,
I love you but "be warned" - really? Should we also not read immediately after eating or before bed due to risks of nausea or nightmares?
Charles, you are overlooking two important constituencies in this white supremacist alliance. White supremacists in the military and among the police.
1
Notice Mr. Blow doesn't name any "white nationalist policy makers," except of course the (as always) inference to President Trump.
I saw online hatred of "the GOP" as a whole this weekend like I've never seen before, mostly from the younger and uninformed, qualities which seems to be inversely related to online brashness and righteousness.
We've got a real problem to solve, and columns filled with dark and abjectly false innuendo about "white nationalist policy makers" on the same team with "white nationalist terrorists" only serves to worsen the problem. If we are to get serious about closing fissures in society, we must reject such vitriol.
6
We must make sure the cheerleader in chief in the White House does not have a second term. I fear what our country and our world will be like if he does. I also fear that we have already gone too far to come back from his ruinous reign.
1
Terrorism is never a "side". Rather, it's the abject denial of the sides that are nominally taken within a process of open speech.
Under the rules, people have certain rights to express views deemed racist by others. We've collectively decided this on a coherentist, "better with than without", basis.
King, for one, understood this; to express anti-racism through violence leads to even more hatred. Blow obviously does not.
It's moreover clear that the backlash will effect the white rural communities as a whole (They're all a bunch of racist rednecks, etc..."). Editorials will prattle psychobabble about "loss of "privilege" and they'll be further neglect of realistic entitlement.
In short, the thrust of water-cooler sociology is to further impoverish the rural poor. The only realistic approach is therefore to repeat what we already know: insane individuals have access to guns. The rest is dross.
1
All this racial violence makes me wonder if epstein and trump had any conversations regarding epstein's idea to spread his DNA to produce a superior group of people. Sounds kinda like a conspiracy theory but given the current situation along with the two individuals involved its not that far fetched.
Mr. Blow,
The correct word is Fascism, not white supremacy or white nationalism.
Republicans have pledged their loyalty to Trump, not the country. The White Nationalists are their Brown Shirts.
It is the Republicans condoning this.
The Republicans insisting on the rights of domestic terrorists to won assault rifles.
We are in the midst of a Fascist takeover that you refuse to recognize.
1
The shootings over the last week are horrible. I grieve for the wounded and the families of the dead.
However, Mr. Blow is assuming all of these murderers have the same motives and that simply isn't true. The Dayton killer, for example, appears to be an ardent progressive, not a right wing white nationalist. The murderer at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School was, apparently apolitical. As he put it, the demons made him do it. The worst of the lot, the Las Vegas killer, had no known white nationalist inclinations. He just decided to murder people with no known motive. The Orlando nightclub shooter was an angry muslim who had issues with homosexuality. I could go on...
Frankly, even the angry young men who write white nationalist screeds are quite obviously profoundly troubled individuals. It is disingenuous, at best, to make these shootings merely about a deservedly unpopular, tiny political movement. The issue isn't the losers on 8chan, per se, it's mental illness, depression, despair and bitterness that is shared by the pathetic individuals who act out in such heinous ways.
Mr. Blow's attempt to twist these varied tragedies to his political agenda is as cynical as the white nationalists holed up in a cabin in Idaho writing hate-filled blogs urging sad, embittered young men to tragic, suicidal acts of violence.
I don't claim to know how to reach these troubled individuals, but it needs to be done. That is the issue, not Mr. Blow's political agenda.
9
Given that there’s no evidence at all that the Dayton shooter’s politics were anything, nice try on pinning this on the left.
All we know is that the guy had a real problem with women and girls—he liked to fantasize about killing them, reportedly.
Of course, misogyny is inherent in the right-wing hatred you’re trying to paper over.
2
@Robert
The Washington Times reported on Twitter that the gunman described himself as pro-Satan and a supporter of Elizabeth Warren. By progressive standards, I suppose this means Ms. Warren is guilty of these murders.
2
It's about time every single media outlets, print, tv, or online condemn Trump for his racist incitement of violence.
No more waltzing around this topic. Trump is an outspoken racist who uses his office to incite violence against Black, Brown, Muslim and Jewish people, period.
If Trump's incitement to violence isn't impeachable let's drop all pretense about America and admit that America has become a fascist state whose aim is White dominance at any cost.
3
I want this "manifesto" published, so everyone can all see how well it corresponds to the garbage Trump spews, and so it can be specifically and publicly de-bunked.
3
Charles Blow, as always, bold and insightful. I'm not sure the older Republicans in Washington are incensed by the actions of the younger, brasher crew. I think they enable them, unleash them, as a warning. Feign powerlessness to stop them. Also, many of the white supremacists invoke Christianity, bringing God into this twisted war on non-white, non-male people and fermenting hatred into a kind of religious mission that gives their modern, displaced existence meaning. Very much like a Jihad.
1
And in addition, we have the national media enablers, Fox News, providing just enough harmful rhetoric, ever so subtle, which may tweak a white nationalist into deadly action. It is amazingly sick how the Trump sycophants are reacting to these deadly events. They disavow Trump's words as not being a contributor to the violence and then take umbrage that anyone would insinuate that the President is a racist. And then they call for a joining of hands, thoughts, and prayers. Every single time this madness happens.
1
You left out one of the most sinister policy schemes of all to keep power in the hands of white supremacists: gerrymandering.
4
The white policy makers, e.g. President Trump, want "it" to take place quickly, not slowly.
1
Mr. Blow is right on the mark. White Nationalism is Trump's driving wheel. There is no longer any other way to see it.
2
Wow. This is simply an amazing piece. Charles Blow, thank you for writing it and for your keen intellect.
3
Decent article but it is misleading since it leaves out facts that have been known even at the time the article was written.
The Ohio man, was a registered Democrat and he supported Liz Warren. He was completely against the ICE facilities and ICE itself - he was not at all a "white nationalist". If he was anything he was liberal. His own social media history proved that - in his own words he was a socialist and a "leftist".
2
Already on the "Trump for New York" FB page, we have learned that-
The El Paso shooter was a registered member of the "Democrat Party".
Was a Democrat/Socialist and a Bernie Sanders supporter.
Is a Hispanic American.
IN OTHER WORDS, the propaganda machine surrounding Trump is working overtime to insure that lies are being spread about what happened in El Paso, in time for them to stick. So that young people can be fed propaganda instead of truth.
Please keep telling it like it is, Mr. Blow
2
Powerful and masterful words, Mr. Blow.
2
"Violence is the way the white terrorists respond to demographic shifts and demographic threat."
If this was really true we would be seeing wholesale insurrections. Instead we have a few kooks who want to go out in a blaze of glory to somehow erase the meaningless of their crummy lives. If you reconstruct the sentence as follows I would agree: "Violence is the way black gangsters respond to the stress of urban poverty".
Donald Trump's vile racist rhetoric is an accessory to the brutal slaughter in El Paso. The brutal reality is that Trump has innocent blood on his hands.His vile rants against immigrants and people of color act as an implicit justification in the minds of the twisted and marginalized young white men who commit these massacres.The perfidious silence of the Republican Party in its failure to condemn Trump's racist spewings is deafening. The spineless sycophancy of Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues is beneath contempt.
2
I believe that at the core of most, if not all, of our social divisions is a condition I call, the soft bigotry of 'me' expectations, and it's a condition infecting both the left and the right.
Rather than denying our differences, we should be celebrating them. The problem with that aspiration, however, is that "my" difference will always be preferable to "your" difference. That position is explicitly argued by those on the right (see Charles Murray, et al). But, sadly, because the notion that there even is a difference of any measurable import is denied by those on the left (see Paul Krugman, et al), it's, essentially, implicitly accepted by the lefties.
Hence, I believe the problem of our internal divisions is not just intractable, it's unsolvable.
If the deaths of 20 first graders didn’t make us do anything about guns, nothing will.
Whatever outrage these shootings spark will pass. It always does.
6
Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan later admitted that his inflammatory rhetoric and attacks on Malcolm probably contributed to his assassination.
In the fall of 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was assassinated by a 25-year-old far-right law student who opposed Rabin's peace initiative with the Oslo accords. A few months earlier Benjamin Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession featuring a coffin and hangman's noose at an anti-Rabin rally where protesters chanted, "Death to Rabin." The chief of internal security, Carmi Gillon, then alerted Netanyahu of a plot on Rabin's life and asked him to moderate the protests' rhetoric, which Netanyahu declined to do. Netanyahu denied any intention to incite violence.
But the conventional wisdom is that Netanyahu was instrumental in the killing of Rabin.
If Farrakhan and Netanyahu promoted violence, then how can any Republican with half a brain and a quarter of a conscience deny that Trump's hostile rhetoric and anti-immigrant bashing led to the mass shooting Saturday morning in El Paso?
417
@baldinoc
You are basically proposing that we should tolerate or even engage in the repression of free speech because someone, who knows who, when, where or why, but someone can be incited to violence.
Sorry - but your's is the reasoning of fascism.
And this is what we have a Bill of Rights for - including the right to bear arms - to guard against such concepts being enacted and to then rob Americans of their freedoms.
3
@baldinoc In your last paragraph, I believe that you have measured the moral dimension of the republican party: less than half a brain and less than a quarter of a conscience.
19
@Common Yelling fire in a crowded theater is not a valid exercise of free speech. At some point, incitement to other types of violence also not also are not valid exercises of freedom of speech.
44
The feeling of helplessness invades the country because deep inside they know that nothing will happen except for another mass shooting within a month.
Serious gun control laws and enforcement will not have the approval of Congress.
Trump will keep talking trash- hate and fear.
Democratic candidates will continue with phagocytosis against each other.
Congress will not go ahead with impeachment inquiry.
"Is this stochastic terrorism at play in which rhetoric by some incites action by others? Possibly. There is no doubt that Trump and Republicans are making poisonous anti-immigrant rhetoric part of their platforms."
Trump "reigns" out of absolute terror and has seized the GOP with equal fear-mongering to secure himself reelection in 2020. His agenda is quite clear: always fan on the flames of racism and xenophobia in order to keep his ferocious white supremacists base fired up warranting himself their votes, and the NRA are an obvious capacious reservoir. What happened in El Paso - and in many other mass shootings - is proof enough. Trump has to go. No ifs no buts.
Wow. You make this so clear. Gerrymandering,redlining, voter surpression and Fox News distortion or confusion of the facts all work to try to maintain white supremacy. And those white working class voters that throng to Trump? Trump’s racist rhetoric is an old way to attract them.
I read somewhere that in the 1600s, here, maybe black and white were not seen as so different so people set up idea of heathen and nonheathen to make them more separate. And plantation owners knew how to let working class whites know that they had status as whites, in a perverted hierarchy .
As a 72 year old white woman, I was not taught as a child the extent to which enslaved people built our country. I lived in Detroit under Ronald Reagan when monies and services dried up. It was after the freeways divided and diminished the city . Our history books do not reflect the history of black people here.
1
These young men have lost their aversion to killing other humans. They are now glorifying killing. They are celebrating today, and reassured that more of this can happen. They are deciding how they can climb the ladder of white supremacist glory, and whether they have the courage to give themselves to the cause.
Why can’t law enforcement find them and stop them. Law enforcement seems to have been pretty effective at stopping Muslim fundamentalists from attacking us, why not this?
Maybe we need someone to say “The Terrorists will hear from ALL OF US soon.”
If the ultimate goal is racial — White Supremacy, how does this dovetail with the ongoing struggle between conservatism and liberalism?
Do the radical white-supremacist conservatives want to protect the interests of tens of millions of male, white liberals/progressives/socialists just because of their skin color? Will they do this to the detriment of their fellow conservatives just because those conservatives have the WRONG skin color or are of objectionable ethnicity?
I have been tuned to a struggle between right and left for a long time.
I’m confused how this white vs non-white business fits into the big picture. In my worldview, racism exists but shouldn’t. In time, I hope we’re working in the direction of racism’s extinction.
Where do the white supremacists fit into all this?
It is the lack of actions and the length of time they have remained silent after the El-Paso shooting that reveals who Trump, his supporters, his party really are. To date:
No GOP politician has come out and embraced the Hispanic community
No GOP politician has come out and reaffirmed Hispanic Americans as Americans who are entitled to their full Constitutional rights
No GOP affiliated religious leader has declared that we (Hispanics, Blacks, Whites, Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Gays etc) are all God's children and are ALL precious in the Lord's sight
No GOP leader has come out and addressed the Hispanic community directly and recognized their pain as well as their humanity
No GOP leader or GOP/conservative religious leader has chastised anti-Latino hate speech
Why?
Mr. Blow, I sometimes think that your column is the only thing keeping me sane right now. THANK you for seeing and name the actions of the "white supremacist policy makers" for what they truly are--the living embodiment of institutionalized racism.
I spent decades of my life studying and then trying to help my students understand our racist, sexist, everything-ist social systems, including how we all participate in sustaining them and how we can participate in changing them--right were we are.
But, we can't be active agents of change regarding a problem that we don't see and can't name. Like a fish who can't see the water in which it swims, institutionalized racism is so ubiquitous that few have learned how to see and name it.
Your columns are like a brilliant shaft of light illuminating what we should be paying attention to, and guiding us out of the darkness. You have the wisdom and courage of all great spiritual warriors who call us to our best selves. Thank you for being the leader that our current POTUS is incapable of being.
2
Thank you Charles for an insightful piece. What disturbs me most about this mass carnage is that some proclaim that the shooters are mentally disturbed. Nonsense. These people are sane and know exactly what they are doing and that is frightening.
1
Laying the blame at Trump's feet is not simplistic. The man has remained silent following these massacres for three reasons:
1) He is incapable of empathizing and soothing anyone because he is too preoccupied with himself.
2) The manifesto in El Paso actually used some of his hateful words against Mexicans. It also praised him. Being praised by someone who just killed 20 people makes him look bad, something he can't stand.
3) Plus it's bad politically for his outrageous white nationalist agenda that he's sure will get him another term.
Maybe he can take a page from the Texas attorney general who said the El Paso massacre was caused by video games.
1
This must be a soul-searching moment for Trump and McConnell.
1
@betty durso
To the contrary. Trump tweeted "The Media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country. Fake News has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years. News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!"
Note that Trump has warned that failure of the Media to stop its criticism of him ("fake news") will cause such violence to "only get worse".
There is absolutely no remorse ... in fact he rationalizes domestic terrorism due to his unfair treatment by the Media.
2
It is fearful to realize, Mr. Blow, that you have hit the nail on its head with a sledge hammer. White supremacists shaping politics or shooting guns are on the same team, except for one little detail. Not all white people are welcome at their table. Only those at the very tip top of the heap of white humanity who are useful to these people are allowed to be counted as acceptable. The gun slingers haven’t yet realized this detail.
Spot on. I don't think it should be out of the question to try preemptively finding potential (white supremacist) terrorists, and put them through deprogramming. They're a big and rising threat to national security and public health.
“The white nationalist policymakers are annoyed and even incensed by the terrorists because they believe they besmirch the mission.”
This is a very good read on the situation.
Liberal and progressive white people are also complicit. They live in majority-white enclaves, often with private security. Just look at any major city that Trump has recently denigrated. Take Baltimore. Two-thirds African American. Most white people live in Canton, Harbor East, Federal Hill, Roland Park. They may encounter people of color in the workplace or in the Safeway or at a coffee shop, but these are skittish, jittery interactions, filled with microaggressions and stereotypes.
They are scared to death of the black residents. They know nothing of the black-owned restaurants, the artists, the community activism but are overly concerned about their own security. One reason Johns Hopkins University will be adding campus police to augment campus security is to police the black communities on the fringes of the university.
As we examine the role of politicians and white nationalists, let us not let “benign” white supremacy off the hook.
1
Thank you for telling the truth.
1
To repeat what has been said. Every advanced country has about the same per cent of mentally ill people but only in the U.S. it is too easy to possess battlefield weapons.
Mr. Blow writes, "The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip." In fact, however, they are one and the same. The only distinction between them is tactics borne of simple chronology. As they age, they become more strategic.
In terms of purely malevolent bigotry, there is no distinction. For the many older, "respectable" Republicans riven with racism (thank you Saint Ronald and Crooked Richard), white supremacy drives their political go-karts at the genocidal country fair.
Spot on, Mr. Blow. At the top of this dystopian food chain are those who accomplish their mission in whispers behind closed doors, cloaking themselves behind the laws they create. At the bottom of the chain are the disenfranchised who execute those commands with swift violence. And in the middle are the innocent victims of all that carnage. That's human nature in the America of 2019. Let's change all that in 2020.
Vote.
May I suggest another group as insidious as the two mentioned here? White voters for whom racism and white supremacy isn't a deal-breaker.
As a 50-year-old gay man in the south, I have heard my entire life the slurs and insults and innuendo directed at me by conservative politicians, so my ear is very well attuned to the dog whistles and code words they employ to rile up their followers.
I hear the same things now that they used to say about us (it's no longer acceptable in most circles to openly slander gay people, so they've moved on). They talk about disease. They talk about "them" infiltrating their neighborhoods and bringing bad elements with them. They turn their targets into the "other" and place blame for all society's ills.
I will NEVER accept a politician who uses these terms, whether it's about me or about another person in another target group. When you call Hispanic or other brown-skinned people who come to this country an "infestation," you are talking about me, a southern-born and -bred white man, too. I know the hatred, the intolerance, the bigotry. I will always stand with those who now face the venom and ire of the same old bigots.
What seems insane to me is how many other white people just shrug it off. "My 401K is doing great," "He's not attacking me." No, he's not. Not yet. But that day will come.
Racism and intolerance affect us ALL. Vote like Trump and McConnell and the rest slurred you directly to your face.
We are in a civil war and both sides do not take responsibility for its creation. Mr. Blow hints at the causes but does not fully detail what has occurred. White nationalists have taken over the GOP led by Stephen Miller and Trump. They have successfully lashed out at Muslims, Mexicans, illegals and women in power. Crime by minorities is their rallying cry.
On the other side we have ascendant minority power and demographics.
Every day the local paper has one horrific crime after another committed by minority teens who grew up in broken homes. This gives the white nationalists their political fuel.
Barack Obama was a symbol of a successful takeover of the Executive branch of the federal government by a minority. But his eight years were plagued by GOP and white obstruction and hate while also having to deal with increased Black unrest and hate crimes committed by police and white nationalists.Some of the police shootings were a clear symptom of the breakdown of law and order in the Black community.
Into this toxic mix we have unlimited guns being put on the streets by the NRA with GOP encouragement and unlimited avenues for hate speech on the internet. This toxic soup will only get worse with a white nationalist spewing hate from the White House.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
Another stirring column Charles Blow. Change has got to happen but where do we start? How about education? How about encouraging dialogue in the schools that talks about differences among people. How about lobbying our Secretary of Education (fat chance) to rather than arm teachers with guns, arm them with tools that teach tolerance and understanding, Kids grow up to vote and maybe run for office and make policy someday.
As always, I read your column and agree with almost everything you say. I just want to send back this bit of hope (cause you did say it was not going to be uplifting). I'm an old-enough white woman, living in a part of this country (Brooklyn) where there is a very good mix of cultures, colors and faiths. I told a friend today that it's not that I don't believe in God -- I don't believe in humanity. But I do believe in Brooklyn. Whatever these crazed white males (and they are mostly males, if not always), try to do to stop the change in our color and culture, it is happening, and they cannot stop it. We are going to become more multi-everything. Color, culture, gender id, faith. It would be great if we had someone at the helm who isn't a hate-mongerer, but even the hater-in-chief cannot prevent the evolution of our country. And it will start in Brooklyn. It already has.
254
@Mary
"gender id"--that is very good.
I think you have coined a new word for our culture.
It comes from Brooklyn.
11
@Mary
Three cheers for Brooklyn!!!
14
@Mary. It is not only in Brooklyn, there are pockets of this loving acceptance of all colors, cultures, gender IDs, and faiths throughout this country. Where I live, we call it “living within a blue bubble within a blue state”. And we’re proud of it.
30
Three shootings in a week in which black people or brown people were targeted. This is race war being instigated by terrorist whites. That’s what it is. There is no point not calling it what it is.
It has happened before, just without assault rifles.
As others have said: google Red Summer.
159
@Lefthalfbach
Race war? Not so much. More like a war of white racists versus white police and, perhaps a white military. Americans of color had better hope those whites defend them.
4
@Lefthalfbach
Indiscriminate terror targets all people, not just Black people. In Ohio the shooter killed his sister.
You are trying to hijack this tragedy for your own personal war (of words only, I hope) against whites.
White shooters have killed as many whites (if not more) than they killed Blacks
The killings are bad enough let's not compound this tragedy by rhetorically separating the victims by skin color.
2
Rather than the two sides of white nationalism, I envision it as triangular: At the apex resides the racist Mr. Trump. Midway down are the policy makers, the GOP, who are in the back pockets of the NRA. These entities above are all parasitic, feeding off of each other with greed and power as the toxic ingredients. It’s that wide base, however, which holds this infamous pyramid together. It is made up of those who elect these politicians. Within this horizontal line, there is a spectrum which travels from the least to the most fanatical, the killer. And there is one common characteristic; that is hate of all “others.” I do not know how these murders will end. There has to be an answer, a solution. In fact, there must be. This can not continue.
126
@Kathy Lollock
What you see is what there is.
No conspiracies.
A big share of Trump's supporters are racists. The rest do not consider racism their problem. His rhetoric is making racists feel free to express their attitudes whereas for five decades they relied upon code words and phrases to avoid saying what they meant in public.
The NRA enjoys political support because of huge numbers of people supporting it, people who also support Republicans who oppose gun control.
What you see is what there is.
7
Herein there is the insight and a sober analysis of the evidence. If it had not been manifest before, the various voter suppression efforts and indifference to ballot integrity
initiatives (that do require upfront - and soon - much more money) are all parts of a generalized effort to maintain political power by a white elite with the full and enthusiastic
support of a fearful, increasingly drug addled, economically challenged, and woefully educated white base, whose family structures, schools, and communities are in states of
deep distress.
It matters little if the economic interests of the latter have
been systematically betrayed by the explicit, but camouflaged actions of the
former, especially when it concerns immigration and the price of labor. That there remains visceral support for such
policy is a natural consequence of the fear of vulnerability
to losing one's place on the social racial ladder.
This is a very old story in this country and it will just go
on and on and on.
What would really help, indeed the only thing that can help, is that absolutely everyone who
is as appalled as the author, and most commenters here, contribute to registering and getting out the vote, no matter
what the state legal obstacles are, by all those who
have been marginalized, left out, as well as those who have taken refuge by abandoning civic society for the sake of a nihilistic cynicism.
1
Almost all Americans, unlike me at 75, cannot remember seeing "White Only" signs throughout the South. Almost all Americans cannot remember when the principal qualification for voting in several states was a white skin. Almost all Americans cannot remember the Birmingham church bombing or the killings of civil rights workers.
But there are enough Americans who do remember, in the wrong way, and who are seeking to reestablish the social order of the 1950s. Some want to do this with guns, but most just want to do it with laws.
So we have laws aimed at suppressing the votes of People of Color, through gerrymandering, strict voter ID requirements, and closing polling places. So we have actions by the administration to make legal immigration more difficult. So we have an economic system with inequality unseen for nearly a century.
American racism long predated Donald Trump, and it will continue long after he is gone (hopefully on January 20, 2021). But now it has a cheerleader in chief who proclaims that we are being "invaded" by an "infestation" of "rapists and murderers". And once that genie is out of the bottle it will take decades to put it back.
4
I like this column. It's not a matter that it's not soothing. It's more a matter that it doesn't travel the expected route. That is to blame Trump, the Republicans and stir up anger about them. It makes thoughtful connections at a time when Americans are, as the Times headline declared today, "bewildered." White nationalism has popped up in the press in years past, particularly centered in places like Idaho. But its face has been that of potential terrorists, living and plotting in mountainous and remote places. But its face is elsewhere, in the mainstream, in and out of government. I agree. That young twenty-something men white supremacists are impatient with their elders is insightful. So too is their frustration with white liberal women who aren't having enough white babies! It's a thoughtful piece that won't provide electric juice that many crave but we've had plenty of that. White nationalist terrorism is unfamiliar ground and Blow sheds daylight on it.
1
Republicans are the party of employers. They want the cheapest labor possible, so they welcome low wage workers who increase their profits. And they will never pass comprehensive immigration legislation, because they earn more money without it. However, there is no popular support for the Republican ideology, which is only concerned with how to find the cheapest labor. They need unsophisticated and exploited whites to vote for them. So, there’s the dilemma. They need white rage and fear to get re-elected so they can continue undermining their employees. It’s a very dangerous balancing act that appears to be slipping off the tight rope. Voters chose Trump because he elevated their cultural fears and promised better healthcare, infrastructure and jobs that pay well. None of this happened. Next year, Republicans will have to renounce white national terrorism while their party leader encourages it to get re-elected. They are fast becoming the party of murderous white men. This is the opportunity to realign the country so that the policies of white male employer privilege can be undermined. Moderate Democrats instinctively align themselves with employers, so we see the current vilification of the “left” in this and other media. This is the one election where employees have a chance to claw back power and get meaningful labor friendly policies passed. It’ll be interesting.
2
Although the victims in the Dayton shooting were mostly black, the shooter posted his dislike for Trump and he self-identified as a leftist. According to his former high school classmates, he was a misogynistic bully who composed a hit list of fellow students he wanted to either rape or kill. He was arrested, suspended from school, apologized to his prospective victims and was re-admitted to school. The common denominator in these shootings isn't necessarily white supremacy, but instead it is easy access to weapons that can inflict mass casualties in seconds that is the cause.
3
Reading this, I grieve for my beloved First Amendment. 8-Chan killed all those people. A rationale, and then a legal path, will be found to weaken the First to the point that it collapses in on itself. Picture China. Now picture China with heavily-armed citizens. That's our future.
The only thing I take exception with in this article is the naming of the assailants. Please take the lead, Mr. Blow, in refusing to name these monsters. Their perceived "glory" is sadly a tremendous motivator. Anonymous monsters please.
2
White nationalists exist across America but their birth was in the original southern slave states. From Maryland south, blacks were treated as an economic commodity - valuable but disposable property - not fully human like whites and feared for possible rebellion.
The communities in the southern states had extralegal armed volunteers who rode about plantations, towns and surroundings to instill fear in slaves, round up slaves on the run and punish them by torture or death.
Poor southern whites shared with wealthy plantation owners the belief in white race superiority and a fear of blacks. They served as southern vigilantes. But the leadership of the vigilantes came from the wealthy, educated and politically powerful.
America honors Thomas Jefferson as an enlightened Founding Father. Many know he fathered children by at least one of his slaves. But most Americans today do not know that Jefferson believed blacks were part of an inferior subhuman race. The man who wrote the words, "all men are created equal," not only did not free his slaves but fathered slaves.
Jefferson was part of the southern political power that molded our nation divided on slavery and its spread, defended by the proposition that blacks were an inferior race. The truth was, the economies of slave states would collapse without slavery, slavery was about wealth, power, superiority.
This was the birth of white supremacists (vigilantes then, terrorists today) and white supremacist GOP leadership.
Equal rights is seen as oppression to white supremacist and
many whites alike. White privileges are inherently deemed too special and are not to be shared. Even if the Constitution, which they hold dearly, deems the inalienable rights to liberty and justice for ALL. There's a toxic double standard, hypocrisy and greed, that holds the soul of many.
Like Gollum and his "precious" ring.
The idea of America is wonderful but too many times it has not lived up to it's values in practice. Law enforcement and judgements are enacted with inequity. Symptoms of the deeper and systemic toxin of racism in it's veins.
America has been living and overt lie for a very long time. Its policy makers know it. Its citizens know it, and the world knows it. There will be no peace until the evil that separates people by their skin is pulled root & stem. Since that's virtually impossible, (shy of an asteroid or extraterrestrial attack) a more common sense of purpose and unanimity, must be fought and won, or lost for that matter, at the very depths of the heart and mind.
Voices of good and reason, can't be shy. Just like this article. Truth must illuminate. None greater than in the end, either we come together as a country, a people, and a species, or perish, completely, as fools.
Charles your analysis is interesting. But that is the easy part. Americans urgently need thoughtful leadership to address an issue that is literally killing them every day. GUNS! Trump lacks the gravitas and the political will to tackle this American disease. Indeed the gun lobby owns him. Whoever becomes the Democratic candidate must make gun violence the driving theme of his/her campaign. Who runs America? The gun lobby or the majority of Americans who want to live in a safe and secure environment?
I understand that Mr. Blow is justifiably horrified by the anti-black elements of white nationalist rhetoric.
But I find it somewhat upsetting how anti-Hispanic racism is disappeared from these discussions. Here we have one brief nod to "anti-Hispanic" and then it's gone, displaced by the vaguer "anti-immigrant," and then also "anti-black."
It's as if white racism against African Americans must dominate the discussion because of truly awful historical patterns that are indeed repeating themselves in various contexts.
But these recent outrages are examples of white racism predominantly against our Hispanic brothers and sisters.
Hispanic immigrants (and some Hispanic US citizens) are the ones most at risk, the ones being herded into camps, caged, abused, and separated from their family members including very young children.
Let's make sure this truth doesn't get papered over or displaced by some other horror.
Trump has hijacked the Republican party, and turned it into a white national project; Fox News has one something similar - though Chris Wallace is okay, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram are full out white nationalists and get he most ratings.
This excellent piece neglects to mention one huge advantage the white nationalists have to cling to power and privilege; the electoral college and the extraordinary power low population rural states have in our democracy. A vote in Wyoming is worth a dozen in California. Our democracy is in sore need of radical reform if we are to approach the principle of one person, one vote.
What we have is national arms dealing, propagated and enabled by the NRA and its legislative branch the Republican Party, and a President who divisive rhetoric stokes the embers of hatred, nativism, blame, and fear. What we get is the occasional, but all too frequent, rogue shooter who feels it's his (notice it's always his) time to act.
We are in the last throws of that virulent white backlash (on all levels), and we simply have to play it out and respond in moral and legislative kind.
What that means is that sometimes a bully will not respond to anything unless they are knocked down, and THEN it may be possible to hold out a hand (in friendship or cooperation) and offer them help or a new way.
So what we have to do is wipe out the republican party.
We have to overwhelmingly go to the polls and replace every republican everywhere that we can find at every level. This President and the party he has hijacked are not going to respond to anything else.
Even if Democrats take over the White House, keep the House (or enhance the majority) but fail to take back the Senate (let alone achieve a super majority of 60), then it will be much more of the same of during President Obama's years.
It will be block everything and anything (let alone usurping more Supreme Court seats), and the people on the ground will see that if they just hold on for another 4 more years, they will get back into power. They need to see that everyone and everywhere are rebuking them and their ways of violence.
IF we don't, then the carnage will continue.
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The people that are committing these heinous acts, mass shootings, are mentally unstable. It is clear that something in their mind has gone horribly wrong. I fully oppose DT and his policies, however, I think it is irresponsible to say that that the current administration and current Republican delegation are bound at the hip with these domestic terrorists. It seems like this piece is simply meant to rile people up. How does this help our national dialogue? Like it or not, we are all in this together. Let’s come up with solutions to prevent this from continuing to happen.
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Thank you, Mr. Blow. An interesting factoid; I've been hearing and reading about the shooting in Dayton all day, but yours was the first place in which I learned that most of the victims were black.
I think your column hits the nail on the head.
"It’s just that their methods differ. The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip".
Yes, they are called Trumps base.
Base seems to be a complimentary reference in light of all this violence.
Like Trumps administration they sink even lower, but on the "pedestrian" level some feel much more emboldened to act through the horrific use of deadly violence.
And this administration and Republican members look away.
I imagine on some level Trump feels triumphant. They are listening and acting. And his hands are clean.
I think Mr. Blow alludes to something that I think is going to be critical to taking back the White House in 2020 and our country in the long run.
There are 2 types of Trump supporters: those that support him because of his racist rhetoric, and those that support him in spite of it (those willing to make a Faustian deal for tax cuts, guns, Roe v Wade, etc.).
The first group are the deplorables. They’re a lost cause.
The second group includes millions of people (who for the record I think are wrong to overlook Trump’s racism) that value their own interests just enough to look past his rhetoric.
You may not see a difference between racism and complicity with racism, and you’re right that complicity with racism is harmful, BUT, I think it’d be helpful if some on the left toned down the “everyone who supports Trump is a racist” rhetoric. It alienates millions of disillusioned Obama->Trump voters.
It’s hard for me to empathize with them; Trump is such a foul human being whose hateful speech and policies are doing such clear damage, I often feel disdain for his supporters.
But I do think some of Trump’s supporters who failed to see through the con at first, who may have bought into his “the media is unfair to me” schtick, are slowly realizing just how toxic he is.
They may not deserve your patience or respect, but if we embrace and forgive instead of alienate and accuse, I think we’re much more likely to re-route America’s course for the better in 2020.
Well stated Charles. They are bound at the hip. And Trump’s racist rhetoric is unleashing white supremacist terror as we slide
towards Fascism.
The issue is what are we going to do about it?
My view is that we need a broad mobilization of millions of people to actively resist racism, xenophobia, and misogyny.
This require a coalition of religious and activist political groups to
provide the leadership and organization to mobilize millions.
We need leaders like you to gather and make this call.
We mobilized against the war in Vietnam. History is calling us forward again.
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And yet I clearly remember back when I was in my teens the U.N. conducted a study of all the "Races". The UN was severely criticized for wasting about 2 million dollars on the study and it's conclusion was generally ignored. That conclusion was repeated a few years ago... That conclusion was that all the "Races" were human beings. Gasp now that's a real shock as all human beings can have each other's children, medicine and medical care is the (with differences from genetics) same for human beings.
If the human species originated in one area then all humans are the same species(actually if originated in several areas all are the same species as there had to be common threads of development) and Duh we need to get it together.
So what many religious leaders of the past told us is actually true this nonsense over "White Supremacy" is just malarkey and needs to be consigned to the dust of history.
I am now an old white man and what my parents taught me last century is a truth that should be honored.
The supremacist policymakers are more dangerous. They cannot get arrested for their actions. And they get reelected easily.
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I would say that this moment in America is the moment of truth for the Republican Party. Will it continue as a real conservative party or will it continue as Trump's, Nixon's, Reagan's white supremacist party? If the Republican leaders cannot wrest control from the hateful, anti American elements of the party, then it is doomed and America will have a new conservative party. In the meantime we are in danger in our schools and in our public meeting places. Republican senators and conservative intellectuals, are you listening?
Thank you Mr. Blow for highlighting this connection. I would go a step further, and assert that this white supremacy dynamic is at the heart of outnumbered nation’s history. After all, our country wasn’t settled by governments and armies, but by civilian folks who were often willing to kill a few natives and maybe keep a few slaves (all with the use of deadly violence). The post-Civil-War Democratic Party benefitted greatly from KKK terror in the south, which was just a different side of the Jim Crow coin of legislative policy. The connection today may be a little more coded, slightly more subtle, but by breaking the law these terrorists enforce darker, unwritten laws, woven deep into the fabric of American society.
The same connection, I might suggest, ought to apply to police officers who murder poor, black, and disabled citizens with impunity. They too are carrying out a toxic policy agenda that begins with discrimination at work and school and ends with death or prison.
Though more “moderate,” more “professional” officials and citizens may condemn this violence, our endless hand-wringing about thoughts and prayers aren’t really more effective than those thoughts and prayers themselves. We need to examine the rot at the heart of American life. The inequality, poverty, the anomie and social dislocation, our total alienation from each other and our lives. The way we frame the gun control debate doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Bullet regulation offers the best short- term solution.
Mr. Blow, you have been an eloquent spokeperson of the resistance since Trump took office, but what this intriguing and challenging op-ed fails to discuss is a solution. What is our way out? Full blown warfare? Voting out the right? Replacing our existing political parties with what?
I am a Canadian. I watched the 1964 GOP convention. It was a week of denunciation of the newly passed Civil Right Act that put into law "all men are created equal." You can still see the Klan marching outside the Cow Palace. You can still hear the speeches. You can still read the platform. You can see Nixon and Reagan take over the Party. You can still hear "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and know exactly whose liberty it meant.
How does one explain the banality of evil to America when congress asks about putting children in cages and a high ranking Border Official says he was just following the manual. I thought someone might react appropriately but I guess they were just following the manual.
There was so much I loved about America. I am in mourning.
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These shootings are tragic, truly sad events. One thing that we need to remember is that these acts are being carried out by mentally ill human beings. All people have difficulties in life and all people disagree in some way with how the government functions. The big difference is in how we deal with those feelings. Mentally stable people don't kill other humans because they are upset.
Trump has not been good for our country in many ways and is absolutely bringing out the worst in public discourse. However, to insinuate that DT or the Republican party is responsible for these shootings in any way is a reactionary accusation based on being in a highly emotional state. Columns like this one don't do anything to solve problems or increase a sense of unity. This is clearly meant as an inflammatory piece to rile people up. If we continue to blame the "other side", nothing gets resolved.
1
We drove down to Cape May this morning. We got back and I saw the headline about two shootings. I thought that it was CA and El Paso. I had not even heard about Texas.
Of course, this is white terrorism. It is a tactic that has been used in the past, particularly after WW1 and WW2. It is not going away.
mr. Blow is correct that policy and shootings are walking converging paths.
As you aver, Charles Blow, white supremacist domestic terrorists (mass shooters in El Paso and Dayton) and white policymakers in the White House and G.O.P. Senate are bound at the hip. Mr. Trump won't apologize for inciting violence in white supremacists. We shall witness what he says this morning after the weekend's massacres in two American cities. Perhaps he will blame "mental illness" for the young shooters' ideologies?
The Declaration of Independence was an American manifesto in 1775. The manifesto of young white supremacist domestic terrorists declares white dominance and the inequality of all Americans by gun culture.
Mass shootings are the poison fruit of poison words from our White House and from the social media that has torn our nation apart. This social media moment won't mobilize the people against the president. What Trump says matters to his followers.
What the leaders in pre WWII Germany said and taught their people mattered. There is no moral clarity in our American moment today. Failing impeachment by our Congress, we must remove Donald Trump by our votes next year.
If one wants to play "the blame game," and frankly it makes me sick. We're all to blame. We keep on voting in Republicans who protect the gun lobby and the donations from the N.R.A. over the lives of their own citizens. Donald Trump received over $30 million from the N.R.A. and has been their cheerleader and defender along with Mich McConnell who is, as we speak, sitting on two gun regulation bills recently passed by the House. Even Russia got into the act with hidden donations and sending a young gun activist, Maria Butina, here. Only we, the American people, can end this by electing representatives and senators who firmly believe that saving the lives of their constituents is more important than hiding behind the 2nd amendment to protect the gun manufacturers. If we continue to vote these gun nuts in, then we'll continue to see the body count mount with more Newtowns, more Parklands, more El Pasos. It's time for the Democrats to stop the squabbling over "Medicare for All" and realize this is the major public health care issue and unite as one in promoting a "Save American Lives" health care bill.
These shooters are not crazy. They are politically motivated. They know what they are doing. They view themselves as soldiers on the front line fighting to create an America that they want, a white dominant America. Now what do you call people united in their efforts, to install a political regime that violates every tenet of our laws? They are the exact opposite of patriots. If they launched their attacks from foreign soil, we would call their actions an act of war. Why is this any different?
To be frank the white policy makers, are in the long run more dangerous than the white terrorists. There is outrage at the killings, the slow death of our democracy on the other hand is done mostly behind closed doors in the courts and in our legislatures.
It is past time for Democrats to proclaim and exclaim that we are the party of law and order. Unregulated domestic terrorism - chaotic immigration practice and policy - unenforced financial and taxation regulation - toxic environmental acts not prosecuted - a Department of INjustice - a Department of Miseducation and extortion. Enough.
So we have spent trillions guarding against Islamic terrorism and virtually zero guarding against domestic terrorism. Eventually we hope that the truth will be hard to hide.
I’ve called Rep. Ted Budd and Senator Thom Tillis every time that Trump has made a racist comment. Not even a peep of condemnation from them. Forget any effort for gun control or true immigration reform. In my mind, Blow is mostly right except it seems apparent that Republicans at even the highest level don’t have much of a problem with white supremacist terrorism. They likely see it as another way to keep “people in their place.”
I completely agree with Mr. Blow (and I'm white, just for the record.). My only humble request, sir: please, in future columns, don't use the shooters' name. We don't need to memorialize them or contribute to their notoriety. It doesn't detract from you message to simply refer to them as "the shooter" (or "the deranged one".) Thank you!
I’d be willing to bet that a large majority of white people are secretly relieved that this stochastic terrorism will spare them by virtue of their skin color. I imagine that most Germans in the 1930s felt the same way. Luckily the structure of our government is quite a bit more robust than that of early Twentieth Century Germany, for now. We will find out in 2020 if the government of the people can long endure. Please vote.
Excellent column.
Reading the comments though I become disheartened. I will get to that point - but first...
I am beyond sickened by the GOP and their grotesqueness under Trump. The GOP and its wave of cult supporters presents liberal democracy an existential threat akin to what faced civilized Europe circa 1930s.
Their policies/propaganda deleterious to the environment, modernity, secular humanism (REAL Christianity), truth, justice, equality, and personal liberty.
Not to diminish the overwhelming immediate and personal impact of the tragedies like these recent ones but the end-game the GOP advances as a philosophical incarnation of authoritarian theocratic plutocracy coupled with the mightiest Nation ever threatens humankind cosmically.
So I am not a gun hugging right-winger by any means. I am for sane logical and effective gun control. We need to do major things - things totally obvious - NOW! This includes better mental health system/access.
But I am also for adult people (and that includes 18 year olds since in my day we were sent to kill and die for nothing) to live free and enjoy their pleasures.
The illiberal Draconian way people probably who will vote like me approach this issue disheartens me.
Turns even me off. Most agree AKs should be illegal - but most don't think a 5 shot 22 needs hyper regulation.
Being ridged illiberal HELPED US LOSE IN 2016 AND IT WILL AGAIN IN 2020!
Watch it! The GOP NEEDS to be defeated 2020 - they our greatest threat!
Mr. Blow, while you hit the nail squarely on its head, white nationalist policy-makers, irritated by their comrades’ actions, nevertheless, do not consider the murderous acts of these white nationalist activists as terrorism. More importantly, I have yet to hear the policy-makers of any persuasion insist that these acts must be investigated as domestic terrorism rather than simply as individual hate crimes or the acts of mad men.
The purpose of terrorism is to provoke a state of terror in the general public. With his hate-filled tweets and violence-provoking speeches, Trump easily shows, in spite of his checkered job history, that he's the man for the job.
Everyone is trying to make sense of this week's rampage of violence by young, Caucasian US Citizen, males, with high powered automatic rifles made for war only.
Could it be the Russians poisoning us somehow, triggering the loners to act out?
There have always been hate groups, but why now, are so many individuals slaughtering innocent people?
I have one suggestion that goes beyond propaganda, and that is American Cinema, saturated with violence, guns as sex objects, guns and bullets fired as proof of strength, handsomeness, wherewithall, smarts, and bravery.
The written propaganda makes no follower a hero.
But cineman, video games, and TV do.
“I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon – and I mean very soon – come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored. The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is unworthy to lead.” -- Trump’s speech in acceptance of the nomination, Republican Convention, July 21, 2016.
Let's remember that Donald Trump would never be President and many other Republicans would not be Senators or Congressmen if it were not for widespread voter suppression laws, voter file purges, and black-box vote-counting.
Just as Donald Trump never represented the will of the American people, the Republican Party and almost all of their policies - especially their gun policies - do not represent the will of the American people.
Likewise, the white nationalist terrorists roaming the countryside do not represent the will of the American people.
However, the white supremacist terrorists and the Republican party policymakers both operate with similar methods.
They both are comfortable disregarding and breaking the law and rules and letting Americans drop dead.
The terrorists are comfortable murdering and terrorizing their fellow citizens as they stew in their white supremacy.
The policymakers are comfortable stealing elections by any means necessary, comfortable supplying the guns to the murderers and comfortable abandoning regulation and healthcare to let American citizens die for corporate profits.
So American has been simultaneously hijacked by both right-wing politicians and right-wing terrorists.
The only way out of this right-wing abyss is for the overwhelming majority of Americans to wake up, register to vote and vote to reject right-wing radicalism that is comfortable with 90 American gun deaths every single day of the year.
Stop the Republican madness.
2020
8
This country has officially turned into a horror movie.
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A number of sources are posting the manifesto of the El Paso shooter. I wish this info was published ALONG WITH the text of the gun regulation bill that Mitch McConnell is refusing to present to the Senate.
No. This lies at Trump’s feet. Trump, on the eve of election, said that Hillary Clinton would ban guns unless she was taken out. No. Trump persuaded his supporters to get violent with hecklers. He, Trump, would cover their legal expenses. Trump applauded the politician who body slammed his opponent in Utah. Trump declared White Nationalist in Charlottesville as being comprised of good people. Trump warned that members of the military, police, bikers, and construction workers, peaceful till now, might matter into their own hand if his presidency was threatened.
A short while ago Trump blamed the media on causing the violence. His tweet: “The Media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country. Fake News has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years. News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!”
WILL ONLY GET WORSE.
No Mr. Blow. Trump gets no pass. He’s the ENABLER!
Your articles always bring the most clarity. I only wish you had mentioned the fact that of hate speech identifiable by algorithms on social media, white supremacists were the only ones not targeted. Why? Because it would shut down accounts of Republican lawmakers.
The mass slaughter in El Paso is white nationalist terrorism. The murderer was a white supremacist who loved Trump and his racist policies.
And Charles Blow is right. White nationalist terrorism is now the policy of the Republican party - for no other purpose than retain absolute power in this country, even when they are no longer the majority.
Republicans will never denounce white terrorism. They would lose votes. Their voters are the ultimate identity voters - they believe that as white Christians, they are the only "real" Americans and the rest of us should be forced to accept the scraps of second-class citizenship. And if Trump's base had their way, every ethnic and religious minority would be removed from this country.
Now, I'm told that comparison with 1930's Germany is overblown. Many white Americans still tell me that things won't "get that bad". By contrast, not one person of color has told me this since Trump took office. The rest of us - those of us who are ethnic or religious minorities - truly understand that things have gotten "that bad", and that many of us may be living on borrowed time in this country.
Now, a majority of whites voted for Trump. They knew he was a racist. And yet it didn't bother them at all. They may not all gun down our families, but they'll be glad the shooters did. They'll look the other way. And they'll say they weren't responsible.
But Trump voters are complicit. Every single one of them. They all have blood on their hands now.
3
@DB Cooper
Every republican I’ve ever talked with disavows trump’s immorality, crudeness, and racism. They all say they don’t like those aspects of him, but that he’s doing a great job improving the economy.
Like our corporate masters, anything thing is ok if it improves the bottom line.
Imagine another insane radical who reads this writing. Will it be helpful for him to change his mind? I am worried it might transform a hesitant to a determined. Please stop blaming others all together. Please praise Trump for his proper statement on these series of sad events. Please do not provoke Trump supporters lying on the red line to cross it anymore.
1
Agreed! The actions of both groups are often mischaracterized. The white supremacist policy makers get away with their carnage in plain sight because they use our political and legal system to legitimize their actions. The white supremacist terrorists are often dismissed because of mental health issues or other red herrings that conveniently hide their true motives. In the case of the El Paso shootings and the manifesto posted online, it is impossible to deny the links between them. These angry young white men full of our cultural toxic masculinity are the perfect instrument of a white nationalist President and capitalist system.
8
Both the terrorists and the policymakers under the umbrella of the Republican Party are doing what revanchist white southerners did after the Civil War to derail Reconstruction. After losing a terrible war, which they instigated, they set about re-enslaving blacks through terror and Jim Crow laws. It has taken the rest of the 20th century and more to recover from the damage this did.
When Mitch McConnell made it his priority to make Obama a one-term president, he was going back to post Reconstruction tactics. He failed to unseat Obama. So the Republicans doubled down on their strategy of disenfranchising blacks, Hispanics, the young and Democrats more broadly, packing the courts with arch-conservatives and inciting the fascist strain of American right-wingers to the point of hysteria. Trump's race baiting is the match. Fox News and the Internet the gasoline.
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@Julia Lichtblau Great comment. So clear. Thank you.
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@Julia Lichtblau
I agree. Well said.
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@Julia Lichtblau...You neglected to mention that those revanchist white southerners, those perpetrators of terror and Jim Crow laws, were Democrats. The Democratic Party was the party of segregation and racism. Your hysterical histrionics, to use a phrase Mr. Blow coined right after the Trump Cataclysm of 2016, cannot hide history.
3
The means may differ, but the intent is the same.
The people 'defending' America clearly believe that America can not be "America" unless white men are in charge. All the talk of American ideals that are universal is just that - talk - so far as these people are concerned.
If we are to treat these attacks as a form of terrorism, which they are, we need to go after the whole network. Unfortunately that includes FOX, rightwing talk radio, the Republican Party from Trump on down, and the think tanks, foundations, and dark money behind it all.
Guantanamo isn't going to be big enough.
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@Larry Roth
The emphasis should be on 'the dark money behind it all' and how to defang THAT.
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@Larry Roth "we need to go after the whole network."
Totally agree, Larry. But how, on a practical level, do we mobilize to do this?
2
@Lora Well, how did they mobilize against us? They trained whole generations of young people to enter media, academia, politics and law. They infiltrated the courts. Now, coming up on 40 years after the Reagan revolution, we have people fully indoctrinated with insane right-wing conspiracy theories occupying all three branches of government.
They set their sights on the long game, but didn't neglect the short. We won't have the same kind of corporate backing, but can we not do the same from the grassroots? You would think the fact that we are correct and not insane would help, but maybe not.
6
Someone has to change US gun laws. Only candle lights and marching on death mourning would not do, people has to come together to change the basis of American history on gun possession and even amendment to Constitution is needed. America is no more a colonial settlement, it is country now, and gun is killing American men, women and children in hordes.
I would suggest immediate confiscation all guns from American citizen, and issuance of new gun licenese, Category 1: Single bullet at a time gun-Handgun, and licenser should have gun registered in hsi/her name, and gun once registered cannot be sold or transferred, inherited to other, if done it is criminal offense. The license seeker has to provide sufficient reason for gun possesion and there would be a tough onsite test for precaution, storage, usage and morality of gun possession, and a legal contract for possession. If the gun is not needed by the licenser it has to be deposited to the local law inforcement agency. Category II: Semi-automatic guns: A more stringent legal documents and similar onsite test and clauses for possession. Category III: Automatic and high intensity gun: A highly stringent policy and test for such possession and should be issued in rare cases.
Wow. Usually I agree with your columns and feel grateful that you have expressed what I’m thinking so well and for such a large audience.
This one—makes me think harder.
I’m that much more grateful.
Thank you.
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How about, in accordance with the 2nd, all gun owners have now volunteered to be in a well regulated militia, to show up every month to drill (at their own expense) and randomly get sent off to fight overseas.
Meanwhile forbid gun shows from making people unload their guns, etc. Let's see if having everyone armed prevents any problems.
12
We are in the last throws of that virulent white backlash (on all levels), and we simply have to play it out and respond in moral and legislative kind.
What that means is that sometimes a bully will not respond to anything unless they are knocked down, and THEN it may be possible to hold out a hand (in friendship or cooperation) and offer them help or a new way.
So what we have to do is wipe out the republican party.
We have to overwhelmingly go to the polls and replace every republican everywhere that we can find at every level. This President and the party he has taken over are not going to respond to anything else.
Even if Democrats take over the White House, keep the House (or enhance the majority) but fail to take back the Senate (let alone achieve a super majority of 60), then it will be much more of the same of during President Obama's years.
It will be block everything and anything (let alone usurping more Supreme Court seats), and the people on the ground will see that if they just hold on for another 4 more years, they will get back into power. They need to see that everyone and everywhere are rebuking them and their ways of violence.
IF we don't, then the carnage will continue.
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@FunkyIrishman
Nobody is stopping a Democratic Congressman or Senator from taking the floor and demanding the repeal of the Second Amendment, yet none of them does, valuing office more than the public safety.
Nobody is stopping the Democrats from taking the floor and demanding that the US follow Australia's example and ban/buy back all semiautomatic firearms. None does because they cling to their offices like a child in daycare clings to its teddy bear.
The problem is not a political party, it is the political cowardice of all parties.
1
@NorthernVirginia
I think you have not been paying attention, because Democrats (everywhere) are advocating on the floors of both houses and on media at every opportunity for comprehensive safety measures.
The Senate which is controlled by republicans refuses to take up any bill whatsoever.
Glad to clarify.
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@NorthernVirginia
I think you have been misinformed, because Democrats (everywhere) are demanding on the floors of both houses and on television at every opportunity for comprehensive firearm safety measures.
The Senate which is controlled by republicans refuses to take up any bill whatsoever.
Glad to clarify.
Blow's basic point showing parallels between violent activists and slow-moving politicians must not be lost in discussion of the need for bi-partisan immigration solutions. AND the discussion must include recognition that we're not just talking about immigration - we are morally and ethically responsible to respond to the suffering of refugees fleeing horrific dangers. Our president is trying to bribe and bully their countries of origin, but refugees will continue to arrive and must be recognized as such, compassionately.
4
Yes, but you must add the unchallenged influence of the NRA on politicians. Australia and New Zealand have successfully controlled gun violence. We have not, and wont till we follow their lead.
And the constitution does not give the right to citizens to bear arms. There is no government who does not want to have the power the monopoly of arms use and violence gives it. The first thing the revolutionaries in France did after the many revolutions was to collect all the guns that had been stolen from the armories and severely punished illegal gun ownership. It is only when I was 45 years old that my grandfather showed me, in great secret and in fear, the pistol he had illegally kept after VWI. He had made prisoner a German Colonel with it.
8
Dear Mr. Blow,
Thank you for this column. In your next one, please go after DJT's two favorite policy makers, Bannon and Miller.
These two Trump whisperers and provocateurs, both avowed white nationalists, seem to fly under the radar as Trump hogs the media spotlight 24/7. They must be continually exposed and held to account by the media and by all of us who fear for our democracy's survival. Miller's uncle has tried, but he seems to be a voice in the wilderness.
55
Fine column, except Mr. Blow's inaccurate linking of conservative immigration policies to extremist white nationalism and terrorism. These are not the same and to suggest otherwise is to play into the seemingly never ending narrative of (I or we) are right and (you or they) are wrong that is plaguing our social construct and politics on the right and left today. What escapes Mr. Blow is that many Americans, including many conservatives, moderate democrats and independents, want a sensible immigration policy that BOTH protects our borders and allows for more LEGAL immigration. It is not inherently racist to believe that immigrants should not be able to walk across a sovereign nation's border, illegally, and be allowed to remain there unmolested. According to a recent NBC poll, decriminalizing illegal border crossings has a measly 27% support. That is not racism, it's a sensible and practical reaction to the crisis at the border.
Please, let's keep the discussion where it belongs - gun control, reigning-in the nasty language on the right AND the left, more collaboration and discussion between Republicans and Democrats, and a sensible solution to our immigration problem.
9
@John the GOP lost the "we are all for legal immigration" high ground when 1) they elected a man who called for a ban on all Muslims entering the US and 2) when they supported the outcome of that campaign promise, which was the travel ban. The travel ban prevented people who were about to LEGALLY enter the US from being allowed to enter.
I simply do not believe you and the many other Americans when you say you are all for LEGAL immigration. It is an argument of convenience, not conviction.
55
@dj1814--Agreed. Also, Trump tried to prevent migrants who ask for asylum from doing so by insisting they make their application in another country before coming to the US. A federal court struck down that regulation, as US law allows asylum seekers to apply at our borders. This is another example of how Trump's administration is trying to circumvent our own immigration laws and stop legal immigration.
13
@John: What most people don’t understand, is that decriminalizing illegal border crossing doesn’t make it legal. People can and will still be deported if caught. Decriminalizing only means there’s no prison terms involved, which will put much less of a burden on an already overflowing and expensive prison system.
2
The policymakers in this case are more dangerous than the terrorists because they can impact many more people. This is a situation where we should not be focusing on guns, which are only a minor weapon in the arsenal of the underlying ideology, but on defeating the underlying ideology itself.
13
@Aoy I do not think it is the "policy makers". it is the reckless rhetoric thrown about on conservative talk radio and parroted by this so-called president. Fascist oriented leaders understood the relation of inflammatory rhertoic and violent action. Just ask anyone who lived during the Nazi era.
Reminds me of the situation in Ireland, where they had the military arm of the IRA and the political arm. The political arm sanctimoniously condemned the violence of the military arm, but they were two sides of the same coin.
30
Google "Red Summer". Thank you Mr. B for citing the centennial of this dismal, and mostly forgotten chapter of American history.
As much as these suicidal young terrorist try to foment their hoped for Race War, another "Red Summer" seems unlikely to occur today. I believe, and I pray, that America has evolved since 1919, in ways that preclude another "Red Summer", but I could be wrong.
11
Charles, you are correct, the policies of the Trump administration and the Republican leadership on the Hill are designed to delay the inevitable - that white people will become a minority. Trump and McConnell are loading the federal courts, which are lifetime positions, with young, many unqualified, ideological white men. Not a single person of color has even been nominated to a federal bench.
We can allow American to continue into the 21st century as a great economic and altruistic power or we can end up in the economic and moral gutter for decades to come. I fear the Republicans are taking us to the latter.
34
Well said Charles pretty eloquently says what I’ve been thinking for years. Behind closed doors corporate Republicans have no issue with undocumented workers, as they like employing them at sub standard wages and working conditions. Lets get real agriculture would grind to halt without them. Remember most farmers are dyed in the wool Republicans.
They use White resentment and anger to maintain their ever shrinking voter base hence voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering. They know the math is against them.
Both sides use each other for advancing their own agendas. The Republicans have hitched their electoral cart to a tiger that has turned around and taken a swipe at them. Their flailing around coming up with excuses from video games to mental illness is an admission that they recognise they are backed into a corner by a snarling tiger. I can’t see this ending well for Them or America.
27
White supremacist violence in the present day U.S. goes back to the first violence against Native American Indians in Virginia in the 17th century. The whole colonizing project was white supremacist violence. It expanded to Africans when they were kidnapped and brought here to be slaves. When the U.S. conquered parts of Mexico and found that most of the existing population didn't fit Anglo-Americans' definition of "white", the violence was extended to these people. It was applied against European ethnic groups such as the Irish and Italians, who for quite a long time weren't accepted as "white" by Anglo-Americans. White supremacist violence is the essence of the United States of America.
42
@Stephen Merritt You are historically correct and strategically suboptimal. All that self-loathing cripples Progressives, their opponents lug no such doubts around with them. But the Left wallows in it because it feels so GOOD, that self-righteous atonement for the sins of others. The Right really has nothing to worry about, we're sitting ducks.
1
Dear Mr. Blow, Your words are as always deeply true, and I wish that some semblance of humanity would appear in our population and elected officials. After 86 years of life, I am unhopeful that any change for the better can come, for people of color, for LGBTQ people, for women, for the poor and all the disenfranchised. It is depressing beyond words to one who will probably not live to see an amelioration of our horrible conditions. Please keep on writing, we must never give up.
29
@Eve Lynne Though cynical, I am sometimes encouraged (slightly) by something from my childhood. I grew up in the Deep South and was 7 years old in 1963 when the church was bombed in Birmingham, killing 4 little girls. Non-Southerners don't seem that aware of the impact, but that incident broke the back of society's tacit support for the Klan's campaign of violence (more followed, of course, but it somehow lost some of its old gusto). I remember seeing a (white) friend of my mother's; with tears in her eyes she said simply "I just can't do this anymore". My only hope is that this will happen again, and these young "patriots" find themselves pariahs.
9
The Republican idea they want to sell is that mass murder is like climate change. It's just a fad, a cyclic trend that will eventually fizzle out. The climate will cool back down and all the problems associated with it will evaporate. And people will simply get tired of going to all the trouble of obtaining the AK-47, having to stockpile ammunition, clean and oil their guns, and go to the range or deep in the woods to target practice. Mass murder will go the way of student protest or environmental activism. In both cases there is no role for the federal government. People are simply overreacting. Let cooler heads prevail. Take a deep breath. There, now don't you feel better. Mitch is here.
23
@Walking Man
Great sarcasm.
1
100% agree with this article. Very thought provoking article. This is why racism will never go away. It's ingrained in America's policies and laws.
17
I wish you were wrong, but you're not. I fear for our country. I hope and pray that President Trump is not re-elected in 2020.
24
Mr. Blow, this is the first time I have seen a connection made between terrorists and policymakers. I admire you perspicacity and courage. I hope you are prepared for the deluge of outrage and hate that will soon come your way.
28
Hear! Hear! Mr. Blow. I cannot imagine anyone saying it any better.
I physically hurt. One part of me says I am glad I'm in my seventies and this deteriorating country of ours will not hurt me much longer, environmentally or thru mass shootings.
But I then remember I have children and grandchildren who have to live thru it all for years and years unless something is done.
Something is done?
Yea right!
14
@Zenko I'm almost 69 and I'm grateful that I won't be around much longer. My heart is so heavy with grief for what is happening in this country.
2
@Marge
I HEAR you, Marge! We all wanted to live until we were 100! Ha! (Not a funny ha!)
No more, sadly.
1
@Zenko: I'm heading toward 65. I've never seen our politics so badly in need of a complete do over. My two sons and their spouses have consciously decided to have no children. Basically they think there are just too many people to be supported by this planet. They think that bringing a child into this violent world would be a selfish act. As I watch our country devolve into anarchy, I totally agree with their decisions. My sons are biracial. I thought we were heading in the right direction when we elected President Obama. The mere fact that a black man was the face of our country brought the crazies out of the woodwork. Little did we know that the most damage would be done at the top. How in the world does this great country move on from that? I am not sure we can!
1
Missing from this piece is the underlying problem which isn't racism, but the wholesale stripping of economic options for younger people by the very corporations the Republicans are beholden to. It used to be that one could get a decent job, perhaps even a unionized one that would allow one to have a decent life as a blue collar worker. With work comes self respect and investment in the community where you live.
Now with more people competing for a smaller pie, stories of the college bound being burdened with an albatross of decades of debt, that some people vent their rage by wanting to go out in an imagined blaze of glory, or wanting some small part of the world feel their pain, is this really surprising? Given the availability of military grade hardware, sadly no. We can't or shouldn't ignore the racist aspect of these crimes, but we need to consider the bigger picture as well.
24
@Patrick
Racism was certainly the root cause of the El Paso shooter’s actions.
Connor Betts, the Dayton shooter, was a Warren supporter who tweeted that he hated Joe Biden and wasn’t “going to wait around” for socialism. So yes, in his case it may have been jobs.
The US needs to realize we are part of a knowledge economy & stop promising to bring back low skill jobs. We need to ensure all are educated to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We did this before when agriculture was mechanized. We made High School available to all. Why can’t we recognize that we have too many under-educated young men & do something about it? They need support & coaching to make a life for themselves.
1
The author seems to deny white people any right to advocate for or actively pursue their own interests. He equates elected officials who have articulated policy ideas, won public support for them and then wish to embody those ideas in legislation with spree killers.
Democracy is, ultimately, a way of avoiding civil war. It allows us to resolve their differences by talking instead of fighting. But if you deny the moral right of a segment of the population to even verbally articulate its own interests, civil war is ultimately inevitable.
The author seems to use the phrase "white supremacy" as a synonym for the mere existence of a white majority. It is not obvious to me why any people would prefer to be a minority rather than a majority. I doubt Africans are in any hurry to give up "black supremacy" in Africa. But elite sophistries, of which this article is but one of many examples, pathologise the perfectly normal wish of white people not to be disempowered and dispossessed.
14
@Robert Bruce
If a country treats all its citizens equally, as the US aspires to do, then it should not matter if one’s racial group is in the minority or majority. The fact that many white people are afraid of becoming a minority and equate being a minority with being disempowered and dispossessed is a strong sign that the US does not in fact live up to its post-racial aspirations and must do better.
Democracy also does not confer any legitimacy on actions taken that affect non-citizens because they cannot vote in elections. Such actions must be judged on their own merits irrespective of whether they are being carried out by democratically elected officials, dictators, or lone individuals.
19
@Robert Bruce "But if you deny the moral right of a segment of the population to even verbally articulate its own interests, civil war is ultimately inevitable."
Today, Americans still live in the shadow of just such an event, which happened here not so long ago, when white slaveholders fought a war in an effort to preserve their dominance over their African slaves, whose humanity they denied. The problem with your argument is that there is no distinctive political interests inherent in "whiteness" as such. Whether you want to call it white majority rule or white supremacy, you are implying a social and political construct the very design of which is to suppress or silence non-white political and economic voices and to undermine fundamental American ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
11
@Robert Bruce Ok, so we'd best not anger those brave patriots, lest they take up arms and start slaughtering civilians. Oh wait....
3
White supremacy may be the low hanging fruit for what is ailing many of the white young men driven to such violence against "others". Look into their lives and you will find alienation, rootlessness, isolation, loneliness, lack of direction, low self esteem, dysfunctional family histories, substance abuse, etc.
There is nothing supreme about white supremacy at all. Custer more than exposed the great flaw in this a century and a half ago. The last stand, now, with a presidency ill-gained partly on white fears, is a terrible destination for the country to have arrived at.
18
@vole
"Look into their lives and you will find alienation, rootlessness, isolation, loneliness, lack of direction, low self esteem, dysfunctional family histories, substance abuse, etc. "
Not to mention stupidity.
1
I'm afraid this is disturbingly accurate. Donald Trump took an oath to protect and defend the constitution, yet time and again through his rhetoric, he has demonstrated complete ignorance and even contempt for that hallowed document. Also, I would like to see how many minorities and women are among those judges that McConnell is hurriedly packing the courts with. Very few I would imagine.
21
Our legislators have a duty to stop this behavior. We will hear some talk about how in authoritarian societies they take the populations' guns, but no one wants to take basic guns. We are talking about common sense background checks and military-style rifles. It is time for McConnell to care more about Americans than his reelection committee funds and work to get the votes of his GOP Senators to pass legislation that helps Americans. It is time for GOP Senators to break their bond with white supremacists.
16
@Anthony
Why do our legislators coddle gun nuts when polls show that Americans favor gun control? Bribery is rampant in the country, yet nobody even mentions the word.
@Charlesbalpha
If Americans really favored gun control....they would not vote and send those legislators who "coddle".... to Congress. Would you not say something is a bit off?
@Anthony: unless and until the GOP is wiped off the map, none of what you say should happen is going to come to fruition. The GOP have been planning this for decades. trump is the perfect person to carry this mantle. Who would have thought that a talentless, ignorant, foolhardy moron could bring this mighty country its knees? It's doomsday folks.
When Hannah Arendt covered the Eichmann trial for the New Yorker her columns were not greeted with enthusiasm. The truth is hard to swallow because we are by nature banal. It is hard for us to consider how we might react when evil becomes commonplace.
It is time for truth and reconciliation but as Thomas Chandler Haliburton wrote 200 years ago, "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry."
44
@Montreal Moe
And even worse than that - he stays WRONG.
Maybe even goes on to get wronger.
1
People who claim to be pro-life and cling to the 2nd amendment are at best the most selfish humans I can imagine. It is not about life it is about control and power.
35
Trump didn't start the fires of white nationalism, but he adds fuel to them at every chance. The Republican Senate leadership has keys to the fire engines, but prefers to stay upstairs in the firehouse rigging the voting machines and counting their NRA contributions. If America survives – and that seems to be becoming an open question – the history books will not be kind to these people.
36
White nationalism is the other side of the coin of identity politics, intersectionalism and grievance politics. Why is this so difficult to understand?
There is a way of of this: pipe down the perpetual outrage and accept the legitimacy of the views of those you don;t agree with. This is the foundation of the Republic, which was not built on emotions but on pragmatism and facts. Instead of rabble rousing, everyone should tone the rhetoric down.
10
White nationalism is a form of identity politics, not the “other side” of the coin. That’s what is so dishonest about the Right’s complaint about identity politics. They cannot see their “Whiteness” because in their world view, “Whiteness” is the default.
2
@Dan
Exactly - it's identity politics against identity politics. A perpetuum mobile of toxicity. Who will have the foresight to stop?
Thank you for your spot on, take no prisoners column . Please keep speaking truth to power.
24
I'm not sure whether Mr. Blow just believes those things he says about the people he rights about or has actually talked to them. He can only learn so much from manifestos, especially since some believe these shooters simply make up some of what they write to confuse people.
Mr, Blow left out one group many on the right hate - the media. How do I know? I spend a lot of time chatting with story commenters on the Fox News website in order to learn why they think the way they do. They are certainly not all white nationalists, not even close, but most are solidly right and far right. I've learned a lot about how those on the right think, particularly those passionate enough to comment.
Many believe the media helps stir resentment against them and divides society by tearing down whites, especially whites on the right, as they lift up non-whites. They are not 100% wrong, in my view.
Agree with them or not, I believe the only way to figure out the mess we're in in this country is to listen to each other and see if we can work together to find a solution rather than simply yelling and screaming at each other and calling each other names. I don't think we have a choice.
11
I agree the rhetoric needs to be moderated. But when I read the comments on the right, I see folks who not want to admit that people of color have been unjustly denied the same rights as white people. And they feel threatened if anything is done to help people of color.
2
@Rich
It doesn't help when guys like Don Lemon and his buddy W. Kamal Bell put on their race capes and never ever give white people any credit for standing up vs Racism in America. Then offer nonsense like one way to achieve racial equality in America is to have babies with white women then claim the children are African American instead of biracial. Why? You ashamed one of your parents is white? I would ask Lemon and Bell if white folks are so racist, why do you want to marry one? What is this a "trophy marriage" like so many of the "trophy adoptions" by Hollywood celebrities. Just because white folks may disagree with someone doesn't make them Racist nor does it mean they support Trump and his gang.
@Gert
Absolutely agree with this part. It is a huge problem:
"It doesn't help when guys like Don Lemon and his buddy W. Kamal Bell put on their race capes and never ever give white people any credit for standing up vs Racism in America.
Just because white folks may disagree with someone doesn't make them Racist nor does it mean they support Trump and his gang."
Gun control works in most of the world, why not in the United States ?
The word “ carnage “ was first used by trump in his Inauguration Speech and this set the tone of his presidency .
This president shouldn’t forget that the wealth of this country was “ created “ by the genocide of Native Americans ,importation and exploitation of African slaves , as well by massive immigration from the rest of the world.
The GOP is complicit , being silent , in the propagation of racism and we all see the results of this carnage ideology.
17
There is a direct line from the political compromises concerning slavery that are baked into the US Constitution and both the white nationalist policymakers and terrorists of today.
This nation was designed to support white supremacy. The Civil War was undone after 10 years of Reconstruction. The decades of Jim Crow should have ended by the Civil Rights And Voting Rights Act, but there has been a consistent effort by the white conservatives to restrict voting.
We are in serious trouble. America will survive but there is much more trauma coming.
16
We are not helpless! In 2020, we all vote and take back the control of all branches of government and reverse the tide and disrupt the sinister schemes republicans have been working on for so many years.
7
@Ajay I believe we will get the popular vote, but due to the electoral college folks we got trump. How do we the people appeal to those with that powerful vote?
4
If they survive beyond youth, "young terrorists" will grow older.
Will they mature into middle-aged and then elderly white supremacists? Will some be elected to national office and implement their desires from within the D.C. establishment they currently distrust? Will our next Great War be fought not beyond our borders but within them? The near-desperate need to feel intense anger, the emotional thrill of reacting with profound hatred toward others when spurred on by hate filled propaganda: can such manipulated emotions be eliminated through reason, education, enlightenment? What forces of hoped-for supremacy are already simmering, mostly unspoken, in how many local, state and national elected officials -- just biding their time?
Kindness, generosity, good will toward others: such virtues are being trampled as Supremacist Truth goes marching on.
More massacres, however futile, sure to follow.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
6
While your careful analysis is helpful, Mr. Blow, missing is what makes this carnage inevitable. And that is the rage engulfing our country. Hateful speech spewing from the white house, Fox news, and our many leaders has created a society where cooperation is impossible and anger is inflamed. It is now acceptable to publicly denigrate others, break laws, and express aggression. Yes, I do blame the president for what is happening -- he carefully laid out the tinder for others to light the match.
500
@Nancy
I agree that Trump and Trump alone has created a sense of psychological unease and angst that simply wouldn’t exist had Hillary Clinton, or a Republican like John Kasich managed to win the presidency in 2016.
This is why getting Trump out of office is more important than the Democrat who replaces him.
109
@Nancy
Instead of the reflexive trope of blame it all on the right that is so typical of these comments in the NYT, how about reflecting on that there were 15,000 people killed by other people using guns in 2018, of which less than 400 were in mass shootings.
That means an average of 40 people EVERYDAY are shot and killed here in the US. And this has been going on for DECADES.
The violence here in America transcends race and class, the only constant being its almost all perpetrated by men, mostly young men.
So, drawing specious connections between mass shootings and current trends in our political discourse is just that - specious.
16
@Common Sense excellent points. Humans are violent by nature. It's part of our emotional DNA. Thus far, the only way to control individuals is through laws, customs, rewards, and punishments. When our laws and culture encourage gun ownership then gun violence is inevitable. Other countries have found ways to suppress gun ownership, and they have far fewer successful suicides and murders than Americans do. Given the cultural support, and moneyed interests, I don't think America will make much headway on reducing gun violence in my lifetime. It's depressing.
27
I for one remember not a few tweets in the aftermath of massive gun violence but President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Joe Biden visiting each of the mass shooting sites - Tucson, Sandy Hook, Oregon, Orlando -and the list goes on. In contrast the Trump’s were at their golf course and spa. Republicans continue to support gun sales - just making money.Does anyone in government really think that the Constitution gives citizens the right to murder each other? What a twisted view of humanity.
30
Thank you Mr. Blow for mentioning the Red Summer of 1919. When people say that white supremacist violence is not American, they are mistaken. White supremacist violence is deeply American.
The question becomes: are we as a nation willing and able to call it antI-American and change the nation?
46
So you write this thoughtful article, we agree with your point of view, everyone feels sad for a few days and then life goes on. In about a month it happens all over again. You write another article, etc. This country is in an endless loop of gun violence including veteran suicides never reported because they happen one at a time. We must elect leaders who will DO something but I must admit I am not hopeful.
19
@Fonda Vera We could break this cycle starting today, but we're blocked by a couple of pesky Constitutional Amendments. Maybe we could find a way to institute mass incarceration of young white men, seeing as they are a clear danger to us (see the column for photographic proof). We do have some experience doing that kind of thing.
Thank you once more, Charles Blow, for telling the blunt truth of the danger we are all facing. Yours is the first, and many days the only, voice I read here. We all need to take more action, and know that we are not alone, and your words have strength I am not hearing enough of! You and AOC keep me afloat and energized.
20
Our American diversity is a major source of our strength as a nation, provided we practice tolerance.
We need more intermarriage and immigration so that no single ethnic group has a majority.
And we need to nurture tolerance, and to celebrate diversity.
53
@Richard Waugaman
I'm trying to think if there is a precedent for a society in which the ethnic majority willingly became a minority. Has it ever happened before?
@Grunt
I don't know.
If it's unprecedented, it's a precedent we need to set, to combat violent and bigoted white nationalism.
The only thing we whites have to lose is our misguided sense of superiority.
2
What a wonderful if disturbing column. I'd always seen a nexus but Mr. Blow captured it brilliantly as parallel paths to the same end. All the more reason to vote blue in twenty-twenty.
176
I've got to go a step further. While Trump is not legally responsible for the mass shooting in El Paso, it is not hard to see how it serves Trump's and his party's electoral interests. Won't Hispanic voters in Texas and other places be afraid to go to the polls on election day next year, fearing they'll be victims in another mass shooting motivated by exactly the same goal as this one? This is voter intimidation on an epic scale. Crocodile tears from the President. Publicly, he condemns the shooting. But I deem it quite likely he has privately remarked on its obvious silver lining for him and his party.
170
Excellent points. I would add one more: don’t underestimate the civic commitment of Hispanic voters. They faced serious intimidation—and many voter suppression efforts—in Texas in the midterm elections of 2018, but they turned out at the polls in record numbers.
49
@Bill U.
Adding citizenship status to our census is also a form of voter intimidation. Fear of deportation or other harassment intimidates people to hide their presence in our communities, which means they won't have the representation they deserve and every person in the United States should expect. That is the the policy-maker's way of doing the same thing.
18
@Bill U. And this is why early voting at churches and community centers is so important, especially in the rural areas.
23
We have age limits for voting, alcohol purchases and cigarette/nicotine purchases (for public health reasons) and driving (and many states have progressive driving privileges; the age limits and progressive privileges are for public health reasons).
It is scientific fact that the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls our impulses is not fully developed until at least 24 years old. Look at the list in this article. 19 years old. 21 years old. 24 years old. Add in Sandy Hook (20 years old), Charleston (21 years old), Parkland (20 years old). There is a pattern here. There are exceptions, of course, including the Las Vegas shooter (64), and the Pulse night club shooter (29). These are just the mass shootings--the majority of gun violence is outside of these, but from my experience with news stories follows the pattern.
Perhaps, we restrict purchasers of guns by age and sex, or by type of weapon: no male purchasers less than 25 years old (of any guns? of just assault rifles?) would take care of many of the issues. For the hunters, a single shot rifle would be permitted under that age (graduated privileges approach).
41
@Leigh LoPresti
And yet, it is this "not-quite-mature" age group which is praised for driving the national agenda; with some maniacs proposing to lower the voting age to 16.
Talk about handing a loaded gun to a child.
1
The most difficult problem opponents of White Nationalism have with respect to the U.S. showing uncomfortable signs of this development? Or to put it another way, the most logical argument White Nationalists have going for them and which must be solved to play down White Nationalism?
This is relatively easy to explain, and can be applied to any advanced economy which is closely associated with a particular race and culture. The farther right a person is the more the person argues that not just cultural achievement but progress is associated with race, that say Western civilization is founded on white people, that Japanese or Chinese or Jewish culture is founded on respective race, ethnic group.
The more left wing a person the more the person says not just culture but progress itself will not be compromised by all sorts of mixings and matchings or even radical demographic changes between races and ethnic groups; in fact left wings hold that the arrow of not just cultural development but progress itself will increase with these developments, that in short, life will only get better.
So obviously we have a deep conflict here, a deep confusion, lack of clarity, over not just cultural development in general but the arrow of progress itself, prognosis of progress itself by the various courses of left and right. Left wings everywhere essentially have to convince all races/ethnic groups the arrow of progress will at least not be compromised by their politics/economics.
5
@Daniel12
The argument isn't between what you call 'left wings ' and 'right wings'. The US isn't Germany or Italy. In the US, the argument is between 'essentialism' and 'anti-essentialism'. 'Essentialism' is as un-American an idea as there is. Anti-essentialism is one of the bases of 'the American experiment'. Now, of course, racism against African-Americans is the original sin, as it were, of the Constitution and is in direct opposition to 'anti-essentialism'. We are still working that out. And clearly, we have gone backwards in the last two years, not forward. But to consider such issues as racism and 'nativism' in terms of 'left' and 'right' is to miss the point completely and, in fact, to legitimize such offensive attitudes.
6
@Jorrocks
I have no idea what "essentialism" means.
I do agree that "left" and "right" are highly arbitrary terms. They originated in the French Revolution where "right" meant you supported the king. We don't have kings anymore.
Republican politicians, the NRA and gun-toting terrorists have been ruthless in pursing their agendas. Democrats need to be just as ruthless if they want to be taken seriously. When they regain true legislative power, they must enact serious and long-term gun control measures, including robust background checks and bans on assault weapons. They cannot worry about political fallout on this issue. When mass shootings become extremely rare as a direct consequence of their policies, Democrats will earn political payback, in a good way. Let's hope they find the courage to do the right thing, since the GOP has demonstrated that it will not. Our lives hang in the balance.
65
The concepts that really matter are fear and power. If you cannot deal with your fear you can get a gun, feel powerful rather than scared, and pretend it makes you safer.
31
Someone has to change US gun laws. Only candle lights and marching on death mourning would not do, people has to come together to change the basis of American history on gun possession and even amendment to Constitution is needed. America is no more a colonial settlement, it is country now, and gun is killing American men, women and children in hordes.
I would suggest immediate confiscation of all guns from American citizen, and issuance of new gun licenese, Category 1: Single bullet at a time gun-Handgun, and licenser should have gun registered in hsi/her name, and gun once registered cannot be sold or transferred, inherited to other, if done it is a criminal offense. The license seeker has to provide sufficient reason for gun possession and there would be a tough onsite test for precaution, storage, usage and morality of gun possession, and a legal contract for possession. If the gun is not needed by the licenser it has to be deposited to the local law inforcement agency. Category II: Semi-automatic guns: A more stringent legal documents and similar onsite test and clauses for possession. Category III: Automatic and high intensity gun: A highly stringent policy and test for such possession and should be issued in rare cases. Finally, all guns sold to civilians should have a geolocation chip and its location can be monitored by the Central Government Agency and tampering the chip is a criminal offense.
24
Charles.
Thank you. When I'm overwhelmed and need words to go with the complexity of what is on my mind and in my heart, I read your column. You're my favorite.
Would give anything to meet you someday.
27
1919 was also the year of the Red Scare - the deportation of immigrants - even some who had become citizens - who were deemed political radicals.
29
Let's not get confused. The white corporate power structure is not under immediate threat. It will and does defend itself with all possible means. It has the wealth to do so.
Nor are ordinary white families under threat, except as they are under the thumb of the corporate power structure, suffering unnecessary economic stress and unfair wages.
White supremacy as a movement, and all it implies, is a useful boogieman for the real power structure. It is real all right, and a genuine domestic threat, but let's not be distracted. It cannot win at the voting booth unless we let it. The power structure that keeps Republicans in office is doing what it can to undermine democracy, including vote suppression, accepting foreign help, hackable electronic voting with no paper trails, and on and on.
147
@dairubo
Agreed, but We don’t live in a democracy. Democracy and great wealth cannot coexist. We have great wealth, pseudo-democracy is just the crumbs the big boys float out for the ignorant masses. The rest of the wrangling is just fluff to obscure this central truth of our society. See Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
8
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for saying what needs to be said at this time. I’m grateful for your voice.
121
"Are these shootings a gun control issue? Of course. We have too many guns, and too many high-capacity guns. We sell guns first designed for soldiers to civilians. We don’t do enough to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and we do next to nothing to track guns once they are sold."
Yes, agree. We're not having any luck changing peoples' hearts and minds, so obviously the sane first step is to make sane gun regulation.
And please don't let me hear about we need religion back in our schools. There's a church on every corner here. Are the churches not doing their job?
Thank you for this column, Mr. Blow. Don't let up.
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@JessiePearl
Another point is that George W Bush refused to extend the ban on assault weapons when he was president. The ban was put in place after Hinckley shot Regan. Do we need another attempt on a President's life to make a ban on assault weapons permanent?
High powered weapons and high power bullets should be banned forever.
21
I think you are absolutely right. The white, male (and Christian) power hierarchy is being threaten like never before. The GOP has played on these fears for 50 years since Nixon's 1968 campaign. I believe they now see the writing on the wall. Their sole control of the levers of power is coming to an end. We have relegated the GOP to the sidelines in California. Let's hope the country does the same in Washington before it's too late.
350
@Kevin...it appears you have amnesia. You do not remember Obama's more frequent TV apologies for the shootings. Wasn't it a Democrat that was shooting Republicans at a baseball practice. Remember, California or NY do not represent American mainstream. Is California GOP-less better off?
1
@Kevin: As an old white man who owns guns, I agree with you. Over the years, the Republicans, reinforced by the racist Democrats who fled the Party when the Civil Rights Act was passed has became the racist, misogynist, violent party of hate. It is time for all of us to make it loud and clear at the ballot box. Racism, misogyny and hate is not our America.
19
@Derer Yes, we are. And conflating the ONE shooting by Dem is not the same as the constant attacks from the young right wing men.
38
Both sides are reacting to the fact that the US becoming a white minority country. Policymakers have been planning for white minority rule for years; the first major step was taking state legislatures and gerrymandering in the wake of the 2010 census. Citizen's United, voter suppression, strategic stacking of the Supreme Court, locking Red state legislators in to extreme positions - these moves are well understood, and can work because of the structure of the Senate and the Electoral College.
The deep roots of White terrorism are less well understood, or I think more difficult for many Americans to accept. This country's very existence is rooted in (white) settler colonial violence. The enshrinement of the Second Amendment and US gun culture cannot simply be blamed on NRA propaganda. Regardless of the original motivation for the Second Amendment, expansion was pushed by settlers who ignored boundaries and organized "well-armed militias." After a few decades of voracious westward expansion pushed by European immigration, Trump's hero Andrew Jackson defied the SCOTUS and ordered the Army, along with the militias, to force the five "Civilized" tribes onto the Trail of Tears.
This is a small part of the bloody history of "Manifest Destiny." White terrorists see the land "they" conquered disappearing under waves of brown immigration and "their" society being destroyed by white liberal ideas of "inclusion" and "equality."
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Having a leader who can help the country (and white people,) come to terms with the demographic shift is critical to the future of the country. The current leader panders to a group who wish the clock could be reversed, to some fantasy yesteryear where white people worked on the assembly line, meat packing plant or mined coal and made a decent living and where the leaders were all white and where people with non-white skin lived in separate-but-equal Jim Crow servitude. We desperately need the non-white people of the US to buy into the idea of a nation of laws, equal before the law, equal opportunity, a nation where the powers of the government are delegated by the people, equality of opportunity and the rest of it and that it's not just a system rigged for the privileged whites. Otherwise, when they inevitably become the majority we're liable to end up with some random revenge fueled Hugh Chavez meats the Aztec Empire dystopia. The current president has no capability to lead us into a bright future.
33
I have never understood the case for gun control.
Of the 40K gun deaths per year, 25K are suicides.
Gun buyers/enthusiasts are actively removing themselves from the national conversation by the act of self-annihilation. A majority of these suicides are by older, more conservative Americans.
However heartless it may be, is that not a tactical victory for the gun control movement?
6
@Labrador
No, gun death by suicide is NOT a “tactical victory” for the gun control movement.
In fact, one of the reasons that gun violence should be studied as a public health problem is because 62% of suicides are committed by guns. And unlike suicide attempts by other means, gun attempted suicides usually succeed.
Gun suicides are the second highest cause of deaths for teenagers in the USA. Gun suicides are the 8th ranked cause of death for people of the 55-64 age group, and the 10th ranked cause of death for the 65 and older age group.
So it is very likely that those suicides you call a “tactical victory” are actually often occurring in the “older” population when they are facing permanent health and other issues.
They are NOT generally the type of people who are prospects for mass shootings. VERY DIFFERENT DEMOGRAPHIC.
23
@Labrador
Every life is worth saving, whether from their own hand or that of a stranger. I don’t wish ill on anyone, no matter their political beliefs, and no matter from suicide or otherwise.
I suspect that others who support gun control don’t have morbid strategies of letting the opposition self destruct.
2
@Labrador
So many things to cover here.
I believe there's something like a gun for every three adults (or people) in the country.
I may be off on the number (not looking it up at the moment) but not on the scale. 40K deaths does nothing for the "tactical victory" you're asking about.
You said, "We don’t do enough to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and we do next to nothing to track guns once they are sold."
I agree, but we have to live with the second amendment and I think we should exploit it to the fullest.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Let's define the Militia as everyone who is Armed, and let's regulate the Militia as much as we can.
Let's require that
* every Arm be registered by serial number and a useful description of it in a central database;
* its owner's name and address be maintained in the database;
* its users' and their names and addresses be maintained in the database; and, most important,
* the database be kept accurate and current at all times.
I envision that this massive database will be kept by the Federal Government and, because it will be so massive, it will require an expensive operation to make it work--because making it work will require frequent interaction with the owners and users of all these Arms. (Annual renewal of registration, a la Driver Licenses, maybe.)
And, I expect the database to include all the Arms owned or used by everyone in America, including visitors; including those Arms owned by the Federal Government; and those Arms owned by all state and local government offices. (Yes, of course, including all the various Armed Forces.)
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@Doug Pearson
I agree with you and here's one more suggestion for your excellent list: the 2nd amendment doesn't say a thing about ammunition. In NJ where I live, ammunition is very tightly regulated. You need a special license with an extensive background check to purchase it, even by mail-order. We'll never get rid of all the guns. Never. But we may be able to at least tighten up the supply of ammunition.
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@Doug Pearson
Actually, I have been in Court and witnessed DAs of Cities moving against an individual to prohibit him from having any gun.
I have seen civil proceedings which are on the edge of being criminal but no criminal charges are involved, only health and safety laws.
Cities and Counties do move within the Court system to protect the public against the abuse of guns and gun violence by specific individuals
.
9
@Doug Pearson The Constitution can be amended. And, regarding the Second Amendment, should be.
65
According to the Gun Violence Archives, in 2018 nearly 40,000 Americans were killed by guns.
Almost 25,000 of those gun deaths were suicides.
The other 15,000 gun deaths was someone killing one or more other people.
Of those 15,000 killings, 373 were deaths during a mass shooting.
Mass shooting are just a small element of the hyper-violent nature of life here in America.
This country was born of bloody violence during the Revolutionary War, was torn apart by a bloody Civil War and throughout its history has used guns to violently conquer this nation from sea to shining sea. We as a people wallow in violence, preferably using guns.
America is what America is - a bloody, violent nation that will cling to its guns no matter what mayhem may be wrought.
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@Common Sense
With all due respect, I don't buy that.
We can most definitely do better than what we have now.
At the very least, there are way too many guns, people who have no business with them, and no way to track their cumulative effect much less where they are (courtesy of laws passed to prevent even data collection).
9
@Common Sense Don't forget our national motto: "War is good business." Look at the obscene amount of money we spend to make sure that we can always have another one. What you spend your money on is where your heart is.
5
@dg
My post was to point out two things:
1. Killings by mass shootings are a small component of the overall gun deaths every year in America. As borne out by the data, that is a fact.
2. America's history is one of violence starting from the destruction of the indigenous people up until today.
The biggest qualifier of the thousand of killing each year in America is that I would say +90% of them are domestic violence related or other similar incidents, that is not driven by political motives.
I heartily agree that we should be doing much, much more about gun control - and it doesn't have to mean infringing on the right to bear arms.
What I disagree with is Blow, the Editorial Board and many of the comments here in the NYT's making a hysterical, tangential case between these mass shooting to a level of 'white nationalism' that is totally out of proportion to reality.
This is akin to the 'red menace' of the 1950's, which was also out of proportion to the actual incursions of communist infiltration in to the government (but was true for film and other artistic fields).
Stop the publicity and the killings will stop.
Media can just say what happened, never naming the perpetrator.
The online world needs to outlaw anonymity entirely. It just doesn’t work any more.
Freedom of speech never, at least after Oliver Wendell Holmes, allowed yelling fire in s crowded theater. Our theater is crowded and the brush fires are threatening to engulf the tree crowns, burning the whole forest down.
And that doesn’t even address the intentional misuse of the internet by our nations adversaries.
27
@RjW What publicity? The people you want to stop seldom if ever are in our world. They don't watch our television or visit our web sites. FOX's demographic is old very old. Our publicity is not their publicity. They get their news before it happens.
4
@RjW
No. Outlaw gun ownership and sale of guns and the killings will stop.
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@RjW
" Stop the publicity and the killings will stop"
That's like saying reporting on a burning building caused the fire. Frustration is one thing, but please use a bit of logic.
2
Mr. Blow makes some astute observations. I agree that the policy makers and the terrorists are both dangerous, but I don't necessarily agree that the goal of the policy makers is white nationalism. I think that their actions are a desparate attempt to keep their grip on power and repel the progressive wave they see coming. They know they cannot stop it indefinitely, but they can and will delay ot as long as possible.
As long as we let race divide us, they are more than willing to exploit it to keep us divided. We need to look past race and concentrate on solutions to common threats.
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@Frank Purdy
If we "look past race" then race will continue to be used as a political cudgel by demagogues and opportunists.
That is, we cannot pretend that race does not matter, or, is not a factor, when there are people who will continue to exploit it, because they have constituencies for which its use is a no-brainer, and quite possibly, a requirement.
There are simply still too many people in this country who will vote against their own interests if a proposal will also benefit black people.
This aberration is deeply ingrained and not likely to change unless, and until, we, as a nation, openly, honestly, and consistently, deal with its genesis, growth and perpetuation.
Put a different way, there is a large American cohort that believes that they are focused on a "common threat": Black people. And that threat is no going away.
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@Frank Purdy
Race has always divided this nation.
Please read yesterday's opinion piece about mobs of White children burning down black Chicago communities in 1919 or the complete obliteration-by-fire of the Black business district of Greenwood, Oklahoma in 1921; at the hands of white mobs.
Your words, although heart-felt- simply ring hollow with the reality. What does "looking past race" look like to you?
I understand that it's almost too much for the mind to bear; but the reality is; there are millions who *feel* just like these young men and there are millions of potential targets; unknowing and unsuspecting that their very existence- others want to extinguish.
1
@Frank Purdy
The "progressive wave" is about race, Frank. We can't "look past race" when the other side is looking at race to profile, to incarcerate, to demean, to redline for mortgages, to segregate schools, to follow in stores, to inhibit employment, to demonize at the border, to verbally assault in stores and restaurants and to massacre at Walmart.
4
Here we go again... three mass shootings within a week. Our angry young people may indeed be getting their words out in a more appropriate way. Let the policy people do their job within a few years; just keep shooting. Charles, you made a good point. Terrorism is found in violence and in our neighborhoods. Policy hides terrorism within our laws, within our courts, within our Congress. They take it out when they need it. Look at the poll tax in Florida. Our policy makers buy justice. This is not an easy answer to what is not an easy question. Please keep writing; readers, please keep thinking.
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What Mr. Blow says is true, but we are bound by an unspoken vow to the good, to humanity and the planet, to concede not a single moment to the easy paths of despair and cynicism. We are still the nation that at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives ended the evil of slavery - even though that was just the first chapter of the fight. We are still the nation that elected Barack Obama twice to the Presidency - even if that did not transport us to a post-racial era. And I firmly believe this same nation will prevail against the ugly racist tide signaled by the election of Trump. We must not shrink from the hardships of this battle.
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@Pete
Of course, many nations were able to end slavery without engaging in a bloody war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe the Civil War isn't a sign of American heroism, but a sign of an even deeper American sickness?
8
@Pete
Can we defeat Trump and all the ugly impulses he encourages? Yes, we can!
Thanks for the reminder about the good within us and the prospects of again having a responsible president.
3
@Pete
I respect you optimism - but the claim "we are bound by an unspoken vow to the good, to humanity and the planet" isn't borne out by history. The reality is more Hobbesian: "man is wolf to man." We are tribes pitted against tribes, locked in a battle of self-interest - especially Americans. That's why Americans abhor the idea of socialism - it seeks to address the common interest while America is all about individual interest.
As for the planet, I don't see a stampede to do anything about climate change - even as the forests burn and towns flood. And nature won't wait around while people kick the issue down the road to future generations.
7
"It’s not simply a matter of whether Trump’s rhetoric, or that of any other politician, led these shooters to do what they did.... It is also about recognizing that all of these people are on the same team and share the same mission and eat from the same philosophical trough."
So, one group--impatient youth who post ugly screeds online--is in a hurry. The other led by "sage" elders like McConnell is happy to block any legislation designed to reduce gun violence while packing courts with hack judges and their not-so-hidden agendas.
One group goes to jail if not killed themselves. The other works behind closed doors to maintain permanence through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other tricks to stay in power.
Two teams, one mission: do everything possible to reduce the influence of nonwhites, feminists, and progressive activists.
It's their "insurance policy" against loss of supremacy.
685
The American right-wing has a long history of strong arming sovereign nations and using an assortment of carrots and sticks to achieve their objectives. When the desired response is not forthcoming it is time to send in the goons. What we are seeing is the precursor to the goons squads. Unfortunately, being a well-intentioned Liberal Democrat won't protect you from the reactionary blowback. You will simply be referred to as collateral by both sides.
10
@ChristineMcM
Not to much of a stretch Christine. We have the same schism in our party.
Witness the AOC squad and Nancy Pelosi. All driving in the same direction at different speeds with different levels of aggression.
2
@ChristineMcM
Excellent.
The shared mission pretty much accomplished by the two teams is also to do everything possible to reduce their perceived enemies' habitat, the natural wealth that life bestows to nonwhites, women, and pathetic whackadoodle libruls alike and the monied wealth that a rigged system snatches from them, to reduce their access and their opportunity, to get them buried in bills and addicted to pills and to anxiety and hate from fake news and disinformation thrills, and to take away their space to breathe.
8
Mr Blow, I read you faithfully and your columns have both inspired me and brought me to tears as I see my country dragged ever lower from what I believed it was and could be as source of hope for equality and change. Today my despair has grown once again as I mourn for the newly dead and wounded in El Paso and Ohio. I am old enough to have seen Dr. King speak at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; old enough to know of the farm workers' plight and to have seen first hand the terrible racism, sexism and denigration of the laboring man and woman. Hatred is not the answer. But I struggle daily with my fellow countrymen and women who refuse to recognize the carnage that resentful white men are causing in our country.
523
Susan, I acknowledge your pain. I too, am old enough to remember the struggles of the past. And I hoped they were the past, but let us recall that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." MLK. I think there are reasons to believe that still.
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@Susan
I hear you and grieve with you.
I would say the larger problem is how many people worldwide are walking around with anger, lethal weapons and seemingly little care for their own fate. Absolutely, some resentful white men fall under this umbrella. But so do some Muslims, some Asians, some Hispanics, some African-Americans and so on. White nationalism is a scourge, to be sure, but so is every prejudice and every impulse towards violence. And I think it’s always important to resist thinking of any demographic in terms of its worst elements. As you say, hatred is not the answer.
Thanks for what you wrote. Take care.
2
@Mary
It may, but an awful lot of people will suffer and die who needn't if we solely rely on that.
3
The policymakers behave as though and/or think that these concepts are all theoretical. The decisions they make are, for them, disassociated from the world in which the results are lived.
Today, I hope that all policymakers have been made acutely aware that their ideas, their policies, their filibusters, their delaying tactics, and so on all have an effect in the real world. Sometimes they cost lives.
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@Anne Price
I assume the concepts you refer to as "theoretical" in the minds of policymakers do not include corporate power, concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, rule by the few through racial and other divisiveness and suppressing the votes of minorities inclined to be progessive, and so on. I believe those concepts are very practical in their minds.
28
@Anne Price: Until they cost VOTES none of them will care.
6
@Anne Price
Lives have been destroyed for many years now.....and nothing has changed. Does not matter the age of the victims.
As soon as a Democrat makes it into the White House, the gun companies and the NRZ will awaken again, sell more guns, and so on and so on.
2