Fascists Like Gosar Don't Really Joke

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Republican Paul Gosar will probably "face no consequences" for his disgusting tweet in which he's depicted, in an altered, animated video, killing her because Kevin McCarthy "cheers him on with excuses."https://t.co/v0v6gAKqbU

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 9, 2021

Of course, we've seen another political figure Tweet a video with figurative violence for the LULZ: remember Trump pointing us to an "amusing" video of mass violence against liberal politicians? Why, that was just Trump being Trump, after all! Joking! Why, how was that different from the photoshopped CNN-logo video he posted just a couple years ago?

Well, it was no different, and they were both incitement. One of Trump's merry little fan club sent apparent pipe bombs to multiple public figures, including CNN on-air journalists and politicians. And then, of course, January 6th happened. But that wasn't at all the entire story of the violence wrought in the wake of Trump's apparent endorsement of it--not at all! It is still in fact, ongoing. Quite ordinary people have become motivated to issuing death threats to people just doing their jobs for perceived slights or infractions against the MAGA cult. 

Thirteen Republican representatives voted for the infrastructure bill. Rep. Fred Upton, who was one of them, shared a death threat he had received. Death threats for votes one disagrees with should simply not be acceptable in a free and democratic society. But I drive past a house in the suburbs of PA which has, over the past year, had signs posted up: "Trump Won", "Biden Lied", "Save our Schools". And this week: "Fitzgerald = Traitor". Rep. Fitzgerald was considering the needs of Bucks County residents with his vote, not handing Joe Biden a "win"--who the hell thinks like this? A congressional vote isn't about "wins" for a President, it's about making laws--the actual business of doing a job in congress. (I definitely wonder how the neighbors feel about this house.)

And yet, it's the thirteen GOP House members who decided that childcare and drinking water and transportation and high-speed internet might actually benefit their constituents, who are in actual threat of some kind of censure. For doing what they reckoned to be their actual jobs in Congress, as opposed to just being partisan signifiers. 

The Disconnect

I read my own blog and saw a disconnect--where I recognized that a foreign shooter (Australian) who was inspired by President Trump after a fashion might exist, but somehow didn't take seriously the idea that Trump was capable of utilizing his stochastic terrorism chops to foment a civil war right here in the off-chance he was thwarted in his political goals. This is my blind spot--the disconnect. 

If Trump does influence mosque shooters in New Zealand or Canada, how can I deny the idea that radicalized people could act as a kind of unit (sporadically, if not in any organized sense) here and wherever in this country given the right triggering historical event? I have to understand that these people aren't like me--but have somehow always incorporated some idea of violence into their lives, like some racist whites who think a race war is always nearly immanent, even though that is not realistically a thing. He has already inspired terrorism here (the mail bomber, the synagogue shooter).

This follows Trump's rhetorical flow--he downplays the NZ terrorist with one phrase, and then returns to the idea of nonwhite invasion that sparked the act of terror. I was half-assed in understanding the enormity of Trump's fascism,  which enabled me to ignore how it might not only spur violence elsewhere, but effectively maintain a heightened sense of radical need for an Iron-Fisted Daddy figure by stirring shit up here. 

Trump is not remorseful about his rhetoric, because it serves his policies. Fascism is built on lies, sometimes even ironic ones. This is also a fatal disconnect--we laugh ourselves to death and underestimate the intent. Of course it could happen here, wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. 

We dispose of these things so preemptively that  we fail to watch the dynamics at play. Of course fascism is a thing. The disconnect, the valley of untruth, the gulf of pretending things are better than we know, needs to be cut off.