Apparently the US media doesn’t really think it’s a big deal for a small army of heavily armed fanatics to take over government property in hopes of spurring some sort of armed revolution — if the armed fanatics in question are white guys.
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And, as you may already be aware, alt-right trolls are actively spreading misinformation about this standoff, so if you run across any of that please point it out here as well.
No trolls, MRAs, etc.
http://i.imgur.com/7mLRYSN.jpg
Filth. This is absolute racist filth.
Thank you Mr. Futrelle! I’ve been having a helluva time finding up to date info.
I guess they’re sending the police to all the real terrorist. You know black people, feminists, and sjws. /sarcasm
How can this happen, seriously ?
I am beyond confused about this. I didn’t even realise the first few references I was hearing to a militia takeover were to a literal and not hypothetical event. It’s just too bizarre for words. I obviously need to do a bunch of reading but I have a feeling this isn’t going to seem a whole lot more reasonable after I’ve done so.
Thing that I could kind of understand (while still giving a heavy side eye): Claiming this group’s remote location makes them less of an immediate threat to life and limb than, say, a riot in a heavily populated area.
Thing that I cannot fathom at all: Claiming that 150 people, armed to the teeth, organized, and taking over a government building is “peaceful”, and/or not that scary. The fact that we have ANY “militia” on US soil, who are willing to do something besides whine on the internet, is incredibly serious and frightening. The fact that they’re good ol’ boy white dudes does precisely nothing to reduce how scary it is. Or at least, it shouldn’t.
I’m personally not too worried about the whole thing. The gunmen are monstrously exaggerating the size of their group (claiming 150, but independent observers are saying 15-24). and they don’t actually have the support of the men they’re claiming to represent. As a propaganda war, they’re already on the losing side.
Still, it’s fascinating to note how different the response is to this when compared to, say, the Black Lives Matter movement. I don’t think either the media or the public at large seem marginally as frightened by the idea of armed white people fighting an armed insurrection against the government as they seem to be by unarmed black protesters.
@Kootiepatra – the “militia” claim to have 200 people, eyewitnesses have said that it’s more like 2 dozen.
It’s still utterly beyond cheeky of them, though.
For context, is Cliven Bundy the same wipe-rag who consistently drives his cattle illegally across federal land on the basis that all of America belongs to him, the non-tax-payer?
I’d love to see the National Guard called in with tanks to put these neo-libertarian extremists on the naughty-step, but it’s pretty clear that any kind of escalation would likely trigger those other neo-libertarian gun-toters to kick off in civillian areas.
I don’t know how much land they have covered already – the ringleader said they’d be building houses and putting up a small settlement, but if they’re reasonably confined, I’d just fence them in and see how long it takes for them to surrender into custody.
It’s piss-takers like them that ruin everything for everyone else.
Even if you assume they’re not dangerous at all, which is extremely unfounded, they still have the stated goal of using intimidation and force to be allowed to break any laws they want so they can do whatever the hell they want, regardless of the impact on other people.
Even if there’s no violence involved, you still can’t behave like that if you live in a society with other human beings.
White macho posturing at its stupidest.
As a non-US observer I found this summary of what’s going on in Rolling Stone particularly useful: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wtf-is-happening-in-the-oregon-militia-standoff-explained-20160103
(May already have been superseded by other sources.)
Also as a non-US observer, I’m bound to say that I’m certain an armed group of citizens taking over a government facility, no matter the type or location, would be taken a lot more seriously here in the UK, and I’d assume in most other countries.
The only way this makes any sense is if the militia members are deliberately trying to start a war. When the cops initially didn’t show up with guns blazing, the rhetoric got fiercer:
I get the horrible feeling that these people are trying to become martyrs.
Yep, it’s the same Cliven Bundy. The one who’s already gotten away scott free with one armed standoff against the government.
Muslim men can’t freely worship at their Mosques. Black men can’t freely walk down the street. But he can freely commit treason. Twice. So much for LOSING HIS FREEDUMBS.
*angry GLaDOS noises*
Since they’re already begging for supplies and, according to Twitter, their supply room looks like this, it shouldn’t be long.
The ringleaders may end up like the Browns (the tax resisters who holed up in their home for a time). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_and_Elaine_Brown
Yep re: martyrs. There is no good way to end this idiotic stunt, and they know it.
These f-tards are terrorists, plain and simple — a Christofascist equivalent of ISIS.
Some are posting “goodbye” videos. This article contains the term “ammosexual” too.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/3/1465762/-No-Fed-Action-Planned-but-Oregon-Militia-Loons-Post-Hilarious-Goodbye-Videos
Here is some information about the Mormon religious terminology being used by these guys:
http://www.opb.org/news/article/explainer-the-bundy-militias-particular-brand-of-mormonism/
I wonder if they were hoping this would turn into a Fort Sumter situation and start another civil war. I say this because they did seem to be begging for some kind of police action.
@newbie
No ableism, please.
And of course they’re not terrorists. They’re staging a “peaceful protest”. With guns. They’ve said they’re prepared to “kill or be killed”, but they’re not fucking terrorists, amirite Mainstream Media?
BLM are “rioters and looters”. Muslim people can’t worship in peace without threats of violence from jackasses like these. And yet, these men are still not terrorists in the eyes of mainstream media.
White men never are, because white men control the media. And they would never demonize one of their own.
Luckily enough though, there’s plenty of people on social media who aren’t going to eat this shit up, and are calling it like it is.
And fuck their reasons for this bullshit too. We have national parks and government property for a reason. And that reason isn’t for wealthy white douchebags to stampede their cattle all over. He has more than enough land for himself and his fucking cows. If he doesn’t think he does, then he’s more than welcome to thin his herd by selling livestock.
I know it’s beyond hope to wish for this, but I sincerely hope all these men are arrested and tried for treason. Or at the very least they all just get arrested. Gods know that they’re not going to get hurt for this beyond being slapped on the wrist.
Well, the media’s gotten onto it now, certainly. But like others have said, there’s very few of them and they don’t pose any threat to civilians or civilian property. It certainly doesn’t warrant any comparisons to Al Quaeda or even the looting that went on during past protests. These guys are only setting themselves up for humiliation.
Going by the FBI definition of domestic terrorism, which describe activity to “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion”, then, yeah, it is terrorism in a narrow sense. Although they aren’t claiming to be going after policy. The full definition is mainly concerned with harm to civilians.
@Terrabeau
My boyfriend pointed out to me earlier today that if 150 people were staying in the wildlife refuge building (it has a gift shop!), conditions would be extremely overcrowded.
I told him that my hunch was that they had no more than 25.
Like ISIS, they’ve put out a call to sympathizers to come help them. But how will these sympathizers get there? Surely law enforcement will block the roads. And how do they think that they can clear land and build houses without getting arrested? Do they hope that so many white men will rush to their aid that the government will be stymied?
The government should cut off power and water to this group. They’ll quickly abandon their plan.
Yacob14: Looters destroyed a CVS that can easily be replaced. These guys are despoiling an irreplaceable, priceless wildlife refuge.
Fucking idiots, one and all.
They’ve seized something worth jack and shit, the criminals they purport to be supporting want nothing to do with them, and everybody who even so much as hears about them thinks they’re wannabe martyrs.
By the by, this isn’t Cliven Bundy himself, though I understand it’s being organized and led by two of his pissant sons.
Much the same way as it went down at the Dumbdy scene, I expect these guys are gonna get starved out, have internal conflicts, break up, and eventually get arrested one at a time.
Can you get that I have nothing but disrespect and scorn for these wastes of space and ammo? Better for us all that they get ignored and end up failing in their attention-seeking behaviors.
@Yacob14
How is it that you know that they don’t pose a threat to civilians or civilian property? IMHO, your faith in your psychic powers is far too great.
Also, what makes you think that we care only about civilians?
Say, do you happen to be hanging out in a remote spot in Oregon with a bunch of other “patriots”?