Some people like to think that politics is just that and there are no real life consequences. Many people are duped into thinking that both sides are equally bad so I might as well try and save my pocketbook by voting in the "conservatives". Well we showed you yesterday that the former is a myth and it doesn't take much to realize that he latter is also a myth!
The right wing is out claiming victims again. The right wing hate cabal of talk radio sqwaukers from the national guys like Beck, Limbaugh and a bunch of C - list screamers, to the local haters Sykes, Belling ,McKenna. All of the gaggle of goons, preaching their hate and fear, are finally getting their listeners to pay attention.
As the New York Times noted, there is a big(well relatively big)"prepper" movement sweeping the US.
Whats a "prepper":
Yes they are prepared for "anything", but what is their motivation to devote their life to this anyway?
NYC Preppers Network is an Emergency Preparedness group for city dwellers that are concerned with preparing for disasters. Some of us don’t live in a home, have garages, wells, basements or attics to store our survival gear in. Most of us live in apartments. City occupants face a different set of challenges. Space, Food Storage, Water, Security, Sanitation, Evacuation Routes & many other issues are of a great concern for city dwellers. NYC Preppers Network will work to solve these issues by teaching, sharing, & learning. The group is also the NYC affiliate of American Preppers Network (APN) on the national level.
That's easy enough - the Barackalypse!
At the Self Reliance Expo, the prospect of a second Obama term is seen as both a catastrophe and an opportunity. "There's a lot of people I talk to who say, 'Depending on what happens in the election, I'm going to buy some body armor,'" says Derek Williams, president of the Salt Lake City-based company Amendment II. Its Centurian children's tactical vest costs $499. "If the economy falls apart, people don't have food. People who are looking for food, they're gonna have their guns with them. People want body armor so they can protect themselves."
Ever wonder where they get such ideas?
Tony Tangalos, the Phoenix-based host of The Prepper Patch,, believes Obama is expediting the arrival of the Islamic Antichrist. He's planning on establishing "Christian Transition Villages" in western Arizona "for people who believe that we may be close to experiencing some dramatic man-made or naturally occurring changes in our world."
Paranoid "Preppers" have to be proud though, one of their own recently made the news!
No wonder Owen liked her. However we will never know the how much of an effect her paranoid delusional thinking had on her son.
The mother of Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in one of America’s worst ever school massacres, was a “survivalist” preparing for economic and social collapse, it has emerged.
According to reports, Nancy Lanza was a so-called 'prepper', a part of the survivalist movement which urges individuals to prepare for the breakdown of society by training with weapons and hoarding food and other supplies.
“She prepared for the worst,” her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Last time we visited her in person, we talked about prepping – are you ready for what could happen down the line, when the economy collapses?”
Case study # 2 takes us to Alabama....Where Jimmy Lee Dykes recently shot a school bus driver and took a 5 year old hostage. The thing is he didn't just take the 5 year old boy hostage, he really took him hostage:
The bunker in which Dykes holed up was four feet underground. He equipped it with electricity and was said to possibly have weeks of supplies stored. Negotiators communicated to him through a ventilation pipe. Because of the risk of tornadoes in this part of Alabama, bunkers are a relative fixture on the landscape.Today after a 5 day standoff, the FBI raided the bunker and killed Dykes and saved the child. Thank Goodness for that, but what would motivate a Vietnam Veteran from the Navy to do such a horrible thing?
He was a loner who allegedly lost contact with an adult daughter years ago, according to people who lived near him. The sounds of conservative talk radio filled his home and fed his anti-government attitudes, locals said.
The codewords and dog whistles worked into the speeches and radio shows worked perfectly, get the base riled up then when you cross the line, wash your hands!
Until we can break this vicious cycle, these problems are going to get worse!
Here in Wisconsin, what are we doing to fix this problem.
Actually exacerbating the problem....and badly!
By the way in case you are wondering where these crazies are getting their< obamaisgoingtotakeyourgunsandeverythingyouownandputyouinjailforworkinghard info?
It is time to start holding these people accountable for their hate speech and paranoia preaching!
Capper the survivalist meme is not particularly new, it was rampant in the mid 70s just not as gun centric as it is today. we didn't have prepper reality TV either. It is a business marketing driven phenomena and a very profitable business too. For Beck's motive look for the $$
ReplyDeleteThe survivalist mentality goes back farther than that, to the late 50's and early 60's and the fear of nuclear war. The government even encouraged it, advising people to build family bomb shelters and stock them with provisions. A lot of money was made by sharp businessmen selling dried food and canned water to the suckers. And of course, no bunker was complete without guns and ammo with which to shoot the neighbors who came to raid your stash.
DeleteMeshing perfectly with the religious fantasy of the Apocalyptic return of Jesus H. Christ to settle scores on planet Earth, this socially engineered paranoia evolved into the dynamic scam it is today.
i understand the fear of nuclear war back in the day....the preppers these days are stoked by the fear of a black man in the white house.
DeleteI myself am more concerned with teabagger militias than a black man in the white house. back in 2004 I had my kerry for preident sign stolen from my yard weekly and sometimes daily. I had just moved to the country and being out in the sticks I found my old .22 rifle in my stuff and said what the heck...started shooting a bit in the yard. My kerry sign was never stolen again...shortly after the election i believe it was Glen Beck who said on his show "now we have the democrats with their teeth against the curb, it's time to kick them i n the back of the head". In light of the outrages of that presidency and they sort of talk coming from the right wing talking heads of the Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh ilk I decided it would be prudent to buy myself a semi auto rifle, a shot gun a pistol and a bit of ammo. It's not safe to live in a country where only the rednecks, neo fascists, crazies and idiots are armed. I know a lot of people who agree. People who are definitely liberals
DeleteIt's not to hard to look at one of the big right wing successes-the crushing of liberation theology and social democracy movements in central and south america in the 1980's to see how a right wing establishment could get some stuff done with deniability just by sending the right message (no pun intended) to the teabggers and white supremacists among us. In fact Bill O'reilly himself seems to have been rather helpful in getting Dr. Tiller killed just as beck was seemingly able to get someone to try and attack the ACLU and Tides foundation in Oakland.
http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/10/beck-horowitz-inspire-right-wing-terrorist/
anyway...their are all kinds of preppers because I think people of a variety of political stripes recognize how thin the veneer of civilization is in this heavily armed society. I would be comfortable with a world with no guns but uncomfortable in one where only the potentially violent sorts with neofascist tendencies/people who possible come from heavily polluted...er...recessive gene pools have all the weapons
No "Fitzmas" style walkergate bloggin' today? Can't you just endlessly repeat previous posts and pretend that our legal system works?
ReplyDeletewalker and his cohorts need to be held accountable and our democracy demands that those with illegitimate power are not allowed to undermine our state with false claims of "mandates" based on gerrymandered, unverifiable, and elections that are hijacked with illegal campaigning.
These are much bigger issues than scott walker and absolutely no one is talking about them.
Please keep up the excellent walkergate coverage as things break -- but please also rememember that a rational dialog will not assume the "good guys" always win.
Because history shows they don't.
I don't even...
Delete"Can't you just endlessly repeat previous posts and pretend that our legal system works?"
DeleteYou mean much the same way you endlessly repeat your mantra about the failings of our legal system and the inevitability of the John Doe investigation failing to result in a Walker indictment after every Walkergate post? You wear hypocrisy well.
"These are much bigger issues than scott walker and absolutely no one is talking about them."
So stated on a post that is not about Scott Walker. If you use the search function, you may find a post on whatever issue it is that you're referring to.
For all of their motives, look for the money. However the thing I am pointing out here is that they use this fear and hatred to spark their base.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately within that base is a fraction of people who need psychiatric help and arent getting it and they take all of this over the top BS rhetoric as a call to action. Then take action like Dykes did.
I am not calling for an "end to free speech" like some righties will whine about, I am calling for them to own their actions.
I think Kim Simac is a prepper, who has fueled her survivalist, sovereign-citizen, gun-loving son James Maillette. Together, they "recruit" other preppers in church groups, first by appealing to the anti-abortion group, then by promoting the Glenn Beck school of anti-Islam fear-mongering. These are the people Ms. Simac drags on AFP "tours" around the state.
ReplyDeleteI don't really like that term, "prepper."
ReplyDeleteIt makes you think of penny loafers, shirts with little penguins on them and guys in Jack Nicklaus windbreakers wearing too much Brylcream.
Instead of the more likely suspects, the ones with confederate flags on their pickup trucks, handguns tucked in to holsters above their socks, bad breath and no social skills at all.
....Hey, why am I not able to post through OpenID? It's not recognizing my profile, so I am once again, Anon....
The Prepper Theme Song:
ReplyDeleteI'm a prepper, he's a prepper, she's a prepper, we're a prepper, wouldn't you like to be a prepper, too?
Apologies to Dr. Pepper.