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Another day, another brilliant post by Georgetown University historian Thomas Zimmer, this time on “why we need to recognize the embrace of vigilante violence as a strategy in the Right’s fight against democracy and as a part of the broader reactionary counter-mobilization.” As Zimmer explains:
“All strands of the Right – GOP officials, the media machine, reactionary intellectuals, the conservative base – are openly and aggressively embracing rightwing vigilante violence against ‘the Left.’ It’s becoming hard to shake the Weimar Republic vibes….the Weimar analogy is quite apt because it emphasizes a constellation in which vigilantism and political violence were widely seen as justified and necessary among Germany’s radical Right, but also among its more mainstream conservative enablers…Rightwing extremism was never fully purged from mainstream conservatism. And after Obama – often derided as a radical ‘socialist’ – was elected president, the idea that more drastic action was urgently needed was spreading fast into the center of conservative politics.”
Scary times; Democrats and small-d democrats had better be aware of what’s going on and react accordingly, or…yeah, review the history of Weimar Germany and what happened after that.
Addendum: I was on @thereidout last night to talk about why we need to recognize the embrace of vigilante violence as a strategy in the Right’s fight against democracy and as a part of the broader reactionary counter-mobilization. https://t.co/5FP2eYOeHA
— Thomas Zimmer (@tzimmer_history) May 16, 2023
