The even darker, unspoken implications of a James von Brunn

[babylonsister]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/carpenter/412

The even darker, unspoken implications of a James von Brunn
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 7:05am.

* P.M. Carpenter

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

snip//

In short, it's not Brunn and his fellow, isolated psychotics who worry me most, although their isolated violence obviously sickens. We'll always have the thunderously demented among us, no matter what; and there, a certain element of earthly resignation comes into play.

No, what troubles on a far deeper level is the Brunnlike genealogy of diseased gullibility that extends to tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of otherwise normal Americans -- the seething, rotting, methodical, underlying garbage of conspiracy theory that infests so much of otherwise normal politics.

I don't know the numbers, in fact no one does, but it's nothing short of appalling to encounter the undeniably massive belief structure in place which is founded, say, on the absolute certainty of a 9/11 conspiracy -- throw all of Occam's Razor out the window and opt instead for the most intricately bizarre acrobatics of an "inside job."

Brunn, needless to say, was an active proponent of the "9/11 Truth Movement": he knew who really pulled off 9/11, just as he knew, I'd bet money, who really killed JFK, who really killed RFK, as well as Martin Luther King and Vince Foster, among others. And what distresses beyond description is that those beliefs -- his beliefs -- are shared by sizable multitudes who go to work each day, have spouses, kids, watch "Jeopardy," and vote.

This insider brand of knowledge is hardly the exclusive intellectual property of the right. Conspiracy theories, especially about 9/11, abound on some left-wing websites as well, plus recently I've encountered more than a few left-based references to Barack Obama's exceedingly Manchurian involvement in some sort of "Neocon Fascism" conspiracy (that which is in quotes, by the way, is also invariably all in caps, for reasons of raging inarticulateness not unknown).

For now, however, physical violence, murderously expressed, does seem to be the exclusive property of what we loosely call the radicalized right. But, again, when fuming, irrational, subterranean rage boils over into the territory of unbridled insanity, I do wonder how properly "political" we can label it.

Yesterday's killer was just plain nuts, but it frightens to the core to realize how many out there, of presumed normality, skirt within measurable degrees -- and wholly within the realm of the quasi-acceptably political -- of the absolute madness of James W. von Brunn.

[Myrina]

1. Interesting commentary, but I have to ask ...

... is Von Brunn really "nuts" ? As in, clinically insane?

Or is he (mostly)completely in control of his faculties, but has chosen to follow the most simplistic, vile, hateful belief-path available?

There is a difference between delusional and evil.

[babylonsister]

2. He tried to kill people because his hate ate him up. His

ex-wife described him like this. He sounds insane to me, but that could be because I could never imagine living my life hating everyone and everything in it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3916894

The ex-wife of the racist who stormed the U.S. Holocaust Museum described him as an abusive alcoholic whose hatred against Jews and blacks "ate him alive like a cancer."

"It's all he would talk about," the ex-wife said of James von Brunn, 89, who was wounded in a firefight with museum guards.

"When I questioned him, he would get very angry and abusive."

[CJCRANE]

3. Why single out the 9/11 Truth movement...?

That didn't seem to be his main issue.

Let's say Osama Bin Laden believes in man-made global warming, that doesn't mean that everyone who shares that view is a religious fundamentalist.

[babylonsister]

4. I think he's talking about all conspiracy theorists-that's one example. nt

[CJCRANE]

5. It's a false conflation.

There's a difference between conspiracy theories in general and "racist conspiracy theories".

"The Bush administation allowed torture" used to be a conspiracy theory. In the end it turned out to be true.

A racist conspiracy theory would be "The Bush administation allowed torture because the {insert name of race here} made them do it". You see the difference...

[villager]

6. the conflation is also dangerous when it's used to reinforce status quo explanations

for the behavior of the powerful. ergo, "stop asking questions about JFK, 9/11, the 2000 election," or whatever, because "then you're the same as the man with the gun," and not fit for polite company.

It all depends on what sorts of questions one asks...

[get the red out]

7. Very true

The Bush Administration would have liked for everyone to think that believing torture to have been something done on orders from higher up rather than isolated cases of "bad apples" was simply "conspiracy theory". And a few years ago anyone suggesting that torture may have been intentionally used to produce the false information necessary to keep troops in Iraq would have quickly been called a nutty "conspiracy theorist". Sometimes the term is simply used to derail any investigation into very shady things. The "conspiracy theory" that the 2000 election was stolen comes to mind also.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. "thunderously demented" 'He seemed to act alone' was offered like a balm at every

newscast about the shooting. Don't worry people, this is not a trend, it was a freak, one time incident, like a meteor falling. Really? I think he had plenty of help, like Carpenter worries about in this piece. It's a deadly mix of hate radio hosts, internut hate sites, his drunken delusions, and the good old NRA, that allows a guy who even spent hard Federal time to come out and still own or get a new gun. (Enter the DU's who swear every time there is a new shooting that it's not the fault of too many guns, that this guy couldn't, just couldn't have had a 'legal' gun. Right. They are always 'law abiding citizens' until they take their legal guns and shoot up a bunch of people. 'Gee, look, he's a criminal.' 'Only criminals do bad things with (otherwise harmless) guns.')
Our family was near that museum last week, and I for one am not wild about right wing racist nut jobs - or any nut jobs- wandering around with loaded guns.

[babylonsister]

9. I'm with you on the gun thing.

Whack jobs like this guy should not have been able to get his hands on a gun, but if he has buddies who supported him, who didn't have records, there's nothing to have prevented them buying one for him.

I don't know the answer, I'm just sick and tired of the violence and death.

[Demeter]

10. I'm Sick of the Bullying

Bush/Cheney was and is a Bully's Club and brutality and violence was and is their modus operandi. They sent the tone for the nutjobs, that bullying was okay. After all, the government did it!

And before Bush/Cheney, there was Gingrich and Armey and the rest of the GOP. They stuck Reagan on a flagpole and everyone saluted, and then did whatever the hell they wanted.

Nixon was a bully. McCarthy was a bully. The conspirators who sought a coup over FDR were bullies, esp. Preston Bush.