It’s horribly reminiscent of the early 1970’s when my lesbian sister and her girlfriend were getting their car tires slashed, bricks thrown through their windows, and the cops just said “well, what do you expect when you’re perverts?”. When adults around me said things like “they can’t reproduce so they have to recruit”. “They’re pedophiles, they’re corrupting children” is an old, old accusation, just like blood libel.
Because the propaganda focused on them, from first recruiting to the final pep speech before their final battle, makes every effort to convince them that they will be among the powerful in the New Order, all they have to do is be loyal and obedient and work hard (appealing to a meritocracy ideals that don’t actually exist).
Speak to any authoritarian wannabe, they always imagine themselves on top in society, never as one of the underclass even when they very much are one of the underclass.
Another factor is to realize that it’s not just two classes. See the comment from above:
This is a pretty typical way of organizing an authoritarian regime. There’s a hierarchy, and even if the thugs aren’t sipping tea with the elites, they at least aren’t eating boots with the proles, either. Consider how many “petty tyrants” you’ve known in your life who take what little power they have, and use it to lord over anyone the see as “beneath” them. It’s pretty much this dynamic that fuels the entire “Karen” phenomenon.
I think the morons in the truck first just liked the idea of being a pretend soldier, since they’re likely too lazy and coward to join the real military. Then they are attracted to the idea of beating-up people they perceive to be weaker than themselves. And that’s probably about as far as the thought process goes - they aren’t thinking about the future, they get to dress-up and play tough-guy right now.
Well, there is that former guerrilla army in the jungles of Colombia that are now running farms and guiding river rafting trips and leading jungle treks.
Were the soldiers of FARK comparable with the SA rank and file? I thought one were uniformed street enforcers and the other actual guerrilla fighters that actually held their own against everything from Escobar’s thugs to US special forces.
Is there some sort of “Attempted …” crime that they could be charged with? Unlike the guy who didn’t attempt to kill Justice Kavanaugh (he called the cops on himself), but was charged with attempted murder, these guys were not going to turn themselves in.
I think there’s a portion, though I’m not sure how large, who simply are very angry and lonely, and just latch onto a group that claims to accept them, no matter their ideology. Even if it conflicts with their upbringing.
He was living at home in his late 20s and when his mom saw that he was a part of this (she suspected as soon as she saw the news story), she kicked his ass out. Oh, his father recently came out as gay.
For the sake of all that is (un)holy, no one point out to these yahoos that they’re acting like the stereotypical mules that smuggle illegal immigrants across the border - you know, that they’re exactly like those people. The cognitive dissonance implosion could take out several counties.
Or do point it out to them, but only from a great distance, and they’re surrounded by their fellow thinkers.
(( just in case it’s not sufficiently clear, I’m mocking the Patriot Front types and their obsessions about controlling borders as well as their assumptions about the people crossing them ))
May I be the first to say shame on all of us? These Patriot Front fellas finally come out of the closet and want to attend their first pride event and this is how we treat them?
