Thread by @cpicciolini

THREAD: 1/ Here is what is NOT being talked about re: white supremacy, and what no one is asking in these 3-minute interviews: Words matter. Especially from a president. I wrote words 30 years ago that inspired Dylann Roof to kill in 2015 Mr. President, like me, you are to blame.

2/ My lyrics that Roof posted about 4 months before his terrorist act were also about an "invasion." Step up and own it, your words are inciting the death of Americans.

3/ MENTAL HEALTH: It is irresponsible to say that mental health is to blame for violence. More accurately, the circumstances surrounding mental health are to blame: isolation, disillusion, uncertainty, and marginalization. Fund mental health support and stop demonizing it.

4/ VIDEO GAMES: Lazy argument, Mr. President. Video Gamers are to blame, not the content. Recruiters hunt in places where vulnerable and alienated people gather: ie multiplayer video games, depression forums, and 8chan. They use these platforms to recruit.

5/ DOMESTIC TERRORISM: Be careful what you wish for. DT laws, depending on who controls power, can be used on anyone they deem "extremists," ie ANTIFA, BLM, civil rights activists, etc. The rumblings are already present. Be aware, activists.

6/ cont. This is transnational terrorism. It has been since the 1980s. Groups are the same outside the US, are all connected, and the internet is facilitating it. This is a criminal terror enterprise. Feds should be hitting them with RICO, material support, and others.

7/ cont. We don't even have a D/T statute in the US. All it means now is that federal resources can be used in prosecution. What we DO need is resources dedicated to investigating extreme right wing. Plenty of work to do there.

8/ INTL TERROR: Just a matter of time before White supremacists and Islamists begin collaborating. They both hate Jews, the West, and Democracy. Don't think it won't happen.

9/ DAYTON (er, Toledo?) This sounds like an #InCel (Involuntary Celibate) case. Shooter had a kill and rape list, and if they look I bet they will find white nationalist crossover here also. Regardless of ideology, the same types of "potholes" led this killer there.

10/ GUNS: Yes, we have a gun problem. I'm a gun owner with a concealed carry permit. They are too easy to buy and there is no need for weapons of war to be so accessible. That said, I foresee a day we may need them for what they are intended for, to protect us from a corrupt govt

11/ DEPLATFORMING WORKS, sometimes. It does disrupt them, but extremists are nomads and amorphous early adopters by nature. We must make it hard for them to operate and infect, but don't think they go away if you don't see them. They get more vile when they come back.

12/ THIS WILL GET WORSE. Until we do something concrete and comprehensive, America's dark secret of racism will still live to kill another day. Systemic and institutional racism are the machinery that keeps it alive. What I do is a bandaid.

13/ Finally, many have asked how to help. Our most immediate need is money to train other former extremists to do interventions. The workload is too great. I feel like a one-man DHS some days. The things I see and stop are too much for Twitter. Donate: freeradicals.org/donate

I invite @GOP and @HouseDemocrats to hear me out on this. Use me as a resource, a consultant, whatever. USE ME. I can help. You cannot defeat what you can't see and don't know intimately. Let me help. Meet me, @POTUS and @WhiteHouse. More Americans do not need to die.

FACT: 75% of the folks I work with live on the autism spectrum. Autism does NOT cause racism or violence, but it can lead to isolation, hyperfocus, unidimensionality, empathic disconnect, and a preference for a regimented lifestyle. And they are being targeted. We must do better.

Again, not blaming mental illness. I am blaming our lack of support for those with disorders to find the support they need, and blaming those who shame and alienate them to the fringes where these narratives exist.

@GOP @HouseDemocrats @POTUS @WhiteHouse RUSSIA: Don't forget, comrades. Much of the extremist propaganda is not coming from extremists. Russia is still using a massive propaganda campaign full of conspiracy theories to promulgate this and sow discord. It has real consequences, like the shootings.

@GOP @HouseDemocrats @POTUS @WhiteHouse Why aren't we using the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, an Act of the United States Congress which empowers the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacy organizations?

@GOP @HouseDemocrats @POTUS @WhiteHouse And, FINALLY, if you are a white nationalist, alt-right, "patriot," etc, I hate to tell you that you are being lied to. You are being used by the likes of the types of "greedy" and "violent" people they lie to you about and demonize. Your "masters" are the real manipulators.

Never in the history of white supremacy has a "leader" been in it for anything more than personal gain and nihilism. They don't care about you, "the white race," America, or Trump. They are opportunists and frauds and you are their fodder. Wake up before it's too late.

@threadreaderapp Unroll, please

Many have asked, so here goes: I founded @FreeRadicalsOrg after Charlottesville in 2016. I am NO LONGER with Life After Hate and I am not affiliated with, nor endorse them in any way. freeradicals.org

Long-standing American white supremacy + Trump + Russia +NRA = the end of American democracy or the start of a Democratic revolution we have long needed? Turn terror into change. Heh, can we make America great? This is the moment.

Many have asked, so here goes: I founded
@FreeRadicalsOrg
after Charlottesville in 2016. I am NO LONGER with Life After Hate and I am not affiliated with, nor endorse them in any way. Donate: freeradicals.org/donate

cc: @ChrisCuomo @AndersonCooper This is what needs to be discussed.

I propose an immediate commission or task force be put in place to develop comprehensive steps to combat the violent white nationalist security threat. If asked, I would participate. cc: @PeteButtigieg @KamalaHarris @BernieSanders @BetoORourke @JoeBiden @EWarren

@FreeRadicalsOrg Calling all mental health professionals, teachers, job trainers, coaches, counselors, parents, politicians. You already have the tools to combat violent extremism. You just need to learn to use them. "See the child, not the monster," before they are the headline.

@FreeRadicalsOrg Sorry for the brain dump. This is less a Left-Right issue. White supremacists support the right, but they hate traditional political "shills," regardless of whether left or right. They want to destroy democracy. So, any hangers on in politics must condemn it or remain complicit.

@FreeRadicalsOrg @threadreaderapp
Unroll, please

@ChrisCuomo @andersoncooper For what it's worth, 8chan is NOT the dark web. It is the open web. It is a url click away. Stop referring it to the "dark web." Fringe web at best. 8chan is dark, but you haven't seen dark web dark.

@ChrisCuomo @andersoncooper Have also noticed a phenomenon I call "cult hopping" in young extremists. They hop from extreme to another, far-left to far-right or vice versa, also Nazi to ISIS. It's a broken search for identity, community, and purpose. This is less about ideology than most people think.