Thread by @JYSexton

The reemergence of white supremacist terrorists is a byproduct of decades of Republican rhetoric and divisive campaigning, similar to Reagan Era panics that framed society as beset by a moral, supernatural war.

In both the originator promises to solve the crisis they started.

Both cases involve framing an America under attack by subversive, evil forces, both encouraging demonization of opposition, and both inspire true believers to behave as if they’re in a live, actual war while Republicans point at their handiwork and say society is sick.

There are consequences to telling people constantly, day in and day out, that they are under attack, that everyone else is the enemy. They believe they have a moral imperative to act, to fight the war. You see it constantly in the rhetoric the killers use.

Like other radical forces who inspire violence and murder, Republicans can say it’s only rhetoric as they have deniability, but the fact that they have taken for decades now has real consequences. There’s blood on their hands, and until it stops we’re all in real danger.

With Trump, the problem is he actually believes it. He lives cable news, talks it, thinks it. Republicans mostly know the difference between reality and propaganda, Trump doesn’t have a clue. And so what we’re getting is pure, undiluted propaganda, and the volume is rising.