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1. Some personal news: As of today, I’m quitting full-time freelancing to pursue the next chapter in my career — the creation of a new publication, the details of which I’ll be announcing tomorrow. I’d like to explain why I’m doing this. A thread. 👇
2. I believe we’re at a critical point in the U.S., one that requires dogged, original journalism to confront the forces of hate and extremism that are trying to destroy us.
3. This isn’t hyperbole. Just a few months ago, a gunman walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and killed 22 people because of some fucked up belief that white people are being replaced by Latino immigrants.
4. Before that, it was a synagogue in Poway, California. Before that, it was a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Before that, it was a man behind the wheel of a car in Charlottesville, Virginia. And so on.
5. The perpetrators of these acts aren’t lone wolves, no matter how they’ve been portrayed. Their violence is encouraged and cheered by others online and in real life.
6. I’ve been covering these movements my entire career. The first time I met a neo-Nazi was when I was in college and working nights at a local newspaper in Arizona. The neo-Nazi’s name was JT Ready.
7. I met Ready while he was protesting a visit by President George W. Bush, which I happened to be covering. He believed Bush was soft on immigration. And he was mad as hell about it.
8. Ready would later go on to perform armed vigilante “patrols” in the Arizona desert. He and his pals would detain undocumented immigrants and turn them over to Border Patrol. He also handed out flyers at events calling for landmines to be placed along the border.
9. A number of years later, I was working in New York at @TPM when the news broke that JT Ready had walked into his girlfriend’s house and murdered her and three other people, including an infant, before killing himself. talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/bord…
@TPM 10. Those murders still haunt me. So much so that lately I’ve been requesting public records from every agency I can think of to try to find something about JT Ready that I might have missed at the time. muckrock.com/project/the-jt…
@TPM 11. In the intervening years, I’ve talked to countless hate leaders as well as people who are fighting the good fight to stop hate and extremism. I’ve read the literature. I’ve tracked the movements.
@TPM 12. I’ve gotten to know and understand what’s happening in the dark underbelly of America. It’s ugly, but it’s an ugliness we must understand if we want to confront.
@TPM 13. But for all I’ve done in this field, I’ve always felt there should be an outlet where this work gets the attention it deserves. The journalism that I and others produce on these topics is often overlooked or, these days, drowned out by the latest Trump tweet.
@TPM 14. I’ve often thought of creating a publication that’s dedicated solely to coverage of hate and extremism. A publication for independent journalism, free from the constraints of advertisers or big donors.
@TPM 15. With the project I’ll be announcing tomorrow, I think I’ve figured out how to do all that. It’s not going to be easy. And it’s going to take the support of a lot of individuals, just like you, to make it happen.
@TPM 16. But if you believe, like I do, that we must unite to confront hate and extremism, then I hope you’ll join me by supporting this project.
@TPM 17. The single biggest thing you can do today to back this project is to follow me here and look for the details when they’re announced tomorrow.
@TPM 18. If you’re already following me, please share this thread with your friends. And thank you. I’m looking forward to unveiling this very soon, and I‘m grateful for your support.
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