Thread by @DavidNeiwert

1) As someone who has spent the past four years covering the spread of white-nationalist violence in America, both at protests and in terrorist acts, the notion that these groups are “illusory” is not just absurd, it’s obscene. Thread follows.

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1311323806942756864

2) Let’s discuss terrorism first, because that in many ways is where white nationalism hits home the hardest. There is no question that during Trump’s tenure, the lid has been taken off and the demons have flown out. Data doesn’t lie. Propagandists do.
revealnews.org/article/domest…

3) Claiming the threat of these groups is “illusory,” an “invention,” or “nonexistent” is an obscene insult to the memory of the dozens who have died at their hands, and to the thousands they have traumatized along the way: in Pittsburgh, El Paso, Christchurch, and more.

4) You’ve followed the above post, however, by focusing on the protest violence and the white nationalists’ role. You mention the past two months, meaning your purview is strictly anti-police-brutality protests. But that’s not where the Proud Boys have been much involved.

5) So I want to take you on a little longer journey that goes back three-plus years, so you can see for yourself what you call a “media invention” looks like—and then let your readers decide for themselves whether this is an invention, or you are just a gaslighting douchebag.

6) Having been a journalist in the midst of this literal shitstorm, I have had a front-row seat. An antifascist was shot next to me at one of these events. I was a witness in the trial that followed.
dailykos.com/stories/2019/9…

7) The Proud Boys’ first event was on April 15, 2017, in Berkeley. It was in fact probably the most violent of the 18 far-right events I’ve covered since January 2017. It was full to the gills with neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and militia radicals—terms I do not use loosely.

8) Most of the Portland events have been organized by a far-right outfit called Patriot Prayer, but Proud Boys have been major presences for all their events, including those held also in Seattle and the Bay Area. Their role was always clear and simple: Amp up the violence.

9) More Proud Boys leading the fights in Portland, alongside white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

10) The situations they created were classic scenarios for provoking violent responses: Wave bigoted flags and signs, say bigoted things, and then unleash thuggish attacks on the people who come out to protest your bigotry.

11) It frequently was a one-sided affair. This scene occurred in Olympia at Evergreen State when PP and the PBs came to “protest” the campus’s controversial “day of absence” for white students, which attracted Fox News coverage and right-wing bomb threats.

12) The violence was always brutal, and cowardly as fuck too. I can’t tell you how many times I saw black-shirted Proud Boys, often in a cluster, stomping some lone victim huddled in a fetal position. Like this one.

13) After awhile these thugs—none of whom actually live in Portland, but love to drive there to beat people up—began not even bothering with organizing their own faux events and just came to fuck with people in the city violently.

14) The groups were tight for awhile but fell to infighting eventually. They even talked about killing each other.
dailykos.com/stories/2019/2…

15) But then they eventually reached a rapprochement when the Proud Boys organized a chance to beat up liberals in Portland last year. The cops largely kept them away from leftists that day—but then proceeded to beat up leftists themselves.
dailykos.com/stories/2019/8…

16) Your reporting on the Portland scene, moreover, is what we've come to expect from parachuting pseudo-journalists. Reporters from the Northwest who have been on the ground and at these scenes have a very, very different view of things.
dailykos.com/stories/2020/8…

17) The right-wing incursion been an evolving strategy, but have happened with regularity. It’s taken some weird twists lately, such as the “antifa fires” and “antifa buses” hoax rumors that inspired camo-clad militiamen to roam the streets of rural towns.
dailykos.com/stories/2020/9…

18) It’s been a very difficult, unpleasant, and harrowing experience. I worked in newsrooms for 30 years, Michael, and nothing has come close to this for its horror--not to mention its unrelenting reality.

19) You can't gaslight me. You can't gaslight anyone who has been out there covering it. All you can do is try to marginalize us.

Lots of luck with that, Michael. Too many people know you for what you are, and have proven yourself to be here: an utter fake.

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