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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

10 Oct

Interested in a terminology thread? I knew you were!

Let's talk about (extremist or terrorist) cells vs. groups vs. movements!

These are all just words and whenever you try to apply one word to real human beings and situations that don't always fit into neat boxes, you can come

up with problems & need to have exceptions, but leaving that aside, these terms usefully describe certain concepts related to extremism and/or terrorism.

First, let's talk about a "cell," a term which is a little grandiose and may convey more sophistication than it usually has.

Essentially a cell is just a small informal group or grouping of two or more individuals working together for a specific purpose, such as a terrorist act. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols (and, arguably, the Fortiers) constituted a cell. Cells can emerge organically, as several

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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

7 Oct

When I was in the fifth grade, I was walking to school and saw a windstrewn El Paso mayoral election campaign sign (for Don Henderson). On a whim I picked it up, took it with me to school and propped it up next to my seat.

This gave my homeroom 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Priscilla

Davis (www3.legacy.com/obituaries/elp…), who was a great teacher, an idea. She decided to hold a mayoral race in the classroom. She decided I could be incumbent Don Henderson and she chose Paula (mumble mumble) to be the challenger, Ray Salazar. We each were allowed to produce a campaign

"commercial" and we would also have a debate. This is where things sadly start to reflect real life. My "commercial" (acted out in front of the class) was slick and entertaining and during the debate Paula was earnest and had obviously prepared more than me, my comebacks were

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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

8 Sep

For #InternationalLiteracyDay, I will recommend some fascinating travel accounts written by people observing the South either during the era of slavery or in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. You may be surprised at how interesting some of them are.

1. Andrews, Sidney. The South Since the War, as Shown by Fourteen Weeks of Travel and Observation in Georgia and the Carolinas.

2. De Forest, John William. A Union Officer in the Reconstruction.

3. Dennett, John Richard. The South As It Is, 1865-1866.

4. Olmstead, Frederick Law. The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller’s Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States, 1853-1861. (also split into two parts and sold separately)

5. Reid, Whitelaw. After the War: A Tour of the Southern States, 1865-66.

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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

28 Aug

1. When I first started researching the militia movement, aeons, together, I was struck by how frequently adherents claimed there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans (frequently calling them all "Republicrats"). Eventually I came to understand something important:

2. Extremists look at the rest of society like someone peering into the wrong end of a telescope. Viewed this way, other people seem a) very far away from you and b) very close to each other. As a result, people on both the right and left fringes find it difficult to distinguish

3. between mainstream society and the opposing fringe. This in turn often leads the extremists to view their counterparts as having more power and influence than they do, which probably makes them more vulnerable to conspiracy theories as well. It also means they are more likely

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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

22 Aug

Anatomy of a Sovereign Citizen Scam

The sovereign citizen movement is an anti-gov't extremist movement noted for violence & harassment. It's also heavily associated w/scams/frauds, from investment scams to immigration scams to ones so arcane they don’t have a category.

In this thread, I’d like to show you how one particular type of sovereign citizen scam works, one that sovereigns have been using since the 1980s: the sovereign-style mortgage elimination scheme. Sometimes this scheme is also a semi-pyramid scheme as well. During 2003-2004 there

was a huge surge of such scams—IIRC, at one point I tracked at least 300 people associated with them. I’m going to use examples from these scams to illustrate my point—but such scams still go on today.

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Mark Pitcavage

@egavactip

20 Aug

It's been some time since I did a sovereign citizen "show & tell," but I found some interesting images recently, so I'm sharing.

The sovereign citizen movement is an extreme anti-gov't movement whose adherents believe that our gov't is illegitimate & has no authority over them.

The sovereign citizen movement has more required reading than most other extremist movements--and all these manuals are expensive.

However, once you become a sovereign citizen, you can do all sorts of cool things, like making your own license plates (because real ones, of course, are illegitimate).

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