Thread by @thomasafine

In the first part of the video, this doesn't seem revelatory - amounting to "it's the racists, stupid".

But it goes into a lot more detail after that, and there's a lot to unpack.

https://twitter.com/HC_Richardson/status/1397928266539827205

I would in particular say that how they're racist matters. Knowing it's the Great Replacement theory that is driving these people points for me to what sort of public education efforts can reach them.

The Great Replacement theory is pure zero sum game. "They win I lose."

I've written before about how zero sum game theories are generally the roadblock for lots of progressive ideas.

The good news is that this is solvable. If it wasn't, women would NEVER have gotten the right to vote in this country.

The zero sum game view of giving women the vote is, men will have less power. And men were the only voters at the time. It's a tough bootstrapping problem. So how do you get past it?

By focusing on the positive sum game:
America will be stronger if it includes women too.

So this is where we begin to undermine the Great Replacement:
America is strongest when all Americans are truly equal.
(Conversely America is weakened by the racial battles.)

And from another angle, we remind people the Great Replacement theory is political fear-mongering.

The other really interesting piece in the video is that the majority of insurrectionists were politically isolated, geographically. That Trumpists stranded in a sea of blue were far more likely to be insurrectionists than Trumpists who live among their peeps.

Interesting, because it really hints that the Internet is playing a critical role here that isn't happening in real communities. And this makes sense. Real human interaction isn't nearly as callous as online interaction.

And it also points a way forward, though perhaps more vaguely:
• Better social media structures for moderation.
• more law enforcement monitoring of online white supremacist communities
• paradoxically, encouraging in-person meet-ups for isolated Trumpists.

Each of these options is problematic in its own way, but at least it's a place to start.

There's also mention in the video about the fact that of the militia group members, fully a third are ex-military. At first this seems alarming, but this is likely just a self-selection issue. Ex-military are going to naturally gravitate towards belong to something structured.