Poking fun at the Malheur occupiers doesn't do shit

[cali]

It may be enjoyable for those doing the poking, but if you think it has any impact on their morale, you're delusional. The leaders are religiously deranged. The group is getting plenty of material support, including reinforcements from other militias. Making fun of them has zero impact on them.

These guys are dangerous. And they are becoming more organized, better armed and more dangerous. And many of them are unhinged. After the Nevada Bundy standoff ended with no repercussions for any of them, two of the protesters who were at the Ranch went on an anti-law enforcement shooting spree in Las Vegas, murdering 2 cops and a civilian. They aren't the only ones who participated in the Bundy Ranch standoff who have subsequently gone on the commit illicit or violent acts or threaten violence, particularly against law enforcement and BLM employees.

<snip>


The fallout from the BLM stand down is very troubling: an even more emboldened antigovernment movement. Just in the months since the Bundy “victory,” tense standoffs between the BLM and antigovernment activists have taken place across the West — in Idaho, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. The scariest incident happened in Utah, where two men pointed a handgun at a BLM worker in a marked federal vehicle while holding up a sign that said, “You need to die.”

Although these situations have not yet led to violence, a recent encounter with two Bundy supporters ended with three dead.

<snip>

In early June, two rabid government haters who spent time at the ranch, Jerad and Amanda Miller, strolled into a Las Vegas pizza parlor, walked past a pair of police officers eating lunch, turned and executed the two men. Leaving a Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, a note saying the revolution had begun and a swastika on the officers’ bodies, the couple went on to murder another man before dying in a shootout with police.

Not long after the shooting, we called Sheriff Richard Mack, a prominent anti-federal government activist who had been at the Bundy ranch, to ask him about Jerad Miller. Mack and Miller had been photographed together at a Feb. 8 debate for libertarian sheriff’s candidates held in Clark County, Nev. A surprised Mack told the SPLC, “Oh, no,” adding, “I was afraid that [Miller] might have been at the Bundy ranch. As soon as I heard about it, I was afraid of that.”

<snip>
https://www.splcenter.org/20140709/war-west-bundy-ranch-standoff-and-american-radical-right

[Mc Mike]

1. They should be getting arrested as they leave the site, to go to the hotel, bar, store, etc.

But that's a government function. The public who hates these nazis can't enforce the law, isn't going to make a citizens arrest, and isn't going to start the hostilities in a civil war against them. And civil war is all those nazis are really talking about, all the time.

Making fun of them does do something. Though their side is shameless, and therefore seems incapable of being embarrassed, they still are covertly feeling humiliated by all of the mocking and negative coverage of their lameness, ridiculousness, and idiocy. And the part of the public that isn't with them or against them, that wonders if their claims of 'victimhood' have some merit, is swayed against them by the well done skewering and mocking of their lame stupid assed lunacy. The trash talk is good for the normal side's morale, too.

[Duppers]

2. I agree...

with all you posted.

[Mc Mike]

12. Thanks, Dup. nt.

[RKP5637]

3. IMO the US needs to spend more time with domestic terrorism in this county than

its endless preoccupation with waging wars in other countries. There is some serious SH** going on in the US and IMO far too much focus is spent in other countries. This crap is not nipped in the bud, so those involved feel emboldened to continue and in fact likely increase their efforts. White guys with guns get a free pass. Others would have been jailed or deceased by now.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Then complain to Obama and his DOJ, they are in charge. No more blaming the locals.

Also this- “Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.”- Mel Brooks.

It's all we got. The Feds coddle the High Plains Grifters and all we can do is mock them.

[cali]

5. I haven't blamed the locals. I'm cognizant that the feds are in charge.

And Brooks is wrong.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Most of DU is. I'm sick of it.

Californians smearing Oregon all over this board, 'the Sheriff is kissing up to them' well the Sheriff's wife had to leave town, his parents have been harassed, he's had death threats and he's the only one doing anything about it. Assholes sitting in luxury on the beach attacking that good man can kiss my ass.
And Brooks is right. Rhetoric is worthless. Humor is effective. 'He's wrong' is not much of a retort and as response highlights the lack of efficacy of pure rhetoric. 'He's wrong' is met with 'no he's not' but a good joke about Mel would have stopped this exchange cold.

[cali]

8. Well that's nuts. I think Sheriff Ward has acted admirably.

But no, I'm sorry but humor as great as it is for letting off steam, doesn't and never has taken down terrorists or tyrants.

[NCTraveler]

9. Who is trying to take down tyrants or a terrorist...

Organization with humor?

"But no, I'm sorry but humor as great as it is for letting off steam, doesn't and never has taken down terrorists or tyrants."

[cali]

11. From what I've read both here and other places

some believe that humor is effective in weakening and defusing the.occupiers. what do you think the Brooks' quote infers?

[NCTraveler]

14. I think it always sucks to be made fun of.

I also don't think we are bringing down tyrants or terrorists here at du.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Do 'weaking and defusing' mean the same thing as 'taking out tyrants'?

You, me, Mel Brooks we don't get to take out tyrants because that takes armies and you, me and Mel don't have armies, so our choices are to produce rhetoric or 'rants' as some on DU call their outbursts or to take the piss out of the villains.

[Dustlawyer]

13. The Feds need to come in anyway.

A small town Sherrif is not equipped for these gun nuts. They should be snatching them when they leave and set up a perimeter to keep the others in and new ones out. If you don't punish these guys you only encourage others!

[Bluenorthwest]

18. That's what I just said. Why are they not coming in? They never hesitate to raid a cannabis clinic.

The Sheriff there has two deputies, a county larger than Maryland. Burns PD is 3 officers. The county has about 7,500 residents. California has as many State Troopers as Harney County has residents.

[A Simple Game]

16. I said from the beginning that the first thing the police in charge should have done is

surround the place with razor wire and not let them out unless they were unarmed and had their hands up.

But Brooks is right, you're right it won't deter the ones already there, but ridiculing them will stop others from romanticizing and joining them. That is one of the main reasons that dictators reserve some of their swiftest and harshest punishments for political cartoonists. People that are laughed at don't gain respect from the general public.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. The only police department in that county as 3 officers. The Sheriff has himself plus two deputies

so that's six guys who you think could have surrounded the place with razor wire and kept them in the compound. The refuge is 293 square miles.

[A Simple Game]

21. Then there needs to be some other authority in charge, this is a crime on federal land

against the federal government so federal officials should be in charge of the situation. I would be very surprised if they aren't.

[BeyondGeography]

6. It is one highly valid response among many

As if it needs to be said.

[Vinca]

10. We, personally, have no other way to respond unless you want to gather up a crowd

of bird watchers and go out there and try to get them to leave. I think social media has been amazing in diminishing them in the eyes of anyone in this country with a half dozen brain cells. We've turned martyrs into fools and I think that's pretty significant.

[Orrex]

15. Do you suppose that anyone believes otherwise?

As in many objectionable situations where the individual has absolutely no power to effect change, satire is a useful way to express disapproval and to amuse people of like mind.

Do you think anyone believed that Kim Davis would change her hateful, bigoted ways because of a Freddie Mercury meme?

On the whole, I'd say that the mocking response has no less an impact than the placebo act of "signing" an online poll, and the underlying purpose is the same: to make a visble declaration of one's opinion.

[L. Coyote]

20. Poking fun at the Malheur occupiers continues to define them in pop culture. Turn up the volume.

We need far more people joining the glee club of wit and sharp retorts and the cacophony of derision.

You can add your best bits of wit here:
The #BundyBunch was spotted this morning, foraging for snacks.


Let's not let up until everyone starts to giggle at the mere mention of the snackless, clueless, metrosexual attempt to incite armed insurrection and burglar the piublic lands from the People. Let's laugh them out of Oregon, and all the way to prison too. Let's make sure they feel stupid taking themselves seriously!

Let this be a warning to all would-be enemies of the American union, if you can't handle being the mockery of the nation and the world, don't try to steal our land.

All humor aside, let's raise grazing fees to stop that theft too, and let every rancher in the west thank these #BigAssHats for calling attention to how white entitlement/rich rancher welfare works out where the Natives have been displaced by cows. Or, zas the BundyBunch suggests, let's give some land back to the real owners, the ones the Europeans collectively robbed of two continents. Where is the chorus of voices asking to reconcile the genocide of two continents by pig herders, cattle barons, gold diggers, and thieves.

On leaving Cuba in 1517: "In order that our voyage should proceed on right principles we wished to take with us a priest... We also chose for the office of overseer (in His Majesty's name) a soldier... so that if God willed that we should come on rich lands, or people who possessed gold or silver or pearls or any other kind of treasure, there should be a responsible person to guard the Royal Fifth."

Regarding the first battle fought under Cortes in the New World, against the people of Tabasco: "... we doctored the horses by searing their wounds with the fat from the body of a dead Indian which we cut up to get out the fat, and we went to look at the dead lying on the plain and there were more than eight hundred of them, the greater number killed by thrusts, the others by cannon, muskets and crossbows, and many were stretched on the ground half dead..... The battle lasted over an hour....we buried the two soldiers that had been killed....we seared the wounds of the others and of the horses with the fat of the Indian, and after posting sentinels and guards, we had supper and rested.
"...These were the first vassals to render submission to His Majesty in New Spain." True History of the Conquest of Mexico.

[MisterP]

22. true--but it shows that they're universally rejected

they are being trashed, and hilariously: so when Trump or Cruz whimperingly kisses their toes, that'll redouble the mockery their faux-victim followers receive

OTOH that'll increase the feeling that they're persecuted, already calling themselves "Three Percenters": the fundies likewise started their late-70s takeover by cutting themselves off from society and liberals were totally unprepared to deal with them, just taken aback

my concern with Europe isn't a surge in PEGIDA and IS recruitment (not that they'll go DOWN in numbers), but that they'll see the rest of us--the 97%--as collaborators, subhuman sheeple, fair game ...

[Crunchy Frog]

23. "Let us taunt them. They may become so cross that they will make a mistake."

Works in Monty Python. Not so much in real life.

Appeasing them now will eventually lead to a situation that will become catastrophic down the road. And yes, this is the Feds responsibility.

I'm as much into poking fun at them as anyone, but at the end of the day, the situation needs to be handled with genuine law enforcement. Otherwise, you're telling armed, white males that they can literally get away with anything. And don't think this won't attract more of them, and that they won't keep making the stakes ever larger.