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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWow! Wonderful strategic dissection of how RW extremists create chaos/confusion! Must Read!!
Getting Ready: Our role tonight
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1vz7m0DrupA5AEIFBWmF4HQ43sI2okT52vftFiVtPJfA/mobilebasic
Last night, right-wing extremists escalated their campaign to create chaos in Mpls & Saint Paul.
They used arson as a primary tactic. It was an escalation from their work to encourage looting on Wednesday night.
Link to tweet
They are using the widespread (and justifiable) demonstrations of grief about #GeorgeFloyd as a vehicle to advance their political objectives.
They have launched an organized effort to manipulate public perception, deconstruct public infrastructure, and create mistrust and fear.
They will likely return tonight.
Whats going on?
Certain right-wing extremists have a revolutionary orientation. They want to advance their objectives by sparking civil conflict. Their theory is that, if properly polarized (often by race), others will rise up to join them. They see themselves as leading a vanguard effort.
Theres a strain of this kind of thinking that runs through touchstone reactionary documents, like The Turner Diaries, and touchstone terrorist efforts, like the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
The latest update is an internet-irony-infused version (of course) that identifies as the Boogaloo movement. You can read more about them here.
https://www.adl.org/blog/the-boogaloo-extremists-new-slang-term-for-a-coming-civil-war
And here:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/
You can read about their work to manipulate demonstrations about #GeorgeFloyd here.
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/pkyb9b/far-right-extremists-are-hoping-to-turn-the-george-floyd-protests-into-a-new-civil-war
Suffice to say, there is growing evidence that some kind of organized effort is afoot in MSP. It appears to have at least three operational forms.
First, they blend into protests, encourage lawlessness, relocate, and repeat. Again and again, those transgressing certain social taboos, like smashing windows, have been white men, masked and sometimes conspicuously geared up.
Remember this one from way back on Wednesday. This guy was acting as an agent provocateur.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/minneapolis-protest-riot-umbrella-man-george-floyd-a9539741.html
Its a tactic designed to manipulate public perception. By encouraging lawlessness, they can shift the public narrative about the demonstration and produce polarizing (and memorable visuals) like looting.
Second, they attack public infrastructure, both physical and social. Friday night saw the burning of a post office, a first. Previous nights included attacks on banks, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. It can be easy to miss this if you just see it all as looting.
The story isnt people want stuff. The story is: someone is trying to deconstruct the systems that support communities in Minneapolis & Saint Paul.
This attack on infrastructure plays out in a second way, and vividly so on Friday night. They were using geographically widespread acts of arson to force the Minneapolis Fire Department to play Whack-A-Mole.
Friday nights arsons, particularly those on the Northside, were taking place miles away from demonstrations on the Southside, sometimes focused on beloved institutions.
Link to tweet
This tactic is designed to create chaos, weaken the community bonds, and discredit political leaders.
Third, there are active disinformation efforts happening online. If you dig through your recent followers or the replies in journalists tweets you can pretty easily find bogus accounts. (i.e. those with 1000s of tweets but fewer than 100 followers, accounts created in May 2020 with no personally identifiable information).
These accounts are posting polarizing content, sometimes right-leaning, sometimes left-leaning, often fear-inducing. This tactic is designed to create mistrust and fear.
Look, this stuff is alarming. I guess I am sounding an alarm here; but let me put this in some context. There may not be many of these folks. This post from late last night was a crew of just five in a car.
Link to tweet
There are likely more than five, but they are not an insurmountable number. Why are they not insurmountable?
Because they only win if we overreact.
They only win if we overreact.
They only win if we overreact.
They win by making us afraid and by getting us to do their dirty work.
There are at least five things we can do to counter the right-wing extremists whove been using the #GeorgeFloyd demonstrations.
1) Go talk to your neighbors today. Build a contact list. Offer to stay up tonight or offer to split up shifts. You do not need to violate curfew. Sitting on your stoop or your deck in the back will be fine. Just prepare together to keep an eye on things tonight.
2) Get in relationship with your implicit bias. The protestors arent scary or violent. Black & brown youth arent the problem here. You should keep an eye out for white dudes with backpacks. You are preparing for the white nationalists, not the protestors.
3) Obey the curfew tonight. If youve been going to the protests, take a night off. The white nationalists are camouflaging themselves inside the protests. They will be more exposed, more obvious, if the crowds are smaller. The Fire Department will be more nimble if the police, national guard, and our elected officials are less strained. Staying home tonight is a legitimate contribution to the cause. Were not done overhauling the MPD, but weve got to expose the right-wingers first.
4) Prepare to document and de-escalate. If you go to a demonstration today, go with friends and go with a mission. Keep your phone charged and your voice loud. Film people who are doing sketchy stuff. Call them out. Add light, not heat, to the situation. The white nationalists are mostly working at night because they dont want to get caught. Exposure is what scares them off.
5) Share the things you love about our city. Share them online and with your neighbors. Help clean up today. Donate supplies to families who need them. Shop at a local business. Post all that online. Our own fear and reactivity is our enemy. Its how they win. They only win if we overreact.
We can do this. With each other, for each other, with an abiding love for this badass city weve made and remade a dozen times.
BComplex
(8,029 posts)to the top of greatest hits.
Great links and research on the imposters at the protests who are causing all the damage.
Great post!
Roland99
(53,342 posts)But glad you liked it!
wnylib
(21,422 posts)too, besides Minneapolis. I recognized some of those RW tactics from reports in other communities.
Shiv
(113 posts)A lot of effort during the Occupy protests, from what I saw on livestreams and friends got documentation bout ways to handle this, that a lot of people were tasked just with ferreting these people out, identifying them to law enforcer, and making it clear they were not with anyone.
Gonna see if I can find some of those strategy / briefing / best practices and dust them off. Maybe a better Google-Fu'er than me can get something together quicker. hmph.
Tight line to blance keeping the reactions in check with as upsetting as the attacks on citizens are getting. Thanks for the reminder, I keep reminding myself, but it helps to hear it again. And again.