The rise of authoritarianism in the West
The rise of authoritarianism in the West is a threat that extends beyond groups like the Proud Boys.
February 8, 2021
Over the past months and years the world has seen escalation to a horrific scale.
Political violence has become ever more prevalent and indeed seems to be a part of normal life. This violence has not gone unnoticed by politicians who weaponize it for their own agenda. These politicians will ignore or even support violence if it helps their plan, but actively lie about groups that disagree with them to make them seem far more violent than they actually are. This is where we are and things can only get worse.
Over 2020 the world saw mass rioting on scales never before seen. These were a mixture of Black Lives Matter and anti lockdown riots. On January 6th a group of a few hundred Trump supporters stormed the capital building. Although many were let in by guards many others broke in and a few even killed an officer. All this violence must be condemned by everyone, but it isn’t. Many, and I dare say most, people think that all of the violence is bad, but there are many leaders who will support, or even pay the bail for, violent extremists so long as it suits their needs.
Meanwhile they condemn whole heartedly so much as peaceful protests that go against them. This condemnation can be seen in full display with the Gadsden Flag. They call this symbol of the US revolution a white supremecist symbol. With these politicians all violence is ok so long as it helps them, but if anyone so much as speaks up against them, then they must be destroyed. The effect of the lies they spread about such groups as would dare to go against their will can not be understated. These lies have culminated in severe action against these groups.
The by far biggest example comes from Canada, who has declared the Proud Boys a white suppremecist terrorist organization, meaning that those associated with the group can have their property and finances seized without so much as a charge of a crime. The very notion that the Proud Boys are terrorists is in it of itself ludicrous, but white supremacists? Their chairman Enrique Tarrio is literally mixed race, African-Cuban. Can they be criticized, yes. They show up in places where they know leftists will attack them and they defend themselves, but the group rarely instigates violence. Whenever it does they should be wholly condemned, but declaring them a terrorist organization is going way too far.
Sadly the lies that have led to such an overextension of state authority do not stop there. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently released a video describing her experience during the Capital riot, which is fine, except she lied. She described being afraid for her life as rioters were in the building and berated the cop that came to get her, except she was not in the Capitol Building during the riot. No one breached the building she was in. AOC’s story also took place at 1pm, an hour before the Capitol Building was breached. It was before anyone even thought it possible to breach the building. The capitol building was not evacuated until 2:30. The events she describes are completely fabricated. What’s more she has continuously claimed that republican congressmen were trying to get her killed. This was one of the reasons AOC gave as to why she did not follow the plan and did not go with all the other congressmen to the extraction point.
So why make something like this up? There is only one reason, power. The people formulating these lies want power, power to crush political opposition and they will use any means necessary to get such power. Whether it be using violent extremists to burn whole cities down or lying or exaggerating events to increase power of the “security” sector. It is working. National security experts and government officials are calling for a middle eastern style counter insurgency operation. The New York Times posted an article arguing that the US needs a cross agency task force to fight what they call election and COVID “misinformation”. Meanwhile Democratic politicians are calling for the expulsion of their political opposition as well as “truth” and “reconciliation” commissions. What’s more, they are purging the military of dissidents. An army officer is under investigation for just having gone to hear Trump speak, she was forced to resign. When the national guard was deployed to Washington D.C. they removed the soldiers who were seen with Gadsden Flags or associated with the NRA. This is continuing as the Pentagon has ordered a 60 day lockdown to weed out what they deem to be “extremist”. Any and all who would dare to disagree with these leaders will be forced out.
Things went way too far a long time ago, yet the escalation continues. Violence is rampant and politicians will silence those who go against their authority, one way or another. If what is currently happening is not stopped the west will undoubtedly fall into authoritarianism.