In regards to the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021:Â
Iâve been on hiatus from Tumblr while I focus on finishing college and managing a nonprofit, but I feel called to comment on this situation and how it affects me, my religious community, and other communities that Iâm a part of.Â
Last week many Americans woke up to a reality where alt-right extremists are able to carry out an agenda of terror to usurp the free and democratic norms of our culture. For people such as myself, this isnât new. As a queer Heathen, Iâve been contending with alt-right infiltration and recruitment in my communities for years. Such experiences prompted me to become a security studies major and to involve myself in community-led education on extremist methodologies for the last 4 years.
The violence carried out last Wed is the culmination of successfully coordinated efforts by the alt-right for far longer. While many of us have rolled our eyes and mocked the most radical actors as âNeoNazisâ, weâve been unwitting participants in minimizing the threat they posed until it was too late. They planned it this way. They played the long game with the goal of shifting cultural norms ever closer to promoting neofascist ideologies or, at the very least, inserting ideologies of cultural purism and exclusionism into communities that might inhibit their goals. Such efforts have included infiltrating religious communities, hobby communities, and co-opting cultural norms and language.
Itâs this last part that is particularly insidious and why decent well-meaning people have been ineffective thus far in inhibiting the alt-rightâs momentum. Weâve seen a lot of activism in the last few years of openly calling out racist rhetoric, refusing ânazisâ entry to our spaces, and making it part of our rally cries that we will not stand idle while they co-opt our communities, religions, and symbols. But while call-out language, exclusionary policies, and antagonizing the alt-right may be the most natural reactionary response -
Itâs also, unfortunately, the most divisive and fulfills the alt-rightâs following goals:
They keep themselves at the center of our activism which prevents us from prioritizing the people and identities they pose the greatest danger to (BIPOC, LGBTQA+, and people with disabilities).
They remain an elusive and abstract enemy that keeps us distrustful of our allies and in a reactionary state of shutting out anyone who might have begun to be sucked into their propaganda, which just helps drive their radicalization and recruitment.
They keep us focused on who and what we are against, instead of identifying our own values and identity. In this way they keep control of the narrative and prevent us unifying over anything other than our oppression, fear, and anger at them.
All of this prevents us from maintaining appropriate boundaries with racism and fascist values and replaces them with arbitrary ones. Instead of self-assessing they keep us focused on policing others. Instead of holding ourselves personally accountable for confronting our own racism, biases, and prejudices we become fixated on pointing out everyone elseâs.Â
While I donât claim to have the solution to alt-right influence, itâs clear that our approach will need to be as multilayered and intentional as theirs has been. The attack on the Capitol have made the world aware of the urgency now and new voices will enter this conversation. We canât keep promoting reactive action.
Whatever we do now, we need to start by addressing how to avoid these recurring obstacles and, most importantly, how we can prioritize BIPOC and other marginalized voices to guide the solutions.
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