Morning Briefing: Targets of Far Right Harassment Campaigns Face Bomb Threats
Morning Briefing: Targets of Far Right Harassment Campaigns Face Bomb Threats
From libraries to bookstores to churches, the targets of far right harassment campaigns continue to face bomb threats and other threats of extremists violence.
Morning Briefing: In Durham County, North Carolina, the local library was reportedly evacuated “after receiving an anonymous bomb threat just before a story hour hosted by an LGBTQ organization was set to begin.” The event was sponsored by Rainbow Collective for Change, “a non-profit that’s mission is connecting LGBTQ+ families with young children in the Triangle area of North Carolina through events like the library reading program.”
In Provo, Utah, the Mosaics Community Bookstore & Venue was the targeted of an emailed bomb threat that reportedly “appeared to be regarding events held at the bookstore, including ‘all ages drag story hour.’”
A Drag Queen Story Hour event which was scheduled to take place at Vision of Hope Metropolitan Community Church in Mountville, Pennsylvania, was reportedly cancelled after “hate started piling in with comments and shares on social media.” This cancellation comes after the previously scheduled event at the library “was canceled after a suspicious package was found at the library the morning of the event.”
Planet Fitness gyms around the country have continued to face bomb threats, “after a conservative movement against the gym’s trans-inclusive locker room policy went viral online.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills singed into law a bill “to restrict paramilitary training in Maine in response to a neo-Nazi who wanted to create a training center,” and the new law “allows the attorney general to file for a court injunction to stop paramilitary training that’s intended to sow civil disorder.”
Richard Ackerman, who has been linked to the neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131), reportedly admitted to participating in the Capitol Riot and “plead guilty to two charges of civil disorder and theft of government property, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”
Must Reads
Sarah Posner writes that “the term ‘Christian nationalism’ became popularized during Trump’s presidency for a few reasons. First, Trump, who first ran in 2016 on a nativist platform with the nationalist slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ was and still is dependent on white evangelicals to win elections and maintain a hold on power. He is consequently willing to carry out their goals, bringing their ambitions closer to fruition than they’ve ever been in their 45-year marriage to the Republican Party. They have been clear, for example, in crediting him for the downfall of Roe v. Wade, among other assaults on other peoples’ rights. Second, the prominence of Christian iconography at the January 6 insurrection, and the support for Trump’s stolen election lie before, during, and after January 6 by both Christian right influencers and the grassroots, brought into stark relief that Christian nationalist motivations helped fuel his attempted coup. Finally, sociologists studying the belief systems of Christian nationalists pushed the term into public usage, as did anti-nationalist Christians, especially after January 6, in order to elevate awareness of the threats Christian nationalism poses to democracy.” [Talking Points Memo]
David Gilbert writes that “with less than seven months to go until November, election offices and the people who run them are facing unprecedented challenges as they try to prepare for the most consequential vote in a generation… for the last three years, these offices have been under attack. Since former president Donald Trump and his acolytes refused to accept the results of the 2020 US election, election officials and workers have faced a torrent of threats. According to data collected by the Brennan Center last year, one in three of the country’s estimated 10,000 election officials has received threats or harassment because of their job. Though US elections have never been more secure, US election officials say, this hasn’t really mattered for election deniers. In addition to violent threats, workers have faced rampant election conspiracies spread by Trump and the GOP—now supercharged by AI, election denial groups, and even election deniers inside the government. As a result, election officials have resigned en masse. The loss of institutional knowledge, coupled with an unending wave of disinformation and misinformation, has made the job untenable.” [Wired]
Ana Marie Cox writes that “some people call what [Bari] Weiss is doing a grift but I disagree: It’s not a grift if you are giving people what they paid for, and her customers are more than satisfied with the product. They are so satisfied you might call them smug, though it’s human instinct to be around people who agree with you—even if that agreement is based around the fuzzy notion that you should be able to disagree without actually being, you know, unpleasant. As much as I found myself railing against whatever speaker fee they paid [Ann] Coulter, as much as I gritted my teeth while she spouted her cold soup of nativist talking points, I think I came around to feeling grateful that she was there. While she didn’t make an appearance at the after-party, she was the turd in the punchbowl, the piece of shit in the spicy margarita at the open bar. Her repellent presence reminded people that perhaps arguments about immigration policy should have an unpleasant aspect to them—we were, after all, arguing about the fate of real people here. There is no public policy without human cost, and that’s especially true of immigration; even [Sohrab] Ahmari’s aspirational vision doesn’t alleviate human suffering, it just leaves the desperate on the other side of our national door.” [The New Republic]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
