Narratives of the Right: Martyrs, Captain Ahab, and the Sexual Revolution
According to the Right, Cayler Ellingson a martyr, Letitia James is Captain Ahab, and Anti-LGBTIQ policies are about rejecting the 'sexual revolution.'
There’s an increasing amount of contemplation on the far right about the concept of a “national divorce,” and even fantasies about how to divide up the country.
Scott Morefield thinks that Democrats are “soulless ghouls hellbent on bringing hell to earth, “ and writes in Townhall that “when a significant percentage of the people we are forced to share a country with become completely unattached from the ideas that founded this country in the first place, a peaceful national divorce just might be the only way to actually preserve the peace.”
The Far Right Martyr
Martyrs are an important component of the far right’s apocalyptic narratives. This is why the far right has embraced figures such as Ashli Babbitt, the U.S. Air Force veteran who was shot and killed during the Capitol Riot. Marc-André Argentino and Adnan Raja explained just how quickly Babbitt was turning into a far right martyr: “overnight, logos, videos, icons and memes were created to immortalise Ashli Babbitt. In some instances she is being called a modern ‘Joan of Arc’, where she was portrayed in a painting echoing classical depictions of Joan of Arc.”
The far right has found another martyr to embrace, which serves as a counter narrative to the increasing number incidents of far right violent extremists violence.
Shannon Brandt allegedly used his vehicle to intentionally hit Cayler Ellingson, an 18-year old who later died of his injuries in McHenry, North Dakota. Brandt claimed that Ellingson was “part of a Republican extremist group,” while law enforcement officials have said that the “investigation has not found any evidence” to support that claim. Brandt reportedly “told investigators he had been drinking alcohol before striking Ellingson and thought the teen was calling people to do him harm after they argued and that he felt threatened.”
Tim Graham, a right-wing media critic, writes in NewsBusters that “Liberal outlets recently rolled out a new set of stories marking the fifth anniversary of Heyer’s death. Doesn’t Cayler Ellingson’s death deserve national attention? Or is it just too contrary to the narrative that all the political violence is presumed to be coming from the conservative side?”
Karol Markowicz, a right-wing pundit, claims that the “president of the United States, supported by a fan-girl media, spouts irresponsible rhetoric that led to Ellingson’s death, and writes in the New York Post that “we went from punching Nazis to running over teenagers in just five years. If the rhetoric of the Democratic Party continues to ratchet up, who knows what comes next?”
Jack Posobiec, the far right conspiracy theorist, writes in Human Events that the “hatred comes directly from the Oval Office and is supported and fueled by the Biden administration. The kind that was stoked by our nation’s president, a man who feels it is his responsibility not to secure our borders, ensure our security internationally, or work towards a healthy economy, but to foster hate, division, and resentment among Americans.”
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