Extremists or normal Americans? Is there a difference?

I hope they didn't find anyone who would insist on liberty! How absurd!

I should probably not get into this, but I'm going to. Below is an article about a report on radical groups. I will add comments in green. Right off the bat, I wonder if the people who made this report are related to the ones who are constantly telling us what a terrible threat Christians are to America.

The recent appointee for Transportation Safety Director said that "...clearly Christians are a greater threat to America than radical Muslims." I don't have any way of knowing if he was smoking hashish or ingesting peyote before he said that. Since no one has ever killed a bunch of people saying, "I'm doing this for Jesus" I'd have to be skeptical, since radical Muslims murder people every day in this world.

Another terrifying fringe group of "Nazis" and "brownshirts" that we heard about ad nauseum is that lunatic fringe of two-thirds of Americans who don't really want the 18 new taxes, 112 new bureaucracies, and multi-TRILLION dollar cost of government taking over healthcare.

Newsmax

U.S. Sees 'Explosion' of Extremist Groups: Report

Friday, 05 Mar 2010 09:07 AM

WASHINGTON – “The U.S. has seen an "explosion" in the number of extremist groups and armed militias which advocate radical anti-government doctrines and conspiracy theories, a recent report has found.

The number of active "Patriot" groups nearly tripled last year to 512 from 149 in 2008, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the activities of hate groups.

Some 127 of those groups were paramilitary militias, up from 42 a year earlier.

"We saw a real explosion in militias and the larger anti-government patriot movement," said Mark Potok, who directs the group's Intelligence Report. Are they anti-government like Tea Party people are anti-government? We've heard a lot about how they are a crazy fringe group who don't want any government or to pay any taxes. As it turns out, they are the most popular and trusted political group in the country, and simply don't want to be dragged backwards 80 years to the age to pathetic socialism.

"This is a movement that sees the government as the primary enemy and is completely eaten up with all kinds of conspiracy theories," Potok said in a video accompanying the report published Tuesday. ...eaten up with, how sad...

"They really believe the government is part of an evil scheme to do in Americans."

As opposed to what? They are literally bankrupting the entire country and everyone in it in order to give mountains of cash to their powerful friends, they've reached new depths of corruption and sleaze, lie to us daily, and are currently taking over 71% of the economy, which anyone smarter than a cabbage knows never works.

The Patriot movement last rose to national prominence in the mid 1990's following the death of 76 Branch Davidians during an FBI raid on their Waco Texas ranch. A significant amount of violence was linked to the movement, most notably the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.
The Branch Davidians were representative of the patriot movement? That's an interesting viewpoint.

But the groups had largely disappeared from public view after apocalyptic warnings about a 'Y2K' collapse of computing systems and society at large on January 1, 2000 proved unfounded. In other words, crackpots.

Potok traces the recent rise in patriot groups to anger over racial changes in the population - most notably the election of the first black president - rising public debt, the bank bailout and an array of initiatives by President Barack Obama's administration that are seen as "socialist" or "fascist." Clearly, anyone who might be patriotic or who may be unhappy about having the country systematically looted and burned to the ground is a racist. I think that goes without saying. "Racist" is their answer to everything now. It's like in a video game where if you can't clear the level using your guns, there is that button you can use once per level where you just nuke everything on that level.

"The economy being in shambles, and so many people unemployed has left a lot of people hurting, frustrated, angry and looking for a reason why they are in the place they are in," Potok said. Poor and stupid, clearly, no valid reason for concern.

"There's a great deal of anger and frustration and that is being channeled sometimes by conspiracy theories or by scapegoating certain groups into this kind of rage we are seeing all across the country." Again with the racism. There is no possible valid reason for people to be the slightest bit upset, or to disagree with what is being done, although almost every single law proposed has been shown to be opposed by anywhere from 55 to 85% of the country.

The concern, Potok said, is that so many people appear ready to "take action" and so many mainstream politicians and pundits are adopting anti-government stances.

There has also been a sharp increase in the amount "cross-pollination" between different sectors of the radical right, Potok said, as racist rants infuse the Patriot movement and anti-government ideas are adopted by anti-immigrant groups.

The number of "Nativist," anti-immigrant vigilante groups also grew sharply from 173 in 2008 to 309 in 2009. I'm not even positive that these are bad guys. Any time anyone wants for the US to have an immigration policy like any normal country, and enforce it, they're racist. It's just obvious. Every single person on earth can't just walk in. They just can't. You have to have some system for regulating it, especially if you are handing out freebies.

The total number of hate groups in the United States climbed to a new high of 932 in 2009, the report found. That's only up six from a year earlier largely because of an implosion of the neo-Nazi movement.” By the way, to many main-stream progressives any Christian group is a hate group. Look it up. It is a long-standing, very orthodox progressive view.