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Death of a Nation
11 February 2018 10:33 amThe Single Action Shooting Society has a white supremacist problem.
This is not to say that the SASS has a problem beyond that affecting the entire United States at this time. No, we all have a problem with a resurgent white supremacy and recognizing that it is, in fact, a problem, is a necessary first step in making it not a problem anymore.
I will illustrate with an interaction that happened on the SASS Facebook page where someone I will refer to as SASS Supremacist shared a meme citing the murders of farmers in South Africa and claiming “Caucasian Genocide.”
I called out to the page admins to take down this racist posting and someone I will refer to as SASS Member asked “How is this racist?” SASS Supremacist countered that it wasn't racist, merely fact.
When the SASS Admin finally showed up, he said he was taking down the post because it was off topic but also added that “the 2nd Amendment should apply globally.”
All three represent different levels of racism and all three explain why this is a problem and not just a one-off.
First, of course, is SASS Supremacist's initial posting. There really can be no denying that calling it White Genocide is inherently racially charged. Secondly, it is simply unsupported. Multiple studies of data, including from the BBC, have found the claim to be unsubstantiated. There isn't enough data to determine if farmers as a group are significantly more likely to be murdered than any other population. And there isn't enough data to conclude that white farmers are statistically more likely to be murdered than black farmers or, again, any other population. And even if those things did turn out to be true, the overall numbers do not even remotely rise to the level of genocide. To look at the lack of data and conclude White Genocide is propagandous, colloquially known as a lie.
Then, to have SASS Member to respond to “White Genocide” with “How is that racist?” I will be honest, the mind boggles at the blindness and self absorption. He even countered my citation from the BBC with a site that ran down the statistics, as if the fact that there have been white farmers killed substantiated the claim, while at the same time ignoring that what he was posting was, in fact, one of the sources the BBC cited and at the bottom concluded that the claim of White Genocide was entirely unsubstantiated. Like so many amateur apologists, he did a quick Google search and shared the first thing that seemed to support his position without actually reading what he had found.
Finally, the SASS Admin didn't delete the posting for being racist. He didn't delete it for being inflammatory. He didn't delete it for being a propagandous lie. He said he deleted it for merely being off topic but then essentially said that it was actually on topic by invoking the 2nd Amendment, implying that the farmers could have defended themselves if only they had the gun rights we had. He said so not realizing that, while South Africans don't have a 2nd Amendment right, they are able to obtain firearms after some fairly stringent tests. Tests that disproportionately apply against black South Africans.
SASS has a problem because SASS Supremacist felt confident and comfortable enough to post his inflammatory, racist propaganda on an official SASS forum, much like the other white supremacists and Nazis felt empowered to march in Charlotte. Emboldened by the bigot in the presidency, continuously defending them and their cause with dog whistles.
SASS has a problem because SASS Member, and far too many of his fellow members, are casual bigots if not full racists, oblivious to their own complicity in allowing white supremacists to fester within their organization.
SASS has a problem because SASS Admin, and others in leadership, are willing to let this hatred and bigotry have its full voice. I have seen absolutely no effort on their part to either cleanse the ranks of hatred or to promote diversity. Flip through the pages of The Cowboy Chronicles and the faces you see there are overwhelmingly white.
But, as I said before, this is not isolated to cowboy action shooting. The NRA is run through with it as shown in a recent inflammatory commercial which was the white equivalent of an ISIS recruitment video and when leadership refer to The War of Northern Aggression. White supremacy has reared its ugly head in the Society for Creative Anachronisms as a western king openly wore swastikas and HH symbols at his coronation. I see it on internet threads as Nazi-wannabes and apologists fly the KEK flag on their profiles as if we won't notice. And the likes of David Duke endorse the president and his policies.
Murders by white supremacists doubled in 2017 and we are in a way complicit because we allowed this to happen. We allowed these people to fester and then thrive in our clubs, organizations, and society, unwilling to call them out for their hatred because they had successfully used the threat of the free speech slippery slope against us. Tolerance is not a moral precept. It is a social contract that the Nazis violated in the 30s and the white supremacists and amateur authoritarians tell us that they will violate that contract once they have control.
And they think they have that control. The believe that Trump has given them that license to walk openly. I will not tolerate that in my midst. I may not punch the Nazis the way they deserve but I will call it out in the Single Action Shooting Society and elsewhere.
Make white supremacists afraid again.
This is not to say that the SASS has a problem beyond that affecting the entire United States at this time. No, we all have a problem with a resurgent white supremacy and recognizing that it is, in fact, a problem, is a necessary first step in making it not a problem anymore.I will illustrate with an interaction that happened on the SASS Facebook page where someone I will refer to as SASS Supremacist shared a meme citing the murders of farmers in South Africa and claiming “Caucasian Genocide.”
I called out to the page admins to take down this racist posting and someone I will refer to as SASS Member asked “How is this racist?” SASS Supremacist countered that it wasn't racist, merely fact.
When the SASS Admin finally showed up, he said he was taking down the post because it was off topic but also added that “the 2nd Amendment should apply globally.”
All three represent different levels of racism and all three explain why this is a problem and not just a one-off.
First, of course, is SASS Supremacist's initial posting. There really can be no denying that calling it White Genocide is inherently racially charged. Secondly, it is simply unsupported. Multiple studies of data, including from the BBC, have found the claim to be unsubstantiated. There isn't enough data to determine if farmers as a group are significantly more likely to be murdered than any other population. And there isn't enough data to conclude that white farmers are statistically more likely to be murdered than black farmers or, again, any other population. And even if those things did turn out to be true, the overall numbers do not even remotely rise to the level of genocide. To look at the lack of data and conclude White Genocide is propagandous, colloquially known as a lie.
Then, to have SASS Member to respond to “White Genocide” with “How is that racist?” I will be honest, the mind boggles at the blindness and self absorption. He even countered my citation from the BBC with a site that ran down the statistics, as if the fact that there have been white farmers killed substantiated the claim, while at the same time ignoring that what he was posting was, in fact, one of the sources the BBC cited and at the bottom concluded that the claim of White Genocide was entirely unsubstantiated. Like so many amateur apologists, he did a quick Google search and shared the first thing that seemed to support his position without actually reading what he had found.
Finally, the SASS Admin didn't delete the posting for being racist. He didn't delete it for being inflammatory. He didn't delete it for being a propagandous lie. He said he deleted it for merely being off topic but then essentially said that it was actually on topic by invoking the 2nd Amendment, implying that the farmers could have defended themselves if only they had the gun rights we had. He said so not realizing that, while South Africans don't have a 2nd Amendment right, they are able to obtain firearms after some fairly stringent tests. Tests that disproportionately apply against black South Africans.
SASS has a problem because SASS Supremacist felt confident and comfortable enough to post his inflammatory, racist propaganda on an official SASS forum, much like the other white supremacists and Nazis felt empowered to march in Charlotte. Emboldened by the bigot in the presidency, continuously defending them and their cause with dog whistles.
SASS has a problem because SASS Member, and far too many of his fellow members, are casual bigots if not full racists, oblivious to their own complicity in allowing white supremacists to fester within their organization.
SASS has a problem because SASS Admin, and others in leadership, are willing to let this hatred and bigotry have its full voice. I have seen absolutely no effort on their part to either cleanse the ranks of hatred or to promote diversity. Flip through the pages of The Cowboy Chronicles and the faces you see there are overwhelmingly white.
But, as I said before, this is not isolated to cowboy action shooting. The NRA is run through with it as shown in a recent inflammatory commercial which was the white equivalent of an ISIS recruitment video and when leadership refer to The War of Northern Aggression. White supremacy has reared its ugly head in the Society for Creative Anachronisms as a western king openly wore swastikas and HH symbols at his coronation. I see it on internet threads as Nazi-wannabes and apologists fly the KEK flag on their profiles as if we won't notice. And the likes of David Duke endorse the president and his policies.
Murders by white supremacists doubled in 2017 and we are in a way complicit because we allowed this to happen. We allowed these people to fester and then thrive in our clubs, organizations, and society, unwilling to call them out for their hatred because they had successfully used the threat of the free speech slippery slope against us. Tolerance is not a moral precept. It is a social contract that the Nazis violated in the 30s and the white supremacists and amateur authoritarians tell us that they will violate that contract once they have control.
And they think they have that control. The believe that Trump has given them that license to walk openly. I will not tolerate that in my midst. I may not punch the Nazis the way they deserve but I will call it out in the Single Action Shooting Society and elsewhere.
Make white supremacists afraid again.
