I spent the evening of August 3 listening to Wes Borland's solo album Crystal Machete. It's a pretty good listen, but I couldn't decide if it was good enough to warrant a full article on Beacon of Speech. I also couldn't remember if I had written about Wes Borland's side project Black Light Burns and was winding down for the night. I would sleep on my decision about the multi-talented Wes Borland.
Before going to bed, I decided to check up on The Drudge Report. There was a shooting in El Paso earlier in the day yesterday and I was worried that Drug Violence had spilled across the Mexican Border.
It had not.
The Shooter in El Paso was a Young White Man. Before he went on his violent rampage, he printed a 2,399 word Manifesto.
And I read it.
You see that guy right there? ^^^^^ That's a character from Dr. Suess' 1971 Children's Book The Lorax. The Gunman in El Paso cited two books before going on his shooting spree, The Lorax and
2011's Le Grand Remplacement by Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus. Now you can't ban Dr. Suess books, you just can't. You could argue that universal Freedoms of Speech are rooted in Dr. Suess' writings. But Le Grand Remplacement?
Now this is where we need to tread lightly. What in the heck exactly is The Grand Replacement?
The Great Replacement, also known as Replacement Theory, is a white nationalist right-wing conspiracy theory which states that, with the complicity of "replacist" elites, the white French population—as well as white European population in Europe at large—is being progressively replaced with non-European peoples, specifically Arab, Berber, and Sub-Saharan African Muslim populations from Africa and the Middle East, through mass migration and demographic growth.
This kid in Texas considers himself a Martyr for the Preservation of Whites in France? Of course he doesn't. In his own words.....
You know what? That Manifesto really bothered me. Truly and deeply. Physically, like a fear in the pit of your stomach. Like watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973) as an impressionable teen, once you see it, you can't un-see it. Leatherface ain't gonna git ya', but the white terrorists will.
I need to stop and refocus on the core principal at Beacon of Speech before we move forward, which is the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. Let's reprint that here as a reminder:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
I kept asking myself after I read the El Paso Manifesto: Why did Matt Drudge print the Manifesto for public consumption? If the reason is what I think it is, we, as Americans, are in BIG, BIG trouble. I am speculating here, but I think Matt Drudge was afraid that the CNNs and NBCs of the world were going to pin the El Paso Shooting on Donald Trump if the people of America weren't able to read the shooter's words for themselves. Matt Drudge made the American People the judges instead of the Corporate Media Machinery in America.
If you read the contents of the Manifesto of the shooter, he rails against both the "Democrats AND Republicans." The shooter was inspired by both of the aforementioned books and the ChristChurch Massacre. One of the other culprits cited by the El Paso Shooter was the corporatization of America. As we have said multiple times on Beacon of Speech, Donald Trump, in his eyes, isn't the President of America, but the CEO of America.
But I'm telling you right now, Donald Trump is ill-equipped to deal with this level of hate. Trump's basically the Postmaster General in the 80's saying "I don't know why all my workers keep shooting each other."
The left is also missing the point. They are racing to ban guns just like New Zealand did after a Right-Winger went Postal in March of 2019. If you ban the guns, the problems are three-fold.
When you ban the guns, you feed into the flames of the Right-Wing Conspiracy theories.
When you ban the guns, you get Timothy McVeigh Fertilizer Bombs or Molotov Cocktails.
When you ban the guns, you erode the liberties granted to you by the Constitution of the United States.
What makes me sick about the Manifesto is at how dangerous it is. You can ban the gun, but the ideas still stand. You can ban the books, but the ideas still stand. What ideas are these? That your neighbor is your enemy and should die.
I have an (unnamed) family member in his 20's who we'll call Jeffrey. He is a young White Male who lives in his Parent's basement. He is "semi"-employed and spends many a day smoking pot and playing video games. He could get a job at WalMart or McDonalds, both are hiring, but he chooses not to. He's a smart kid. If you went over to his house today and talked to him, he's a really good guy. He'd offer you a hit from his bong or offer you a beer from his basement fridge. I used to think that he was lazy, but now I realize that he's too smart for his own good.
Jeffrey has similar ideas as the El Paso shooter. Is he a White Supremacist? Umm, let's hold off on that answer for a second. A generation ago, Jeffrey would have graduated High School, kicked around for a couple years, then settled in at the local Ford Factory and put in 30-35 years of good, hard labor. But guess what? That Ford Factory is gone. I'm going to tell you a secret, the Ford Factory in question was bulldozed right into the dirt. I sent someone to take pictures of the factory being torn down (right by the NO PHOTOGRAPHY sign) and every time I write I am reminded:
I am writing my Blog from a Post-Industrial America.
When your citizens can't get the good jobs at good pay that their parents had, they are going to blame lots of people. The Politicians, The Government, The Corporations and Their Neighbors. If Jeffrey was sitting right here next to me, he'd say something like "I could get a job at WalMart and work my ass off, but where would that get me? I couldn't save enough for a house with WalMart wages. I couldn't get married and start a family with WalMart wages. So if I'm going to be poor, might as well be poor and not work instead of being poor and working hard.
Which is where alot of twenty-somethings are in America. There's lots of jobs, few of them good. “We (Americans) are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist.” ― Mike Rowe
The El Paso Shooter blamed the immigrants for taking the crappy jobs and then their kids take the good jobs. Yeah, that's not exactly what's going on here. My question is why didn't that 21 year old kid join the army? The same reason Jeffrey didn't join the army. What are you fighting for? American Kids have long lost the thirst for fighting in Police Actions and Middle Eastern Civil Wars. However misguided the shooter was, HE thought he was fighting for the greater good.
And what made me physically ill is that the shooter's words are going to resonate. All throughout history Minority Groups have been made the scapegoats in societies. We should not make Hispanics in America the latest domino in the list of the evils perpetrated against minorities in human history.
Do I know illegal Mexican immigrants? Sure do. Am I going to tell you where they live? Sure won't. They are good, hard working people and I condemn anyone who would harass or attack them.
As I write, authors across the internet are now starting to cherry pick the El Paso Shooter's Manifesto.
The Daily Beast just posted the The Great Replacement is a Racist Lie.
CNN just posted Lemon to Trump: Stop Seeming to Coddle White Supremacists
Which re-enforces the positions that corporate media entities held before the shooting.
As the left digs in its heals with their narratives, they still don't comprehend that they are part of the problem. As a Free Speech site, it is unfathomable that no one seems to understand that we are all in this together in this country. Both the Republicans and the Democrats are worried about the self-preservation of their parties versus stopping a potential race war. Because that's the road we're heading on if we all don't start to see our similarities instead of our differences.
Could I have seen a Racial Civil War breaking out 3 years ago? No.
Could I see one breaking out today? Sadly, yes.
I never answered if Jeffrey was racist. Short answer is: Probably. He probably is. The long answer is: It doesn't matter. How do I figure? Jeffrey isn't racist against all races, but he appears racist against certain races. You can't put Jeffrey in jail for his beliefs. Let's say he just sits in the basement and plays video games for another decade or so. He is breaking no laws. Do I wish Jeffrey wasn't probably a racist? Sure do. If Jeffrey doesn't threaten anyone or write any manifestos, he can be a racist 'til he dies. Lots of people across all colors and creeds are. But we as Americans have to learn to, minimally, tolerate each other.
And if Jeffrey votes for Donald Trump, that doesn't make Donald Trump racist by extension.
Just like Jeffrey voting for the Democrat Party nominee doesn't make that candidate racist by extension.
While I was writing, my hero Kevin Smith posted this.
I did create something.
I wish I created something different.
I'm tellin' ya, I have a great idea for a zombie movie. It will be the best zombie movie ever made. Kevin Smith, you can be the executive producer. Let's make some money together and not talk about all of the heavy current events.