Fueled by false narratives...

We've been warned

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security issued an unusual alert about the potential domestic terrorism stemming from

…a heightened threat environment across the United States, which DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful Presidential Inauguration.  Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.

According to the bulletin, the threat stems, as well, from “anger over COVID restrictions.” The alert says that DVEs (Domestic Violent Extremists) might feel emboldened by the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was a failure by every measure save perhaps as a recruitment tool for would-be DVEs, experts say.

Before we embrace the breathlessness of the news coverage of this, the threat of domestic violence is not new. What is new is the federal government issuing alerts about it. Until rather recently, save for a few corners of investigative journalism and intelligence communities, both the threat of domestic terrorism and its actual existence has been ignored. If you read the U.S. Code, the legal definition of domestic terrorism is a good working description for the majority of our mass shootings.

Elected officials who try to minimize the Capitol attacks do so at their peril. Republicans who keep pushing false narratives need to understand that they also do so at their peril, and at the peril of their political party. (This Colorado Public Radio story about Colorado Republicans leaving the party over the insurrection is instructive.)

Meanwhile, the FBI, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, and other law enforcement agencies continue to arrest people accused of participating in the armed insurrection. Agencies have been able to make so many arrests so quickly in large part because of the help of regular citizens who’ve used social media to identify suspects. Sometimes, the information has come from friends and family members of the accused. One Texas teenager called the FBI about his father’s involvement in the insurrection and went on television to encourage other relatives with working moral compasses: “It’s OK to come forward.” The teenager is in hiding and has cut ties with his family.

The DHS alert is set to end on April 30, 2021. Obviously, that date is fungible, but there are more of us than there are of them, and if you just heard a gauntlet dropping, I don’t mean it that way. This angry corps of ignorance is a last gasp. A way of life is dying. The rabid dog has been backed into a corner.

And we are going to be OK. Onward to April, and beyond.