The foundation of the False Patriot and Militia Movement in America.

The SOSMM share the same militia concept and even the same identification of referring to themselves as “Patriots” as the founders of the modern militia movement in America.

Today’s Militias and Patriot groups are the result of the strategies laid out in 1992 by Race Supremacists. Through the years they have learned to cloak their agendas with terms like “Concerned Citizens” “True Patriots” and “Pro-American”.

9/11/90 -- President Bush, describing the post-Cold War world, outlines his vision of a "New World Order." Conspiracy-minded Patriots take this as a slip of the tongue revealing secret plans to create a one-world government.

February '92 -- White supremacist theorist Louis Beam calls for "leaderless resistance," or cells of fighters who report to no one. In coming years, the concept will be picked up by many in the Patriot movement.

10/23/92 -- Anti-Semitic Christian Identity pastor Pete Peters hosts the "Rocky Mountain Rendezvous" in Estes Park, Colo., where 160 extremists, reacting to Ruby Ridge, lay out strategies for what will become the militia movement.

1/1/94 -- The first modern militia, the Militia of Montana, is officially inaugurated. It is led by John Trochmann, a white supremacist supporter of Randy Weaver.

July '95 -- Two militia groups and the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations launch simultaneous campaigns to gather information about and conduct covert surveillance on "opponents."

September '95 -- William Pierce, author of the Turner Diaries and leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, launches a "militia project," encouraging his members to develop contacts with militias in a bid to influence them.

4/5/96 -- Patriot activists mix with neo-Nazis and Klansmen at Jubilation '96, a Lake Tahoe, Nev., gathering of more than 500 people that is hosted by adherents of the racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity religion.

4/18/97 -- A Patriot group files a notice with Maricopa County officials declaring a new "Country of Arizona," separate from the United States, and supposedly recognized by the United Nations as "Indigenous Nation No. 215."

6/11/99 -- Nearly 100 hard-line Patriots gather for advanced paramilitary training at the North Carolina property of former Special Forces member John Roberts, head of the Militia of East Tennessee.

The "Save Our State" a.k.a. "Minutemen" a.k.a National Vanguard white supremists _do_ exhibit a difference in behavior when compared to the self-proclaimed "militia" right-wing gun nut kooks, though. These self-proclaimed "milita" kooks are all abslutely, profoundly, blitheringly insane. Total whack jobs. Every one of them are Timothy McVeighs waiting to happen. Every one of them are "waiting for the nigger to make his move" and every one of them are _exactly_ the type of insane person who shouldn't be allowed to have access to firearms.

These white supremist groups -- SOSMM et al. -- aren't filled with the ranks of the totally whacked out insane. Turner looks like he's a buttfrockingly insane rightard whackjob, true, but from what I've seen of his white bread Master Race buddies, their hatred isn't predicated upon outright insanity.

I've noticed a difference in their rank and file from that of militias from the 90's.

I believe that some of their rank and file have the potential of being decent peeps. They've just been led astray by wackos spouting reconquista shock.

In many ways their leadership and reconquista theory is like Bush and his WMD. It just doesn't exist.

They can't find the reconquista so they instigate trouble then state that the response is evidence of a reconquista.

I've been mulling over the BP protest, and believe that the protest probably pushed SOS closer to the fascist, racist position, judging from their message board.

I believe this result was due, partly, to the logic underlying the protest and it's message. There's a logic to the protest that is fundamentally racist. Here's my "proof".

Assume that people are basically rational, but, disagree because of varying perspectives, influenced by varied ideas. If people are basically logical, mass mobilizations can be analyzed logically. Their moderate turnout indicated that some people considered the SOS BP protest to be a sensible protest.

The monument is not intrinsically about immigration or undocumented immigration. It's not an "Ellis Island" or even an "Angel Island" monument. It's not a site where people enter the country. It's not a place where the immigrants or their employers live. It's not the site of immigration legislation.

Thus, there is no *direct* relationship between the monument and immigration. It's an indirect association. (The monument is explicitly about Native Americans.)

The indirect association they state is that one quote on the monument is evidence of "reconquista." The second is that the quote that starts "it was better before", is "racist". Implicitly, it's that the statement is "reverse racism", or a once oppressed group now using its power to discriminate against white people, because the artist, Baca, is a Chicano activist.

The protest believes that the US is being reconquested by Mexicans, and that reverse racism is a real social problem. I say, "the protest believes," because that's the fundamental logic of their protest. The act of protest makes an assertion that these two beliefs are true.

We have a name for someone who believes these two things: "paranoid white male." :-) A nicer way to say it is, that they're the typical, prejudiced attitudes expressed by a majority group in power, when a minority group formerly out of power asserts its civil rights. When it's expressed with angry words and threats of violence, it's usually called "fascism" or "scapegoating" or "racism."

The SOS organization mission statement says they're about one thing, but their protest they have is about something else entirely.

Someone supporting the SOS side of the protest must, at some level, believe these two premises about the protest, as well as the mission statement.

They might not be aware of it, though, because it's typical that in racist (or other unfair) situations, the person benefiting from the unfairness doesn't notice the problem, while the person suffering from it is acutely aware of it. This leads to denial -- many people avoid facing difficult truths, by denying that there's a problem.

Denial is extremely easy when the verbal statements already made about a situation, and the underlying reality of a situation don't match. You just repeat the verbal denial that's already provided, and keep denying.

SOS started the protest with a lie, and the members just had to repeat it over and over until they believed it.

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The effects of the protests happen at two levels. First, it connects the anti-undocumented-immigrant movement with this anti-reconquest movement (which doesn't really exist, yet). That is one step closer to fascism -- they link the fringe issue popular with fascists, to the more mainstream opposition to undocumented immigration.

Second, it serves to defame Baldwin Park, a city that's mostly Latino, and has a mostly Latino City Council. It's a likely target for racists, and would serve to discredit the city in the right wing media.

The good side effect - if anything in this situation is good - is that a lot of people see the logic of the protest clearly, or understand it instantly. This is forming the basis of a broad opposition.

Unfortunately, the LA Times is spinning Turner like he's an working class hero. That's not good. That's pretty much the standard theme that transforms itself into support for their side.

The fact that a political movement has strong fascist support is no guarantee that it'll fail. Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, Suharto, F. Marcos, Duvalier, and Franco aren't remembered for being insignificant and obscure. While a fascist movment may not gain much in America, it can still grow to a size that will cause a lot of problems for some Americans.

Specifically, incidents of hate crimes will increase against the traditional targets of hate. (You know who they are.)

It may not necessarily be the "SOSs" perpetrating violence against immigrants or minorities, but, those who engage in that kind of behavior will feel emboldened. People with a violent streak will gravitate to their movement, in the hopes of acting out their anger.

Turner as a working class hero?

Isn't that the same spin that Hitler received when he formed the NAZI party?