Hey, right wing, racist, xenophobic terrorists aren’t just an American phenomenon anymore. Case in point: Neil Lewington of Reading, Berkshire who had constructed a bomb factory in his parents’ home to take out all those he considered not British enough.
Neil Lewington, 43, had developed a bomb factory at his parents’ home in Reading, Berkshire, targeting those he thought “non-British”, jurors heard.
The Old Bailey heard he was carrying bomb parts when arrested at Lowestoft, Suffolk, for abusing a train conductor. […]
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said Mr Lewington was found to be carrying the component parts of two “viable improvised incendiary devices”.
Later searches of his home revealed a notebook entitled “Waffen SS UK members’ handbook” which contained drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures, jurors were told. […]
He also had an “unhealthy interest” in the London nail bomber David Copeland, America’s Unabomber and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said Mr Altman.
Mr Altman said: “The effect of these finds is to prove that this man who had strong if not fanatical right-wing leanings and opinions was on the cusp of embarking on a campaign of terrorism against those he considered non-British.”
Sounds like the Brits dodged a bullet a few IED’s from a guy who was not a Muslim and who allegedly planned to “take out” anyone not white enough for his tastes. Yes, racist right wing terrorists are a now going global. Another American cultural export? The BBC reports. You decide. But from where I sit, it sure looks like that. I mean, when one of his heroes is Timothy McVeigh, you have to ask whether our right wing extremists are influencing other like minded members of the lunatic fringe to act out their violent, racist fantasies in real life. The Brits were luckier than we were. At least they stopped this guy before he could put his plan into action. the question remains, however: how many more are there like him, not only in the UK but across Europe? After all, France, Germany and Italy all have Neo-Nazi and Neo-fascist groups, and even political parties dedicated to the eradication expulsion of foreigners, especially Turks, Arabs and other brown skinned folks. Not to mention their long history of hatred for the Jews.
I wish I could offer them some good advice, but America isn’t doing very well eliminating our own right wing terrorist threats. If anything we’re behind the curve in that regard. Way behind the curve based on what’s happened here over the last year with the assassinations of George Tiller, that poor security guard at the Holocaust Museum, Stephen Tyrone Johns, Bill Gwatney, the Democratic party chairperson in Arkansas, and the liberal church goers gunned down by David Adkisson in Knoxville, Tennessee. Not to mention the aborted assassination plots against Obama, the guy in Maine who was assembling a dirty bomb until his wife killed him because he abused her, or the recent radical fringe anti-immigrant Minuteman members in Arizona who murdered two people, including a nine year old girl.
Maybe they can give us a few tips, however, on how to stop these freaks. God knows we need all the help we can get.
We have to realize that terrorism is a disease of our modern times. It is restricted to no one country, culture or religious conviction but can be found almost anywhere. One symptom, however, seems to be a presence of extreme right wing beliefs; another a fondness for quick and violent solutions to complex problems.
And those who promulgate such a philosophy of hatred and extremism, read US media types of the Hannity, Savage, Beck, Coulter, Limbaugh persuasion, are contributing to the climate in which these terrorists thrive. They are, indeed, toxic to welfare of our society. What a pity these malevolent spokespeople are not only shameless but exceedingly well paid. Truly, the Devil’s helpers.
I’m not so sure that it’s right-wing extremism that’s universally to blame. I was in (then West) Germany in the 1980’s, and there were wanted posters all over the place for members of various left-wing terrorist groups. And certainly, in other places and in other time periods in our own country, there have been waves of left- as well as right-wing terrorism.
What terrorists of all stripes have in common is the belief that their ideology is worth more than human life. This is not a particularly extreme view: every man and woman who is currently serving in the United States military, and indeed, every person who is not a pacifist, shares that belief. The only practical difference between a private in the regular army and a terrorist is that the terrorist is more likely to act alone or as part of a small group outside of the social consensus about which ideologies are worth more than human life. (Given that the casualties of modern-day wars average 95-98% civilian, one difference that they don’t have is respect for civilian lives.)
I know it’s awfully comforting to believe that the left is somehow better than the right in this respect — and there may be a kernel of truth there at this particular time and place — but the 20th century saw plenty of left wing terror groups both in the US and abroad.
If there is an abundance of right wing terror right now, it probably has a lot less to do with any inherent property of their ideology than it does with the fact that the right has been handed a stunning series of electoral defeats with no relief in sight, and the less stable members of the right wing are simply lashing out. Back when the left was seriously on the ropes with the rise of Richard Nixon, we saw the same thing from alienated leftists.
Anyway, I guess we can milk it for all it’s worth politically, if the goal is simply to crush the right. If the goal is broader — to increase respect for human life, the rule of law, and the democratic process — we will recognize that the right is not the only faction in need of some serious soul-searching.
The history of right wing terror groups in the US is far more extensive than that of the left. I can’t vouch for other countries, but I’m willing to bet most hate crimes are motivated by racism, xenophobia, ultra nationalism and extreme fundamentalist religious beliefs which are predominantly right wing phenomena.
The racism, xenophobia, and ultranationalism of the old USSR, the communist Chinese, and the North Koreans are/were not right-wing phenomena. Granted, they’re not much on religious fundamentalism, but an equivalent role has been filled by leader cults and political fanaticism.
Pluralism and tolerance are great and wonderful things, but there is nothing inherently left- or right-wing about them any more than attitudes towards violence are inherently left- or right-wing. That they have ended up aligned that way in contemporary American politics is a historical accident and by no means universal.
It’s also worth considering that for most of the 20th century, the rise of Russian communism and then the Cold War gave the US government an official pretext to actively suppress the American left in a way that even the most extreme right wing organizations have never faced. Right wing violence is treated as a series of isolated incidents, whereas any extralegal activity on the left is treated as if it was a massive conspiracy. What later became the FBI, for example, was founded specifically to neutralize American leftism, a task at which it was quite successful.
Everyone wants to be travis bickle.
Warrantless domestic wiretaps?
Britain has a long, strong history of nativist-skinhead thuggery. This is only one instance of a subculture that predated OK City and the Unabomber, but became more prominent and violent as immigration increased.