Peddling Poison

UNSURPRISINGLY, the white supremacist extremist movement, firmly ensconced within the conservative Christian Trump base, is taking advantage of the epidemic to peddle poison, creepy crawler style. The main M.O. is to blame the pandemic on the Chinese, or any convenient, hated minority, any of which will do, which is a common strategy throughout the political right. Using the internet, using the usual redneck reprobate terminology, niggers, queers, ragheads terminology well known, to denigrate and arouse higher levels of hatred. They exploit tie great ongoing left right divide in American society, by fomenting anger which they hope will result in social conflict, chaos, destruction, and the rebirth of an all white christian American state. The white Christian party, also known as the Republican party, is their most reliable vehicle. The thinly disguised, loose coalition of Christian nationalism, the Trump movement, and the conservative media, featuring FOX news, foments violence by egging on the relatively small protests against quarantining virus control occurring in many cities, especially state capitol cities. These protests are highly organized and planned, but try to convey the impression of being spontaneous, representing the will of the people, in a tactic widely known as "Astroturfing", to distinguish it from its intended purpose of appearing to be grass roots. They are mostly MAGA-nauts who protest mandatory home confinement and loss of income, which are being required by governments only for the sake of survival - the virus must be brought under control before society can return to normal, scientists point out - by standing close together, often not wearing masks, and screeching the usual platitudes and rhetoric about freedom and liberty, and badly needing haircuts. FOX news, like Trump, is egging them on, it being a violation of law for the president to do so, encouraging insurrection against legal governments. But, among the capitalistic right, money Trumps public health. And for the white Christian supremacy movement, racism, xenophobia, and hatred trump all.