Historian here, with a message for folks arguing against holding people accountable for the siege of the Capitol because "history will be the judge." We are in this mess, BECAUSE people in the past didn't hold their contemporaries accountable. Please don't repeat that mistake.

Wish folks cared as much about countering the political culture of far right hyper-nationalistic populism that traffics in anti-Semitic tropes and naturalized conceptions of racial and gender hierarchies, as they care about dissing those who use the word “fascism” to describe it.

Ultimately, I think that’s what lay behind this terminological dispute. Is democracy more threatened by “center-left/center-right neoliberalism” or by the far right? People who resist the f-word say the former is the *real* threat. People who use the f-word focus on the latter.

My sense is that the people who use the "f-word" are not the neoliberal simpletons their critics tend to think they are. And likewise, the f-word refuseniks are no fans of the far right, they just don't see it as being as powerful and threatening as others do.

This might be overly reductive, but I think at least some of this has to do with where one lives. If one lives in a very blue part of the country, I can see how the threat of far right paramilitaries would seem hyperbolic and exaggerated.

I happen to live in a state capitol were heavily armed, far right paramilitaries have spent the past year assaulting people on a regular basis and working in cahoots with GOP legislators to invade and shut down the state legislature. Things feel quite edgy here.

The "center" of American politics is not a fixed point, it shifts over time. What is "the center" today would have been considered pretty far left in the 1990s. Likewise, what was the imagined "center" in the mid-1980s would have been considered pretty far right in the 70s.

One of Lincoln's skills as a politician was that he moved the center of American politics into an antislavery place, and he also evolved in his own thinking about slavery and race. Finding and helping to move "the center" is one (not the only) form of effective politics.

There is no such thing as a democratic political culture that lacks an imagined "center" and people who inhabit it. This is especially the case in a diverse and often fractious nation. The politics of persuasion is all about moving that imagined center in the direction you want.

Most of the people currently on the American far right are highly unlikely to move to the center, because their basic political commitments are hostile to America's multi-racial democracy. One task ahead is to prevent that segment of our political culture from growing.

How to do that is unclear. History shows that deplatforming can often work. History also shows that sometimes right wing radicals can gain fame and attention by presenting themselves as "martyrs" who've been persecuted by "elites." There's no iron clad formula.

BREAKING – Authorities destroying Mullivaikkal memorial at Jaffna University

A monument paying tribute to the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred by the Sri Lankan state at the University of Jaffna is currently being bulldozed by authorities.

Heavy machinery has been pictured inside the campus toppling the monument.

Students have gathered at the gates of university campus but fear entering amidst reports that Sri Lankan soldiers may also be present.

Sri Lankan police officers have been pictured arriving at the scene just moments ago, as the tense situation continues.

More to follow.

The monument was first unveiled in 2019, on the 10 year anniversary of the Mullivaikkal massacres.

The massacres saw tens of thousands of Tamils killed by the Sri Lankan state in 2009.

As students gathered outside the gates, they expressed concerns about other memorials inside the campus, including the Pongu Thamil commemoration board and a central monument commemorating lives lost in the Tamil liberation

Campaigner leading court action aiming to prove Scotland does not need WM’s blessing to hold an indyref has called on the Lord Advocate Jas Wolfe to say exactly who he represents, after a Court of Session judge yesterday described a motion as a “fishing diligence”.

Keatings:the most concerning aspect of the hearing was the refusal by Wolffe’s counsel to stipulate WHO the Lord Advocate is representing. “He was convened in this action to represent the interests of Scottish Parliament, NOT the Scottish Government."

Keatings: "We have a Lord Advocate (representing Scots parliament) being represented by ScotGov Legal Directorate (representing ScotGov), where Lord Advocate is supposed to be representing Scots Parliament but is advancing arguments on behalf of ScotGov, who have withdrawn!"

Keatings: “ScotGov seem to have dusted themselves in Lord Advocate coconut, & are trying to pass themselves off as a Scottish parliamentary snowball," antithetical to principle of separation of powers, as Lord Advocate spent more time wearing his “SG hat” than his parliament one

Keatings: although Wolffe is in Scottish Cabinet, his post is NOT supposed to be political: “I need say no more than my legal counsel Aidan O’Neill QC said in the hearing ... that the Lord Advocate seems to be a ScotGov mouthpiece.."

Thread time (SORRY!) I've been thinking about Chris Stanton, one of the individuals who was arrested for being involved in the Capital insurrection, who died by suicide. How does a - seemingly - regular guy throw his entire life away to help commit an act of terror? 1/?

We need to address the rot that goes well beyond Trump. As someone who voted Republican back when these games started, I know their playbook by heart. I know they use fear to mobilize. I’m angry that so many Republicans will walk away from this with their career unscathed. 2/?

They're coming for your guns!
Socialism!
Trans story time!
They hate America!
They want to allow the murder of newborns!
Immigrants are going to take your jobs & rape your women!
Refugees = terrorists!
The media hates you!
You can't say Christmas!

And on and on and on.... 3/?

Nancy Mace mentioned the dangers of rhetoric the other day w/o acknowledging her part in this. Separating herself from an out of control fire after she’d been stoking it. And she’s far from alone. Rubio, Cruz, Haley, [insert hundreds of names] have all had a hand in this. 4/?

Men like Chris Stanton listened to the fear mongering, then he had Trump reaffirming it all, and an entire party lining up behind whatever beliefs brought them increased funding reaffirming it all. They told supporters to fight, they sold them on “war,” 5/?

Today our organization unveiled a new policy plan to eliminate armed intimidation from politics by prohibiting guns at Capitol buildings and grounds, sensitive government facilities, polling and vote counting locations, and protests on public property.

We’re already working closely with our allies in state legislatures, and we saw a related bill passed in Michigan and similar bills introduced in Vermont, Washington, and Virginia. We expect more given the horror we’ve seen on our TV screens.

The chaos and violence that took place at the Capitol last week was horrifying, but not surprising. @MomsDemand volunteers have been confronted by these armed insurrectionists in our communities ever since I started Moms Demand Action in 2012.

At rallies and marches, inside restaurants and grocery stores, and even in statehouses and at gun bill hearings, our volunteers have gone toe-to-toe with gun extremists seeking to intimidate and silence them.

In Virginia, armed men with rifles strapped to their backs have stood in the back of small hearing rooms inside the General Assembly, while our volunteers are in chairs in front of them, facing forward. They say it feels like the men could open fire on their backs at any moment.