The Web Was Flooded With Patriot Front Photos on July 4th, and it Was Ridiculous – HotAir
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I know next to nothing about the Patriot Front, other than they are the jerks who march around in masks to make it possible for the online Left and Pravda Media to shout about the creeping fascism in America. 





No doubt you have seen videos or stills of these guys marching, in matching chinos and shirts, carrying American flags while hiding their faces. They are, I am supposed to believe, simultaneously very scary and representatives of the spirit of the MAGA movement. 

They popped up after the infamous (and SPLC-funded) ‘Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, which leads many people to suspect that they are feds, funded by a left-wing organization, or both. 

I really don’t know, don’t care, and only find them interesting because the Left wants to convince Americans that they are representative of a burgeoning right-wing movement in America. 

They have somewhere between 300 and 400 members, almost none of whom have ever been identified, even though it would be trivially easy to do so if anyone cared to. It is much better for The Narrative™ that they be a mysterious, easily identifiable GROUP with an ambiguous number of anonymous members. 

It could be your Republican neighbor! Except…no. More people believe the Earth is flat than belong to the Patriot Front. 

The particular photo I am supposed to get deeply worried about is this one:

That woman is, I am supposed to believe, a modern-day Rosa Parks. 

Granted, I wouldn’t want to be her, and we all have to wonder how and why Reuters had a photographer conveniently placed to get this arresting shot as it happened, but let’s assume it was pure serendipity and not a psyop, as so many conservatives believe.





We believe it because almost every White Supremacist organization turns out to be a creation of the SPLC or a left-wing organization like the Lincoln Project. 

Let’s take the whole affair at face value: a bunch of total jerks got on public transit (odd, given that they show up in rented U-Hauls wherever they go, and nobody tracks them down), a Reuters photographer just happens to get on the train at the right time to capture this photograph, and then these few hundred jerks march for a bit and leave. 

Aside from noticing that these guys hold odious views, I also notice how unthreatening their behavior actually is. They marched, saying almost nothing, doing almost nothing except holding various flags, and left. They didn’t riot. Attack people. Interfere with others in any way. 

They just marched while holding odious views. OK. Compare that to an anti-ICE riot, where actual people get attacked and injured, all for the sake of preventing the deportation of murderers, and it’s hard for me to be impressed by the outpouring of outrage I see online. 





The web was FLOODED with commentary about how appalling the spectacle was, and I agree that it is unfortunate that people hold these views. But almost everybody out there making these powerful signals of virtue, when asked, would praise the ICE rioters, the George Floyd rioters (necessary for public health!), the people who march in the streets for “Palestinians” while screaming “From the River to the Sea,” and praise “decolonization.” 

Democratic candidates for Congress call for actual genocide of Jews and oppose interracial marriage. Graham Platner had a Nazi tattoo! Democrats are thrilled they are running. 

Many are fans of Luigi Mangione, hated Charlie Kirk and applauded his death, or said “I don’t approve of violence, but…” 

Yet 300 people marching, holding flags, representing an odious but apparent non-violent view is a national threat? 

Sorry, I don’t buy it. These people are jerks who believe things I don’t, but as far as I can tell, the only danger they present to others is causing a vessel to burst due to rage that they exist. 

As many people pointed out, none of the people who are posting about these guys taking a train and walking while holding the wrong views expressed any outrage at Iryna Zarutska’s death. They are much more likely to have supported the public officials who have been demanding that murals of her be taken down because celebrating her life doesn’t fit their “values.”





Me? I guess I think these people need some perspective. Many of the same people are currently on Iran’s side of the war with the US, after all. 

I am vaguely inclined to think that the Patriot Front is a PsyOp, largely because so many racist groups and incidents have turned out to be fake. Even the KKK these days—once a very real organization and a very real danger to black people—can’t survive without the SPLC throwing them some cash under the table. 

On the other hand, even if they are real, none of us should care. They are so few in number—after almost a decade, they number 300-400—and so ostracized that they are afraid to show their faces. They are as powerful today as those racist groups the SPLC had to bail out to keep them going, and whose leaders were on the SPLC’s payroll. 

The photographs from the 1950s of Civil Rights workers were so morally powerful because the oppression they faced was real and very common. These days, the organized racists need subsidies and staged photo ops to be even noticeable. We are told that Voter ID is racist because black people are too stupid to get an ID. 

Just who are the racists here?





The funniest thing is that every conservative I know is certain that these groups are fake and the events staged because none of us—literally NONE of us—has ever met anybody in these groups, heard of anybody in these groups, and we most certainly are not interested in participating in any of them. 

We don’t enjoy being around a-holes, thank you very much. 

When somebody we used to respect goes off the rails and drifts off into hate propaganda, such as Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson, we toss them into the trash heap as quickly as possible. We don’t embrace “our” Graham Platners; we excommunicate them. 

For many of us, there is also the element of racism fatigue. We are tired of it, no longer care if you call us names, because we have nothing to be ashamed of. And we know that no matter what we do or say, we will be called names by people trying to smear us. 

To me, the freak-out about the Patriot Front is a parallel to the constant reference to flat-earthers, with the implication that if you don’t trust The Science™, you are one. 

How many people in the United States believe the Earth is flat? I don’t know if the number is in the hundreds or the thousands, but they are as irrelevant to discussing whether Americans respect science as talking about the Patriot Front and the state of race relations in America. 

There are about 340 million Americans. The Patriot Front includes 0.000117647059% of them. Statistically, a person is as likely to be struck by lightning in the United States as to be a member of the Patriot Front. And lightning has proven to be more dangerous, since literally no deaths or injuries are attributed to this group. 

To put this all in a perspective we can all understand, consider this: more people participate in your average “teen takeover” that leaves behind looted stores and injured people than are members of the Patriot Front. And these events take place all over America. 





Authorities in California were forced to shut down businesses from Newport Pier to Pacific Coast Highway due to non-residents wreaking havoc on July 4th.Hundreds of people reportedly swarmed police officers and threw debris at them before fighting each other.Newport Beach stores were also looted, according to local reports, including a Pavilions grocery store. Video footage shows a massive amount of trash and debris left outside the store.Authorities say about 100 people were arrested and multiple police officers were injured.

More than twice as many people have been shot in Chicago this year—halfway through the year—than are members of the Patriot Front. 

Which is a more pressing issue? People getting shot in an increasingly lawless city, or a bunch of a-holes marching peacefully for their odious views? Especially since there are Democratic mayors and congressional candidates who share David Duke’s views. 

Democrats seem unbothered by the fact that they have actual candidates who are now parroting the same racist and antisemitic views as a former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Democrats have embraced and are now campaigning with this guy:





So yes, the Patriot Front guys hold odious views, whether they are SPLC shills or really fascists. But they are also irrelevant. The obsessive focus on them is ridiculous. Nobody supports them. All they do is march anonymously. They aren’t running for Congress or Senate and getting support from top Republicans. They…exist.

If it weren’t for liberal reporters, literally nobody would care. Nor should anybody. 


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