Dear ,

We express solace with the grieving families in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton and solidarity with every community enduring its chapter in the long history of White supremacist violence. The recent mass shootings are certainly extreme acts of violence, yet the motivating ideologies cannot be said to operate at the margins of society. President Trump’s framing of political opponents as existential enemies is reinforced by the administration’s policies that treat migrants as "invaders" and by every act of violence perpetrated against people for their religion, ethnicity, race, gender, or sexuality. Political Research Associates joins those challenging the President’s empty denunciations and false solutions.

Today, Free Speech TV is airing (3:10 pm PT / 6:10 pm ET) an exclusive interview with PRA Assistant Research Director Steven Gardiner, an expert on White nationalism. Here is the full video and below we share a few additional PRA resources that address the inadequacy of the term “hate” to describe the problem of the violent White power movement and its relationship to government power and the culpability of political and media figures who incite violence against declared enemies of the people.

Right-wing demagogues may not be legally culpable for this most recent violence, but they must share some moral culpability for fostering a toxic political climate in which such acts are more likely to occur.

The policies around immigration flow directly from the White nationalist movement, echoed by the anti-immigrant activists who have found a home in the Trump administration, and amplified by the mass media and social media of the Right. The urgency with which the policies are pushed creates the impression that there is a crisis—at this point, the U.S. has done everything but declare a "war on migrants" akin to the war on terror or the war on drugs. In terms of political psychology, this provides a justification for attacks—and in a perverse way justifies the policies: if things are so bad that "ordinary citizens," however misguided, feel they must take things "into their own hands," the situation must be a true crisis. Meanwhile, the fabric of democracy is stretched thin by those who have expulsion, separation, or ethnic cleansing as the goal.

"It’s easier to blame violence on criminal misfits, loners, and crackpots than to challenge the unspoken public consensus that permits broader cultures and structures of violence to exist." – Kay Whitlock

While these actions are hateful, they are not motivated by hate, but by stated beliefs in a conspiracy to destroy "the White race" and "Western civilization"; a conspiracy they believe organized by Jews or their proxies and equivalents—globalists, liberals, and so on. They see themselves as warriors in a drama of ultimate historical importance and see a need to demonstrate their masculine worthiness, perhaps achieve "greatness," through violence. This corrupt logic, used by misogynists and racists alike, is an immediate threat.

As we support each other in struggles for justice and make strides towards building the expansive, multiracial democracy we believe is at stake, we invite you to share what is helping you make meaning.

In solidarity,

Political Research Associates