Penthouse revisits an editorial with a point of view that may be all too timely once again very soon. People that do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. … Somebody said that, right?
Rage or Reconciliation, Choices in a Time of Terror
Rage. … I was driving toward a busy intersection when my cellphone rang. As I picked it up, I made a sudden, mindless lane change, cutting off the driver behind me. When the light turned red, I was forced to stop. In a flash, the guy in the vehicle I had just cut off came charging out of his car, fists balled. I have no idea what came over me, but I knew that I’d screwed up and the angry man was right.
I stuck my head out the window, looked up at him and said, “Sir, I am so sorry. I should not have cut you off. I was irresponsible. Can you please forgive me?”
He was a big guy and was shaking with rage. But my words got past his indignation enough to slow him down. “I’m really sorry,” I said again.
Now he’s almost at my open window. Close enough to punch me in the face. But instead he seems confused. “What did you say?”
I DID NOT KNOW IT AT THE TIME, BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT SINCERE HUMILITY AND ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS CAN BE A POTENT PATH TO DEFUSING RAGE.
I looked up into his eyes and very clearly said, “Sir, I was wrong and stupid. I cannot believe I drove so recklessly. I’m usually careful. Can you please forgive me?”
He unballed his fists, put his right hand on top of the car’s roof, leaned in and said, “Man, you gotta be more careful! My wife got slammed against her seat belt!”
“Oh, shit;’ I said. “That’s awful. I cannot believe I did that!”
His face changed and the whole feeling of the moment shifted. “Drive safe!” he said, and got back into his car.
The light changed and I very carefully drove to my appointment, shaking from adrenalin and humbled by the experience.
I did not know it at the time, but it turns out that sincere humility and asking for forgiveness can be a potent path to defusing rage. Both those qualities — humility and asking for forgiveness — were in very short supply during the presidential campaign. And our country now needs a huge injection of both to survive the months ahead.
Psychotherapists are reporting they’ve never seen so much stress and fear connected to politics. Friendships and even marriages have been put at risk because of the campaign. People have lost sleep and many have dropped off of social media because of all the rage spitting across their computer screens.
Trump’s rhetoric of slamming Muslims as terrorists and Mexicans as rapists, to name just a few egregious examples, lifted a metaphorical rock off the poisonous secret culture of hatred and violence that had always been there, but was kept in check by societal pressure and the absence of a viable national “leader:’ Trump cried havoc and let loose the beasts of people’s previously tamped-down rage.
“A Bloodbath” … Only one Rage Potential
Just as the campaign was reaching its final days, an FBI antiterrorist arrest in the small city of Garden City, Kansas, sent a chilling warning to anyone who might have been paying attention: Not only has a river of rage overflowed into our country, but for some people, that rage is the ultimate intoxicant. And they want more. One of the alleged plotters declared: “The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. If you’re a Muslim, I’m going to enjoy shooting you in the head:’ Those words were secretly recorded as the men prepared to bomb an apartment house full of Somali refugees. The FBI busted them after an eight-month investigation.
“Many Kansans may find it as startling as I do that such things could happen here;’ said Tom Beall, the Acting U.S. Attorney for Kansas.
Unlike Beall, I wasn’t surprised one bit. I’ve been reporting on and studying terrorism in all its forms for half a century. It can happen anywhere, and no crazy radical lslamist hoping for 72 virgins in heaven is required, as the Kansas investigation has shown.
In fact, as that case demonstrates, we are now confronted by the very real prospect of organized, racist, politically motivated terror aimed at Muslims and others who are perceived by some as not being truly “American:’ That attitude, that threat-which was amped up by the Trump campaign-comes from a very small number of heavily armed people. They are white, native-born, self· described Christians eager to make their mark in blood. Despite what they would like the world to believe, however, they are not representative of white Christians, the NRA, or most Trump supporters. Though they are small in number, they must be taken seriously, and that probably means court-ordered surveillance.
For some, Trump’s presidential campaign became a heroic narrative for the return of an America in which men like them could be happy again. Some of them were rejected by the military. Some served and suffered PTSD, which went untreated, forcing them into painful private spaces where alcohol and opioids often join depression. Others never got it together for anything, did not qualify for military service, lost out in the business world, and sought group identification with anyone who would accept them. Over the past eight years, these very angry men have felt further marginalized by a society that increasingly is run by people who don’t look like them, talk like them, or believe as they do.
Some of them are victims of a historic paradigm shift away from the values they were taught, and the economy they believed would take care of them. For many, globalization spells calamity. Their good jobs were exported and replaced by nothing, or work that pays a fraction of their former job. Their disconnect from the romanticized American “good life” of endless consumption, their inability to stay ahead of their bills, and their frustration at finding work in an increasingly tech-driven economy, all combined to make them easy pickings for a movement headed by someone with charisma who looks and sounds a little bit like them, making them feel a part of something strong. Trump told everyone he had the answer for what was broken in their lives, and that he would be their shield against having a president with a vagina or being overrun by ISIS at home.
Feeding on people’s fears, Trump pledged he would block all Muslims from entering the U.S. and punish women who get abortions. His large rallies, made up almost exclusively of white people (most of them men), screamed their approval.
Trump’s notion of putting women into prison for getting abortions may well be read as support by a wide range of people who claim to be defenders of the unborn, including those who kill doctors for providing abortion services. This, unfortunately, is nothing new. Trump’s plan of banning Muslims, however, marks the first time in modern American history that any national candidate promised to stop people at the border with a religion test. It boggled the mind, but at the same time it caressed the fear and rage that many people felt. Clearly, that was Trump’s calculated game. But his execution was imperfect. His ego kept betraying him. “I know more about ISIS than the generals!”
Those eight words were laughable, and top Republican experts on national security publicly branded Trump as “incompetent” and “dangerous:’ But this didn’t matter to Trump’s base. They loved his promise to upend the Washington establishment and his wild promises to bring back manufacturing jobs and cut taxes while spending trillions on building up the military. They ignored his failure to release his tax returns, his bizarre bromance with Vladimir Putin, his call for Russia to cyber attack the U.S., his abuse of women, and his failures to pay contractors.
TODAY, IF A BOMB GOES OFF AT A U.S.GOVERNMENT CENTER, A MOSQUE, OR A SYNAGOGUE, SOME OF THE BLAME MAY WELL BELONG AT THE FEET OF DONALD TRUMP.
Lurking in the background of the millions of Trump supporters is the rage-filled base, the men in the dark rooms like the three members of the Kansas “Crusaders;’ whose plot allegedly included the deliberate slaughter of children. As one of them said on the secret FBI recording: “When we go on operations there’s no leaving anyone behind, even if it’s a one-year-old. I’m serious.”
By the time the Crusaders began to conceptualize their “wake-up call” (as they called it), Trump’s Fear-the-Muslims initiative was already three months old. It had been repeated endlessly, especially on extreme-right-wing media, and it was the kind of talk the neo-Nazis and other radical communities had long embraced. For them, Trump was encouragement, even validation.
One of the most influential voices of the alt-right, a website called the Daily Stormer, refers to Trump as America’s “Glorious Leader:’ The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups across the country, noted (verbatim) these posts found on the Daily Stormer’s website: “When [Trump) wins, the libtards, freaks nigs, mystery meats and republicucks will probably pop off, led by the cheerleading kikes like always, but the might of people behind [Trump] should be able to put down with little effort. It’ll be bloody but I think if enough heads are busted it will become loud and clear — BACK IN THE CLOSET OR GET THE FUCK OUT.’
I follow a data scientist named Jonathon Morgan. He’s the founder and CEO of New Knowledge, a nonprofit think tank, and he’s been crunching numbers on Trump and right-wing extremists. Morgan used Facebook activity to find armed militia supporters who engaged with Trump’s claims of a rigged election. He wrote: “Faced with probable defeat, Donald Trump is now claiming the election is rigged (it’s not). While election officials (were) trying to reassure the public that U.S. democracy is intact, Trump surrogates doubled down on their candidate’s accusations, warning of widespread voter fraud, and suggesting that supporters revolt.”
Morgan said the numbers show that the destabilizing, anti-democracy message is resonating. “Over 100,000 people commented or reacted to Trump’s Facebook posts about election rigging. Though at rallies some of Trump’s supporters insist the tough talk is not a call to violence, others discussed armed rebellion and assassination, and buried amongst the supporters who engaged with the candidate’s message on Facebook are at least 210 people who are involved with armed militia groups.”
Morgan cited one extremist who wrote: “The problem is we have a rigged election and Hillary is going to flood us with muslims [sic]. I hate to say it, but if she wins, and it looks like she will (only because she owns the media and the Republican party) it’s over, time for a revolution” He added, “Enough of being tough in the blog, be tough in real life’.’
Today, if a bomb goes off at a U.S. government center, a mosque, a synagogue, or an apartment complex where Muslims or Mexicans live, some of the blame may well belong at the feet of Donald Trump. His us-versus-them campaign of fear gave aid and comfort to the more than 800 U.S. right-wing hate groups that dwell in the shadows.
Muslims in general had been placed on their enemies list after 9/11. Before that it was Jews, LGBTQ people, black and brown people, and women who don’t shut the fuck up. The feelings and doctrines of the members of these hate groups were mostly confined to private spaces, fenced-in compounds, and websites where they spend their fantasy lives while hand-loading their very real ammunition.
When Trump’s anti-Muslim declarations began in December of 2015, extreme right-wing websites lit up with delight. The Ku Klux Klan and a prominent former leader of the Klan who ran for public office said the GOP was finally espousing Klan doctrine.
On Trump’s path to “Make America Great Again,” people who get loaded on dehumanizing others raised their glasses to the guy who had been the boss on The Apprentice. Suddenly, it looked like he had a shot at the White House.
In early 2016, an FBI informant inside that Kansas militia group made this covert recording of a would-be domestic terrorist: “The only fucking way this country’s ever going to get turned around is it will be a bloodbath and it will be a nasty, messy motherfucker. Unless a lot more people in this country wake up and smell the fucking coffee and decide they want this country back … we might be too late, if they do wake up … I think we can get it done. But it ain’t going to be nothing nice about it.”
According to the FBI recordings, the conspirators planned to detonate multiple car bombs around a housing complex to kill Muslim residents. Their battle plan called for them to then kick in doors and shoot to death any survivors, including women and children. That “wake-up” event was to occur on the day after the national election. The plotters apparently hoped that their action would trigger a national uprising against all 3.5 million Muslims in America. (Side note: American Muslims include many medical doctors, professors, scientists, as well owners of small businesses. They have very low rates of crime and high levels of family stability.)
Trump loved using the term “Crooked Hillary” echoing a 30-year campaign of vilification of Clinton. But his words, spewed out of his mouth from a national podium, were designed to make her seem less human. She was “so corrupt, so crooked, she should be locked up” Trump said over and over again. He led his followers in the chant, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
Trump’s plan was to make Hillary an enemy of the people in the minds of his supporters. Defeating her would become a holy quest. Like his promise to punish women who get abortions, it was Trump as the Punisher. He helped set up Hillary as the Devil in a Pantsuit. He would be the slayer of the dragon on behalf of his most deeply enraged followers.
Trump’s brand of carefully orchestrated loathing for Hillary was the icing on an old and noxiously indigestible cake of fury that had been baked by Republican operatives years earlier. The recorded words of one of the leaders of the Kansas terror plot sounded like Trump without the private-school education: “I’m angry that our politicians are no good, lying, conniving, crooked, corrupt, treasonist assholes that should be imprisoned at the least … I’m angry we allow one of the most corrupt, deceitful, lying, conniving, treasonist, piece of shit on the planet to run for president while under investigation by the FBI … l’m angry that elections are rigged by the elitists (FYI: YOUR VOTE DOESN’T MATTER ANY MORE).” These are the words of accused Crusader plotter Patrick Eugene Stein, as transcribed from a secret FBI recording.
“l’M ANGRY THAT OUR POLITICIANS ARE NO GOOD, LYING, CONNIVING, CROOKED, CORRUPT, TREASONIST ASSHOLES THAT SHOULD BE IMPRISONED AT THE LEAST … “
Trump continued to feed the most paranoid of right-wing extremists, essentially confirming that the America they loved had been surrendered to an enemy made up of Muslims, Mexicans, blacks, LGBTQ people, and baby killers. When he said the only way he would lose the election is if it were stolen from him, and then when he refused to say he would accept the outcome if he did not win, this gave even more emotional ammo to the would-be gunmen of the militias. These are heavily armed, self-styled “patriots” who long for the good old days when blacks were subservient, gay people were in the closet, and “real” men like them were in charge. Not some mixed-race “monkey,” or, even worse, a “goddam bitch.”
The FBI surveillance narrative on Crusader Stein recounts him doing a targeting run on the Muslim section of Garden City. At one point, he leaned out of the car window and cursed at Somali women wearing traditional garb. At the time, Stein was armed with an assault rifle, extra magazines, a pistol, a ballistic vest, and a night-vision scope. According to the FBI, a month before the election, Stein and his alleged co-conspirators were prepping for their slaughter when the girlfriend of one of them called police after her man had beaten her. She showed the responding officers a room in the house stacked with weapons, including an explosive compound called hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, or HMTD. The cops asked to look around, she said sure, and they found over two thousand rounds of ammo and guns.
Before the Kansas conspiracy case broke in October, life was hard enough for America’s 900,000 cops and tens of thousands of federal agents, searching for a tiny number of potential American jihadists like the New York City-born man who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It’s like hunting for a few explosive needles in a haystack of more than 324 million people.
Fortunately, more and more moderate American Muslims (which constitutes the vast majority) are helping police find people who have been radicalized. Following 9/11, the FBI created a model of respect and cooperation between law enforcement and mosques in Virginia; that model has been adapted by state and local agencies. Good community relations have followed.
Understandably, law enforcement’s focus has been on finding the next self-starting radical Islamic terrorist before he or she can commit another act in the name of ISIS. Following the FBl’s successful operation against the Crusaders, our cops now have to focus considerable resources on extremists of the far right who may previously have been written off as harmless. Time to rethink everything.
FOLLOWING 9/11, THE FBI CREATED A MODEL OF RESPECT AND COOPERATION BETWEEN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND MOSQUES IN VIRGINIA.
Men like the alleged Kansas conspirators do their planning in the shadows and imagine themselves as superheroes. These are deeply disappointed and embittered men; some of them beat their women to feel better; some fortify their courage with alcohol and drugs; and some do it with prayer. Protected by the Second Amendment, they have been buying up guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Some have become internet scholars, learning online how to make high explosives. Most of them-especially the drunks-will wind up getting caught, because they talk and someone dials 911 . But some will inevitably slip through the cracks.
In all likelihood, you and those you love will be safe, but that is not to say that we should not expect attacks from egomaniacal fanatics in the name of Jesus or Allah. And while the Trump campaign pushed the idea that we are surrounded by marauding jihadists, the truth is, thus far, there have been a tiny number of murderers motivated by radical Islam in the U.S. Those killers include the Ft. Hood Army psychiatrist, the Boston Marathon bombers, the Orlando nightclub shooter, the San Bernardino couple, the two gunmen in Texas and Arkansas who attacked military recruiting stations, and the man who beheaded a woman at a food plant in Oklahoma. The total killed by jihadists in the U.S. since 9/11 is just under one hundred. Even one is terrible. But this is a huge country.
I have no desire to trivialize any horrible act. But we need to keep our minds clear. Clarity and the calm it brings can help us come out of the post-election period with more sanity and less rage.
As a frame of reference, this article first appeared in the Jan/Feb, 2017, issue of Penthouse Magazine. Obviously that means it hit the stands slightly before Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. As we face the choice again this coming November, we thought it worthwhile to try and remember what it felt like the first time around. People too young to notice at the time get to vote this time around, and as a culture we have a tendency to cover our history with a gloss of pleasant memories — because otherwise the present would always suck. That said, those under age 22 and those with forced blindness make up but only a small percentage of the voting block. We would never tell you which way to vote — if for no other reason that by all appearances both of our choices will be … let’s go with “less than ideal” overall. Still you need to register, and you need to vote. Otherwise you lose your right to bitch for the next four years, and that would suck worse than both these choices.
