Speaker 1: Oh boy, it could happen here the podcast about it
Speaker 1: and and happening and could Chris take us away? I'm
Speaker 1: taking it away, Oh boy, I I think I promised
Speaker 1: to um. So uh, this is this has been a
Speaker 1: fun week so far. We're all kind of sitting through
Speaker 1: that in that awkward period where we know the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court is about to do some ship with Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade and that that's gonna light a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff on fire. Um, And so we're all waiting for that,
Speaker 1: and we're all waiting for the big Pride Month demonstrations
Speaker 1: in the wake of a shipload of um threats from
Speaker 1: the right. Uh. And kind of in that awkward interstital period,
Speaker 1: we got this this little burst this weekend of of
Speaker 1: of happiness, of just of pure joy. Um. So obviously
Speaker 1: we had covered a little earlier the Gundaleine rally and
Speaker 1: Quarterline Idaho, which was a right wing kind of counter
Speaker 1: rally to quarter Aline's regular local pride Um rally. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know it was a an event that the
Speaker 1: the the the p R four ahead of time was
Speaker 1: deeply unsettling or a lot of like threats and talk
Speaker 1: about you know, let the fight start here and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. A lot of people were worried about a massacre,
Speaker 1: including us, because when you have a bunch of right
Speaker 1: wingers saying that anyone queer is grooming kids and it's
Speaker 1: time to shoot them, it's reasonable to be worried about
Speaker 1: a massacre. Um. Now, what we did see on the day,
Speaker 1: and this is something you'll note a lot of times
Speaker 1: when you get the events where there's a lot of
Speaker 1: threats around them, that's what kind of provokes enough attention,
Speaker 1: um and enough of a state response that that it's
Speaker 1: not where people try to ship. You know, it's often
Speaker 1: kind of at the edges of events or the events
Speaker 1: that uh, people don't take seriously enough ahead of time
Speaker 1: that like things go to ship. You know. Charlottesville would
Speaker 1: be a great example because prior to Charlottesville, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of like discussion about how big it was
Speaker 1: going to be in the city, you know, did not
Speaker 1: really take it seriously. There were a number of and
Speaker 1: this is one of the things that's frustrating the fucking
Speaker 1: mayor of Charlotte'sville is after what happened in Quarterline and stuff,
Speaker 1: has been like on the news talking to people about
Speaker 1: how to how to avoid demonstrations going badly and ship
Speaker 1: which like that. You know, he received a lot of
Speaker 1: warnings from anti fascists about how many people with you know,
Speaker 1: pending violent charges were going to be at Unite the
Speaker 1: Right in Charlottesville, and how many threats were going on.
Speaker 1: It was kind of ignored and as a result it
Speaker 1: got really fucking ugly, UM, because you know, you had
Speaker 1: smaller numbers is on the on the first night, you know,
Speaker 1: when people got surrounded by that torchlit mob, you had
Speaker 1: smaller numbers of anti fascists, um, outnumbered by fascists, and uh,
Speaker 1: no real counter to them until you know, the next day,
Speaker 1: and obviously that's the day that that that James Alex
Speaker 1: Fields drove a car into a crowd. UM. And that
Speaker 1: kind of starts our story today because the thing that
Speaker 1: was the bright ray of sunlight in in the midst
Speaker 1: of what has been a pretty rough couple of weeks
Speaker 1: news wise, was thirty one members of the hate group
Speaker 1: Patriot Front getting arrested in Quarterline, Idaho, jammed into the
Speaker 1: back of a U haul. Um. The story of Patriot
Speaker 1: Front and the story of how that that beautiful moment happened, UM,
Speaker 1: starts in Charlottesville in two seventeen. Actually it starts significantly
Speaker 1: before that in Texas. But uh, the group that becomes
Speaker 1: Patriot Front starts as a group called Vanguard America UM.
Speaker 1: And Vanguard America is one of the groups that is
Speaker 1: responsible for kind of carrying out the the Unite the
Speaker 1: Right rally. And this is this is a different group
Speaker 1: than American Vanguard. Right. Uh wait, let me double check here,
Speaker 1: because sorry, they all use such similar names. UM. If
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, there is an American Vanguard. UM. There's
Speaker 1: also the American Vanguard Corporation. Uh no, no, no, I
Speaker 1: think it's UM. American Guard. American Guard is the group
Speaker 1: that UM isn't a kind of more coming out of
Speaker 1: the KKK's sphere orbit because some of them are former clansmen.
Speaker 1: That's another story for another day. UM. So you've got
Speaker 1: Vanguard America. They're one of the group's kind of behind
Speaker 1: bringing a lot of people, a lot of fascists, shouldn't
Speaker 1: call them people to UM Charlottesville in two thousand and seventeen,
Speaker 1: James alex Field is marching with them and carrying one
Speaker 1: of their shields. Earlier in the day before he carries
Speaker 1: out his car attack, and as a result of the
Speaker 1: bad press that him murdering a woman in in maiming
Speaker 1: a bunch of people with his car in a terrorist
Speaker 1: attack brings down Um. The leader of Vanguard America, Thomas
Speaker 1: Rousseau uh splits off like kind of inns Van Guard
Speaker 1: America and spins it off into Patriot Front, which is
Speaker 1: less explicitly just as fascist, but less branded as fascist,
Speaker 1: more kind of branded in Americana. They all of their
Speaker 1: pr and all of their like images look like rejected
Speaker 1: stills from a bioshot game. Yeah, it's it's it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure. Yeah, these are the guys are like
Speaker 1: that there there's a video of them like talking like
Speaker 1: like like they're literally they go like on camera it's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, we're doing America stuff. We don't we're not
Speaker 1: hitler people. And then like the build the boat with
Speaker 1: the camera turns off there like oh good, the camera's off.
Speaker 1: We can say say kale now, Yeah, it's it's great.
Speaker 1: I mean Van Guard America's logo was literally like an
Speaker 1: eagle carrying a bundle of fascis. Yeah, they're not not subtle, um,
Speaker 1: and I should say Van Guard America. I think was
Speaker 1: actually founded by another guy in in California, but um,
Speaker 1: Thomas Rousseau was was pretty quickly prominence in there, and
Speaker 1: he splinters off into into Patriot Front. I need to
Speaker 1: be specific because there's people listening who will yell at
Speaker 1: me forgetting that wrong. Um. So, for the purpose of
Speaker 1: of what we're talking about today, if we should chat
Speaker 1: about Thomas Rousseau um before we get into some of
Speaker 1: the funnier stuff, because he's got a really interesting background
Speaker 1: for a fascist. So in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: since Patriot Front became a thing, Rousseau has held a
Speaker 1: number of kind of like flash demonstrations where they'll get
Speaker 1: a few dozen Patriot Front guys together and they'll march
Speaker 1: around in their fucking gators, in their their little fascist
Speaker 1: uniforms that are like, um, I don't know, they look
Speaker 1: like country club Nazis, is like the way they prefer
Speaker 1: to dress. Um, And they'll carry their shields and they'll
Speaker 1: you know, film propaganda videos. Most of what they do
Speaker 1: is hand out like put out stickers, put out other
Speaker 1: kinds of propaganda to the extent that like they are
Speaker 1: probably the primary national purveyors of of Nazi propping anda
Speaker 1: um in like the real world, like in terms of
Speaker 1: stuff that actually gets put out where people can see it. Um.
Speaker 1: There I've found like stickers from them and just like
Speaker 1: random places in Chicago. Yeah, yeah, I've seen a couple
Speaker 1: of them. Like two nineteen, Patriot Front was and this
Speaker 1: is the A d l S estimates, so they're not
Speaker 1: the most accurate they could be, but also no one
Speaker 1: else is really keeping track of this, so I'll say
Speaker 1: they're probably broadly correct. Um. The in twos nineteen, the
Speaker 1: A d L listed Patriot Front is responsible for eight
Speaker 1: percent of all propaganda incidents nationally of like Nazi type groups. Um.
Speaker 1: And then in that number doubled um and they were
Speaker 1: responsible for like ninety plus. I think sometimes you'll hear
Speaker 1: ninety two of like the Nazi propaganda distributed nationwide. UM.
Speaker 1: They're propaganda efforts are most active in Texas, Washington, California, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: New York, and Virginia. UM. And it's one of those things.
Speaker 1: This is not the goal with the propaganda is for
Speaker 1: them to be seen as very large and influential. The
Speaker 1: way that they managed to do it is that Patriot
Speaker 1: Front is effectively like a key para social relationship for
Speaker 1: most of the people in it, right, it's a series
Speaker 1: of like chats and and and discords and whatnot, and
Speaker 1: these people like come to feel like it's their community.
Speaker 1: And one of the things Rusto did that was very
Speaker 1: smart is if you want to stay a member of
Speaker 1: Patriot Front, you will get banned and purged from the
Speaker 1: organization if you are not regularly posting proof that you're
Speaker 1: active in the real world. And the easiest way to
Speaker 1: do that is by putting up stickers. Right. So that's
Speaker 1: not only how they fund some of their operations, because
Speaker 1: you know their guys are buying stickers, but um, that's
Speaker 1: how you keep people engaged. If you want to like
Speaker 1: stay in the clubhouse with your friends, you have to
Speaker 1: go put up stickers every couple of weeks or every
Speaker 1: so often. And you know, when you have a couple
Speaker 1: of hundred people doing that. Stickers are not that expensive.
Speaker 1: You can get a lot of propaganda out that way.
Speaker 1: And so Rousseau has been very successful in in that
Speaker 1: end of things. So let's chat about him a little bit.
Speaker 1: He is he was born in nine so he's twenty
Speaker 1: four ish right now. Um, he grew up where I did.
Speaker 1: He comes from the suburbs of Dallas, the metroplex specifically Kapel.
Speaker 1: And if you're not if you don't know much about
Speaker 1: the d f W suburbs. So Dallas sizeable city about
Speaker 1: four million people last I checked, um, and then you've
Speaker 1: got these these suburbs that are millions more and it's
Speaker 1: it's effectively DFW is kind of this megalopolis, Like it's
Speaker 1: this massive, sprawling city, larger than several states, and it's
Speaker 1: geographical area. At some point in the future, assuming growth continues,
Speaker 1: you're going to see like all of the big cities
Speaker 1: in Texas merge and when they're metro plexus start to mingle. Um.
Speaker 1: But these these these Texas suburbs are all laid out
Speaker 1: very orderly and kids they were all they're all like
Speaker 1: planned communities, um. And in the area around like this
Speaker 1: particular chunk around Dallas, they're all pretty wealthy. And of
Speaker 1: these wealthy suburbs, Coppel is like where the money money is.
Speaker 1: Like like coming up in plan Oh, which is was
Speaker 1: a fairly well off suburb, we would like the Copell
Speaker 1: kids were like the rich kids, right, Like when we
Speaker 1: would compete against them in football and speech debate, like
Speaker 1: that you'd feel like, yeah, we're like funking with the
Speaker 1: rich kids. Let's get them. So this is this is
Speaker 1: this is this is like this is like this is
Speaker 1: like uh Dallas fort worst like Evanston, I assume so yes, um.
Speaker 1: And when we would like obviously like yeah they were
Speaker 1: the rich kids, they were also like the kids I
Speaker 1: would often get drugs from when I was like nineteen
Speaker 1: because they had like they had they had good drugs,
Speaker 1: you know. UM. So the other thing you should know
Speaker 1: about and Capella is where you know, um, our boy
Speaker 1: Thomas Rousseau grows up in the early two thousand's and
Speaker 1: in fact, his senior year is the year of the election. UM.
Speaker 1: And another thing you should know about Kapell is that,
Speaker 1: like all the Dallas metroplex, it's incredibly diverse. And it's also,
Speaker 1: I should know, incredibly diverse in a specific way. It's
Speaker 1: not hugely economically diverse, um, but it is has a
Speaker 1: massive population of people from Southeast Asia, UM, from India,
Speaker 1: from Vietnam, from China, UM, and from Japan UM. And
Speaker 1: the you can kind of see that if you look
Speaker 1: at so Thomas Rousseau as a kid works for the
Speaker 1: Coppell High school newspaper, the Sidekick, and if you if
Speaker 1: you go to the Sidekicks website today and if you
Speaker 1: look at its writers and its editorial staff, it is
Speaker 1: a bunch of kids from Southeast Asia. Now, Thomas Russeau
Speaker 1: is extremely white, um, and he has, you know, his
Speaker 1: big things like replacement theory. He's been yelling about this
Speaker 1: for a very long time, UM, and so one kind
Speaker 1: of assumes this is probably w air. He started feeling that. Um.
Speaker 1: Although it's interesting if you look up, like one of
Speaker 1: the earliest articles the SPLC has a pretty pretty good
Speaker 1: profile on him and back kind of at the start
Speaker 1: of UM. In February he wrote, write this article about
Speaker 1: the school's diversity club, which is just a pretty normal
Speaker 1: you would not there's no signs in there, not that
Speaker 1: I saw that, Like he's going to be a Nazi
Speaker 1: in about a year. Like it's just it's how like
Speaker 1: basically anybody who was writing a straight piece of reporting
Speaker 1: on a diversity club would write it. You know, It's
Speaker 1: not like there's no signs in that article. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just because like the next article he writes is
Speaker 1: like completely off the rails. Yeah, Like it's it's Trump
Speaker 1: is at that point, because you know, February, Trump is
Speaker 1: still like I don't know, he's definitely becoming the front runner,
Speaker 1: but it's not clear what's going to happen yet. And
Speaker 1: by the time he writes his next article a couple
Speaker 1: in like October, it's uh, full on trumpy. Yeah, he's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like but by that point, like he
Speaker 1: started his great replacement stuff. He started like, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's doing that kind of like the the white working
Speaker 1: class has been like oppressed for too long and people
Speaker 1: keep calling them bracest and so they're voting for Trump
Speaker 1: now because they're simultaneously poor but also like but but
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting. It's like, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: an interesting sign of that kind of like what actually
Speaker 1: generates that kind of right wing populism because it's like,
Speaker 1: so you have you have someone who's like going fascist
Speaker 1: really quickly writing this, and it's like, oh, where is
Speaker 1: he from? A weight He's like just from like the
Speaker 1: incredible rich kid place. It's like it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's fun he's doing. Yeah, he's he's doing this sort
Speaker 1: of fascist version of the like working class whispering that
Speaker 1: you kind of like rich Pundit's doing and it's one
Speaker 1: of the things the kind of black box Mr reads
Speaker 1: with Rousseau that I haven't seen a great is like
Speaker 1: when when does the actual switch flip in his head?
Speaker 1: Like when he writes that article about the school diversity club.
Speaker 1: Is he already a fascist um or is he one
Speaker 1: of these people who like is kind of conservative and
Speaker 1: gets super radicalized by Trump because he had you see
Speaker 1: throughout kind of because I get the feeling from him
Speaker 1: that he was always kind of like the conservative kid
Speaker 1: in his school paper in school media, and like you
Speaker 1: get you see, like he's writing, like the month after
Speaker 1: that diversity club article, he writes h an article about
Speaker 1: campus kerry and is like supporting concealed carry on college
Speaker 1: campuses and is pretty like uh, but it's also these
Speaker 1: are also like kind of it's also kind of a
Speaker 1: milk toast conservative take, Like it's not he's not like
Speaker 1: making an explicitly fascist argument. He's making the kind of
Speaker 1: arguments that like I would have made in speech and
Speaker 1: too eight class as a conservative kid in North Texas
Speaker 1: when I was a senior. You see, like in May,
Speaker 1: he he's writing an article about like bathroom bills and stuff.
Speaker 1: That's that's getting closer to kind of modern American fascist rhetoric.
Speaker 1: And then of course by like October he's he's fully
Speaker 1: on the Trump train. Um. And he actually has a
Speaker 1: removed opinion column after the election about like the silent majority,
Speaker 1: where he says, quote, the truth is, white voters, especially
Speaker 1: the working class, have had more than enough of being
Speaker 1: called racist, sexist, xenophobic, islamophobic, homophobic, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the usual trite buzzwords. The forgotten majority of the American
Speaker 1: electorate has shown that much to the dismay of the
Speaker 1: globalist agenda, that they have not yet been replaced by
Speaker 1: tens of millions of blue voting immigrants from abroad. And
Speaker 1: it's again, you can kind of there's a debate as
Speaker 1: to whether you can, I guess argue as to whether
Speaker 1: or not he had always been sort of a fascist
Speaker 1: and just felt like more comfortable as the year went
Speaker 1: on being open about it, or if he's getting radicalized.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's kind of getting radical. I can
Speaker 1: see I can see in him like shades of everyone
Speaker 1: that I knew back then at that point in time
Speaker 1: in my life in me, like well, and this reminds. So,
Speaker 1: so I was I'm like a year older than he is, right,
Speaker 1: So I I I was out of high school by sixteen,
Speaker 1: but like I you know, i'd like I just graduated
Speaker 1: right like a good fifteen And I remember this with
Speaker 1: like people with people that I knew who were like
Speaker 1: because I mean, like okay, like what there were always
Speaker 1: people who were like really really like like we had
Speaker 1: a lot of like Fox News pilled like kill all
Speaker 1: the Muslims kids, But there are also people who like
Speaker 1: weren't like that, who were just like conservatives, and over
Speaker 1: the course of sixteen like they went really really like
Speaker 1: they radicalized really quickly. So it wouldn't surprise me if
Speaker 1: he's doing the same thing, because I think that was
Speaker 1: a lot of like, like I watched a lot of
Speaker 1: sort of like more majority people get like who were
Speaker 1: kind of like on who weren't on the like absolute
Speaker 1: like right wing, like I don't know, like who weren't
Speaker 1: on the absolutely hard right of that thing, who were
Speaker 1: kind of like conservative, but you know, like weren't actively
Speaker 1: invested in murdering every gapers. And yeah, those people just
Speaker 1: like a switch flipped and they like they just kind
Speaker 1: of went syco mode. Yeah, and that's that's where he goes.
Speaker 1: He goes like full on and I don't know you can.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because like his his primary job for the
Speaker 1: sidekick the Cupell High School student newspaper is as like
Speaker 1: their their political cartoonist, and he's he's mostly doing like
Speaker 1: really basic like clip art ship, which is what you
Speaker 1: see him doing for like Patriot Front. It's kind of
Speaker 1: the thing that distinguishes them is his like art style,
Speaker 1: UM and the propaganda he makes. So you know, he's
Speaker 1: there at Unite the Right in one of the guys
Speaker 1: he's there with commits a terrorist attack. They spent off
Speaker 1: Patriot Front and for the next few years, most of
Speaker 1: what they'll do is these events where they'll like show
Speaker 1: up and they'll march. Um. It's worth noting that while
Speaker 1: they bring different kinds of weapons to these events, mainly
Speaker 1: lie you know, bludgeoning weapons, the kind of things you'd
Speaker 1: have for like a street fight, UM and shields, these
Speaker 1: are not primarily violent events, and that like their goal
Speaker 1: is not to get into a fight. I think mainly
Speaker 1: not because they're not violent people, because they're scared of
Speaker 1: getting into a fight. UM. And Rousseau's probably scared of
Speaker 1: getting in trouble for having a bunch of people show
Speaker 1: up to riot. So most of what they do is
Speaker 1: they'll do these flash mobs while there. They'll get like
Speaker 1: a bunch of people together in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night or like on a day when nobody expects it,
Speaker 1: and they'll march around d C or something, and then
Speaker 1: they'll get footage of themselves doing this march where you know,
Speaker 1: they can kind of uh take care to make sure
Speaker 1: the angles make them look as impressive as possible, and
Speaker 1: then they'll put that up to try and get more members,
Speaker 1: um so that they can put up more propaganda. Right,
Speaker 1: they've had a couple of well publicized failures. They showed
Speaker 1: up in Philadelphia. This was last year, right, and they
Speaker 1: again there's like thirty and fifty of them. They all
Speaker 1: like pilot of a U haul. They're marching is like
Speaker 1: in their fascist uniforms, and like three dudes confront them
Speaker 1: and that wreck fit like three Philly guys just wreck
Speaker 1: their ships. So funny I ever seeing feeling. I think
Speaker 1: it was from that. We're just like there's like there's
Speaker 1: a video, it's it's just them running away and there's
Speaker 1: like there's like objects flying through the air, you know,
Speaker 1: like their frontest little army confronts, like three random Philly
Speaker 1: We're just like, oh, this isn't any good. I don't
Speaker 1: know who these guys are, but there's no way this
Speaker 1: is good. Come up, Um, it's a it's a perfect
Speaker 1: Philly moment um. So yeah, and like that is their
Speaker 1: m o UM. And in part because one thing you
Speaker 1: have to and I people can misinterpret what I'm saying here.
Speaker 1: They're probably the most disciplined of the fascist groups that
Speaker 1: do regular in person events UM because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of discipline required in getting several dozen people together, getting
Speaker 1: them all to the area in the exact same mode
Speaker 1: of transport together. That's why they all pile into u
Speaker 1: Hall's right. Roussou doesn't want to coordinate a big caravan um.
Speaker 1: That would be messy. People would be arriving at different times,
Speaker 1: people would get lost or get stuck in traffic. He
Speaker 1: wants everyone together because he's again he's a fascist. So
Speaker 1: they're they're really um, and they are are pretty consistent
Speaker 1: and pretty good at getting everyone together and marching at
Speaker 1: the same time. So like on a logistic end, there's
Speaker 1: some things they do that are are competent, you know,
Speaker 1: um generally speaking. Now, the downside of this plan I've
Speaker 1: just talked about like why getting everyone in a U
Speaker 1: hall can work and how it has worked for them
Speaker 1: in the past. The downside of this is that everyone
Speaker 1: is in a U hall together. I mean I think
Speaker 1: I think for them there there's there. I think that
Speaker 1: there's some upside like for them doing this, which is
Speaker 1: that like I think on a sort of like on
Speaker 1: like a discipline level, and on level of like building
Speaker 1: this like like build building this sort of like culture
Speaker 1: of like like community and like solidarity. But like the
Speaker 1: fascist version of it is like, yeah, you have everyone's
Speaker 1: suffering together in the back of a U haul, which
Speaker 1: is hot as shit and like has to smell like
Speaker 1: like like like death, Like like yeah, it's like like
Speaker 1: imagine the worst locker room you've ever been in. But
Speaker 1: then it's been it's every everyone has been trapped in
Speaker 1: there for a week. It's like, yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a hot air balloon powered by Nazi farts, like that's
Speaker 1: that's what's going on there. And they're all just like
Speaker 1: and it's it's very funny because like when they had
Speaker 1: done their last event or two and like this is
Speaker 1: like in the dead of winter in the East Coast
Speaker 1: that they do a couple of events and they have
Speaker 1: people like nearly passing out from heat stroke in the
Speaker 1: back of the van. Yeah. Um, in the back of
Speaker 1: the U haul because like it's not great to be
Speaker 1: scrapped in the back of you people. It's like, um,
Speaker 1: it sucks. But also like that that suffering sort of
Speaker 1: like brings them together and makes them sort of like sure,
Speaker 1: like yeah in a lot of ways, which sucks, but
Speaker 1: also yeah, the second modistical problem with this, I think
Speaker 1: you're about to get to. Yeah, So they try to
Speaker 1: Rousseau actually puts out specific like information about like hey,
Speaker 1: here's how we need to prep for being crammed and
Speaker 1: do a U haul together, and like advises that his
Speaker 1: dudes start um uh spending time in saunas and ship
Speaker 1: in order to like toughen themselves up to avoid getting
Speaker 1: heat syncope. Um. Anyway, there's a couple other things that
Speaker 1: are happening. One of the things that we we know
Speaker 1: because one of the funny things about Patriot Front, so
Speaker 1: they claim to have an intense vetting process. You know,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to like message them with an application and
Speaker 1: then they they'll vet you before they let you into
Speaker 1: the chat rooms. They have been compromised since the day
Speaker 1: there started being a patriot Yeah, I don't think there
Speaker 1: is a moment of the time that they have existed
Speaker 1: that I haven't known multiple people who had logs of
Speaker 1: every conversation. Like they're so infiltrated. It is extreme, Like
Speaker 1: it's like it's like the training wheels of anti fascist research,
Speaker 1: just like get into Patriot Fronts chat rooms, Like there's
Speaker 1: always multiple people in their documenting their ship. It's extremely funny. Um.
Speaker 1: And so because of that we know a number of
Speaker 1: their tactics. One of the things that Rousseau has admitted
Speaker 1: to doing in the past is that like, well, when
Speaker 1: we start like heading towards wherever we're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: pile out of the thing in march, we'll call the
Speaker 1: cops and will inform them that we've seen a group
Speaker 1: of people with shields getting ready to march and that
Speaker 1: they don't seem to have weapons, but they're about to
Speaker 1: be an x area. And they do this so that
Speaker 1: there will be cops on scene who will provide like
Speaker 1: an escort for them, right, so that they won't get
Speaker 1: beaten up. Um, Like they want the cops to be
Speaker 1: there to protect them, you know. Um, So Rousseau is
Speaker 1: like specifically bragged about doing this in the past. There's also, like,
Speaker 1: as I stated, like the or as an organization, there
Speaker 1: are are not geared towards like killing people, right, Like
Speaker 1: they're not they're doing these marches to get videos. They're
Speaker 1: not like they're not even like the Proud Boys where
Speaker 1: they're specifically showing up to get into a brawl, right
Speaker 1: and every time they do get into brawls, they look
Speaker 1: very uncomfortable and frightened in them, um, which is why
Speaker 1: he liked calls for police escorts and ship. Um. That said,
Speaker 1: there there are like again, they're a Nazi organization. They
Speaker 1: specifically preach replacement theory and yelled at their ancestors conquered
Speaker 1: America and so they deserve to own and all this ship.
Speaker 1: So a bunch of them have been arrested for like
Speaker 1: guns stuff. There's been a number of like people of
Speaker 1: Patriot Front members arrested for like illegal machine guns and
Speaker 1: ship like that. That absolutely happens. People post about their
Speaker 1: illegal guns and stuff. Um, But as an organization, they're
Speaker 1: mainly geared towards providing like propaganda uh that Thomas Rousseau likes.
Speaker 1: So they all gathered together and are heading into Quarterline,
Speaker 1: Idaho to confront the and I suspect their goal. I
Speaker 1: suspect their Russeau's hope for how this was going to
Speaker 1: go was they were going to pile out of their
Speaker 1: U haul, going to get their thirty ish guys all
Speaker 1: in lines together in their uniforms with their shields and
Speaker 1: with their their fucking fascist sticks or whatever, um, and
Speaker 1: they're going to march through the middle of the pride
Speaker 1: gathering and and they get video of people like scattering
Speaker 1: or backing away from in front of them, not wanting
Speaker 1: to confront them because you know, there was a big
Speaker 1: group of them. I think that was the hope. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Rousseau was like, Hey, and maybe some ANTIFO will
Speaker 1: try to fight and we'll get some videos of us
Speaker 1: like fighting them with shields and that'll be good for recruitment. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think the main goal was to get a
Speaker 1: video of them scaring gay kids um and and looking
Speaker 1: like a big scary nazi FEI links that they could
Speaker 1: use as propaganda. UM. Now this goes to ship before
Speaker 1: they even get out of the U hall, because somebody
Speaker 1: calls the police and reports what looks like a little
Speaker 1: army of guys with weapons and shields piling into a
Speaker 1: U haul. And again the police are saying that this
Speaker 1: was a concerned citizen and it based on the kind
Speaker 1: of most recent reporting, it may just be a random
Speaker 1: citizen of Quarterline who actually like was for understandable reasons, right,
Speaker 1: if you like see this happen, you're like, yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: I should might need to call somebody about this. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call the cops necessarily, but you know, in
Speaker 1: this case, it seems to have worked out that said,
Speaker 1: knowing their background, you have to acknowledge the possibility that
Speaker 1: they that it was one of them who called the police.
Speaker 1: Not impossible. Um, now there's initially reports that it was
Speaker 1: the FEDS reports, I uhould say from the cops on
Speaker 1: the scene. And again it's reasonable that journalists overhearing that
Speaker 1: recording it would report on it that said cops on
Speaker 1: the scene are no more accurate about what actually has
Speaker 1: happened than like random passers by, and they're more likely
Speaker 1: just openly lie. And and you know, I I would
Speaker 1: not I'm certain there's a FED or or four inside
Speaker 1: Patriot Front that said, it doesn't seem like this was
Speaker 1: a FED bust, although I you know, it's not impossible
Speaker 1: that it was, because if you were the FEDS and
Speaker 1: you had a guy in here and you decided you
Speaker 1: want to arrest these people to avoid a potential Charlottesville
Speaker 1: kind of situation happening again, UM, maybe you would want
Speaker 1: to just say it was like a random person who
Speaker 1: called I don't know, this does not there's no reason
Speaker 1: that this needed to be a FED bust. They were
Speaker 1: not like, this did not require the FBI's infiltration capability
Speaker 1: to deal with. Like it it was a bunch of
Speaker 1: Nazis piling into a U haul. I don't have trouble
Speaker 1: believing that some dude was just like, hey, hey, cops,
Speaker 1: and it's There's been a lot of like surprise online
Speaker 1: that like, the cops did their job, but they went
Speaker 1: after these people. I think the surprise there is kind
Speaker 1: of based on some misconceptions, and these are misconceptions kind
Speaker 1: of pushed in part by the fact that over the
Speaker 1: last few years, when we have seen fascist groups rally
Speaker 1: in place is like Portland, UM or like Charlottesville, UM,
Speaker 1: for the Unite the Right rally. The cops tend to
Speaker 1: be on their side and tend to protect them. Um,
Speaker 1: but what you're looking at are two different things in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. Because the cops in a place
Speaker 1: like Portland, and I assume in a place like Charlottesville,
Speaker 1: I'm not as familiar with their police demographics, but I
Speaker 1: know this is the case in Portland don't live in Portland.
Speaker 1: They live in places like Battleground, Washington. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: they live in these these these surrounding more rural and
Speaker 1: suburban communities, and they don't like the city that they police,
Speaker 1: and they kind of see them as an enemy. So
Speaker 1: when other people generally from similar suburbs and rural communities
Speaker 1: as the cops, show up to fight the kids that
Speaker 1: Portland cops don't like, um, the Portland cops are going
Speaker 1: to be on the side of that. And this is
Speaker 1: again you see versions of this occur around the country.
Speaker 1: In quart Aline, this was not like Quartline cops live
Speaker 1: in cort Aline, you know, like they they're from that community.
Speaker 1: And even if I'm sure a number of them, if
Speaker 1: not many or most of them have like attitudes towards
Speaker 1: you know, have said some negative things about gay people.
Speaker 1: These are also like they're probably some of them are
Speaker 1: probably related to people with that pride rally. Um this
Speaker 1: is and in general these are like there's they are
Speaker 1: probably seeing this as like, well, whatever I think about pride.
Speaker 1: These are people who live in cort Aline and a
Speaker 1: bunch of folks from outside of the state are driving
Speaker 1: into funk with them. They're not generally going to be
Speaker 1: on board with that. And as a general rule, also,
Speaker 1: cops don't like people coming in to their town like
Speaker 1: home to cause trouble. And these are people from like
Speaker 1: eleven different states entering Idaho to like funk with people
Speaker 1: who live in Idaho. I'm not surprised that the police
Speaker 1: actually did something here. Um. It doesn't like mean that
Speaker 1: these are the good cops that were mythically all looking for.
Speaker 1: It just means that like nobody wants this happening in
Speaker 1: their hometown, Like nobody nobody wants these assholes running into
Speaker 1: town dressed as like little Hitler youth guys and marching
Speaker 1: around like that's like of course they don't want that.
Speaker 1: Who would. Um, So the cops pull over this fucking
Speaker 1: u haul. Um there's the footage of it is some
Speaker 1: of the funniest ship on the space of the Earth.
Speaker 1: It's so good because they just roll up the back
Speaker 1: of this thing. There's like some fucking quarterline cop with
Speaker 1: an a R like pointed in there, and there's just
Speaker 1: all these fucking goober Nazis and they're they're fucking Polos
Speaker 1: and Khakis and they're fascist gators. Um god, it's good.
Speaker 1: I look up this footage. If you can find you,
Speaker 1: you owe yourself to do this. It's amazing. We should
Speaker 1: state we're not really We'll be getting more coverage to
Speaker 1: what happens and what happened elsewhere on this day. You
Speaker 1: had a lot of ugly ship happened to stay in
Speaker 1: quarterline because there are a lot of heavily armed fascists
Speaker 1: rallying who are in many cases locals or from nearby
Speaker 1: places like Spokane. Um Matt Shay, who is a former
Speaker 1: state legislator from Washington who lives nearby, who is a
Speaker 1: accused domestic terrorist, leads a march through Quardline. These guys
Speaker 1: are not stopped by the cops right in part because
Speaker 1: like they're not a bunch of dudes from out of
Speaker 1: state showing up to march around in ridiculous Nazi uniforms. Right.
Speaker 1: The police are notably less concerned about the guys in
Speaker 1: a R fifteen and plate carriers than they are about
Speaker 1: Patriot Front, which is again it's because of like what's
Speaker 1: actually going on here, you know, Um, but there are
Speaker 1: like armed people fright like threatening and and trying to
Speaker 1: confront or at least standing around outside of a Pride
Speaker 1: march in a way that you know, if you're doing
Speaker 1: that with a bunch of guns, that's concerning. Anti fascists
Speaker 1: show up to protest them and very successfully kind of
Speaker 1: keep a wall between the folks showing up for Pride
Speaker 1: and the folks rallying with guns. Um. So that that
Speaker 1: is a thing that is happening. I don't want to
Speaker 1: This has been the thing that has kind of like
Speaker 1: gotten the most attention from Quarterly, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that's bad, like from a standpoint of like what is
Speaker 1: useful Seeing a bunch of Nazis get their ship like
Speaker 1: wrecked is definitely an ideal takeaway from the Quarterline event because,
Speaker 1: especially considering the amount of violence I think we were
Speaker 1: all worried might occur there. I'm very happy that the
Speaker 1: primary takeaway is Patriot Front all got arrested. Um, But
Speaker 1: the things that we were concerned about there again, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of dudes show up with guns to stare
Speaker 1: at a Pride rally. That's not a not a positive development.
Speaker 1: But this group of Nazis all get arrested, and that
Speaker 1: is positive because it's extremely funny and sometimes it's nice
Speaker 1: for things to just be funny. Um. So the next
Speaker 1: kind of thing you see from Patriot Front is them
Speaker 1: all pulled out of a U haul on their knees, handcuffed,
Speaker 1: getting arrested one by one, uh and taken to a
Speaker 1: jail and quarterlyin there's some very funny quotes where like
Speaker 1: the police are being asked do you even have room
Speaker 1: for all these people? And they're like, oh, we'll figure
Speaker 1: it out. Like, don't worry. It's um rousseau and a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys are in getting criminal conspiracy charges. Um.
Speaker 1: They're all getting conspiracy to riot, which is a misdemeanor.
Speaker 1: There's some rumors that a journalist posted that a number
Speaker 1: of them have illegal had illegal guns and they're getting
Speaker 1: illegal gun charges. I haven't seen confirmation about that. I'd
Speaker 1: be shocked if some of them were not carrying guns
Speaker 1: in the state of Idaho. Anybody can right. UM. I
Speaker 1: do think they were specifically violating the law by having
Speaker 1: firearms while sitting in the bocket back of a box truck,
Speaker 1: because I think, for like reasons of accidents that have
Speaker 1: happened hunting, you're not supposed to do that in Idaho. UM.
Speaker 1: But I haven't seen charges as a result of that. Um.
Speaker 1: It's debatable as to what's going to stick. However, there's
Speaker 1: reasons to kind of suspect that something will because they
Speaker 1: had like seven or whatever page plan for how to
Speaker 1: handle the like they had their little riot notes, oh
Speaker 1: god plan like sticks and a smoke bomb and stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's not like an impossible case to convict them.
Speaker 1: I will say, you know, like, you're not You're not
Speaker 1: asking like the moon of the police in this instance,
Speaker 1: to like or of the prosecutors or whatever to be
Speaker 1: able to actually convict um. So we'll see what happens. Um.
Speaker 1: What's definitely happening is that this is very funny. Um.
Speaker 1: Patriot Front is extremely incompetent. I would not take this
Speaker 1: as a broader sign that, like number one, the police
Speaker 1: are taking threats against Pride rallies. More seriously, no, Um,
Speaker 1: I would not take this as a broader sign that
Speaker 1: like fascists are are are getting heavily stopped. I also
Speaker 1: wouldn't There's also been people saying that like and again
Speaker 1: this is coming from that journalists who claimed that, like
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of gun charges pending, and maybe there are,
Speaker 1: but like, I think the comment she made was like
Speaker 1: a massacre was averted. I do not believe Patriot Front
Speaker 1: was planning to massacre anybody. There's That's just that's not
Speaker 1: their m o. That's not like again, not that they're
Speaker 1: not Nazis, not that they don't want people dead, but
Speaker 1: like they're like, these guys are like the milk toastest
Speaker 1: baby ist Nazis. Right, they show up and they march
Speaker 1: around in their fucking like Tommy hill Figer Nazi uniforms.
Speaker 1: You know, like they're not these are not folks planning
Speaker 1: in an organized capacity to commit acts of mass violence. Um,
Speaker 1: because that would be scary to them because they're mostly
Speaker 1: like suburban middle class kids. Um. One of the funniest
Speaker 1: things that has come out of this is like one
Speaker 1: of the Nazis who get arrested in Idaho's mom has
Speaker 1: started doing the news because she's like, I kicked him
Speaker 1: out of the house. I keep trying to get him
Speaker 1: to I don't know what to do to get him
Speaker 1: out of this group. So I've told him he can't
Speaker 1: live with me anymore because after his divorce, he's been
Speaker 1: living with me. Um, and I'm going to talk to
Speaker 1: the media about the fact that my son is a
Speaker 1: stupid Nazi until he stops being one. I don't know
Speaker 1: what else to do. And it does sound like she's
Speaker 1: really legitimately like trying to grapple with like I don't
Speaker 1: know why he's doing this. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: stop it, but like it seems like the best thing
Speaker 1: I can do is embarrass him. Um, which is I
Speaker 1: think probably a good move on her part. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a fun Daily Beast article about that. You could
Speaker 1: really hear her frustrations. Liken't know why he's doing this,
Speaker 1: like it all started around. It's very frustrating you feel
Speaker 1: for her. So I don't know, Chris, you got anything
Speaker 1: else to say about Patriot Front. I I do think
Speaker 1: it's extremely funny that, like, well, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: In some sense, it's funny and some sense, it's kind
Speaker 1: of disturbing, which is that like the rights reaction to
Speaker 1: this was immediately to accuse all of him and being Feds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, which, like it's interesting to me that, like
Speaker 1: that's just like anytime something happens in the US now,
Speaker 1: like and this is this is across almost the entire
Speaker 1: political spectrum, everyone immediately goes, this was the Feds or
Speaker 1: so sometime sometimes sometimes you get it was rush because
Speaker 1: sometimes you yeah, because it's like if you're someone trough,
Speaker 1: like the Feds are the good guys, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you need another person who did all those So like
Speaker 1: that's disturbing and kind of grim to me that it's
Speaker 1: it's literally everyone with everything has just turned into Alex Jones,
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, you know, I think the motivation
Speaker 1: for that on all the sides, there's definitely like a
Speaker 1: core of legitimate belief that because the Feds infiltrating the
Speaker 1: FEDS have infiltrated a lot of fascist groups, and the
Speaker 1: Feds have you know, had a history of infiltrating left
Speaker 1: wing groups and whatnot, Like the Feds have done a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff. So that makes some people paranoid.
Speaker 1: But also I think if you are on the grifter
Speaker 1: end of things, right, and you want to talk about
Speaker 1: this stuff, but you don't actually want uh to put
Speaker 1: yourself at risk, Um, that's an easy way to kind
Speaker 1: of divorce your listeners and supporters and stuff from the
Speaker 1: stuff that's potentially illegal is by saying, well, that's all
Speaker 1: the Feds. Um. Yeah. And I think also especially like
Speaker 1: I think people are I don't know, it's more frustrating
Speaker 1: on the left because people do it with stuff that
Speaker 1: like the PR is actually pretty good. But like with
Speaker 1: people on the right, there's a lot of like this
Speaker 1: has become one of their sort of like pr management
Speaker 1: things of like anytime something looks bad for them, no,
Speaker 1: it was the FEDS, and it's like no. And I
Speaker 1: don't think that's on the right at least I think
Speaker 1: it's there. I think there's more legitimate belief that it's
Speaker 1: the FEDS on folks in the left to do this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think on the right it is nearly always just
Speaker 1: like this is how you do damage control, Like this
Speaker 1: is how we this is how we distract from the
Speaker 1: fact that our guys keep carrying out attacks or whatever,
Speaker 1: or in this case that our our dudes are profoundly embarrassing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: um is you is You're like no, that was the
Speaker 1: FBI packing thirty federal agents into the back of a
Speaker 1: U hall and getting arrested by the cord Aline police.
Speaker 1: A classic FBI if I've ever seen what my favorite
Speaker 1: one of the people who are like, you're never going
Speaker 1: to see the names of any of these people. Like
Speaker 1: literally two hours later, every single person got booked, all
Speaker 1: of their names, of their names, every newspapers like and
Speaker 1: it is. Again, this does show you how the quarter
Speaker 1: Aline police don't want people coming in from out of
Speaker 1: town to funk with people who live in cort Aline.
Speaker 1: That's not a them being woke. They like nobody no
Speaker 1: cops like that sort of ship. Yeah, yeah, like like
Speaker 1: this yeah, yeah, these guys are these guys are at
Speaker 1: the hometown fascist right, like they're they're fine with Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're finely exactly Biblical basis award dude, just like yeah,
Speaker 1: but these are like, these are weird out of town fascists.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, cops, I don't know there. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: it's they're very territorial. One of the one of the
Speaker 1: ways you can see the territoriality is like the first
Speaker 1: thing the quarter Aline police do is be like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to give everyone's name and where they live,
Speaker 1: Like we're doing that immediately. And of course the backlash
Speaker 1: to that from the fascist has been that now bunch
Speaker 1: of fascists are doxing and calling in death threats to
Speaker 1: Quarterline cops. Um. Which again there's this open question of like,
Speaker 1: are any of these charges gonna stick for Patriot Front
Speaker 1: The fact that an organized flood of death threats is
Speaker 1: going in for the police charging them is not good
Speaker 1: for their cases. Oh no, they're just they're just it's like, guys, guys,
Speaker 1: some free cop advice for me. Cops don't like getting
Speaker 1: death threats, so that that really makes them angry. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so that's funny. I don't know what else to say
Speaker 1: about it. Uh, it is pretty funny. Um. There's aspect
Speaker 1: again the broader problem of there were a bunch of
Speaker 1: dudes with a RS showing up to to threaten um
Speaker 1: a pride gathering was not fun, although also a lot
Speaker 1: of folks showed up to defend and support those people. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think I think also, like from from what
Speaker 1: I'm from, they're putting this is like one of the
Speaker 1: largest Pride events we've ever had, so like I think
Speaker 1: brought out people. Yeah, yeah, people, people aren't being like
Speaker 1: as an intimidation tactic. It's not working. It does not
Speaker 1: have worked. Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's worked. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's working in so far as it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's further radicalizing the right. But like it's not. It
Speaker 1: hasn't gotten to the point where, like I don't know,
Speaker 1: people like it hasn't gone to the point where like
Speaker 1: these things just are like Pride events just aren't happening
Speaker 1: because there because the threat is great enough. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and I I would say, broadly speaking, if you kind
Speaker 1: of look at all of the things that we saw
Speaker 1: in the quarterlyin event, it's some more more positive signs.
Speaker 1: The negative ones, um, the negative stuff is stuff that
Speaker 1: we have seen a lot before. The militia ship um,
Speaker 1: the folks rallying to defend those people, the people turning
Speaker 1: up for the Pride event, Um, that's all positive. And
Speaker 1: if we're the most prominent fascists at the event embarrassing themselves,
Speaker 1: like that's positive. So I am I feel I I
Speaker 1: do feel like we were all worried over here about
Speaker 1: how the event in Quarterline was going to go. I
Speaker 1: feel really good about how it it went, which is
Speaker 1: not too especially I know that there's folks from Quarterline.
Speaker 1: They're not to minimize the problems and the threats faced,
Speaker 1: especially from people in Idaho, because boy, that is rough
Speaker 1: territory to be organizing in defense of LGBT people. UM,
Speaker 1: but I think, broadly speaking, more good news than bad
Speaker 1: news from from Quarterline. So I wanna give our appreciation
Speaker 1: and thanks to the folks who showed up in Quarterline
Speaker 1: UM to support this event to confront the fascists. UM,
Speaker 1: y'all are awesome and doing something difficult in a place
Speaker 1: that needs you to be doing that, So thank you.
Speaker 1: Come It Could Happen Here as a production of cool
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Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool Zone Media
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