The Continued Underestimation of the Far Right Threat

James Alex Fields, Jr. - Driver of the murder vehicle

The majority of the acts of terrorism since 9-11 have been committed by far right extremist, yet the media continually down plays the seriousness that these far right elements pose to law abiding citizens. Frighteningly, Der Trumpenführer wants to direct all anti-terror efforts towards Mulsims - no doubt to play to his base and his own bigotry - even as the events in Charlottesville underscore that the real threat is white supremacists/far right Christians (I see the two groups as largely the same since white nationalism is now the true religion of the Christofascists).  As a piece in the New York Times set out, the driver of the vehicle that drove into a crowd killing one and injuring 19 others - just like Islamic extremists in London - showed many warning signs that he was a potential threat. I'm sure in no time - if it hasn't already begun - the far right will claim he had mental illness problems rather than admit it is the toxicity of their beliefs and agenda that is the true cause of what happened on Saturday.  Here are article excerpts:

Although the crash was a grisly coda to a day of clashes between white nationalists and their opponents, family members, acquaintances and internet posts suggested that Mr. Fields had mostly gone unnoticed by the authorities and researchers, even as he trafficked in radical views and unnerving behavior long before the outbreak of violence.

As a young man in Kentucky, he sometimes espoused Nazi ideology at school. A military career ended in less than four months. On Saturday, before the crash that left Heather D. Heyer, 32, dead, and 19 others hurt, he stood in Charlottesville, donned a white shirt and clutched a shield that bore a symbol of the so-called alt-right. He is expected to appear in court on Monday to face an array of charges, including a count of second-degree murder; the federal authorities have opened a civil-rights inquiry.

[O]thers who knew Mr. Fields, especially from his teenage years, said that his demeanor and opinions had troubled them for years.

“On many occasions there were times he would scream obscenities, whether it be about Hitler or racial slurs,” a woman who attended middle school with Mr. Fields in Florence, Ky., said in an email on Sunday.

The woman, who requested anonymity because she feared retaliation, said Mr. Fields “mostly kept to himself” and “didn’t start fights or try to fight.” But she described him as “exceptionally odd and an outcast to be sure.”

“He wasn’t afraid to make you feel unsafe,” said the woman, who was among the students who said Mr. Fields had made them feel unnerved. The sources of Mr. Fields’s ideology were unclear on Sunday, but his Facebook page included memes and symbols associated with the far right. But in Charlottesville, Mr. Fields stood among men believed to be associated with Vanguard America, a group whose manifesto declares that “a government based in the natural law must not cater to the false notion of equality.”

There are many more James Fields out in society and they need to be identified and protective measures taken, including changes to America's gun laws that allow such people to be armed and even more dangerous.