THREAD: A friend of my partner's has fallen into the racist shitscape of internet conspiracies. He visited last summer and there was no hint of this, and is now convinced that BLM and the movement to defund police is a Chinese plot to have the UN invade the US.

I think it's important to share the theories because I keep seeing these tropes appear, both from hardcore racists (fuck them) but also from people who would say they mean well *but* .. they're supportive *but*

Identifying these conspiracies is really important to confront them.

So if you have people like this in your life, drop a comment and maybe we can see what kinds of logic helps to unstick them from time.

First off -- there is a lot of fear of Marxism. BLM = Marx = China = UN = NWO. You don't need to dig far to see this is anti-Semitic ...

... but it's also been mainstreamed by a clown parade of rightwing activists. The nexus makes no sense if you know literally anything about Marxism, or China or the UN, but when we see United We Roll talk about (((globalism))) and the UN, this is what they're talking about ...

And when Jason Kenney or Doug Ford help mainstream these fucking clowns, they are softening and legitimizing the underlying intense racism and paranoia that does speak to a certain segment of society.

So more from the email:

BLM and Antifa are "highly militarized, trained and professionally funded organization" ... I've seen this trope elsewhere too, and I worry about how much currency it has with petit bourgeois white people who have some power...

especially mini despots who rule town councils, hamlets etc. These places are as important to confront in anti-racist organizing as cities.

they have the "ultimate goal of destabilization, racial division, and collapse of the us states to promote a communist takeover via the UN."

I mean ... laughable, totally ridiculous stuff. But pumped through talk radio to make white men really, really angry about everything.

COVID-19 is also a destabilizing tool coming from China to make BLM stronger in this moment of chaos (if you're wondering why Trump insists on his racist sinophobic framing of the illness, this is why ...)

He then dives into the standard arguments that white racists make about gang violence and how the truth about cops killing Black people is that they aren't, the FBI has real stats, blah blah blah.

This is really dangerous and white folks: we have to confront it.

This is a guy who has fallen through the cracks, impacted by the opioid crisis and job market and etc. I'm not making excuses -- what I'm saying is that he's pretty typical. We must try our best to reach these folks and disabuse them of these theories ... because ...

This is the truth: BLM's calls will absolutely make life better for Black people but also for everyone. They are visions of a more just society that will actually be our collective salvation.

Hopefully this is useful for those of you with folks like this in your life.