If you don’t see the connection between the Nashville terrorist blowing up a city block and the violent Capitol insurrection, you’re not paying attention.

We have allowed and even enabled white extremism to thrive in this country by not addressing them as what they are - terrorists - and by not punishing their actions for what they are - terrorism.

The GOP has wrapped these extremists into their tent for decades. These have always been rebranding off the same them - white extremism and accelerationism.

These calls for “unity” from the terrorist apologists or even those who incited the terrorism is so disingenuous as to be absurd. We absolutely should not allow them to dictate the narrative about what they created.

You see, the implication in all of these calls for “unity” aren’t just disingenuous, but contain an implied threat about exactly what they have enabled:
“If you don’t let these white extremists off, there will be more white extremism.”

This is why believing that disinformation isn’t a threat or that addressing disinformation is “dunking on a 7’ hoop” is such an absurdly bad take. We have seen the real consequences of when disinformation remains unaddressed for decades. This is just the latest iteration.

This same thread crosses generations between the John Birch Society, the Moral Majority, the Tea Party, and MAGA. From Ruby Ridge to the Oklahoma City Bombing to Malheur. From the Army of God and the firebombing of clinics and murders of Dr. George Tiller and Dr. Barnett Slepian.

We have stood idly by for too long watching white extremists terrorize this country and are well past due for a reckoning for this behavior. We should not be deterred in seeking appropriate punishment for those who committed these acts of seditious violence, nor their enablers.