Cold Take

I don't have much to add to the horror show that came out of New Zealand.  Any reasonable person will see a few consistent threads.

- Eliminationist rhetoric surrounding minorities has been growing, and Trump - along with Farange and Le Pen and Orban and dozens of others - have mainlined this shit into the public discourse.  Calling it White Nationalism seems insufficient to what seems like more of an international movement.  White Supremacy or White Power seems closer to the mark.  These voices were pushed to the far fringes, until Trump and others brought them back.

- The Internet has made all of this so much worse.  One frustrated Neo-Nazi isn't a problem, but once he gets into a 4Chan room or starts watching white supremacy videos on YouTube, suddenly the isolated loner sees himself as part of a movement.  I don't know how you police this, but it has to be policed.  Our sons have come to us with shitty, toxic ideas that they have found on YouTube, and it scares the crap out of me.

- Robert Kagan has a long essay where he explains how the rising tide of authoritarianism is a return to historical norms and that traditional liberalism doesn't really know how to address this problem.  It came out today in a hell of an act of synchronicity.  Liberalism's basic conceit is that human liberty is a universal goal and worthy in its own right.  Authoritarianism has - at its roots - the fear of the "other," and that can't be rolled back easily.  It's part of the lizard brain.  It takes an active will and education to embrace people different from you.  Until more people get there, we will have more Putins, more Orbans and more Trumps.

- America needs to face up to the fact that we are both the birthplace of modern liberalism and the wellspring of many of the worst ideas of racism and exclusionary thinking.  When Hitler went looking for eugenics, he looked to America.  He looked to Jim Crow.  He looked to people like Walter Plecker, who believed in forceful sterilization of those he saw as "unfit."  Or Madison Grant who wrote The Passing of the Great Race. This murderous asshole in New Zealand looked to us for his ideas.

- Some have noted that the shooter's manifesto has an almost Internet Troll-like quality to it.  "Triggering the libs" is such an ingrained part of modern right wing thinking it's become a parody of itself.  As Jeet Heer wrote over two years ago, fascists and racists like to hide behind a "jokey" personality to both give them cover and to degrade the quality of discourse in general.

I grieve for the people of New Zealand, and for Muslims around the world who feel threatened today.  I've known more than a few Kiwis in my day, via rugby.  They are unfailingly good humored, practical people.  Unlike the US, I expect they will actually address gun laws in the wake of this attack.

Good on, ya, New Zealand.  Best of luck.  But don't look to us.  Not for racism, not for gun laws.  We've abdicated our role as leader of the free world.