The man who attacked Paul Pelosi while searching for his real target, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had a hodgepodge of fringe conspiracy theories that have emerged since the days of 9/11 dancing around his head. According to the SF Chronicle, he seems to have started out in the post-hippie world of Bay Area culture and over time found his way over to Q-anon — all thanks to Gamergate. After police investigators and journalists released details from his social media and forum postings, debate inevitably arose on those same platforms between left and right over whose quarter he really belonged to, no one wanting to claim him.
If he started out somewhere in the outer reaches of the leftward spectrum, he now belongs to the right, having fully absorbed the grievances, conspiracy theories, targets of hate and anger, and authoritarian-cum-fascist ideologies. There is a tendency of academics and more institutionally aligned observers to treat all fringe groups as one big anti-authoritarian, anti-status quo potpourri; and I get that the migration of some lefties to the right makes it seem like there is no substantive difference, as they embrace crackpot ideas rooted in racist and antisemitic nonsense and ignorance. More broadly, this tendency feeds the whataboutism you find in arguments (usually from MAGA heads) that there is no difference between Black Lives Matter protests and the January 6th insurrection. But make no mistake: the right wing has no problems resorting to violence on a level and scope far greater than the left is capable of or prone to. It’s that predilection for violence, fueled by personal grievances that can turn a dopey nudist into a dangerous misogynist.
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