Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Thursday for his role in the January 6 attack. Journalist Kristen Doerer, who covers right-wing extremism, calls it a "very substantial win for democracy."
@democracynow 18 years is too light. Hey Robert E. Lee didn't spend a day in prison.
@democracynow How does a 35-year old like Elmer Stewart Rhodes get into Yale Law School a few years after he gets his state degree? Two words: Deep State. Rhodes was a Republican staffer for Ron Paul.
@democracynow 1/ This segment neglects how, for the far right, a narrative about a globalist conspiracy is a way to avoid any possible association w/ Marxist or socialist critiques of capitalism. DN consistently neglects to inquire into building grassroots coalitions to reform capitalism.
@democracynow 2/ Thru that neglect, DN offers an odd mix of establishment narratives and flights of imagination regarding abolishing capitalism, prisons, and police, and a sort of religious devotion to black leaders of the past (while neglecting the inextricable ties racism has to classism.)
@democracynow 3/ And all of that sort of DN content does very little to defuse the appeal of far right nationalism. Anti-racism is obviously good if it improves the lives of actual black people. But it's often a disguise for classism for white liberals among the cultural elite.
@democracynow 4/ I'm not trying to say I'm better than anyone, but genuine anti-racism, to be politically effective at this point in US history, requires multiracial coalitions against plutocracy. There's practically zero reporting on strategy on DN, which enables both the establishment and
@democracynow 5/ ...And also enables the far right. Generally the main option now (barring total collapse) is multicultural, multiracial social democracy vs some form of authoritarianism that, by definition, will use scapegoats to deflect popular resentment or prevent systemic change