Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Nothing will come of nothing

 For those of you who truly don't believe that there is a dangerous far right extremist movement in the U.S. -- and I don't believe anybody truly disbelieves that -- take note of the recent destruction of electric substations in Moore County North Carolina. This was not an isolated incident, by any means. As the linked article describes in detail, there have been many similar incidents, though the others caused less damage.


Back in January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned that American extremists have begun exhibiting an unhealthy interest in attacking the power grid—at first regionally, then nationally—as a means of disrupting the country. Far-right domestic extremists “have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors,” according to the DHS report.

 

This tactic is not tied to any specific demands, nor is it in response to any specific grievances. The sole purpose is to cause economic damage and personal misery. These people believe that disruption of the social order and economic distress will create opportunities for them to seize power by force. Note that while some think the Moore County incident was in response to a drag show, the perpetrators have not publicly claimed any motive, which doesn't make sense if they're protesting anything in particular. 

 

This strategy seems to me basically delusional, but it will be very difficult to counter if it becomes more commonplace. There are tens of thousands of electrical substations, and they are unguarded. It's also possible to knock down transmission lines with explosives, which is more difficult to pull off but probably even harder to prevent if someone has the capability. So yeah, I'd be worried about this.

1 comment:

Don Quixote said...

If a psychopath can be elected, president, as Shitler was, then the tone has been set from the top -- and psychotic thinking and behavior become normalized, instead of treating it all as the insanity it is.

Our country is set up to value property, power and greed, not human life. But now that the Republicans have ripped the top off of the crazy box, more people will be imitating what they saw at the top for four years.

And have been seeing from FUX for 30 years. Coupled with the twisted, hypocritical, conscienceless thinking of a spineless piece of crap like Newt Gingrich, and it's a recipe for disaster.