Articles Index Jared Loughner: Anti-Semitic or Anti-Government?
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is Arizona’s first Jewish female to be elected to Congress. Was her Jewishness used as a motive for her to be shot?
First and foremost, as are all Americans, I am shocked and horrified at the senseless shooting in Arizona that took the lives of six innocent people and injured 13 others on Saturday, January 8th.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims of this tragedy. Those that lost their lives are as follows:
9-year-old Christina Greene, 30-year-old Gifford aide Gabe Zimmerman, 63 year-old U.S. District Judge John Roll, 76-year-old Dorothy Murray, 76-year-old Dorwin Stoddard, and 79-year-old Phyllis Scheck.
As horrible as this shooting incident is, the question currently being asked by everyone -including the authorities – is: “Why?”
Jared Loughner, as depicted in a school year-book.
What made Jared Loughner, 22, go to a town hall style meeting outside a Safeway grocery store in Tuscon, Arizona and embark on a shooting rampage?
The news on Loughner is pouring in and will continue to come in. Not all of it is fact and with every media outlet trying to be one step ahead of the rest, a lot of information is not substantiated.
The authorities have already stated that he was a “troubled” and “mentally unstable” individual who was anti-government according to his own rants on both Myspace and Youtube.
Prior to Loughner’s Myspace being shut down, he had listed “Mein Kampf” as one of his favorite books. Okay, that does tend one to believe he is an Anti-Semite.
Today’s (Sunday January 9, 2011) USA Today had an article in the Faith and Reason section titled “Jewish Giffords' shooting suspect: 'No! I don't trust in God!'
In the article USA Today notes,
For all the instant analysis that this might be tied to political attacks on Giffords and others who supported President Obama on health care reform, there's not a whiff of politics in Loughner's language about coins and calendars and other ramblings. Yet he does exclaim in his YouTube video, "No! I won't trust in God!"
Also this morning the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo that stated in part:
MEMO:
The investigation has been taken over by the FBI, and is being run through the Tucson Command Post. Here's what can be confirmed at this time (1800 hrs)... * Gabrielle Giffords Is in ICU.* Federal judge John Roll is deceased.
The suspect has multiple arrests ... But no criminal record? Intervention by someone?* no direct connection - but strong suspicion is being directed at AmRen / American Renaissance. Suspect is possibly linked to this group.
The group’s ideology is anti government, anti immigration, anti ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti Semitic. Gabrielle Gifford is the first Jewish female elected to such a high position in the US government. She was also opposite this group’s ideology when it came to immigration debate.
The publication American Renaissance describes themselves on their website,
Race is an important aspect of individual and group identity. Of all the fault lines that divide society — language, religion, class, ideology — it is the most prominent and divisive. Race and racial conflict are at the heart of the most serious challenges the Western World faces in the 21st century.
The problems of race cannot be solved without adequate understanding. Attempts to gloss over the significance of race or even to deny its reality only make problems worse. Progress requires the study of all aspects of race, whether historical, cultural, or biological. This approach is known as race realism.
On the AR Readers Guide of their website they state,
The Philosophy of Race Realism
What we call race realism is what was considered traditional common sense until perhaps the 1950s. It is a body of views that was so taken for granted it had no name, but it can be summarized as follows: That race is an important aspect of individual and group identity, that different races build different societies that reflect their natures, and that it is entirely normal for whites (or for people of any other race) to want to be the majority race in their own homeland. If whites permit themselves to become a minority population, they will lose their civilization, their heritage, and even their existence as a distinct people.
All other groups take it for granted that they have a right to speak out in their own interests. Only whites have lost this conviction.
On that same page they also discuss the Race and IQ myth,
One of the most destructive myths of modern times is that people of all races have the same average intelligence. It is widely accepted that genes account for much of the difference in intelligence between individuals, but many people still refuse to believe genes explain group differences in average intelligence. This blindness leads to futile attempts to eliminate “learning gaps” between the races and forces whites to accept the view that if blacks and Hispanics are less successful than whites, it is because of white “racism.”
The Immigration and the Demographic Transformation section states,
The single greatest threat facing whites is mass immigration of non-whites into white homelands. If it continues, whites will become a minority in the United States before mid-century. Britain, Canada, and Australia will also lose their white majorities. The culture of the West will not survive the disappearance of the people who created it.
In one op-ed written by American Renaissance founder and Editor Jared Taylor, “A reply to David Horowitz” he writes,
By all means, let Israel remain Jewish, but by the same token let the United States remain majority-white. Mr. Horowitz has a distinguished record of fighting double standards, so he should recognize one when he sees it. If he supports a Jewish Israel, he should support a white America.
In another op-ed titled “Jews and the American Renaissance” Taylor seems to be attempting to put an end to arguments over Jews in the AR, personally, I see this as a direct statement against Anti-Semitism in the AR,
AR has likewise taken no explicit position on Jewish matters. Readers have always included both Jews and people who believe Jews play no useful role in a movement that promotes white interests. It has been my intent to emphasize questions crucial to our interests and on which we agree.
To put it more accurately, AR has taken an implicit position on Jews by publishing Jewish authors and inviting Jewish speakers to AR conferences. It should be clear to anyone that Jews have, from the outset, been welcome and equal participants in our efforts. There has always been a minority in the AR constituency that has criticized me and AR for welcoming Jews, and there has been another minority that has criticized me and AR for not denouncing the first minority. These groups have generally treated each other with polite reserve, and expressed their bitterness only among themselves or to me—as was proper.
There are other divisions within AR. There are Christians and atheists, Democrats and Republicans, evolutionists and creationists, and advocates of different foreign policies. There has been tension within AR on these questions, but always good manners.
That changed at the most recent American Renaissance conference. At least one participant told a Jewish conferee that Jews were not welcome. One participant well known for strong views rose to denounce Jews as the historic enemy of the European people. Another called him “a f***ing Nazi,” and stormed out of the conference hall.
There will be no more disgraceful behavior of this kind if people who attend AR conferences bear in mind that Jews have a valuable role in the work of American Renaissance, and are welcome participants and speakers. Anyone who thinks otherwise has the choice of staying home or keeping his views to himself.
AR does not, on the other hand, have litmus tests for subscribers or conference participants. There will always be disagreement and debate in our ranks on many issues, including the role Jews may or may not have played in creating the crisis we face. Some people in the AR community believe Jewish influence was decisive in destroying the traditional American consensus on race. Others disagree.
Whether one agrees with AR’s views or not, it seems clear to me that Mr. Taylor’s above statement of “Anyone who thinks otherwise has the choice of staying home or keeping his views to himself” is far from ‘Anti-Semitic’.
Reading articles as well as the books that this site is promoting, there is no doubt that this group would be considered by some as a White Supremacist group. Others will read the same items and come away saying they are promoting true American Culture and that “Multiculturalism” is causing the demise of the United States.
In my attempting to follow true journalism rules, I contacted and spoke to Jared Taylor by telephone and we spoke for a half hour.
Mr. Taylor stated to me,
“I have no idea where the DHS came up with AR being Anti-Semitic or anti-ZOG, you will not find anything that is Anti-Semitic in our publications. The DHS saying that AR is anti-ZOG or even using the word ZOG makes me wonder how much they looked at our site, it doesn’t say much about the DHS.”
A search of their website pulls up only two times that the word ZOG is used. Both are articles re-posted by other sites explaining the meaning of the word and one of those articles is from FOX News.
When I asked if the suspected shooter Jared Loughner was connected to AR, Mr. Taylor explained,
“We have checked the archives and lists of people that have been to our conventions and have no record whatsoever of the name Jared Loughner anywhere. He may have posted comments in our website using a screen name, but there is nothing with the name Jared Loughner.”
In the beginning of our conversation when I explained who I was, he had this to say about Israel,
“I agree with what Israel is doing by securing their borders and attempting to keep the State a Jewish State.”
When I raised the question about white supremacy he answered,
“I don’t know how anyone can call what we do white supremacist, the definition of white supremacist would be to control all those that are non-white. We do not want to control anyone. As far as Racism, if you look at the science of IQ’s for example you will see that Asians are smarter than whites, is that a racist statement?”
Regardless of one’s opinion on AR the question is this, if Jared Loughner was at all mentally unstable as stated by the Pima County Sheriff, did he ever read any of AR’s publications? And if he did, what influence could these have had in his decision to try to assassinate Rep. Giffords?
Any mentally unstable person will come away with their own point of view regardless of the context. People have called me an “Islamophobe” and “racist” for my writings, yet I have never called for violence of any kind. If anything, I have called for the exact opposite.
Perception is reality and someone with a screw loose could just as easily use my articles as a reason for wanting to harm someone.
Is Loughner just a nut who hates anyone that is Jewish, or perhaps he disagreed with Rep. Giffords’ stance on immigration? Obviously, when an individual goes to a public place and starts shooting innocent people they can be called mentally unstable regardless of their reasons.
Whatever his reasons we in the new media (and the media as a whole) need to be careful pointing the blame at anything that may have set him off before we know all of the facts. Jumping to conclusions because someone may have been to site that you don’t agree with is what can lead to the banning of such websites and publications. This is nothing more than the banning of freedom of speech.
If we ever reach that point, websites such as this will disappear as well.
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2011-01-09 17:38:01 |71.191.132.xxx| Jeffrey Imm - Gadi - Do You Know About AmRen's Links to Stormfr
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2011-01-10 12:02:38 |72.200.116.xxx| EMA - Sorrow
I am horrified at what happened in Tucson and my heart grieves with those families who lost loved ones, as well as those injured folk, including Congresswoman Giffords.
Hate is a powerful emotion and as long as hatred exists, these nut-cases will continue their terrorism on the innocent! We must and we will overcome hatred by knowing the sources of hatred and working hard to neutralize the ones so infected!
Education, folks - education and understanding and tolerance!!!!
My prayers go out for the recoveries of those injured in body as well as soul.
Keep up the good work Gadi - you surely know how to help us understand.
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2011-01-10 18:58:11 |143.215.108.xxx| Bill - Response to Jeffrey Imm
American Renaissance probably has had some association with Stormfront. That said, that is hardly tantamount to sharing all the views of Stormfront. Indeed, if we were to finger the radical associations of every organization in America, we could easily trace plenty of Democratic politicians back to leftwing extremists. Does that mean that they hold the views of these individuals and organizations to a fault? Of course not. Rather, it means that they are fellow travellers on certain issues. Similarly, both Stormfront and American Renaissance are concerned with protecting the interests of whites in America, which in and of itself should not make them any more controversial than the NAACP or the National Council of La Raza (Black and Hispanic interest groups, respectively). Stormfront may be anti-Semitic (I haven't looked at their website), but American Renaissance, at least its leadership, is not.
As for the DC motels not hosting the American Renaissance conference previously, this occurred because leftwing extremists threatened the hotel owners with protests and violence to shut down the conference. It is a mark of the intellectually bankrupt that they seek to silence dissent by threats of violence. Indeed, one has to wonder why these "anti-fascists" and "anti-racists" are so worked up about AmRen members practicing their constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and peaceable assembly. Presumably, if the group's ideas were as self-evidently wrong as its opponents proclaim, the opponents would have little to worry about, since AmRen's message goes so strongly against the grain of current popular thought they would have to make a solid case to support it.
Jeffrey claims that AmRen "embraces" Stormfront, when all he has shown as evidence is that Stormfront supports AmRen (which does not imply the converse), and that Jared Taylor appeared on Black's radio show. It is patently absurd to claim that this indicates a support for all of the positions held by Stormfront, or its forum members.
As for Nick Griffin, I personally wish he wasn't speaking at the conference, because he's somewhat of a knucklehead, but he has publicly changed his own position on the holocaust. Whether this represents an actual change in his beliefs or is just a matter of convenience is immaterial. He is not going to the AmRen conference to preach anti-Semitism, so claiming that inviting him amounts to an endorsement of such is silly.
By the same bizarre line of reasoning used by Jeffrey, I could claim that because of Barack Obama's association with Jeremiah Wright, who claimed that "them Jews" were keeping him from corresponding witht the president, is hostile to Jews, and that appointing a Jew as his chief of staff was just cover for his anti-semitic agenda. This would, of course, be absurd, but that's point isn't it?
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2011-01-10 20:53:08 |66.26.231.xxx| Flaxen-headed Strumpet - RE: Jeffrey Imm
Guilt by association, guilt by political coalition (a very EU concept) Grow up boy; you take your support wherever you can get it when you are politically marginalized. It seems to me that you are the one intolerant of "diversity"--especially diversity of infinite permutations of patterns of ideological thought, coalition, and association.
Gadi -
Let me tell you the rest of the story.
American Renaissance is regularly supported by the Stormfront organization led by former American Nazi Party's Don Black, and the American Renaissance leader appears on Don Black son and co-leader in Stormfront Derek Black's radio show to promote the American Renaissance group. (AmRen Jared Taylor's talk was promoted right beside a Holocaust Denier ad on Stormfront. Yes - I have the screen shots to prove it.) http://www.realcourage.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/S-Praises-AR.jpg
In 2010, American Renaissance sought to have BNP's Nick Griffin speak who has called the Holocaust the "Holohoax."
On February 4-6, the American Renaissance group plans a national meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina because a year ago DC area hotels would not hold their conference.
R.E.A.L. has reported on this at:
http://www.realcourage.org/2011/01/amren-nc/
Gadi - when we think that groups such as American Renaissance are not "anti-semitic," then we are really not doing our research. Yes on the surface, some AmRen supporter claim to support Jews as "whites," but don't kid yourself. When AmRen embraces groups like Stormfront whose forum members praised the terrorist who attacked the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and some of whom today have been praising the killer of Ms. Giffords because she is Jewish, then you really don't understand what AmRen represents.
Most troubling is how groups such as VDARE have defended the American Renaissance groups. You need to be aware that there have been VDARE contributors on other conservative blogs that you know about.
The answer is to reject identity group hatred - of any race, any religion, any gender, and any nationality. Hate is a cancer and a disease which will destroy us all.