#rightwingextremists #politics Back in 2017, I wrote about how we should not underestimate the threat from #AmmonBundy and other #domesticExtremists. Since it is still true, I thought I'd share some of it. " in 2014, the Bundys, along with their armed supporters, prevented the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from rounding up Bundy cattle that were illegally grazing on federal land. This followed decades of legal wrangling to get Bundy to pay $1 million in grazing fees." 1/
The Misleading Cowboy Persona
Ammon Bundy, like his father, has promoted a folksy, albeit at times cartoonish, image of the misunderstood cowboy fighting for rural America. Unlike his father, he has avoided the major slipups like Cliven Bundy’s ridiculous comments about the “negro.”
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"The image of the cowboy that he and some of his followers have adopted gives a sense of naiveté that he does not, in fact, possess....
When Bundy organized a second confrontation on federal land at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon in 2016, many in law enforcement did take the threat seriously, but much of the general public found the group’s ineptitude and pleas for snacks funny rather than threatening." 4/
"Federal officials who were vastly outgunned called off the roundup in order to prevent violence.
Ammon Bundy is a good representation of the kind of extremist threat that often gets overlooked or at least grossly underestimated by many in our society." ..."Why does Ammon Bundy not engender the same forceful negative reaction as others who encourage armed takeovers?" 2/