Shooting at Holocaust museum by fascist White Nationalist

…over at Stormfront there is debate over the actual importance or effectiveness of James Von Brunn’s attack today.

There seem to be two threads, one now locked for security purposes and one still open. The nazi mods locked one because users may have made comments that heralded Von Brunn for his action while the open one had mostly posters taking a critical view of his attack.

The posts ranged from 1) the quasi critical,

“Utterly ridiculous, pointless…As I’ve been saying, a nationalist movement will only proceed once it becomes an INTELLECTUAL movement.”

and another Stormfront poster (less critical)

“I just finished reading Mr. Von Brunn’s book. From the beginning it captured me. It is full of startling fact and insights. The historical references to infamous events in world history and the real story behind the scenes were riveting. I recommend it to anyone who has the courage to rise above the MSM’s obviously false version of events.

I deplore the fact that an innocent man who was just performing his job as a security guard has been killed. His family and loved ones have my sympathy and prayer’s

The reason’s for Mr. Von Brunn’s actions are perhaps only known to him. The passion with which he writes and his history of activism leads me to wonder if this was intended to be a suicide. Mr. Brunn is very aware that the time left to save the White Race and America as he knew it is very short. Recent events and his advancing age may have been factors in his decision to go out with a bang.”

2) adressing the futility of the action and seeing the attack as a set back for the White fascist movement:

“Senseless, violent actions such as what we witnessed today at the Holocaust Museum only sets back the White Nationalist movement.”

3) to even wondering if Von Brunn was just now a wacko in his old age:

“I dont know what he was thinking today. What makes an old man get up in the morning and say, ‘I am going to go and find the most public/sympathetic target I can find and launch the most IN-effectual attack EVER on it! Then I will cause as much issue as I can for everyone in the cause, and live through it, so that I can be held up for months or years afterward as a example of the ‘smart lone-wolf’

I for one would like to thank his dumbass personally for all his help to us. So “Thank you Mr. Dumbass…!”

Does anyone know if he had Altzheimers? Possibly simple dementia?”

The Stormfront posts show that the fascists understand that by and large the current period is not conducive to armed attacks, and little benefit will come to them if there ranks carry out spectacular acts of terror – although ther are plenty among there ranks who thinka nd act otherwise, or do so in less visible ways. If one can stomach the crap on Stormfront we can see that plenty of the fascists are thinking strategically about movement building.

The liberal press is turning the two recent attacks/murders – Dr. Tiller and now at the Holocaust Museum and the murder of guard Stephen T. Johns – into a hysteria. Liberal commentators are presing for domestic terror policy to be enacted against the Right. While the attacks show the ongoing reality of fascist and racialist terror, an expanded and official policy to investigate and develop counter insurgency methods against the Right will be used against other “dissident” groups and any sector that refuses the authority of the State. This is the dilemma that civil libertarian groups raise and which has often led them to defend the legal “right” to unpopular speech.

It is these terror attacks that the State will use to strengthen its hand, or at the least the State will attempt to push forward legislation – or covert operations – to monitor and destablize threats. The Bush administration did this with DHS, the Patriot Act, FISA, etc, we will have to watch to see how the Democrats act.

What is important for anti-fascists is that these attacks, coupled with the continuing capitalist crisis, the growing right-wing backlash against the Obama administration, and the disarray of the Republican party, the importance is that we are seeing more clearly the possibilities of a renewed reactionary movement that may currently be tied to electoralism but demonstrating the potential for elements within it to become semi-autonomous with a break from the legal confines of the Systems politico-socio framework.