Lengthy post over at AlterNet regarding a video apparently shown to attendees at the recent Conservative Hog Wallow who
"were reportedly thrilled by a short sci-fi video depicting a dictatorial near-future government and the underground "Movement on Fire" that springs up to resist it. The video, a thinly veiled advertisement for violent insurrection from the “Tea Party Patriots" group, boasts professional acting and Hollywood production values. But underneath its bright, professional sheen lurk dark overtones of End Times paranoia that will resonate with millions of American fundamentalists. Its apocalyptic imagery is as ancient as Revelations, its glossy look as modern as a Revlon ad, and its near-subliminal barrage of rapid-cut imagery rings with the terror-fueled sermons of 1,000 preachers.
This is a long read - several 'pages' on the AlterNet site so MOSTLY I am posting this to make you aware and to suggest you go bookmark that article for reading sometime soon.
Baggers and the rest of the "Conservatives' harbor very violent fantasies about 'overthrowing the government' and 'watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrant.'. These people are numoerous and they are extremely delusional. This video (posted on the flip) like all conservative hate radio/media, seeks to excuse and incite violence against some ambiguous dictatorial regime.
The article does a fairly good job of delving into the historical context in which this video and the bagger 'message' belongs: evangelical "tribulation' nonsense of the 70's and 80's:
These films portrayed centralized government as Evil incarnate. Their scriptural source was the Book of Revelations, whose cryptic, evocative prophecies have fascinated and frightened believers for millennia. The same message resonates in “Movement On Fire,” which opens with a young woman staring across a river toward a city. “It was created to give us freedom,” she says in a voiceover as a torch burns beside her. “Our city became a great beacon of liberty and hope to the world.” The wind lightly ruffles her hair. “It was a shining city on a hill,” she adds, quoting the phrase that passed from the Bible to Puritan minister John Winthrop before winding up in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 concession speech.
Again, the article is a little lengthy and detailed and because of copyright I can only use up to 4 paragraphs: the last one I want to incluse is from closer to the end of the article, which takes a sort of detour to talk about another film (The Determinators) which was a bagger propaganda film about 'death panels'.
The article goes on to cite the SPLC's concerns about the rise of what I would term wingnut militias:
In its Spring 2013 Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported the findings of its annual census. “The number of antigovernment groups on the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012,” the SCLC reports, “the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is growing increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control.
These racist, paranoid nutjobs have pulled out the stops since Obama's election, they have sent gun sales through the roof for years only to re-double it after 12/14 and to dig their heels in on any law remotely smelling of gun safety.
It is safe to suggest that these people REALLY want to keep their guns because at some point - sooner than later now - they intend to 'water the tree of liberty' as they collectively begin acting out their massive nutjob delusions.
These people are a documented threat to you and me.
Hopefully there is at least one government agency that is not unduly focused on some ridiculous, artificial non-problem that can recognize a real threat.