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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMAGAbomber's Radicalization Parallels Rise of Trump
Kevin Roose @kevinroose28m28 minutes agoNew: I dug through 2+ years of Cesar Sayocs Facebook and Twitter feeds and found a very clear radicalization point.
Before 2016, it was photos of food, sports, cars. After, it was MAGA memes and videos like Satan Sent Obama to Destroy America. https://t.co/UVAuaTFVgU
from NYT:
Until 2016, Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr.s life on social media looked unremarkable. On his Facebook page, he posted photos of decadent meals, gym workouts, scantily clad women and sports games the stereotypical trappings of middle-age masculinity.
But that year, Mr. Sayocs social media presence took on a darker and more partisan tone. He opened a new Twitter account and began posting links to sensational right-wing news stories, adding captions like Clinton busted exposed rigging entire election. On Facebook, his anodyne posts gave way to a feed overflowing with pro-Donald Trump images, news stories about Muslims and the Islamic State, far-fetched conspiracy theories and clips from Fox News broadcasts.
By the time he was arrested in Florida on Friday, charged with sending pipe bombs to at least a dozen of President Trumps critics, Mr. Sayoc appeared to fit the all-too-familiar profile of a modern extremist, radicalized online and sucked into a vortex of partisan furor. In recent weeks, he had posted violent fantasies and threats against several people to whom pipe bombs were addressed, including Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. His vehicle, a white van plastered with right-wing slogans, came to resemble a Facebook feed on wheels.
He went from posting pictures of women, real estate, dining and cars to posting pictures of ISIS, guns and people in jail, said Jonathan Albright, the research director for Columbia Universitys Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Its a remarkable change.
read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/technology/cesar-sayoc-facebook-twitter.html
underpants
(182,829 posts)Yep. That nails it.
But before Mr. Sayocs accounts were taken down, The New York Times archived their contents. And a closer study of his online activity reveals the evolution of a political identity built on a foundation of false news and misinformation, and steeped in the insular culture of the right-wing media.
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)They need to start the fuck over.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)How do you go from posting pictures about food and cars to threatening public figures?
Fascinating article
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)And somebody in a position of power starts saying publicly all of the nasty thoughts you have had for years.
yardwork
(61,650 posts)UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)NOT fucking good.
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)It's much less likely.
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)bigtree
(85,998 posts)...let's look at the actual threat.
Ned Pyle @NerdPyle
2/3rds of US terror incidents in 2017 carried out by right-wing groups. & I'd call it 74%, because when your platform of hating women, other religions, gay people, and foreigners matches up exactly with Islamic Extremists, you're not separate groups https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/09/12/study-shows-two-thirds-us-terrorism-tied-right-wing-extremists
Simon Rosenberg @SimonWDC
Reminder that the most significant domestic terror threat in the US has been coming from right wing extremists. https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-report-white-supremacist-murders-more-than-doubled-in-2017
Not lefties, not jihadis.
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)possible.
I can not tell you how many times I've cut and pasted the NYT article to rump humpers about how you are much more likely to be attacked by a white supremacist than an islamic terrorist.
sanatanadharma
(3,707 posts)I hope people here to also did. If so, try to make more photos public.
Yesterday, early in the breaking news, I followed the links in a DU post to two Twitter pages and did a deep dive into those swamps.
Later in the day, the pages were taken down.
There I saw he had posted some disturbing photos of human body parts not eaten by crocodiles.
and a car apparently pulled out of the swamps.
His treats to take folks on air-boat rides takes on a new color in this light.
He also posted a selfie taken at the inauguration in Jan, 2017.
In the frequently seen photo of him holding up a sign overhead, he is wearing a shirt with a print that seems to be of one of the van windows with stickers.