Patriot Front- Not Exactly Displaying The Courage Of Their Convictions

They're so committed to White supremacy that they don't want anyone to know about it

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This cures everything except stupidity, which is an epidemic on the rise.

• Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel's Game

Obviously this person's a hazard. Stupid people are dangerous.

• Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

OK, so it’s not precisely “Profiles in Courage,” right? The cowardice fairly drips from every pore of these idjit Idaho White Nationalist “warriors,” who were so committed to the cause that they covered their faces when it came time to fight for it.

Why? Probably because they know that if their employers found out, they’d lose their jobs. Or if their friends and families found out, they’d be the object of much well-deserved ridicule.

And it turns out their suspicions were spot-on. And so five people associated with the hate group Patriot Front have filed suit against a man who they say infiltrated the group.

The Idaho Statesman, in an online editorial (White nationalist Patriot Front members sue for being exposed for who they are), takes apart the suit (rightfully so) and holds it up to some richly-deserved ridicule:

Five people affiliated with white nationalist hate group Patriot Front are suing a Seattle-area man who they say infiltrated the group and disclosed their identities online, leading them to lose their jobs and face harassment, according to The Seattle Times.

What they’re really upset about is suffering the consequences of their abhorrent views — views that they feel so strongly about, they don’t want anyone to know.

The suit accuses David Alan Capito, 37, also known as Vyacheslav Arkhangelskiy, of using a false name in late July 2021 to convince Patriot Front to accept him as a member.

So, let me see if I understand this correctly. Five Patriot Front members, who cover their faces to avoid being identified, are suing someone they accuse of using a false name so that Patriot Front wouldn’t know who he was.

Uh…call me silly, but that would seem to be because Patriot Front didn’t vet the guy properly, no? Accepting someone without running a complete and proper background check means that they screwed up, not that Mr. Capito was the bad guy.

Once inside the group, Capito took pictures at its get-togethers in the Pacific Northwest, surreptitiously recorded members’ license plates and used hidden microphones to record conversations, according to the lawsuit.

The suit also accuses Capito of using another group to hack into online chat rooms, further exposing members’ appalling views. We don’t condone doxxing, or searching for and publishing private or identifying information about an individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent.

We are not weighing in on whether this lawsuit has merit and we certainly don’t condone breaking the law, which might be what’s found to have happened here, as the members claim.

I’d have to agree with that argument. I’m not going to address whether two wrongs make a right, but sometimes fighting fire with fire is the best of several bad options, no?

And while doxxing is never a good thing, claiming that Capito broke the law while Patriot Front intended to violate a few different laws seems…well, at least moderately hypocritical, no?

What’s most interesting about this suit is that the Patriot Front members are complaining that their hideous, “unpopular” beliefs have consequences.

The five plaintiffs say they were fired from their jobs, have been threatened at their homes and have had their tires slashed, among other things, according to the lawsuit.

While those latter two things certainly go way across the line, the first is a result of actions having consequences. “This complaint seeks to vindicate the rule of law and basic principles of free expression for persons who espouse unpopular opinions,” according to the lawsuit.

While it’s true that “hideous, ‘unpopular’ beliefs” can and often do have consequences, the suit seeks freedom from those consequences. No reasonable person would condone the actions taken against those who’ve filed the lawsuit, but you have to know that if you sow the wind, you’re likely to reap the whirlwind.

If you fear losing your job over your beliefs and your actions to support them…well, you should carefully consider the steps you’re contemplating.

It’s a warped view of freedom of expression when Patriot Front members attempt to completely conceal their ownership of said expression.

Their views are so detestable, they wear masks in public and use pseudonyms online to disguise their identities.

Idahoans are perhaps most familiar with the Patriot Front from a 2022 incident in which members piled into the back of U-Haul truck to try to disrupt an LGBTQ+ Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene. More than two dozen men were arrested and charged with planning to riot.

Erin and I were just in Couer d’Alene last weekend. It’s a quiet lake town that derives much of its income from tourism. It’s a reasonably accepting town, and a Pride celebration wouldn’t send too many people around the bend. It’s Idaho, so it wouldn’t be universally accepted, but I don’t think too many people would get their panties in a wad over a Pride celebration. Those who would could probably count on being outnumbered by a few orders of magnitude.

Except for the Patriot Front, none of whom were from Couer d’Alene, if memory serves. They were from 11 different states, hadn’t been invited, and weren’t about to be welcomed with open arms by anyone.

Why? Because their views are so odious and their methods so detestable (and occasionally violent) that they wear masks in public and employ false names online so their employers, friends, and families won’t learn their identities. They’re assholes and don’t care who knows it…as long as their faces are covered.

Yes, sir- forever the brave defenders of White privilege and prerogative.

Two of the three plaintiffs in this case — Colton Brown, 33, who led the Washington state’s Patriot Front chapter, and James Julius Johnson, 37, from Skagit County in Washington — were among the 31 people arrested, according to The Seattle Times. Johnson and four other men were convicted of misdemeanor conspiracy to riot and sentenced last month to a week in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The Patriot Front suit does not attempt to hide its racist ideology and its mission to “reforge … our people, born to this nation of our European race … as a new collective capable of asserting our right to cultural independence.” It describes the group’s actions as “provocative” but “nonviolent.”

In the Pacific Northwest, the group has defaced civil rights and Pride murals, and monuments and signs that promote equality, a tactic it employs nationally, according to the Counter Extremism Project, The Seattle Times reported.

Unfortunately, in Portland, we became far too familiar with Patriot Front and their brawling with anti-fascist protestors during the summer of 2020. The violence and property damage resulting from Patriot Front actions remains a vivid memory for many of us who work and/or live in downtown Portland.

To refer to Patriot Front merely as “provocative” but “nonviolent” is as absurd as it is dishonest. Many nights, Patriot Front thugs came to downtown Portland spoiling for a fight. The group was young, White, and highly suggestible, so if a few began fighting, then before long, most were fighting. Some rode through the downtown core spraying protestors with bear spray from the bed of trucks. Many, perhaps most, carried clubs, ax handles, brass knuckles, and other implements intended to do as much damage to human bodies as possible.

More often than not, Patriot Front fighters wore helmets and body armor. They were ready, willing, and able to wade into a fight. “Nonviolence” was not part of their vocabulary.

Stephen Piggott, of the Western States Center, which tracks right-wing extremist groups, told the newspaper that the group has morphed its tactics in recent years, moving from defacing murals and placing stickers in the middle of the night to more confrontational public flash demonstrations.

“You have this uptick in activity, and the activity is getting more and more violent,” he said. Since 2019, Patriot Front has been responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

And the members own their abhorrent opinions by trying to keep their identities a secret. They seem to be most upset that Capito was trying to hold them up to public scrutiny like the rest of us.

It’s a pretty simple calculation- if you fear those in your life will reject your beliefs and/or your actions to support them, you might be well-served by rethinking them.

Beliefs and the actions that follow behind them have consequences. If your beliefs and actions are abhorrent, you can’t be able to claim to be surprised when the consequences are deeply unpleasant.

Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, and other exclusionary philosophies should have no place anywhere in this country. There’s too much hatred and bigotry as it is. To glorify and pursue that as part of an organized group is patently loathsome.

To expect- nay, demand- anonymity in pursuit of those exclusionary philosophies is the height of hypocrisy…and yet that’s precisely what lies at the heart of this lawsuit.

There is no right to aggressively pursue hatred and bigotry anonymously. If you can’t openly display the courage of your convictions, if you must take the coward’s way out and hide behind a mask, you’re a loser.

Hiding behind anonymity has become an all-too-common feature of white nationalist and extremist trolls who lurk in the shadows of social media, hiding behind bogus accounts and fake avatars, spewing hate, sowing division, and threatening and intimidating others.

It’s that anonymity that allows their putrescent views to grow and spread like a flesh-eating bacteria — except in this case, it’s more like a brain-eating disease.

The fact the Patriot Front members’ main complaint is that they’ve suffered for being associated with these views is telling. The fact that employers — even their own relatives, in the case of Brown — want nothing to do with them tells you all you need to know.

If Patriot Front members believe that they are right and just, why not attach their names to their beliefs and putrid goals?

Otherwise, they’re just behaving in a cowardly fashion, hiding behind ridiculous masks, fake social media accounts and in the darkness of the back of a U-Haul van.

If you can’t be proud of your views and can’t handle other people knowing or becoming aware of them…well, that’s a “YOU” problem. Cowards demand anonymity and hide behind face coverings. They cower behind pseudonyms as they attempt to destroy the peace and privacy of those they hate.

They hide because they know they must. On some level, they know their views are vile, utterly repulsive, and certain to be rejected by decent and rational people with a functional moral center.

But tell us how your lives were ruined because David Capito broke the law.

“Plaintiff Paul Gancarz is a resident of Virginia. Before Defendant Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions as described in this complaint, Mr. Gancarz was a civil engineer, earning approximately $107,000 a year. He lost that job as result of Capito’s actions.”

“Plaintiff Daniel Turetchi at this time is a resident of Pennsylvania. Before Defendant Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions, he was working as a real estate agent in Maryland earning in excess of $10,000 a year. As a result of Capito’s unlawful actions, Turetchi was discharged from the real estate brokerage where he was employed as a real estate agent and was unable to associate with any other brokerage, thus preventing him from continuing to pursue his real estate career.”

“Plaintiff James Johnson at this time and at the time of Defendant Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions is and was a resident of Washington state. Before Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions, he was a union HVAC technician in Washington state earning approximately $80,000 a year. He lost approximately one-third of that income, and also benefits, as a result of Capito’s actions.”

“Plaintiff Amelia Johnson, the wife of James Johnson, at this time and at the time of Defendant Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions is and was a resident of Washington state. Before Capito’s unlawful and tortious actions, she had a job earning about $60,000 a year. She lost that job as a result of Capito’s actions.”

The Johnsons were forced to move from their neighborhood because people didn’t want to live near White supremacists. And Amelia Johnson has also had a tough time securing employment. It turns out no one wants to hire a White supremacist, either.

Go figure.

Why not live openly if you believe your beliefs are righteous, correct, and just? Why must you feel it necessary to hide behind masks and false names? Are you not proud to be a symbol of the change you profoundly believe is right for America?

Of course, the five people behind the lawsuit can’t do that because they’re cowards. Patriot Front and similar organizations thrive in darkness, in the dank, cobwebby corners of the Internet, where they can pretend they’re something they’re not and will never be. They can act like kings and princes, when IRL, many will never be more than busboys, baristas, and convenience store clerks. In their fake, pretend world, they can feel important- like they’re the harbingers of a New World Order where everyone Not Like Them will bow to their every whim or face the lash.

In this world, however, they’ll remain the inept, incompetent fuck-ups and incels they’ve always been and probably will be.

It fell to Idaho’s most prominent newspaper to call them out and put the five White Nationalists in their place. The Statesman didn’t expressly state this, perhaps because their editorial staff is far more diplomatic than I am, but there’s no Constitutionally-guaranteed right to be a fuck-up.

Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway here. Not that our five “heroes of White supremacy” will learn from their mistakes.