SoylentNews

aristarchus [soylentnews.org] writes:

Local news, for Local people! San Diego reports, in The San Diego Union-Tribune [sandiegouniontribune.com], that things may be getting out of hand.

SANTEE — A Facebook group that organized after a Black Lives Matter protest in La Mesa turned destructive has ballooned to more than 20,000 members.
Called Defend East County, it has become an active online community of people who say they want to protect their cities, but it’s also a place where conspiracy theories, racist banter and calls for violence persist.

Recently, videos of self-styled “patriots” in other cities punching and kicking Black Lives Matter protesters received hundreds of “likes” on the Defend East County page, as did a video of a car running over protesters.

Some people affiliated with this and other East County community Facebook groups have counterprotested at area Black Lives Matter marches and, in at least five recent cases, have engaged in verbal and physical altercations. The latest verbal conflict occurred Tuesday at a march in La Mesa.

Violence is never an answer, people!

The Facebook group also has become a clearinghouse for right-wing conspiracies about who is funding Black Lives Matter and what ties it may have to liberal political funder and conservative boogeyman George Soros.

There were recent conversations about QAnon — a nationwide conspiracy theory that has been described as cult-like [kqed.org] and that the FBI considers a domestic terror threat. [yahoo.com]

At its core, QAnon’s theory alleges that President Donald Trump is leading a military operation to root out a Satanic child sex ring among Democratic “deep state” politicians and “Hollywood elites,” including Tom Hanks. QAnon adherents subscribe to a number of baseless theories, including that a global “cabal” is sacrificing children to harvest adrenochrome from their adrenal glands and that John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive.

Insane conspiracy theories are also never the answer.

KC Short, 30, said he has organized several protests in San Diego County and has seen counterprotesters at many of them.

“Their true goal is to intimidate people, to discontinue their 1st Amendment rights — they don’t want people to protest any longer,” Short said. “They see protesters as people that are crying about problems that don’t really exist.”

And, censorship is also, also never the answer.

Original Submission