War of Bad Ideas

22 thoughts on “War of Bad Ideas”

1. Kokesh knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s either planning to kill or have his followers kill someone to send a message or he’s planning to provoke the government into reacting and he and his followers would be martyrs. They want a Waco situation. The only thing that they want more is to kill someone they hate more than anyone…someone they’ve been demonizing…hmmm I wonder who that would be…Report

   1. nothing is going to happen. nobody will show up or if they do they will find an excuse not to go. this is for publicity and to stoke outrage. he wants a stage and to be a live, loud martyr. kokesh is a raging nutbag but you have to have his kind of energy to horn in on Beck’s turf.Report

      1. I’m with greg. This is an attention-getting non-story.

         Kokesh is a seasoned protester. He’s played the media game for years. He’s not a literally-gonna-die-for-it martyr, just a publicity hound.Report

      2. If this happens, DC would be smart to just let it happen. Opposing it with legions of riot cops is just asking for trouble.Report

2. Westboro is worse, as it’s inarguably 100% unprovoked. The guitarist for Slayer had in no way whatsoever violated the Westboro nuts.

   Do I think what Kokesh is calling for is smart? No. Depending on who shows up on his side, some nut may decide to raise their weapon & start something all of them are going to be blamed for, blurring at the least the intended message. Still, they call it “civil disobedience” for a reason.Report

   1. Part of civil disobedience is usually taking the consequences of the breaking the law not implying that if the gov tries to enforce a law the shooting starts. That is more like Bart Simpson saying “I’m going to start punching the air and if you move your face in front of my fist, then that is your fault” than MLK.Report

      1. Exactly. It’d make their point more if they didn’t take the Bart route. As I said though, I expect someone will, and ruin the whole thing.Report

   2. It’s “civil disobedience” up until you resist arrest. I’m not certain that this is going down that road.Report

   3. Is marching a thousand people with loaded weapons and the whole “kill people if they do something you don’t like” thing really “civil disobedience” or moving more toward armed intimidation/provocation?Report

      1. I mean this is an entirely personal opinion, but nothing screams “tyranny!” to me more than armed people trying to use lethal weapons as a way of overturning laws passed by a legitimately elected democratic government.Report

      2. Uncivil disobedience perhaps?Report

         1. Well, yeah. But that’s the kind that people always acknowledged was not unjustly met with force. Maybe we’re revisiting that assessment?Report

            1. …At least sometimes… and where the disobedience was disobedience of the law. (That was always the disobedience in question, though in some cases that law was nothing more than what an autocrat said it was.) If there isn’t disobedience of the law here, then I guess we just have incivility.Report

      3. I believe the legal term is “credible threat of violence.”Report

3. Well i’m sure Kokesh will piss off a lot of conservatives. I mean, he clearly isn’t a fan of states rights ( not that DC is an actual state). But the principle is the same. He won’t tolerate a less than federal body making a gun law ergo he is against states rights. Right?Report

   1. That just means he isn’t racist.Report

4. ah, remember when Kokesh was a darling of the anti-war left because he was a veteran that got drummed out for speaking out against The War and The Man?

   Good times.Report

   1. Mmm… gotcha politics. It’s fun, right?Report

      1. the masque of the sports bar holds sway above all.Report

         1. dhex –

            RE: the OTHER bad idea mentioned in this post: as a Slayer man, you may enjoy this pic:

            http://dangerousminds.net/comments/westboro_baptist_church_may_picket_slayer_guitarists_funeralReport

            1. I think I enjoyed that a bit too much. Picket away I say!Report

5. When I think of civil disobedience, I think of Henry David Thoreau or MLK and the marches.

   In both those cases, and most particularly in the marches, the disobedient deliberately surrendered their right to self defense.

   What the did not do is provoke the right to defend themselves. In both instances here, there’s more akin to George Zimmerman, actively trying to provoke, taking action when that’s successful, and then calling it self defense. I call it perversion; uncivil disobedience is a good description. Or perhaps just plain foolish; clown paint ought be mandatory.Report

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