Always paranoid, ‘Patriot’ militiamen push back against coronavirus social isolation measures – By David Neiwert (Daily Kos) / March 31 2020
The anti-government “Patriot”/militia movement is at a kind of crossroads thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
The movement has been suffering from cognitive dissonance ever since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, split between followers’ innate paranoid hatred and fear of all things federal and their rabid fandom for the new president and his administration. So now they can’t seem to decide whether to oppose social distancing and quarantine orders coming from state and local governments as another form of “tyranny,” dismissing fear of the virus as a “deep state” hoax intended to harm Trump, or to obediently support the government measures, heeding Trump’s advice, and turn instead to scapegoating the Chinese government.
Ammon Bundy, one-time leader of the 2016 “Patriot” armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, is representative of the split. Having already distanced himself from Trump, Bundy is now leading a kind of low-level resistance to Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s self-isolation order, issued last week.
“It does not matter what is most safe or not, what is good or not,” Bundy proclaimed in a video he posted on Facebook. “Because in this case, the government does not have the right to do what they’re doing. They do not have a right to restrict you from going to church, worshipping, having meetings, or being with your family, grieving with them. They do not have that right.”
Bundy’s meeting in Emmett, Idaho, on Thursday night was primarily about Bundy telling people—roughly two dozen showed—that they didn’t need to obey the governor’s orders. And he pledged to bring fellow “Patriots” to the rescue if anyone felt pressure from “authorities” to comply.
“I will be there,” Bundy told the Idaho Press. “I will bring as many people as we can. We will form a legal defense for you, a political defense for you, and we will also, if necessary, provide a physical defense for you, so that you can continue in your rights.”
Continue to article: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/31/1932782/-Always-paranoid-Patriot-militiamen-push-back-against-coronavirus-social-isolation-measures
