- Adele M. Stan @ The New Republic: How FreedomWorks Paved the Way for Trumpism—and for Its Own Demise
- Bob Smietana @ Religion News Service: PCA cancels anti-polarization panel with David French for being too polarizing
- Chuck Tanner @ IREHR: The Radicalization of Sam Parker
- Marlon Ettinger @ The Daily Dot: A police investigation into Ali Alexander over allegations he groomed underage boys now extends to Texas
- Justin Peters @ Slate: The Resting Smirk of the Bulletproof Moron
If you’d known what to look for, you could have seen it coming miles and miles away: the demise of movement conservatism in the face of Trumpism. The only thing surprising about the collapse of FreedomWorks, the loud and splashy libertarian astroturf outfit, is that it hadn’t happened sooner.
Leaders of the conservative denomination canceled the discussion of dealing with polarization after online backlash.
This is the story of one man who went from a clean-shaven, if far-right-leaning, candidate for the U.S. Senate to a bushy-bearded white nationalist in just six years. His plunge into vicious antisemitism and racism is similar to others radicalized online, drawn to real-world far-right activism, and pulled down into the white nationalist movement.
A police investigation into Republican operative Ali Alexander is still ongoing, a spokesperson for the Johnstown Police Department in Colorado confirmed to the Daily Dot on Wednesday, and has now extended to Texas.
[Jesse] Watters relies on low-effort mockery and lazy analysis, delivered in a mellow tone, often paired with a mirthless laugh. It is the mean-spirited snort of the frat brother when he spies a man with long hair; the smarmy chuckle of the righteous prick, intent on mocking, rather than forgiving, all those who trespass against him—even and especially if those trespasses are purely imaginary ones.