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Chris J. Karr's avatar

"There are white supremacists in America. But there are not hundreds of thousands of them."

How many do you think there are, and how many would be enough to merit justifiable concern? You only need one-tenth of one percent of the country's population to be in "hundreds of thousands" territory.

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Curtis Stinespring's avatar

I would not be surprised if there were well over 200,000. Those would mostly be ordinary bigots. I would be surprised if more than 50,000 of those were organized with ill intent. That's enough to do some damage. My guess is there are more left wing radicals bent on destruction.

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Steve Berman's avatar

Where do you get your numbers from? “Ordinary bigots” is an interesting term. I suppose white supremacist sympathizers might also be apt. I think the call of both the leftist radical and the far right is the same: something to belong to. This means the church has failed to do its work. The fact that the SBC harbored some of these groups and masked their numbers is horrendous and must be addressed within that organization. I also call out religious leaders like Jeremiah Wright and the terrible Louis Farrakhan for their Black supremacy garbage.

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Curtis Stinespring's avatar

I agree with most of what you said. I just believe there are enough radicals, right and left, to cause more trouble than the government wants to deal with.

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Curtis Stinespring's avatar

I like the term "white supremacist sympathizers". The SPLC, which I think is a scam similar to Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton types, says there are 451 white supremacist organizations. That number is believable to me. I won't give any of those groups credit for having good management or discipline so I think about 100 per group is a maximum and that's why my guess is about 50,000 of those particular idiots.

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Steve Berman's avatar

I think 70 million is a wild overestimate. I think publishing vague unspecified warnings that there might be racial violence is not a valid way of dealing with the subject. Any racial violence is a concern, and anyone who harbors bigotry openly in his or her heart needs to be dealt with. But there must not be guilt by association, i.e. Sally is a white supremacist and supported Trump in 2020, therefore Jane who held her nose and voted for Trump must also be a white supremacist.

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SGman's avatar

Hundreds of thousands is still not outside the bounds of reason, though.

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Steve Berman's avatar

If there were hundreds of thousands, you bet the government would be keeping track. And they are. I think it’s more like 10,000 total, including hangers on and curious.

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Scott C.'s avatar

The situation with the SBC is all the proof people need to see to know there is a sick racist vain throughout much of the same population that has always carried it. And every time its brought out it means that someone who was denied justice will have a chance to get it. I hope Biden and more importantly the good just people fighting within these organizations continue to push the need to confront this. Even if people like you and Erick want to keep the hate hidden.

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Steve Berman's avatar

If talking about it openly is hiding it, I don't know how. Anyone who has painted every evangelical Christian as a hate-filled bigot, might want to examine their own bias.

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Scott C.'s avatar

Not every Christian is a hate filled bigot. David Thornton right on this site isn't. David French isn't. Russell Moore isn't. My catholic mother in law may just be the best example of Christianity on the planet but do you know what all four have in common? Their voices are minorities within their own faith systems. And they have all paid a price for that stance. Funny enough not from the world who like me celebrates their actual morals, but from supposed Christians.

Like you said yesterday there is good out there, its just really hard to see drowning in the filth that surrounds it. And I just don't know why someone who isn't filth themselves would want that to be what people notice about my religion.

By the way, I named mostly public figures but I know hundreds of people within that community. And its the same with all of them. The good ones know to keep their mouths shut and why wouldn't they? When so many people keep telling them there's nothing to see here.

It doesn't matter, the majority will never look in a mirror, will never "examine their own bias" and the proof is in your dying religion.

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Steve Berman's avatar

Ok. I thought you were accusing me of hate for some reason.

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