I was trying to Google to term "Y'all Qaeda" to make sure I wasn't misspelling it and I unfortunately had the misfortunes of coming across this drivel written by Joel Nihlean.It is just me, or is this writer a decent example of white Supremacy taking both sides of the conversation?
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Stop Calling Them Y’all Qaeda, Vanilla ISIS, and Yeehawdists, Right Now
Comparing right-wing terrorists to Islamic extremists is not the argument you think it is.
Joel Nihlean
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Aug 24, 2021 · 7 min read
Members of a III% militia pose for a picture at a Stop the Steal rally in Salem, OR. Photo by
Joshua Wood
Recently, a North Carolina man claiming to have a bomb live-streamed a litany of anti-government grievances from his truck near the U.S. Capitol. Police responded in force. He surrendered only after an hours-long standoff and the evacuations of numerous government buildings in the area.
The man, Floyd Ray Roseberry, had previously posted videos to Facebook of himself marching in a pro-Trump march shouting “stop the steal.”
As in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, epithets like Y’all Qaeda, American Taliban, Vanilla ISIS, and Yeehawdist were all trending on Twitter, popping up in Facebook posts, and on the lips of many.
Floyd Ray Roseberry, in his pickup truck in a standoff with Capitol Police outside the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Photo by Sydney Bobb
The most charitable interpretation of these monikers is that people are saying that the MAGA crowd is more than just a bunch of clowns larping as revolutionaries. The names point to both the American South and international terrorism. The names gesture toward the idea that these people may seem like simpletons, but they can be dangerous — here’s another dangerous movement, Islamic extremists like al Qaeda and ISIS.
But even if the comparison is a good faith one, it leads us to view these groups as a less-than-serious threat. And there are so many other reasons why it’s both bad and wrong.
Yes, it stereotypes both groups — it’s classist and has a bigoted if not outright racist nature to it. But more than that, it lumps together anybody who has grievances with the American global empire and dismisses them as loony, sort of painting with a broad brush.
But all of that’s a sort of side issue.
What’s the point of comparing American terror with international terror?
The biggest reason names like Y’all Qaeda, American Taliban, Vanilla ISIS, and Yeehawdist are a problem is that we don’t need to make analogies to international terror movements. Since 9/11, white supremacist groups have been responsible for three times as many terrorist attacks as Islamist extremists.It’s not necessary to try to untangle the complexities of international terror’s evil actions and potentially legitimate grievances with imperialism. There’s a long history of homegrown, American fascist terror movements.
Domestic terrorism in the United States — slave patrols, the KKK, Pinkertons, union-busters, and more — is a much older and longer tradition. The modern iteration of the mujahideen in Afghanistan, CIA-funded no less, has only been around since about the 1970s.
What’s happening on the modern American far-Right — groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Patriot Prayer, the Bundy family, the Boogaloo Bois, and III% militias — has more in common with the historical American terror movements than international terrorism in far-off places under very different social and political circumstances.
Ridiculous and insidious by design
People seem to have trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that these groups storming U.S. Capitol were simultaneously both incredibly buffoonish — wandering the halls in awe, dressed up in crazy outfits, and taking videos and snapping selfies of each other committing federal crimes — and incredibly dangerous.At the same time as the QAnon shaman wandered through the Senate, militia members were coordinating using walkie-talkie apps and people in full camo with zip ties were searching the Capitol. They were clearly intending to do a lot of damage — maybe kidnap people, take hostages, or even kill someone.
Combining those two things, ridiculousness and insidiousness, is not a new phenomenon. It has a long history in U.S. terror movements. The Ku Klux Klan was also both ridiculous and insidious. They walked around hoods and robes, calling each other wizards, dragons, centaurs, cyclopes, and goblins. They were ridiculous. But they also burned crosses, fomented waves of fear, and murdered people in cold blood.
The reasoning behind all the pomp and circumstance is to create a secret social club feel to membership. It makes the movement look less dangerous because it has this silly side.
This disarming clownishness has also been employed by politicians like Donald Trump to great effect. The clownish exterior has a way of disarming when the criticism comes.
We expect leaders with authoritarian tendencies to have more of the classic hair-slicked-back stern demeanor. When we don’t get what we expect, it’s easy to be knocked back on our heels.
Right-wing terror is not new or disconnected from the past
Bottom line: We need to focus on comparing right-wing terror happening in America now to past American terrorist movements They enforced racial segregation then, and then these movements, their tactics, and the ends they aimed at were codified and integrated into society in ways that can continue the enforcement today.The event most similar to the Capitol riot, as much as the riot was buffoonish and bound to fail, was the Wilmington insurrection in North Carolina. It was the only successful coup d’état on American soil. In the late 19th century, a bunch of white supremacists just killed the integrated black and white government officials of the city and took over.
A better understanding of America’s history of enforcing racial segregation through terror, and a better understanding of the ideology underpinning these movements would help us reconcile the seeming contradictions of danger and buffoonery that exist on the surface.
