Former white supremacist skinhead gang member Frank Meeink who now lectures against the movement discusses what's driving the radicalization we're seeing on the right.
March 7, 2021

Former white supremacist skinhead gang member Frank Meeink who now lectures against the movement discussed what's driving the radicalization we're seeing on the right with CNN's Pamela Brown.

None of this will come as any surprise to anyone who has been monitoring the hate speech and right-wing propaganda being pushed by Fox "news" day in and day out, or to anyone who has lost a loved one that's been sucked in by their garbage.

Following the arrest of a Trump State Department appointee who is facing six federal charges in connection with the MAGA insurrection riot at the Capitol on January 6th, Brown asked Meeink "how does a person become so radicalized and so lost in the conspiracy rabbit hole that he attacks the very government he is working for?" and what this tells us about "the selection conspiracy movement and who it attracts."

Meeink told Brown that unfortunately it's attracting "idol worshipers" and that "we need to stop giving American red meat to fight over," before placing much of the blame squarely on Fox.

MEEINK: Oh, what's driving is, you know, the fear. It's fear and narcissism. And that fake patriotism that's just nationalism wrapped up again with worshiping an idol. But, again, what we can do is with these people that are just continuously passing conspiracies, is we have to realize that Fox News, and I know that this is CNN, but Fox News has completely radicalized so many Americans. If you look at Fox News and then you compare that to heat radio from Rwanda, and what started that Civil War, there's comparisons there.

Like, so we have to know that a lot of our fellow Americans, fellow children of God had been radicalized by a network of news that, as a form of radical, I can tell you from watching Fox News, I could show you were their same radical stuff that I used to say, I used to have T.V. shows and neo-Nazi.

I used to know how to do the -- they use the same stuff instead of saying where I would say Jews, they say big media, like it's just a swap down a couple of words here and there. But it's still just radicalization. So, we have to really -- we have to look at Fox News.

Brown asked Meeink whether he considered QAnon a domestic terrorism threat, and Meeink again pointed out the obvious, which is that QAnon, The Proud Boys and others are just the latest manifestation of the Klan.

MEEINK: Absolutely. QAnon is a huge -- the neo-Nazi stuff that I belong to is manifested in the -- in the QAnon, in the Proud Boys. So, it's the same -- but what I happened to learn how to not hate was I learned facts about myself, you know, to learn facts about myself, so I don't need to hate other people.

And when I see what I used to be, I see it in QAnon, I see it in the Proud Boys, like, racism always just recycles itself. You know, we can't be the KKK anymore, right? So now they can't be the neo-Nazi -- now they're the Proud Boys. It's just remarketing hate, remarketing.

And at this time, it's different. It's always different this time. Hate is totally different this time, but it's still the same. It's people that are wrapped up in fear, and they're just scared, and egos and it's -- that's exactly the Trump 2020 and, you know, it's our ego. So, we got to hope that our fellow Americans will start to see that.

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