On November 18, 2023, men wearing red shirts indicating that they were members of a neo-Nazi white supremacist group, the Blood Tribe, and almost all wearing masks, marched in and around downtown Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, carrying swastika flags and reportedly chanting, “There will be blood.” (You can find images online; Twitter blocked the links I attempted to add here.)
One might find it as pathetic as terrifying that twenty guys – so brave and proud of their beliefs that they hid their identities, on a day when it was sunny and not too cold; no one wants to be a wet or frozen fascist – strutted through the U.S. city that may be the most liberal between the coasts.
It’s still an indicator. It’s still a warning.
I am not aware that any violence was wrought by or upon the marchers. Although they may have hoped to incite a violent reaction from onlookers by parading through Madison, I would guess that violence was not the group’s intention, at least this time. It was simply to secure a square on the board, to establish a presence, to enter a preliminary gesture of menace, of intimidation. We can unfortunately be confident that this won’t be the last such overture, by this group and others, here or elsewhere.
One can have reservations about how diligently Israel, the nation-state, has tried to protect the safety of Palestinian civilians while defending itself and its citizens against the Hamas terrorist group. I suspect that these Neo-Nazis aren’t even aware of the dangers currently faced by innocent Palestinians; they hate Muslims as much as they hate Jews. The Israeli-Hamas conflict has simply provided them a pretext to come out of their holes.
I truly believe that the vast majority of the American people are well-meaning, although some lack perspective. May the overt acts by malign groups that we will inevitably see over the next year cause those of our well-intentioned citizens who are uncertain as to the best direction for our nation, due to sincere misgivings about what they perceive as progressives’ excesses, to recognize that democracy and humanity are more important than policy differences or cultural emphases, and that the actions of these hate groups – and those politicians and political groups who encourage them — must be confronted legally — but with all our strength.
McCoy's Noise 