i feel like a real generational line is being old enough to remember when white supremacist militias were a real, serious threat in the 1990s, and, thus, being strongly disinclined to try to explain them away as the consequences of economic instability now.

this could absolutely be my own bias or faulty memory talking, but i don't remember a lot of panic around "islamic terrorism", at least as compared to the justifiable worry about white men with crew cuts who read the turner diaries

some of this might be because i grew up in oklahoma

there are definitely some younger leftist folks who take these threats deadly seriously (talia levin, for example), but there are also some who clearly didn't grow up with eric rudolph or the OKC bombing or the wave of doctor assassinations on the news while you ate dinner

it has to be strange to be a young person who grew up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and not realize that what's happening in michigan or oregon or any number of other states was like, a big, primary source of terror all the way up until sept. 10th, 2001

i think this is why i find myself (a little) less sympathetic than seems to be the current pop cultural mood towards randy weaver or the branch davidians or ted kaczynski

all of this is to say that i can understand why there's a generation of people younger than i am who see these people as bumbling backwoods hicks, rather than genuine threats.