A 'far-right freakout' is having deadly consequences: columnist
In the Philadelphia suburbs of Bucks County, 32-year-old Justin Mohn is facing murder charges for allegedly shooting his own father, Michael Mohn, fatally and decapitating him. Justin's Mohn's motivations were reportedly political; in a video, he described his father as a "traitor to his country."
The far-right Mohn said, "America is rotting from the inside out as far left. Woke mobs rampage our once prosperous cities."
In an early February column, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch describes the killing of Michael Mohn as an example of the "far-right freakout" that is plaguing the United States. Bunch ties a variety of things together — the Mohn killing, bizarre far-right conspiracy theories attacking pop superstar Taylor Swift, 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric — and warns that the U.S. is facing dangerous times politically.
READ MORE: Experts fear 'violence and chaos' if Supreme Court blocks Trump from election ballot
"As horrific as Mohn's act of alleged patricide was," Bunch argues, "it could have been much worse. Fast work by law enforcement used the pings from Mohn's cell phone to track him down 100 miles away at the Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard outpost, where this self-styled revolutionary, armed with a handgun, had breached the security fence and was roaming near the main office. We'll never know if the quick arrest of this murder suspect prevented yet another mass shooting by a young, alienated white man in a 21st-Century America that specializes in producing them."
Bunch notes that an "army of" far-right conspiracy theorists view the romance of Swift and her boyfriend, football star Travis Kelce (of the Kansas City Chiefs) as "proof that the world is somehow conspiring against them."
"But why is Taylor Swift the ideal vessel for this?" Bunch writes. "You don't need a doctorate in the fast-disappearing field of sociology to see how it's not just her success, but her sisters-are-doing-it-for-themselves message that terrifies Dude-Bro Nation."
Bunch warns that as goofy as the far right's Swift/Kelce obsession is, it shouldn't be taken lightly.
READ MORE: The 'deeply self-serving element' to GOP lawmakers’ effort to keep Trump on Colorado ballot: expert
"A MAGA-flavored backlash of massive resistance looks ridiculous when it's railing against Swift and the unfairness of the Billboard charts or the AFC championship game," Bunch writes. "But it's also this warped mindset that craves a Trump 'Red Caesar' dictatorship, to end their losing streak in the culture wars. And the occasional spasm of deadly violence, from a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, to a Black supermarket in Buffalo, NY, to a Levittown bathtub, is just the collateral damage…. In the end, the person who bears full responsibility for killing Michael Mohn is his son. But the people who stood behind Justin Mohn whispering all kinds of nonsense — for clicks or votes or whatever they need to prop up their own mediocrity — are splattered with the blood."
READ MORE: How did Trump become Jesus?
Will Bunch's full Philadelphia Inquirer column is available at this link.
