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In a column last December, I pointed out that whenever some schizo shoots up a place, and it’s revealed that he left a trail of “red flags” behind, rightists indignantly say, “Hmmph, why wasn’t the FBI on top of that? The crooked politicized FBI is so busy harassing Trump and the J6 peaceful protesters, they neglect their actual job, which is to keep us safe from violent criminals.”

And remember what I said? You guys would never tolerate the FBI proactively policing the words of potential mass shooters. You’d see it as an attack on freedom.

Well, guess who turned out to be right? A few weeks ago a video went viral on rightist Twitter (which I miss less and less every day) showing the FBI paying a visit to a woman’s house to ask a few questions about her Facebook posts. With zero information to go on, some of the largest-following rightists on Twitter—Richard Grenell, Alex Jones, Libs of TikTok, Robby Starbuck—decided (again, with no evidence) that the woman’s “crime” was posting “fuck Joe Biden.”

That was, of course, false. MAGA did not, of course, care.

Mr. Dana Loesch—aka Chris Loesch—aka the dumbest SOB I met during my GOP years—declared, based on the context-free video, “The FBI needs to be dismantled from the top down. An agency that had lost its way.”

Soon enough it emerged that the woman in question was Egyptian-American Muslim Rolla Abdeljawad of Stillwater, Oklahoma (Rolla from now on, ’cause I ain’t typing Abdebabdejaballywad again). While the exact reason for the FBI visit was not revealed, the Twitter account StopAntisemitism tweeted screenshots from Rolla’s Facebook in which she demands “nazizionist scalps” and wishes death on U.S. troops. The site BareNakedIslam found posts promoting “physical jihad.”

The revelation of the identity of the woman in the video caused a few rightists to walk back their initial condemnation of the FBI (one such back-walker was Laura Loomer, who, within three hours of the StopAntisemitism tweet, pilfered it and presented it as her own “research.” Jesus, is there a more foul human on earth?), but most stayed the course, including Loesch, who declared that the FBI was still in the wrong and Rolla deserves free speech.

Then he yelled, “Daaaaanaaaaaaa…my finger’s caught in the bathtub drain again!”

In one Facebook post the sleuths missed, Rolla, who boasts that she’s drawn many FB bans since October 7th, proudly refers to herself as a terrorist: “Now, if you want to call me a terrorist, know I have no problem with being your personal terrorist. Come to mama & I’ll show you terrorist.”

Facebook didn’t pull that one. And if that’s one of the posts FB didn’t ban, can you imagine how bad the banned ones must’ve been? It was probably one of those banned posts that was reported to the FBI, which was likely doing exactly what rightists claim they want it to do: checking on potential threats to public safety.

Yet rightists balked.

This is one of the reasons MAGA is so worthless as an issues-focused movement; there’s no directive to push for anything other than the opposite of what “the enemy” just did.

The FBI didn’t proactively investigate a shooter who posted something foreboding on social media: “You corrupt politicized bastards—why didn’t you interview that person before they killed?”

The FBI does proactively investigate a self-described terrorist who posted something foreboding on social media: “You corrupt politicized bastards—you’re trampling free speech!”

Rolla may not actually be a terrorist, but surely she’s a psycho. And psychos can be just as deadly. Yet way too many MAGAs rallied around her, proving again how useless they are on the psycho question.

Of course, there’s useless, and there’s harmful. If you cut your finger, singing to it is useless. Pouring sulfuric acid on it is harmful. It’s one thing to be worthless when it comes to dealing with psychos, it’s another to actively make the situation worse. Last Friday, America was favored with yet another politically motivated self-immolation: A 37-year-old named Max Azzarello stood in a public park across the street from the courthouse where the Trump “hush money” trial was taking place, doused himself with flammable liquid, and set himself ablaze. He died later that evening.

Unlike the hate-filled anti-Jewish airman who immolated himself in February to protest Israel, Azzarello seemed a harmless enough chap. He was an Alex Jones nut, a guy who’s been to the dry erase board one too many times (inhaling magic marker xylene isn’t good for your health). He was neither MAGA nor Democrat (like many disaffected young Americans, he had a brief flirtation with Bernie Sanders in 2016, only to become further disaffected for his troubles); his “research” (yes, he called himself an “independent researcher,” because of course he did) led him to believe that Trump, Biden, the Clintons, and the world’s billionaires are about to “fascist coup” the United States.

His act of sacrifice was intended to draw attention to this nefarious plot.

Prior to lighting his fire, Azzarello tossed a bunch of pamphlets in the air: his “manifesto,” a 14-page rant that begins with a phony Hitler quote (one of the “big lie” apocryphals), then proceeds to explain how the CIA controls everything. The Beatles, the Grateful Dead, and the Doors were CIA. Charles Manson, Peter Fonda, and Stanley Kubrick were CIA (all movies, TV shows, and cartoons are CIA). Zombie movies are part of the plot too (created by the CIA to make people comfortable with dystopias). Daytime TV, the reality show Cops, and UFO sightings are CIA. The internet is CIA, as are memes (well, now he’s gone too far!). Cryptocurrency too. All CIA.

If you’re familiar with the CIA conspiracy scene, which long predates Alex Jones, you’ll know that this material—from the fake Hitler quote to the Beatles, Manson, and Kubrick claims—is standard issue (with the exception of the zombie film thing…that’s a new one on me). There’s little original in the pamphlet, or in the online manifesto posted by Azzarello before he journeyed to his terminal BBQ.

I’ve known people like Azzarello for forty years. They’d read Brussell and Sutton in the 1980s, Carto and the Christic Institute in the 1990s, and from the aughts onward, whatever was on the internet. They’re generally harmless. At the NYPD/FDNY presser Friday afternoon, uninvited tick Laura Loomer shouted that Azzarello was there to “target Trump supporters.” Azzarello had posted online that he was going to commit suicide and he had no intention of harming anyone else. He chose an area of the park that assured he wouldn’t harm anyone else, and he yelled, “Get away!” to onlookers. And still Loomer had to claim it was an assassination attempt against MAGAs.

Yes, she is the most foul human on earth, no less insane than Azzarello, but far more harmful.

And all the other loons came out of the woodwork following Azzarello’s bake-off.

MAX AZZARELLO WAS FOLLOWING ME ON TWITTER The world is small, and if only I had been able to influence him to understand that it’s the Zionists who run the world.

Is it possible #MaxAzzarello set himself on fire in front of the Trump trial because he could no longer live with the things former president Bill Clinton did to him as a minor on Epstein Island?

Max Azzarello, identified as the man who set himself on fire outside the NYC courthouse, filed a lawsuit against the Clinton Foundation last year Do you believe in coincedences [sic]?

(Actually, Azzarello had filed a ridiculous federal lawsuit against 100 defendants, including the Clintons, Peter Thiel, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, the country of Saudi Arabia, and Ross Perot, who’s been dead for five years.)

Of course, these morons (including Loomer) are exceptions, not the rule. Most people on the right understood that Azzarello was just a mentally troubled individual, nothing more.

That said…

Because God loves symmetry, the exact same day Azzarello killed himself because he was convinced the CIA runs every aspect of American life and all politicians of all parties are being covertly manipulated, Tucker Carlson appeared on Joe Rogan’s show to declare that the CIA runs every aspect of American life and all politicians of all parties are being covertly manipulated.

This is Tuck’s new grift. He not only wants to play to the Azzarellos, he wants to make more of them on the right.

This world is filled with mentally and emotionally damaged humans. Yes, every now and then one of them goes off and shoots people. No, we can’t proactively lock ’em all up. No, we can’t police their every word. But for fuck’s sake, don’t help send them over the edge. Yes, it’s a great grift, a fine con, but these are human lives you’re playing with. You tell an emotionally unstable person that there’s a giant malevolent force behind everything wrong with the world, sure, they may give you all the likes, views, and shares you desire, they may write you a check, or they might set themselves on fire or shoot up a building.

Beyond that, Tuck’s message, Alex Jones’ message, neither of which deviates much from Azzarello’s pamphlet, is exactly what it takes to depress not just a person but a vote.

It’s all a controlled op, so why expend any effort to engage with a phony system? Why vote?

Just as so many blacks have convinced themselves, “The white man’s always gonna keep us down,” well…that’s Tuck’s message to you; just substitute CIA for “white man.”

Okay, I know, I’ve said all this before. But you’ll notice how the mainstream Democrat Party didn’t play to Azzarello’s mania, which is why he became so estranged from it. And you’ll notice that the Democrats have been on a pretty good winning streak lately by not sowing fatalism on the left.

Tuck is sowing fatalism on the right. And you think that’s gonna help the GOP? Based on what evidence?

Oh, sure—the same evidence that zombie films are a CIA plot: zero.

If there is a conspiracy against freedom, wouldn’t people like Tuck most likely be its agents? “The system’s rigged; give up hope, you’ve no free will, you can’t win.”

At the moment in L.A., things look good for November regarding defeating George Gascon. His opponent, the law-and-order candidate, has a commanding lead in the polls. If that holds up, it would mean that San Francisco—a ludicrously dysfunctional city—and L.A.—a ludicrously dysfunctional county—both kicked George Soros’ ass. Because, screwed up as we are, we got up and did something. We engaged the system; we didn’t sit around dreaming of slaying invisible dragons. Leftists are screwy, but they engage.

Red America can learn a thing or two from that. There’ve been too many immolations lately; don’t accept Tucker’s gasoline and matches.

When one person immolates, it’s a tragedy. When millions do, it’s apocalyptic.