Christopher Cantwell: “We have done everything in our power to keep this peaceful.”
By David Futrelle
Call it a tale of two videos. On Monday, Vice News released a mini-documentary on “Race and Terror” in Charlottesville chronicling the #UniteTheRight march of this past weekend and the murder of antifascist activist Heather Heyer.
Some of the most chilling moments in the highly disturbing video, as I noted yesterday, came courtesy of Men’s-Rights-Activist-turned-white-supremacist Christopher Cantwell, one of the scheduled speakers at the abortive rally, who proudly showed off his numerous guns for the cameras before telling Vice News that he considered the weekend to have been a huge victory for the cause of white nationalism.
The fact that nobody on our side died, I’d go ahead and call that points for us. The fact that none of our people killed anybody unjustly, I think is a plus for us. And I think that we showed our rivals we won’t be cowed.
When Vice News reporter Elle Reeve gently suggested that the ISIS-style car attack that left Heather Heyer dead was “unprovoked,” Cantwell was indignant.
“That’s not true and you know that’s not true,” he tells her. After accusing antifa “animals” of attacking the car, Cantwell declares that the driver had no other option but to “hit the gas.” (In fact, videos show the driver “hitting the gas” when he was more than a block away from protesters, then speeding into the crowd.)
“And sadly,” Cantwell continued,
because our rivals are a bunch of stupid animals who don’t pay attention, they couldn’t just get out of the way of his car and some people got hurt. …
I think it was more than justified. The amount of restraint our people showed out there, I think was astounding. …
I think a lot more people are going to die before we’re done here, frankly.
Cantwell is now singing a rather different tune. In a new video, a tearful Cantwell — who plainly admits he engaged in violence at the rally — laments that a warrant has apparently been issued for his arrest, and that he’s terrified that if he is arrested the police will kill him.
He also fears for his life at the hands of “our enemies, [who’ve] been threatening us all over the place,” taking exception especially to a tweet from Chelsea Manning promising to “curb stomp” fascists. (A somewhat ironic complaint from a guy who used to harass feminists on Twitter with graphic suggestions as to how they might best kill themselves.)
He insists that he and his fellow white supremacists — many of whom, I need not remind you, showed up to their Charlottesville marches heavily armed and armored — have done their best to be peaceful and follow all the rules.
Quite a change from the fellow who only a few days earlier was talking so confidently about the necessity of a white “ethnostate” and coldly predicting that “a lot more people are going to die before we’re done here.”
Before taking up arms as a would-be warrior for a white ethnostate, as I noted in a post yesterday, Cantwell was a race- and gun-obsessed Men’s Rights Activist — and a regular contributor to A Voice for Men.
Here’s the Vice News video; it’s a tough watch but, I think, a necessary one for anyone who reads this blog regularly. While Cantwell is featured throughout the video — spouting an assortment of truly awful things — his sit-down interview with Reeve begins roughly 19 minutes in.
Here’s a mirror of Cantwell’s new video:
EDITED TO ADD: And here’s a brief clip from CAFE that contrasts the two videos.
This Nazi isn't so tough once he finds out the police are after him. (@MattBinder for CAFE) pic.twitter.com/OrYE91sljH
— CAFE (@cafedotcom) August 16, 2017
H/T — Raw Story