Who says fascists don't kill white people, after all Hitler killed the European Jews and they were white.

I watched the Jimmy Dore Show video on this. It has some very disturbing videos of what happened on the night of the incident. It all boils down to a stupid kid having a deadly weapon in the first place at all. Had he not had the weapon, I would not be taking time to write this comment today. But here I am.

Why can't we just get rid of guns from general population? Why do people equate personal freedom with owning a deadly weapon.

Sadly, while the WSWS trails obediently behind the baying pack of bourgeois liberals calling for Rittenhouse's blood - the same pack, by the way, that generated the "Me Too" witchunts last year- it's left to a right-wing tabloid to produce facts that counter your major assertions:
https://nypost.com/2021/11/...

Since you do not provide cite any primary sources for some of your secondary claims, it's impossible to evaluate their veracity.

You also fail to understand the origins of the OK sign used by far-right. It was intentional trolling to make the alt-right seem more widespread than it was because the OK sign is used so widely in everyday life. You have been "punked, " as those circles would jeer.
"
You point out Rittenhouse's past behavior, but not the people shot. The first
not only was mentally ill but a convicted sex offender; the survivor had a history of assaulting his grandmother and stalking a past girlfriend.

Rittenhouse has no politics in any meaningful sense of the word
- right, left or center. No posts from fascist or white nationalist groups were found on his cell phone. As you rightly point out Rittenhouse is a product of the widespread social decomposition in U S. society today (as were the people he shot.) And as I'm sure you are aware from elementary logic that it is a fallacy to judge the truth of an issue by its supporters-or opponents - and not on factual evidence alone.

If the Left cannot respect the principles of a
fair and impartial trial, then the far-right will - and gain unearned credibility. Maybe a re-reading of "The Ox Bow Incident" is needed on the dangers of mob justice.

In the comment above, you confidently proclaimed, "Rittenhouse has no politics in any meaningful sense of the word - right, left or center."

It turns out you were completely wrong. After being acquitted, Rittenhouse went straight to meet with Trump at Mar-A-Lago (Rittenhouse is "a fan").

https://www.wsws.org/en/art...

This is a very good article with great content. So much of this is missing from liberal MSM. They obviously want Rittenhouse freed

Decades of unending war, attacks on public education, and a generally deranged cultural and political atmosphere have produced many such brutalized, broken, and disoriented young people in America—a phenomenon doubtless accelerated by the pandemic and by the official indifference to mass death.

The above produces individuals who may well see that brutalization, disorientation and social indifference to human life as simply who they are.

Without any progressive outlet for their energies, cut off from all culture and historical knowledge, many young people see no future to look forward to except a hopeless grind of oppressive and exploitative jobs that pay less than survival wages. Under these conditions, some of these damaged, atomized young people can become vulnerable to the influence of the far-right, as was the case with Rittenhouse.

It's acceptance of that fact that is not just fatal to yourself, but to those around you.

The brutal security forces and fascist gangs whose illegal violence is turned against refugees today will serve tomorrow to suppress the resistance and opposition of the working class and youth.
-The refugee crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border and the danger of war

Thank you for giving a picture of the court house scenes. The judge comes straight out of the most notorious kangaroo-court trials and says volumes about the state of the US political system today. Another points: the targeting of the most impoverished members of society (allegedly shoplifters) instead of the criminals occupying the government and the corporate sector is striking.

Except... The judge is a Democrat with a bench history of protecting defendents from over-zealous prosecuters. In this case, that works in Rittenhouse's favor. In other cases, the same principle, if the judge applies it consistently, would benefit the "impoverished members of society"

I'm grateful to read in this article a painfully accurate description of the social conditions that produced this young sociopath. Kyle is not alone in his being "the product of an utterly toxic political and cultural environment" as was articulately encapsulated in the section of this article that is subtitled "The Politics of Kyle Rittenhouse." The US has been ar war his whole lifetime. I feel pretty sure that what happened at Astroworld is a manifestation of the fact that a whole generation has been adversely impacted by the progressive decline of politics and culture in America.
Without the SEP they are lost. So are we all.

I'm dissatisfied with the WSWS coverage as well as that of Mr Greenwald. He is correct in asserting that the WSWS is taking the side of the corporate media and the government which is prosecuting Mr Rittenhouse. He is not correct in claiming that the defendant cannot be a white supremacist because his victims were white, given the overwhelming evidence to support this as clearly laid out in this piece.

It is, however, disturbing to see the sheer amount of pro-police, pro-prosecution and pro-carceral comments in the reports on this site which are reminiscent of that very Fox News which WSWS rightly excoriates Mr Greenwald for appearing on. I'm a British socialist with long experience of being a prisoner which has helped bring me to my present abolitionist position. Where are the alternatives to imprisonment and punishment being presented here? I see nothing about the superior alternatives of restorative and transformative justice which are for everyone accused of harm, not just the few chosen for their political sympathies.

Shame on WSWS for going with the corporate mainstream on this. It seems that, contrary to previous positions taken here, now the USA has a long, proud tradition of democracy of which the police are heroic defenders.

https://transformharm.org/

This isn't about supporting the police or the State. For starters rittenhouse's crimes emerge from his running to the defence of the State and its agents, the police, against anti police protesters. All those running to the defence of rittenhouse are doing under a barely disguised law and order, pro police flag being carried by far right vigilantes. And nowhere in this article does it call for the mass incarceration of fascists and the strengthening of the bourgeois state that these fascists support as the solution. The article s spelling out how the State and the police are doing what they can to support rittenhouse and prop up far right vigilantes. These are the types the State will rely on as the Weimar republic did with the freikorps against socialist workers and other bourgeois states have with their own home grown far right paramilitaries.
Don't be taken in by the "anti establishment" rhetoric of these far right thugs - if they speak against prisons it's only because they believe in and prefer shooting their opponents dead on the street.

It would be the height of dishonesty to look at this with blinders on as though it were strictly a legal matter like any other coming before a judge and jury.

Strictly as a matter of law I believe Rittenhouse will be found not guilty of the most serious charges. Indeed, I think the prosecution knowingly charged him with homicide rather than manslaughter specifically because they don't believe a jury will convict him. He knowingly provoked an angry crowd and should have known violence would ensue directly from his presence. If that's not as clear an example of manslaughter as can be imagined I don't know what is.

But if angry and mentally unstable people attack you and you're holding a weapon, even if you provoked them, the only reasonable course of action would be to use that weapon to protect yourself which is why I don't see a jury convicting him of homicide.

But this article and all the articles published by the wsws have focused on the political dimensions of the killings rather than the criminal dimensions. This wasn't a personal crime, it was a social crime. Rittenhouse enlisted himself as a defender of capitalist property rights in response to the working class lashing out at the relentless violence and social marginalization so many experience as their normal, day-to-day existence.

The remedy for Rittenhouse's crime and the many fascist crimes that will ensue won't be found in bourgeois courtrooms. The solution is the building of a mass socialist movement, well organized and militarily trained worker defense militias to counter the fascists and ultimately the socialist revolution.

Really? Get real. No quarter to fascism and their gunmen. Thats the position of the WSWS.

Marxist political analysis of the highest caliber and essential reading for all workers.

The behavior attributed to the fascist gunman Rittenhouse is what the capitalist class in the US wishes to codify as a legal precedent, namely: the right to protect itself from "left wing extremists and terrorists"(i.e. peaceful protestors) by shooting them with assault rifles at close range because they (the capitalists) "feel threatened."

This type of "self defense" is a violent form of the protection of wealth and private property, on which the entire capitalist system rests, by de facto extension of the police force through the inclusion of right wing vigilantes.

To this continued instigation of fascist terror the working class must respond with a crippling general strike in order to seize power.

“You’re literally on the side of the state, its prosecutors, and the carceral system: the engines of fascist power. That’s who you cheer and applaud. I maintain my pro-defendant principles regardless of the ideology of the defendant,” adding “Communists 4 Prosecutors.”

Apparently the discernment of the truth can be quite naturally and entirely limited to a surface impression.

It is Greenwald who is “on the side of the state” and of “fascist power.” Building up the legitimacy of the far-right militias with which Rittenhouse is associated is, in reality, a political objective of a substantial section of the American ruling class, who plan to use these militias to terrorize left-wing social opposition.

That has nothing to do with the underlying, objective reality.

There is much to be discussed about the right wing radicalization of Rittenhouse — and here, this article, and the WSWS do a fine job. (One wonders how more civilians in the US don’t notice the difference between the pseudo radicalization theories and speculation about Islamic Terrorism and radicalization that was promoted by bogus self styled “terrorism experts” — and the obvious disinterest by the corporate media about right wing ideology , and the material conditions that make right wing politicization attractive to some) However, the author and WSWS miss when they seek to portray Greenwald as some kind of antiworking class agent.

Greenwald is a self-professed libertarian. I'm not sure how you interpret that as anything other than anti-working class. How many articles has he written about Ahmaud Arbery, by the way?

So, what exactly do you think about Greenwald's statements on the Rittenhouse case? For you to make such a defense of Greenwald, you surely must state your position on his stance. Its not the first time Greenwald has demonstrated his rightward lurch. https://www.wsws.org/en/art...https://www.wsws.org/en/art...https://www.wsws.org/en/art...

Thank you Tom for this great article laying everything out. I know it won't deter the various hysterical attempts to support fascist gunmen - and know the trolling comments will soon be following - but this article will be important to alerting and putting into perspective the dangers facing the working class who don't share any sympathy for gun toting fascists.

Given the two downvotes there's apparently some who dislike giving the working class a perspective against fascism. Interesting.

Truly shocked regarding Glenn Greenwald's deep throated defense of Rittenhouse. He was a frequent commentator in health activist Gary Null's progressive radio program on WBAI.
Certainly doesn't sound like him. I dunno. People can flip for the weirdest of reasons.

It’s because WSWS has distorted what Greenwald said. Go read Greenwald’s tweets. WSWS (which often publishes some insightful analyses) here seems to assume that its readers will simply trust it rather than reading what Greenwald has said on the issue. Greenwald has pointed out the anti working class, divide and conquer function of the media’s preoccupation about and reification of race.

I do not use Twitter, so I have not read Greenwald's tweets. But I trust my comrades on the basis of more than 20 years worth of the WSWS, which I also used to write for.

I read his tweets. The WSWS is spot-on. Greenwald continues his rightward lurch.

Thanks for the very relevant points about the Freikorps. Freikorps vigilantes were amongst the first to wear the swastika and there are pictures of them on the streets of Berlin during the Kapp Putsch of 1920 sporting that abominable symbol. I think it is also worth noting that many of the judges in the Weimar Republic were more loyal to the Wilhelmine Reich than the Weimar Republic. Plus ça change …

I don't see why two people have downvoted this comment. The history of the Freikorps is well known. After all, it was the Freikorps who murdered Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

Far right trolls, or those that the term freikorps cuts too close to the truth of their own thinking.

Glenn Greenwald attack the wsws and then red baiting ... Chris Hedges turning on the wsws when asked for help and down playing J6.... Democracy Now turning more and more into an arm of the Democratic Party...

Look, these people are distancing themselves from the Left that is Socialist... by instinct. They think it will protect them from the coming confrontation with fascism.

It won't protect them from us, though.

The open turning to the Right of Glenn Greenwald. It's kind of amazing to see the transformation happening so quick.

Even Chelsea manning has publicly stated she is afraid of Gleen now. And lets be clear, Chelsea Manning has very good political instincts.

Greenwald has been bought off, obviously. It's appalling how quickly he turned to the right. He is beyond contemptible. There is no coming back from this perfidy.

I whole heartedly agree

Greenwald hasn’t been bought off: he’s showing his true class allegiance (ie: towards the disoriented petty bourgeoisie, and, by extension, imperialism). He’ll be a cheerleader for the next war.

Greenwald supported the Iraq invasion of Bush and Cheney long before he repented and reversed course. Are we to assume that his ability to render rapid judgment has improved over the years? I for one - and someone who saw through the Iraq lies of Bush/Cheney -don't buy it. Greenwald monetized the Snowden leaks in a way nobody else did and now he's monetized his substack account by attracting psuedo-left and far right whackos to subscribe. As someone who still bought, read and appreciate several of his books (including "And Justice for Some" - which is a defense of the working class), it pains me to say that Greenwald has become toxic not because he's sold out, but because Twitter and his substack blog have enabled his (demonstrably poor) quick judgments to be passed off as well thought out opinions.

I've always had no (ideological or socially acceptable) quarter for anyone as smart as Greenwald who championed the Bush/Cheney illegal invasion of Iraq and GG is perhaps in the worst category to me now in retrospect given that he pushed for that war and then monetized his resistance to it after reversing course. It seems like that's his M.O.

I agree with gracchus. It isn't ruled out that particular personalities can be bought, but it misses a far more significant objective shift taking place amongst a relatively better off social layer. The capitalist crisis is ripping to shreds this amorphous "liberal" layer and it stresses one either stands with the camp of the capitalist or the camp of the working class - there is no other way.

OK, you have a valid point about Greenwald's class orientation. But also remember that he is a married gay man living in Brazil with two children. Under Bolsonaro's rule, his family could be under threat also. Not to say that this is some kind of identity plea, but it just confirms the facts.

I think from the standpoint of an individual biography it's a relevant thing to consider, certainly. I'm just speaking from the standpoint of thinking about all the other personalities and tendencies also in the same process of shifting rapidly to the right. It's also an answer to anyone who tries to make their own apologetics for the newly realised fascist sympathisers as simply a little confused - as if the rittenhouse case is a matter of being confused about the facts.

Misguided confused people agreeing with each other. Greenwald isn’t pro imperial war or anti working class. Just because he’s not a blind sectarian doesn’t mean he’s any of the things you feebly misportray him to be.

In his 2006 book How Would a Patriot Act?, Greenwald wrote that he was politically apathetic at the time of the Iraq War and accepted the Bush administration's judgement that "American security really would be enhanced by the invasion of this sovereign country".

A blind what? Feebly portray? Excuse me?

Poor Vivek. He is sad that he and Greenwald gets no support here for their rotten positions.

I partly support Mr Greenwald's position in this. The WSWS is taking a mainstream, corporate stance on Mr Rittenhouse.

How so?

No it is not. You have not understood the first thing about the WSWS position.