You Need to Read This Excellent Twitter Thread on Veteran Radicalization, Domestic Violence, and Terrorism
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Politics Features Sutherland Springs
I would estimate that 85% of Twitter threads are long, sloppy, self-aggrandizing tangents that bring no larger benefit to the world, and exist solely to feed the ego of the author. (And I say this as someone who has written at least four worthless threads in my life.) Occasionally, however, someone masters the medium, and creates a story that reads more like a great magazine essay in miniature. Charles Clymer is a military veteran, a gun owner, and a Texan, which makes them (Charles’ preferred pronoun as a self-identified genderqueer) perfectly suited to comment on the aftermath of the Sutherland Springs shooting. Late last night, he began a Twitter thread on the connection between veterans, domestic violence, gun ownership, and mass shootings. It’s no exaggeration to say that the 60-tweet thread he created is absolutely essential. You can find the highlights below, but please, please, please, click on the first tweet and read the whole thing.
1/ I have some things to say about the Texas shooting. It’s gonna piss some people off, and that’s too bad. It needs to be said. (thread)
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
2/ I served in the Army. I was trained as an infantryman. A grunt. That’s about as nuts-and-bolts as it gets in the military.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
5/ Thousands of hours of training and learning how to kill other people. I am a trained killer. That’s what an infantryman does. They kill.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
11/ And it is what it is. I’m not here to tell you military training is bad. I am not a pacifist. Evil threats exist. Someone has to kill.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
14/ Thousands of hours of learning how to kill other human beings. Day after day, month after month, year after year. Rewiring.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
18/ That’s the point of military training: muscle memory, acting without hesitation, resorting to a part of your brain on autopilot.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
19/ In April 2009, Homeland Security released a report warning of the recruitment of veterans by radical groups: https://t.co/Lahh8xZgrnpic.twitter.com/bkkic5×5Eq
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
21/ Predictably, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was derided as disrespecting the troops. She was forced to issue several apologies.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
23/ Never mind that a 2008 FBI report identified 203 military veterans in white supremacist terrorist groups: https://t.co/ea1QSadFlepic.twitter.com/yHdtDH0CD1
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
26/ Or the higher rate of violence against women (in this case: IPV) among Active Duty military and veterans versus civilians: pic.twitter.com/h8xhISZtRR
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
28/ Or—and this is important—the well-established relationship between mass shootings and violence against women.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
32/ Not sure why a mass shooting inspired by hatred of women doesn’t qualify as terrorism… unless, maybe, we don’t respect women as people?
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
34/ The other side of that coin is white maleness. A political system and media dominated by white men isn’t eager to be self-reflective.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
38/ All these are connected: white male entitlement, mental illness, racism, sexism, violence against women, terrorism. Rinse, repeat.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
39/ White men see a loss of power, feel victimized, have that entitlement radicalized through propaganda, and commit acts of terrorism.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
42/ To admit to “terrorism” by military veterans would require a vast reworking of our systems of recruitment, training, and mental health.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
45/ …we neither 1) attempt to comprehensively address mental health in our country nor 2) effectively restrict access to weapons due to it.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
48/ I’m a white male, and I have no reason to hate that about myself. I love my country. I’m proud of my military service. I’m a gun owner.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
50/ We need to stop pretending that military service is the grand seal of moral rightness. It’s not. We can be grateful w/o being stupid.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
52/ We need to call terrorism in this country for what it is and recognize how white men are often radicalized.
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017
56/ Why am I bio-scanned every time I fly, but it’s totally fine in many states if I waltz down the street open-carrying a powerful firearm?
— Charles Clymer?????????? (@cmclymer) November 7, 2017