Fire at Notre Dame de Paris, and Conspiracies
By: Nadin Brzezinski
Tags: Far Right, Grievance Politics, Trump, Notre Dame De Paris, Conspiracies

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Analysis (April 15, 2019) The world saw a world heritage site burn. The flames rose to the sky. The 850-year-old structure is greatly damaged. It was a loss for humanity, even if there is hope that some were saved and that the structure may be rebuilt. No, it will be rebuilt. French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild it. There is colossal damage to the interior, but the exterior has survived. Some of the art was removed earlier in the week since the cathedral was in the midst of a massive renovation.

The fire, according to the authorities, started involuntarily, and there was no malicious intent. In other words, foul play and terrorism have already been discounted. This is good news, of sorts. Because over the last month there have been some Church fires stared that were called arson by French prosecutors.

I put this here, so the conspiracy theories make some sense. They have some context in the politics of grievance we are living through. I visited the sites popular with the far right. They are full of the grievances familiar to any who have been following them for years. It matters, that we all become very familiar with this ideology of hate.

The flames were still burning. They were speculating. Like the president, they asked why the French Fire Brigade does not use air attack aircraft? Suffice it to say, the question from the president, in the form of a tweet, came after that question was raised at Stormfront by a regular. So one has to ask if the president is a fan or at least some in his staff? Stephen Miller does come to mind incidentally.

To answer their question, air attack is not used in the urban setting. Water has weight, and we have seen water do real damage to trees and other vegetation during wildfires. French Civil Defense and a few Fire Chiefs on American TV made that very point over the course if the day.

Why did Donald Trump, and regulars at Gab and Stormfront react this way? It’s not because the Cathedral is a world heritage site, though Trump admitted as much. It is because white Christian Europe is under attack by the Saracens (who should be deported or killed), and Jews.

For good measure, a few of the posters added the Jesuits to the list. Why do you ask? Well, Jesuits are intellectuals, liberals, and at the moment Pope Francis is in charge of the Catholic Church. He is a Jesuit, he is an intellectual and a liberal. Therefore, he is part of the enemy that wants to destroy white (the term Aryan was used by a few) cultures.

It is very easy to discount these people as kooks and crazies. They are radicals who are willing to kill and main. They want their own, isolated, pure, ethno-States. They are dangerous. And given what Trump wrote about air attack craft, and the fact that many of these posters went so-far as to claim firefighters did not fight the fire…we must ask whether the president agrees with their views and why? It is a reasonable question.

Oh, posters on these sites and Twitter went so far as to claim Jews brought Muslims to Europe to destroy the culture, and its symbols. A few called for a new crusade. While most of this is pure balderdash, with some paranoia in the mix, it is out of their ranks we are seeing increasing violence. They are radicals, who will use any opportunity to attack the other they fear.