What the Left and Right Both Get Wrong About the Oregon Militia StandoffOp-Ed by Dan Sanchez That is how the modern State divides and rules. Recent developments have shown how successful the American government has been in this regard. A spokesman for the activists now occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon is also an anti-Muslim activist. He is willing to put his neck on the line for the sake of ranchers beset by government persecution. Yet he petitions his government masters to persecute Muslims. Some of his conservative fellow occupiers may obstinately defend brutal cops and their license to persecute and even kill civilians, especially blacks. Meanwhile, progressives are petitioning their masters to rain down drone fire on the domestic terrorists for daring to occupy government property in protest over a Federal land grab (click here for the full story). Yet many of these same progressives oppose the drone bombing of Muslims abroad, support civil disobedience and the occupation of public space (so long as its for Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter), and oppose Israeli land grabs in occupied Palestine (often perpetrated under environmentalist pretexts). Both sides seem entirely insensible to cognitive dissonance. Conservatives are oblivious to the fact that the Federales threatening their gun rights, seizing their land, and regulating their livelihood into oblivion are doing all those things using the military gear originally produced for wars that conservatives supported and the national security legal and bureaucratic apparatus that conservatives helped build up. And progressives look to Federal agencies to disarm and crush their politico-cultural enemies, as well as rein in the local cops who have declared open season on people of color. Yet it is those same Feds who have militarized police forces across the country. And if you think cops are unaccountable now, just wait until they are even further Federalized. Their current qualified immunity is as nothing compared to the impervious sovereign immunity ofFederal agents. Moreover, gun restrictions, which progressives are so fond of, are among the most common pretexts cops use to torment, fine, and incarcerate blacks. Ask not on whose face the boot stamps. The boot stamps on thine. This is exactly how the State likes it. It wants its subjects at each others throats. The States worst nightmare is all of its varied victims recognizing it as their common enemy, and joining in solidarity against it. Imagine how powerful it would have been for cowboys and Tea Party types to have marched in Ferguson, Missouri, or for OWS and BLM activists to have marched in Burns, Oregon. Such an alliance would be powerful enough to truly secure our property from land-, money-, and gun-grabbers and our sons from the modern-day slave catchers for the prison industrial complex. But such solidarity is only possible once we all recognize that the grabbers and the catchers are all part of the same State apparatus, which is our common enemy. Only then will we stop jostling for a spot at the controls of that machine in order to wield it against each other, and instead join together to dismantle the apparatus of mutual oppression itself. This article (What the Left and Right Both Get Wrong About the Oregon Militia Standoff) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Dan Sanchezand theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email edits@theantimedia.org. Very good article Dan. Now, only time will tell if these words of wisdom will be pearls before swine, or the catalyst that helps free men. Ive heard that the Hammonds own some prime real-estate that the government wants. The Hammonds werent willing to sell it. Trump up charges, arrest and imprison them, wait until they cant make payments and VOILA!, now the Feds own it. Ive heard of this and other dastardly deeds being done to land owners to get them off their lands. Flood them out so that they cant work the land, the value drops, and another VOILA!now the Feds own it. And conveniently we are having this huge gas problem in Ca that threatens to evacuate many. Dont have enough data to make an intelligent assessment but as you can see Im slightly suspicious with good reason. Heres a lesson never taught in our schools colleges: 1) This American warned that the Quran commanded the faithful to 2) Another wrote that Islam was founded by a military fanatic 4) These words: No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Considering recent events Winston Churchill was prophetic to say the least. The first American navy was built by Jefferson to fight the Barbary pirates- Muslims. 