(Mirror.)

“In both the white supremacist and the anti-LGBTQ spaces, you have seen these very similar patterns where the fringe has become embraced by an increasingly large subset of Americans,” Lewis said. “Concepts like the great replacement theory that 10 years ago were fodder for these closed white supremacist chat rooms and niche online spaces are now in the past couple years are all over Tucker Carlson’s show.”

I am reminded of when Morris Kominsky (alav hashalom) wrote this:

‘There are those who believe that the best way of coping with the professional hate‐peddlers is to ignore them, because, forsooth, they appeal only to the crackpots, the malcontents, the lunatic fringe. Unfortunately, there are two things wrong with this theory.

‘In the first place, it ignores the fact that the followers of the hate‐peddlers spread the poisonous doctrines and prepare the minds of the stormtroopers of incipient Fascism. Secondly, it ignores the fact that “respectable” segments of our society covertly and overtly encourage and support the hate‐peddlers.

‘If you think that Major Robert H. Williams’ anti‐Semitic lie about the “secret Government of the United States” can be ignored, what will you say to the fact that the powerful Chicago Tribune carried a front‐page story on May 29, 1950, with the same canard? It was written by Walter Trohan, one of the darlings of the Ultra‐Rightists. Trohan, who is chief of the Tribune’s Washington Bureau, attacked and slandered Senator Herbert Lehman, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and former Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr.—all Jews—as the “secret Government of the United States.” Trohan covered himself from a libel suit by “quoting” anonymously a high official in the State Department.’