Absence And the Unbalanced White Mob

The Selma Bridge to The Violent Extremist Side

Part of the White Media Analysis Series — Northern Narrative Blindness — Part 3 of 4]

The Edmund Pettus Bridge made famous by MLK across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. It was named after a Klan Grand Wizard, unrepentant Confederate traitor and U.S. senator after it was built in 1940. [Courtesy of Wikipedia]

So far, we can easily see how John falsely and wrongly tries to create “balance” in his analysis of American extremism we see. (As a recap, we are reviewing this media clip of John Avalon on CNN in a clip “Researcher sees “dangerous” and significant shift in right-wing militia group.”) We are subject to his interpretation, and I fear will be for a long time to come now as the media tries to “re-balance” and move away from “extremist” views.

But the false equivalency of leftist extremism John is talking about is not the same extremism as on the right, in form or in substance. Rather it is his powerful use of the structural mechanism of balance through direct comparison that creates his narrative of similarity of these extremes. He lets this mechanism of balance, which is a natural biological and innate key mechanism of our conscious processing of social behavior (and other types of cognitive thinking), dominate the framing of his analysis. Because of this balance mechanism’s natural cognitive power, he only has to mention one side when discussing the other to control the viewer or reader’s mindset and shape their thought.

Thus, the white northern narrative is dominated by…