'anti-government,' as in the lax shooting, is routinely used to mean violent insanity. here's what, as an anarchist, i demand from the fcc. every time there's a story about a war, i want both sides described as 'pro-government.' every time you mention assad, for example, describe him as a 'pro-government activist.' 'new leaks reveal that pro-government extremists have angela merkel under surveillance'. 'today, china's pro-government regime warmed its hands at a bonfire of uyghurs'. tim mcveigh might have been an anti-government extremist, but he was also a mere amateur of murder. obviously, history's greatest mass murderers, from hitler to pol pot, have all been pro-government extremists. historians speculate that the people who developed chemical, biological, and atomic weaponry harbored pro-government beliefs. worse yet, pro-government people may well be responsible for the failure of the obamacare website.

it may be hard for reasonable, normal people like us to understand how someone drifts to a pro-government position. i imagine there are pro-government tracts lying around james clapper's house, or wherever violent oppressors and excruciating intellectual mediocrities congregate. seriously, everyone should be on the lookout for warning signs among members of their family and their friends. like say, for example, you notice a copy of rawls' theory of justice casually tossed in the backseat, or hear someone casually saying that he intends to vote or something: put two such factors together, and you may have a very dangerous fuckwad indeed. science is beginning to demonstrate what is really happening: research shows that under scanning, the capitulation region of the amygdala or stupid bit manifests enhanced activity in such persons. astonishing? perhaps. yet that is what the research shows. pfizer's working on it.

unlike anti-government extremists, pro-government extremists always appear in groups, herds, flocks, swat teams, gangs, armies, parties, forces, agencies, or murders, and so whereas anti-government extremists pick off a poor sucker here or there, pro-government extremists and their tiny unanimous followers are always industriously digging mass graves. there is much to be said, qua murderer, for the disgruntled loner. real violent extremism - real, genuine evil - exists, and we should study how people drift to pro-government positions and how this can be prevented. i think they lack self-esteem, and you know, when people tell a kid that she can belong to a big powerful group, such as a cult, and tell her she is worth something because she belongs, she'll inform on her own mom.