(Editor’s Note: A return to Secession Week has been delayed yet again. Leonard Zeskind and the NAACP released a report today on the Tea Party, implicit Whiteness, and White Nationalism which are the core focus of this website and demands a quick response.)
Birmingham, AL
The NAACP released a big report today on “Tea Party Nationalism” written by none other than Leonard Zeskind, author of Blood and Politics: A History of the White Nationalist Movement, which I reviewed at the end of last year. I had noticed that Zeskind had been unusually quiet in recent months. Now we have our explanation.
Having read this “study” which the NAACP is touting in the mainstream media as “proof” of Tea Party racism, I can’t help but laugh. Read carefully, this ridiculous “report” completely exonerates the Tea Party from any such claim. Leonard Zeskind himself certainly knows this, but has created a piece of leftwing agitprop based on a patchwork of unrepresentative samples designed to fit a preconceived conclusion.
The only charges of merit in “Tea Party Nationalism” are the following:
1.) A few White Nationalists have participated in Tea Party events like the Tax Day Tea Party in DC. As American citizens, they have every right to do so, and if they do nothing to draw attention to themselves, they go unnoticed by the organizers.
2.) Some White Nationalist literature has been distributed at random Tea Parties: flyers, business cards, contact information. There is nothing remarkable about this.
3.) There are some “connections” between White Nationalists and Tea Party members. By that I only mean that some of these people know each other on Facebook or in real life. The same is true of White Nationalists and Ron Paul acolytes and lots of other people on the Right who are friends in spite of their political differences.
4.) Some White Nationalists desire to push the Tea Party toward a more explicit form of racial consciousness. There have been discussions about this on Stormfront. I’ve been one of the loudest champions of this in the White Nationalist movement.
5.) There is a low level implicit White racial consciousness on display in the Tea Party, namely, among the Birthers who are involved in the movement who think Obama is a Kenyan socialist, but also among Whites who (justifiably) believe that Barack Obama and the Democrats want to redistribute their wealth to non-White minorities.
6.) Tea Party members are older Whites and have more racially conservative views than the White population at large.
7.) Some anonymous racist comments have been left on Tea Party blogs and websites. Just like every other blog on the internet.
8.) The Tea Party is not exclusively concerned with fiscal issues. Tea Party candidates like Mike Lee, Joe Miller, and Ken Buck take a hard line on immigration. In Arizona, the Tea Party has gotten involved in the immigration debate, and their presence has shifted the political mainstream to the Right on immigration and other important social issues.
9.) It is conceivable that the implicit White Nationalism in the Tea Party could be activated and made explicit in the right political conditions.
10.) The Tea Party has been “good for the White Nationalists” in the sense that it will change the composition of the Senate on immigration, has delegitimized Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, has eroded the legitimacy of the federal government, and has opened up huge cracks in the wall of media imposed “respectability” that have prevented White Nationalists from successfully organizing for the past four decades.
The general scaremongering conclusion of this “study” is pure undisguised bullshit propaganda. I can say this with a high degree of confidence as an “insider” and one of the loudest advocates in the White Nationalist movement championing the cause of “infiltrating” the Tea Party.
The fact is, White Nationalist influence on the Tea Party is the ideological equivalent of a mosquito sucking blood on the ass of a bull. The vast majority of White Nationalists are not interested in mainstream politics. The few who do have some involvement with the Tea Party, and the fewer still who are effective in their evangelism, couldn’t even fill half the empty seats in an Applebee’s restaurant.
In June, I attended the 2010 CofCC National Conference where Roan Garcia-Quintana was a speaker. Less than 200 people were present. In August, there were over 200,000 people at Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall. So even in the wildest imagination of leftwing conspiracy theorists, it is still ludicrous to argue that the CofCC is some kind of invisible hand guiding the Tea Party in a pro-White direction.
Leonard Zeskind is so desperate to tar the Tea Party with the “racism” brush that he citing anonymous comments on Tea party blogs and Billy Roper of White Revolution passing out at a few political fliers for his write-in campaign in Arkansas. Those who actually know the parties involved, as we do, and as Zeskind does, are not under any illusions that Roper or White Nationalists have much influence over the Tea Party movement.
When you boil away all the rhetorical flam in this report and get to the facts of matter, it “reveals” nothing more than some unremarkable parallels between the Far Right and Far Left. There have always been communist and socialist groups participating in liberal rallies and handing out their literature at mainstream events. Undoubtedly, there were communists on the ground at the “One Nation” rally sponsored by the NAACP, but you won’t see them condemning the “extremists” in their ranks.
Leonard Zeskind could have used his reputation as an authority on the White Nationalist movement to bury the claim that the Tea Party is “permeated” by racism. Instead, he clearly chose to tailor this “investigative report” around his political beliefs, which are shared by the NAACP, and which has made a small fortune browbeating Whites with spurious charges of racial discrimination against minorities.
Final Thoughts
It sure would be nice if White Nationalists were all Machiavellian secret agents, infiltrating the Tea Party like Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White, skillfully advancing a “racist agenda” into the mainstream. Naturally, that would involve tailoring our message to the experience of our audience, watering down our rhetoric to make it more palatable, something which White Nationalists have shown little inclination in doing.
Then our friend Leonard Zeskind would really have something to write about. Now he is only crying wolf to “we the sheeple” and doing favors for his anti-White friends.
“There have always been communist and socialist groups participating in liberal rallies and handing out their literature at mainstream events. Undoubtedly, there were communists on the ground at the “One Nation” rally sponsored by the NAACP, but you won’t seem the condemning the “extremists” in their ranks.”
The irony of course is that if we are to believe the CofCC response, Jew Zeskind, is exactly that person!
“In 1973, Zeskind surfaces as the leader of a militant Marxist group in Kansas City, known as The Sojourner Truth Organization. Literature for the group quoted mass murderer Joseph Stalin and called for “Revolution.””
http://cofcc.org/2010/10/author-of-naacp-tea-party-report-is-hard-core-marxiststalinist/
Mike
Also, Hunter, IMO this is a well-crafted response and a natural gift of yours. Congratulations. I wish I could write like you. Mike
Yes, very good response, Hunter.
We should try to be the “Machiavellian secret agents” as you call them and Zeskind fears. I have long said we should base our strategy on the fears of the Left, such as “entryism” (joinfiltrating non-WN groups and concealing our true beliefs.).
WN’s are obsessed with persuading others of our beliefs. But the masses should be viewed as the “porch Masons” who can’t handle the illuminated 33rd degree knowledge of race realism . . . yet. We should be out and about in our communities doing every little thing. It just so happens that volunteering in the community and avoiding controversy is also very important if you are an entrepreneur with a business. That boring “Rotary club” type stuff. Yes, it’s as dull as watching paint dry, but its how the Leftists took over our communities from within. There’s no easy way, no shortcuts, in the Long March BACK through American Institutions.
Brilliant comment, kievsky. I would only add that the “long march” requires somewhat of a low profile.
First may I ask if someone interview this Zeskind fellow and find out why he is anti-white.
Second the low profile thing, yes avoid the costume routine, but as a boring rotarian fella you are still allowed to voice an opinion of the left’s loud anti-whites. This is a wedge, if you want to follow HW’s path to glory you must spread the wedges thruout your travels and daily routines. No you won’t in a week’s time be the grand marshall of a torchlight parade but with a consistent message you will influence people.
Remember the anti-whites are not loved outside of their cult, but the masses do not have a script yet, so write it.
Years ago my company sent our sheeple to a “diversity” seminar, broken down into three groups three seperate days. The first two sessions went as expected, dreary North Korean style conformity. My turn day three, the intro portion of the 8 hour ordeal I stand up and tell them in a firm voice that I wish to come away from this day “unbrainwashed.” The masses had a script and the seminar went into anarchy, even after Elliot’s “Blue Eye” was shown, especially since the kids in that video looked like everyone’s kids (don’t screw with the kids).
One additional thought, the NAACP (and Soros) are the ones racializing the Tea Party movement with these claims. From my perspective, this was a risky move on their part. In the past, it may have been that those involved in the Tea Party movement would fall into line trying to prove they aren’t “racists”. It may also have been that members would flee any organization the left labelled as “racist”. And there may well be some of that. But I’m not sure it will play out that way this time. There may well be a backlash. In fact, that’s what the Tea Party movement is — a backlash. And what the NAACP (and Soros) have done is to poor gas on the fire at a time when their own house is burning. And they did it two weeks before a mid term election in which any mention of race harms the Dems (and Obama) and helps the Tea Party. This just illustrates how desperate the left is right now.
Leonard Zeskind is essentially a closeted Jewish communist like his “progressive” friend Howard Zinn. We know their type well.
It is honestly a good thing that the NAACP is shredding its credibility here. The only reason the NAACP ever had any power at all was because of the “moral authority” it had built up in the eyes of White America when the Walter Cronkites of the world had the exclusive power to shape the news cycle.
The Ben Jealouses of the last few decades have destroyed the legitimacy of the NAACP in the eyes of White America. I want to say it got so bad that even W. refused to meet with them at one point.
Check out the comments on Free Republic. They could easily pass for Stormfront material. The NAACP is repeatedly attacked over there as an anti-White organization now.
“Infiltrating” the Tea Party is easy. These people already agree with us on a number of issues. It is simply a matter of shoring up a vague, unarticulated sentiment that already exists and prodding it in the right direction.
Just go to their meetings and talk about immigration. Point out how the federal government is oppressing Arizona while defending Mexico. Point out how the Obama administration wants to redistribute their wealth to minorities. Point out the infinite number of ways that Whites are getting screwed over by a media that hates their guts. Show them the infinite number of ways (like the fiscal costs of affirmative action and violent crime) that they have been steadily “losing their country.”
If White Nationalists had the desire to “infiltrate” the Tea Party, they could be very effective. Instead, they can’t go five minutes most of the time without sounding like they walked out of The Turner Diaries.
Remember … you are a “secret agent.” Act like one.
Any time any group of Whites anywhere in the world gets together to voice even slightly unorthodox opinions about the increasingly bleak future interests of their country, the economy, immigration, the mass-media, and even to say a few words about racial issues they will henceforth be considered racist and anti-Semitic ‘White Nationalists.’
Such is the nature of the modern beast.
HW:”Leonard Zeskind is essentially a closeted Jewish communist like his “progressive” friend Howard Zinn. We know their type well.”
Definitely. Everyone must understand that communism never fell, it went mainstream: the economy of the USA is almost as centralized and controlled as the Soviet economy was, and so is the mass-media, academia, public schools, the monetary system, agriculture, etc.
Communism is alive and well in the modern USA and elsewhere, though with a twist: ethno-communism, that is, communism (barely disguised as ‘ethnic networking) amongst ethnic Jews whilst letting the non-Jews fight for the crumbs.
The real test will be if a GOP lead Congress actually passes serious legislation addressing things like immigration and “affirmative action.”
Last time two times they had a chance too, they didn’t. The last GOP Congress was ready to pass amnesty but it was just barely stopped by a grassroots backlash. The 1994 GOP Congress quickly betrayed the principals they were elected on.
We’ll have to see what happens this time before anything can be certain.
It is unlikely that a number of the most important Republicans will betray their promises on immigration.
Sessions and DeMint stood firm when it was unpopular to do so. Tancredo ran for president and nationalized the immigration issue. Some candidates like Nathan Deal have a strong track record in Congress on immigration.
Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch, and Richard Lugar are worthless and need to be knocked off in the primaries. They can join Arlen Specter, Bob Bennett, Chris Cannon, and Larry Craig in retirement.
Real news story being covered up in the Jewish media
Major rabbi (Who is part of the Netanyahu coalition government) says non-Jews are donkeys, created to serve Jews
From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem
A major Jewish religious figure in Israel has likened non-Jews to donkeys and beasts of burden, saying the main reason for their very existence is to serve Jews.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the religious fundamentalist party, Shas, which represents Middle Eastern Jews, reportedly said during a Sabbath homily earlier this week that “the sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews.”
Google Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and read for yourself. Please post this anywhere related to Tea Party racism, If we’re going to fight racism, we need to start by confronting the racists who receive billions tax dollars every year from the Goyim
“Racist” is a term that eventually needs to be, as our leftists friends would say, owned and defanged. Of course, there is the usual catch-22.
I actually think the Tea Party is racist (implicitly). It caters to white interests (except the war-mongering for Israel) and is hostile to leftist ‘minority’ identity politics.
I think the most effective strategy would be to accept the Tea Party as “racist,” and argue that “racism” (white ethnic identity) is OK.
It will be important who gets leadership positions in the new Congress. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
What we really is for a new GOP Congress to pass legislation to build a real fence along the entire Mexican border, legislation to harshly crack down on employers of illegal aliens, legislation directing all LE agencies to arrest any illegals they can find, legislation ordering the immigration authorities to deport them all, legislation ending the H1-B program, legislation ending birthright citizenship to illegals and legislation ending anti-white racial discrimination. Then we need to have all this legislation actually carried out.
And that’s not even addressing the broader issues of legal immigration or free association.
DeMint started the recession!
We should know almost right away which way the post midterm GOP will go. The GOP establishment is the immediate enemy. If they retain control of the committees and the leadership positions, it will be impossible for the TP faction to drive the agenda and continue to polarize the country. None of the GOP old guard, for example, has signed on to Jim Demint’s pledge to defund Obama care. If the TP is able to drive the agenda, some of those things on ATBTOLs list might get done, or at least on to the agenda. Imagine the mass hysteria if Jim Demit introduced legislation to repeal jus soli citizenship. Tancredo is also very polarizing, and it would help a lot for him to win. I tested the waters at redstate.com this week and was banned after only two comments suggesting the GOP should organize around White identity. I just wanted to see how the commanders would react, but the mods swooped in fast.
That was supposed to be commenters. Not commanders.
Real news story being covered up in the Jewish media
Major rabbi (Who is part of the Netanyahu coalition government) says non-Jews are donkeys, created to serve Jews
How is this a “big story” in need of distribution to the public? If the public knew about this it wouldn’t make one iota of difference. It’s well known the middle east is full of lunatics and the public would shrug it off as the same story once again. Of all the various sub genres of WN one of the most boring is that which is obsessed with all things Israel. This is a pet issue that the general public could care less about. Where did all that success David Duke was having in mainstream Louisiana go after he shifted his focus to Zionism 24/7? Furthermore, if your going to broach the Jewish Question to the general public there are a million better places to start than talking about Israel or Ultra Orthodox Theology. For instance the media control and leftist political attitudes of the mainstream American Jewish community, though even that issue will frighten away 99% of whites.
The NAACP is such a stupid organization that they don’t even recognize the immense hypocrisy of their position. The very nature of the organization is to advance non-white people (discriminatory and racist against whites (obviously)). They should be labeled as such, as a tactical ploy. I don’t care that they advocate for themselves; it’s natural. I only wish whites would wake up and do likewise.
Whites need to stop being constantly on the defensive about being charged with racism. As a ploy, we need to start calling all other groups and organizations that advocate for themselves based on their race or ethnicity “racists”. Tar them with their own brush. It should be eminently easy to do, as there are zillions of examples of their “racism”. The point is, stop being on the defensive. I’m certain that if people were monitoring all the anti-white utterances that emit from the NAACP, La Raza, MeCHA, etc, and labeled them racists, that maybe more whites would be less cowed by the mere thought of being called a racist. More whites would recognize that the thoughts they they probably have somewhere in misty recesses of their consciousness are not evil (as the narrative would have it), but natural. They need a nudge to know that it’s okay to think some things that they already probably think, but have been so conditioned to regard as evil that they haven’t allowed themselves to even entertain certain notions.
I read somewhere (don’t recall who wrote it, Whiskey perhaps), but it fits here:
“The sad truth is that once a collective thought pattern becomes established, it takes on a life of its own and becomes immune to reason.”
That’s exactly what has happened to whites in the last 60 years. They need to realize that it’s okay and normal to be tribal in the face of other tribes acting on that natural impulse.
We need to express these views in forums that are not just echo chambers of already awakened whites. Usually, on those forums, (be they about sports, or whatever) racial hot button issues are avoided (and likely censored), but occasionally, an issue draws the national attention, like the Gates-Crowley situation last year that had the whole nation talking. Perfect opportunity to debunk notions like White privilege, institutional racism, race is a social construct, Whiteness studies, etc, etc. Perfect opportunities to expose all the anti-white canards that so many poor saps buy into. You’ll get some vitriol thrown your way for pointing out the obvious, but maybe you’ll awaken someone, and that’s how it will have to be done, because there will be no sudden mass awakening. We have to wake them up a person or two at a time.
/rant
One of the things the book illustrates is the marxist tactic of constant attack. He knows the Tea Party isn’t WN but he also knows that if they’re constantly defending themselves then they aren’t doing anything useful. It’s a tactic and it works.
If a WN does choose to go down the secret squirrel route inside the mainstream then one of the single best things they can do is in any situation of conflict with a multicultist where the standard argument-winning accusation of racism is made they should *immediately* (and ferociusly) counter attack with accusations of anti-white racism. You can’t win those arguments exactly but you can neutralise them and more importantly it acts as an example to everyone watching. It shows them how they can fight back.
It’s possible to constantly attack and undermine the multicult while remaining entirely work-safe and secret squirrel and if it’s true that the multicult is effectively like AIDS – a deliberately introduced psychological disease that suppresses our naturally tribalistic immune system – then weakening the multicult will automatically bring out WN sentiment without saying a word.
“Where did all that success David Duke was having in mainstream Louisiana go after he shifted his focus to Zionism 24/7?”
Duke changed focus after the GOP/conservative establishment marginalized him. He realized that his mainstreaming strategy couldn’t ultimately succeed until the white voters were more aware.
The Rabbi who made those comments is the leader of a party who is in the governing coalition in Israel. He was also at one point the religious leader of all non-Askenazi Jewish in Israel(who are a majority). He was essentially the highest Rabbi in the country. This is the kind of story that wakes people up and it needs to be distributed as widely as possible.
“because there will be no sudden mass awakening. We have to wake them up a person or two at a time”
I think that’s mostly right. What we’re talking about here is a kind of verbal guerilla warfare using memes as the weapons and we use those mimetic weapons to at least partially wake our people up one by one. However i do think that once we hit a critical mass there will be a sudden fission explosion.
It won’t happen on its own though. We need to stir the pot.
I will point out that Abe Foxman and several other prominent Jewish leaders in America took the unprecidented step of denouncing Yosef’s statements before many people had heard of them. These people NEVER criticize other Jews no matter how outrageous their behavior, but they did this time. It shows that jewish leaders in America consider this incident to be very potentially damaging for them.
ATBOTL,
Agree. I think things are bubbling. It’s nowhere near enough to be a real threat to them but if you magnify the reality by their paranoia then they’ll be getting worried. Hopefully it will make them do something stupid.
This happens every once in a while. Usually it’s the religiously oriented Jews who slip up and say what the Talmud actually teaches in public. Rabbi Meir Khahane (sp?) called non-Jews dogs in a TV interview years ago, and surprisingly it got some play on TV in the US. The problem is the overwhelmingly vast majority of Jews never say these things in public, so when people do hear about these statements, they write them off as an aberration — and why shouldn’t they? A Jew declaring non-Jews to be animals in public is an aberration.
My experience has been that it’s damn near impossible to convince anyone that Jews are a hostile tribe using argument, logic and persuasion. People have to come to realize it their own. It’s the only way. No amount of logic will overcome their emotional conditioning. One guy (a Christian) told me once that he thought racialists made many good points but that he could never be a one because “they hate Jews for no reason.” I said that wasn’t true and asked if he was familiar with what Martin Luther had to say about Jews. He said no. So I told him to check it out sometime. I didn’t tell him what Martin Luther said; I just told him to check it out. Of course what he learned was what everyone here already knows, that Martin Luther taught himself Hebrew, read the Talmud, and was sickened by what he found. He eventually ended up reading Shahak, then KMD — and once someone discovers KMD, it’s over.
The man who said this wasn’t some fringe character like Kahane. He is Israel’s most prominent rabbi and the leader of a poltical party in the governing coalition.
Over the last 10 years, public discourse in Israel has become overtly racist. We are going to get lots more ammunition like this in the future. It’s going to be much harder for the hypocrisy to go unoticed than it was in the past. I disagree with the idea that we should ignore the Jewish question. There has never been a better time. Jewish power and hypocrisy are now widely dicussed in the left of center media. There has been a lessening of the taboos in last 5 years. I’m even seeing comments critical of Israel and Jews on Free Republic — things like “why should we support Israel when 82% of Jews voted for Obama.”
In my Not So Humbel Opinion – Barry Sotoero is doing more for the White Nationlist cause, than all of us put together!
Back to the Tea Parties – The Jews ‘n their pet Darkies are getting sloppier by the moment. This “report” is a screech. I plan to discuss the contents at length, in my next TP meet up. Can’t do it til after the ‘lections – as we are VERY busy with our own little local communities. ).
I intend to point out that a exclusively proudly racist outfit = the NAACP – gets a Marxist JEW to “write” a report slandering Whites.
It’s hard to get to the Jew thing. That’s the Big Kosher Wall. It’s very easy to discuss the …ahhhhh….”unfortunate real world effects” of Blacks, and the odious Mestizos, commonly known as Orcs, now – in certain TP circles – but the Jew Thing is hard to get around, since so many Churches are perverted by Jew Worship.
Lenny has just given me a wonderful sledgehammer, with which to bash the Jew Wall. Thanks, Lenny, if you are reading these words….
P.S. – Kievsky is right. Sorry, folks – ya gotta go in to Rotatarian World – since that’s where the White People are. I’m painfully dropping my “John Brown” barn-burner persona, and am creakily dusting up my “Charm and Diplomacy” skills….I find making my Mainstream White fellows laugh over the idiocies of Soviet Amerika is more effective than humourless ranting…..
David Duke would have won in Louisiana had it not been for his reputation as a Neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader.
“My experience has been that it’s damn near impossible to convince anyone that Jews are a hostile tribe using argument, logic and persuasion.”
Personally i start with “left-liberalism” (or whatever people call it in your region) want immigration for the votes and that leads them to being anti-white as a side-effect. In particular that their whole anti-racist schtick was initially purely designed to shut up the opposition to their voter importation scheme.
Once people are fully on board with that i start adding in the cultural marxist angle. Saying how open marxism was blocked by the proles being religious and patriotic so marxists went stealth to try and destroy religion and patriotism among the proles and how a lot of left-liberalism is in fact diluted cultural marxism.
The you get into how cultural marxism started in Germany in the 20s and 30s and was one of the reasons that set Hitler off and how all the cultural marxists were chased out of Europe by the Nazis and into the Anglosphere.
Mention a few quotes and the *names* of the people involved and you see a little light bulb go on inside their head.
People have 60 years of conditioning to make them shut their ears when anyone mentions jews. However you can lead them to think it themselves.
Personally the only time i ever mention jews is on sites like this where you can assume 80% of the readership are unplugged from the matrix.
“I disagree with the idea that we should ignore the Jewish question.”
It’s critical. It’s just a question of how and when.
RE Leonard Zeskind
There’s a decent article on Zeskind at Metapedia.
Far superior to the bare-bones, PC-whitewashed fare at Wikipedia.
The Zeskind article is at http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Zeskind.
I’m jewish/scottish. 1. “white suprumecist” is the dumbest term ever. I’ve never read such a person ever. Most in the vdare/isteve sphere just want europe to survive. how is that “supremacist”? It’s really: preservionist. We don’t want to turn Europe into Brazil. 2. I would love to know Zezkind’s views on immigration. That would be revealing. He reads all this persuasive stuff. If he were to have a moderate stance and I wouldn’t think him terrible. But if he is for even more than I think very lowly of this man.
The political life of this left wing libtard communist Leonard Zeskind began in Kansas City during 1973, when he surfaced in an openly communist group calling itself the Sojourner Truth Organization. Mostly active in the Midwest and only in existence between 1969 and 1985, the group was riddled with Jewish extremists, such as the genocide baiting Noel Ignatiev.
For instance Ignatiev, explicitly demanded the “destruction of the white race”, recalling for Europeans shades of the Ukrainian Holocaust where Communist Jews, in particular the ring-leader Lazar Kaganovich deliberately starved to death 10 million European Christians during the 1930s.
THAT is what this “speaker” Zeskind is about. The question I have is ‘why is Occidental promoting’ this kind of despicable character?
i have just read the Daily Caller article on white privilege and tea party racism being presented in Kentucky and am ashamed at people who represent themselves as academia in this country when all they are, are communists trying to destroy this country by any means possible. The lies they spread hurt us all.