Editor's Note: This article includes screenshots of tweets with graphic language.
Those who were not pleased with the "not guilty" verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial took it really hard. For Umair Haque, the founder of Eudaimonia & Co, which means "human flourishing," he saw it as an excuse to rant long and hard about "american fascism," Nazism, and, in more than one tweet, warned that the outcome of the trial could lead to a Holocaust.
This is something. pic.twitter.com/u18z1kV1uY
— Skippy Variant (@Absolut_Boston) November 20, 2021
One tweet, from Friday afternoon, not long after the verdict came down, read that "You should get the f*ck out of Nazi America while you can because now that the Nazis know they can literally anyone they don't like and get away with it, be rewarded for it, there's going to be not just another coup but probably also a Holocaust."
There was no asterisk in the original tweet.
"The Rittenhouse verdict will be remembered as the moment american fascism turned into Nazism proper, and there was no turning back from the path of Holocaust," another tweet read shortly after.
Sometime on Saturday afternoon, Haque locked his Twitter account. His post on "The Rise of the American Nazi," which was published on Saturday, was also deleted.
However, an archived version is available. With original emphasis, Haque pretty badly bungles the facts, with original emphasis:
And yet the horror of this moment hits deep. Let’s recap what Rittenhouse did. He’s a teenage Trumpist who carried a machine gun, and shot at three protesters, murdering two of them, and wounding another. He murdered two people — political opponents — in cold blood.
The defence called all this self-defence, and the jury bought it. Of course, it wasn’t self defence. If you’re carrying a machine gun, there are about a hundred things you can do before shooting to kill multiple times, and then shooting someone in the back with a “kill shot.” You can fire over their heads, you can fire at the street, you can fire in the air. You can lay down your gun and take out the bullets and walk away. You can do literally a thousand things instead of murder people in cold blood. Murder is not self-defence when you are the only carrying a machine gun.
And then it goes downhill. Emphasis is original:
The Rittenhouse verdict is the moment that American fascism became American Nazism... America’s conservatives are now openly celebrating mass murder — and calling for more. The far right is now indistinguishable from the everyday right. They both agree on one thing: murder is perfectly OK, desirable even, because it’s “self defense.”That is a turning point. American fascism is now Nazism proper. A particularly brutal and chilling one. Those of us who’ve lived through and studied fascist collapse can tell you why. There is a difference between fascism and Nazism. Fascism is an abstraction, a way of thinking and feeling, associating, a sense of hate and rage and persecution, which welcomes violence in the future. Fascism is a political project. Nazism is the everyday application of fascist violence, the institutionalisation of fascism, murder in the streets by foot soldiers like Kyle Rittenhouse. And it’s what happens next....
Let me put that another way. This trial may have acquitted Rittenhouse. But it condemned America. As a Nazi country. You might not like me saying that, so consider the facts. A judge intervened repeatedly on his behalf. The jury deliberated for days, to find a half-baked reason to acquit him that might sound vaguely plausible in public. There was little real doubt that Rittenhouse would ever go to jail. There was the feeling that systems and institutions would acquit him. And they did.
...
These moments are great and grave turning points for societies. Why? Well, for the reason you probably already suspect. They teach the hateful part of a society that violence isn’t just permissible, but desirable. That you can commit atrocities on the streets, and not just get away with it, but become somebody through it. These are the moments which create Nazi institutions, norms, and values....
Unwittingly, the jury in the Rittenhouse case, too, laid down the final plank of Nazism in America. Nazism is always about “self defence...”...
How deep does white supremacy run in America? How much does white supremacy run America? Now we know. So much so that the Rittenhouse Trial became the moment where Trumpist fascism turned into true Nazism, murder on the streets, ultra violence celebrated by half a country, who appear to have lost their minds and souls. Because nobody, and I mean nobody, should ever be happy about murder. Something has to be deeply wrong with you. That something, of course, is Nazism.There are dark, dark days ahead for America — the darkest of all. This was a turning point from fascism to Nazism, and that means more violence in the streets, more openly, more aggressively, legitimised and directed politically, used to destabilise society and democracy....Wait until today’s foot soldiers become tomorrow’s SS lieutenants and Gestapo commandants, tomorrow’s Congressmen. Think they won’t be capable of a Holocaust? Think the base won’t want one?
Medium notes that the piece is an 11-minute read. "Nazi" or "Nazism" is mentioned in the piece approximately 30 times, with "fascism" or "fascist" appearing 21 times.
There's some more claims made about conservatives as well, beyond the ones mentioned above, that they "literally seem to delight, to revel, to enjoy the act of murder," Haque claimed with original emphasis, as well as how:
Only people who have been fully radicalised can delight in murder. Think of ISIS. Think of the Taliban. That’s the kind of people we’re dealing with now, only it seems to be most American conservatives, who clap and cheer in applause watching the Rittenhouse snuff film. That’s the end, folks. When a society gets radicalised like that — it’s game over. It cannot endure as a democracy.
Haque also makes claims about the future for Rittenhouse, with original emphasis:
What’s going to happen to Rittenhouse? He’s going to get rich, famous, and powerful. He’s been invited to intern on Congress. He’ll get book deals and a movie about him made and become a Fox News “analyst.” He will find himself walking the corridors of power, armed not just with bullets, but with money and fame and control.You don’t get punished for murdering people in the streets, if you’re a conservative, if you’re on the hard right. You get rewarded. You’re showered with money, fame, and power. They celebrate your name. It’s exactly like ISIS or the Taliban....
Maybe all that will line you up for a seat in Congress. Maybe you’ll be tomorrow’s Tucker Carlson. Maybe they’ll name a street or a day after you. That is the transition from fascism to Nazism. And nothing, I mean nothing, can be more dangerous for a society.
It's worth pointing out that Mark Richards, one of Rittenhouse's defense attorneys, in an interview for Insider, spoke out strongly against these internships being offered to Rittenhouse.
Let's examine the facts of the Rittenhouse trial another way.
A young man was arrested, charged, and received a trial, as was his constitutional right. He was tried and found not guilty by a jury of his peers. Rittenhouse's defense was that he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in self-defense. The jury heard such evidence and believed him, leading to the verdict.
That's not Nazism, or fascism, and it's really not clear how that will lead to a Holocaust, which resulted in the death of approximately 6 million Jews.
While such a piece was up but since deleted, as of Saturday night, other Medium posts by Haque still exist.
On November 17, Haque wrote about "What America’s Death Spiral Teaches Us About How Societies Die," just one day after he wrote about how "Our Civilization is Entering a Death Spiral."
Earlier this month, on November 11, he wrote that "If the Right Can’t Teach People to Hate, It Has Nothing At All," just a few days after his post on "Is the World Learning the Lessons of a Collapsing America?"
And, a pinned post, from February 4, explains "What It’s Like Being at the Center of a Far-Right Internet Firestorm."