***OK so as soon as I read this prompt, I thought "you are SO going to get in trouble on this one." I'm going to freewrite for five minutes, then say the rest of what I want to say on this prompt. Here goes.***

***Many of us think of one thing when we hear the word chauvinism - male chauvinism. Where else does anyone ever use it? Turns out, there is one very important usage of the word "chauvinism" that has been hidden from our view, bastardized into meaning the same damn thing that most of us think it means, when it means something very very different.*** 

***There are many kinds of chauvinism. But essentially it means (to me at least) a belief in the superiority of any way of life or cultural belief. Yes, male chauvinists feel that men are superior to women. But NY bagel chauvinists think NY city bagels are superior to every other bagel in the world. Dog chauvinists think dogs are superior to cats. Maple sugar chauvinists think maple sugar products are the best sweeteners in the world. Western chauvinists think cowboy culture is the best way to live, etc.***

My five minutes are up. Here's where the trouble starts. 

Lately, our news has often told us a fairy tale version of a certain group of individuals who call themselves Western Chauvinists, or used to until somewhere around the last presidential election, when the group's website and all information about it was hidden on the internet, except for Wankipedia-condoned information defaming it. The weaker thinkers among us heard the word "chauvinists" about them, and assumed that meant this group of people think women are inferior to men. In a typical left-of-the-political-divide illogical leap, this group has subsequently been easily portrayed as being comprised wholly of white supremacist, violent, homophobes. Now that you can find virtually no information about them that hasn't been filtered through a couple of respected supposedly anti-hate groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League, most of us have little chance to think anything different. 

I first heard of this group just a few days before the debate between Biden and Trump. At that debate Biden brought up the group the third time Wallace asked Trump "Are you willing to condemn white supremacists?" Trump had already answered this question twice, clearly, in the affirmative. The third time it was asked of him, he rightfully asked something like "can you be more specific?" This is when Biden interjected the name of the group, as if on cue. 

Well, I was sitting at my computer watching this debate, so I went directly to the group's website, which no longer exists. A few days after the debate, the website was scrubbed, replaced by a GIF of Trump shaking his booty. 

I have shown the image I used as a thumb on this post to a number of people. It's a screen shot of one page of the group's application form, which I got directly from their website on the night of the debate. Of course, I had no idea what was coming down the pike about these guys, and I had no idea the website would soon be impossible to find again, so it's only a screen shot of the application and does not show the url I was on, any headings or what not. No one has believed me on this yet, but it's worth another shot.   

Now you tell me, does a group that would have requirements like the ones below sound like a group of homophobic white supremacist bigots to you?



![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/owasco/23tSzQ982etTiKta1RuqqdHdoappeUVd2FvbL45NzkjYbNV1gpVGYZM4scVESB4TmFNL3.png)

In perusing the group's website, I learned some other interesting things. For instance, by "man" it meant born as male. The website clearly stated that transwomen, but not transmen, would be admitted to their group. New members were required to be OK with gay men and transwomen in their midst. 

Homophobic? I think not.

Another important statement of the club's was that it would not admit, and would immediately *expel,* any member who used their firearms irresponsibly in any way. 

Does that sound like a group that espouses violence to you? 

Now four of them have been convicted of sedition for their parts in the January 6 mostly peaceful protest. [One of them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlDmonT-U_w&fbclid=IwAR1LUI6m4TE_Cv1eYWBah_KArJFTiyApGivVaU-_8NhbCK4EsyKjxBSOeqs&app=desktop) wasn't even there. I urge you to watch that video, which I'll bet wasn't shown at his trial, to see this man explain what the group does and has done. To see what our justice, legal, and financial systems have done to its upstanding members. To understand the danger we are ALL in, here in the good old USofA. 

I hope that video plays. It plays for me, but I must say I am very surprised that it does. 

Maybe Trump isn't so far off when he says they are coming for you. 



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This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite [challenge](https://peakd.com/hive-161155/@daily.prompt/mariannewests-freewrite-writing-prompt-day-2037-prompt-you-are-a-chauvinist). Today's prompt is ***you are a chauvinist***. 






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