This is the story of James Stachowiak, the perfect example of how the fragile, performative masculinity of "alpha male" MAGAts crumbles like a wet cookie at the first sign of accountability or pushback from those they attempt to terrorize. The story of how this MAGA tough guy turned into a sniveling little felon who now keeps his mouth shut.
If he looks familiar, it's because he's been in the national spotlight before. He planned a rally at Stone Mountain in Georgia — where he said he'd be setting fire to a Koran. Hardly anyone showed up. He also called for "lone wolf" attacks against "Antifa members". But the main point of this story? It's related to James feeling tough because he was always armed.
He would stand outside mosques and Islamic community centers with semiautomatic rifles, just to scare the people who showed up. He took drone video of these locations and offered to send it to anyone who was "interested" — hoping that someone would commit terrorist acts against Muslims... acts he was too scared to undertake himself.
His downfall came when he kept looking for trouble. He would go out into town wearing blatantly racist shirts. If he was asked to leave restaurants, he'd record the video and tell his Facebook followers his free speech was being infringed. If anyone said something about his racist shirts, he'd pull weapons on them.
Then one night in a grocery store, it all blew up in his face. A young black man was staring at his racist shirt, and James confronted him. He was clearly looking for an opportunity to
a black man, but the man in question stayed calm. Even when Stachowiak pulled out a baton and threatened him with a gun.
Stachowiak fled the scene when the police were called, and when confronted by officers at his home, he lied about what happened. Claiming he was acting in self-defense. He was given two misdemeanor citations. However, store video footage showed he was lying. The District Attorney took the case to the grand jury.
At that point, the charges were upgraded to two counts of felony terroristic threats. He was arrested. He was placed in jail. In Augusta GA — where over half the population is black. Meaning poor little racist James was sitting in jail, surrounded by African American inmates. Inmates who invariably discover who he is and what he's about.
And this time? Well, this time James doesn't have a gun or any other weapon. He also didn't have anyone who cared enough about him to post his bond. So there he sat — for an entire month — awaiting trial while surrounded by the people he spent years trying to terrorize. He was finally able to post bond, and before going to trial, the reality of his situation set in.
He ceased his extremist online rhetoric. When accepting a plea deal for two felony charges, the attorney representing him said "His days of provocative speech after over." Of course, two felony convictions mean no guns. Can you guess who doesn't walk around his town wearing racist shirts anymore?
You guessed it... Mr. James Stachowiak. This is the "courage" of right-wing extremism. They feel tough because they're armed. Many are too terrified to engage in terrorist acts themselves, but they'll do their best to encourage others to do so. But when you take their weapons away? When they're up against ACTUAL tough guys who know what they are?
They crumble. Because there's nothing masculine about MAGA. They're fragile, and they cope with it by pretending to be tough. I see it every single day in my Inbox from triggered right-wing ped0 protectors. But in the end, they're always exposed as being some pathetic version of this man.
