tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/extremist-violence-13045/articlesExtremist violence – The Conversation2022-08-05T12:12:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880552022-08-05T12:12:59Z2022-08-05T12:12:59ZAfter Trump, Christian nationalist ideas are going mainstream – despite a history of violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477719/original/file-20220804-17-xtxnvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2500%2C1785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Separation of church and state: no longer so separate?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/the-flag-and-the-cross-royalty-free-image/1058861544?adppopup=true">Amanda Wayne/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections, some politicians continue to ride the wave of what’s known as “Christian nationalism” in ways that are increasingly vocal and direct.</p>
<p>GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Donald Trump loyalist from Georgia, told an interviewer on July 23, 2022, that the Republican Party “need[s] to be the party of nationalism. And I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/opinions/christian-nationalism-marjorie-taylor-greene-tyler/index.html">we should be Christian nationalists</a>.”</p>
<p>Similarly, Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, recently <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1109141110">said</a>, “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.” Boebert called the separation of church and state “junk.”</p>
<p>Many Christian nationalists repeat conservative activist <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/29/texas-church-state-separation-opposition/">David Barton’s</a> argument that the Founding Fathers did not intend to keep religion out of government.</p>
<p>As a scholar of racism and communication who has written about <a href="http://contemporaryrhetoric.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Perry8_1_2_5.pdf">white nationalism</a> during the Trump presidency, I find the amplification of Christian nationalism <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/944_OPSR_TEVUS_Comparing-Violent-Nonviolent-Far-Right-Hate-Groups_Dec2011-508.pdf">unsurprising</a>. Christian nationalism is prevalent among Trump supporters, as religion scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I1K3emoAAAAJ&hl=en">Andrew Whitehead</a> and <a href="https://www.ou.edu/cas/soc/people/faculty/samuel-perry">Samuel L. Perry</a> argue in their book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/taking-america-back-for-god-9780190057886?cc=us&lang=en&">Taking Back America for God</a>.”</p>
<p>Perry and Whitehead <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BDLNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10">describe the Christian nationalist movement</a> as being “as ethnic and political as it is religious,” noting that it relies on the assumption of white supremacy. Christian nationalism combines belief in a particular form of Christianity with nativist and populist political platforms. American Christian nationalism is a worldview based on the belief that America is superior to other countries, and that that superiority is divinely established. In this mindset, only Christians are true Americans.</p>
<p>Parts of the movement fit into a broader right-wing extremist history of violence, which has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.43">been on the rise</a> <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states">over the past few decades</a> and was particularly on display <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opinion/christian-nationalists-capitol-attack.html">during the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021</a>.</p>
<p>The vast majority of Christian nationalists never engage in violence. Nonetheless, <a href="https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness-ncc/the-dangers-of-christian-nationalism-in-the-united-states-a-policy-statement-of-the-national-council-of-churches/">Christian nationalist thinking</a> suggests that unless Christians control the state, the state will suppress Christianity. </p>
<h2>From siege to militia buildup</h2>
<p>Violence perpetrated by Christian nationalists has manifested in two primary ways in recent decades. The first is through their <a href="http://www.religion-online.org/article/militias-christian-identity-and-the-radical-right/">involvement in militia groups</a>; the second is seen in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43406-3_3">attacks on abortion providers</a>.</p>
<p>The catalyst for the growth of militia activity among contemporary Christian nationalists stems from <a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510356/no-compromise">two events</a>: the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and the 1993 siege at Waco.</p>
<p>At Ruby Ridge, former Army Green Beret Randy Weaver engaged federal law enforcement in an 11-day standoff at his rural Idaho cabin over charges relating to the sale of sawed-off shotguns to an ATF informant investigating <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/08/18/544523302/how-what-happened-25-years-ago-at-ruby-ridge-still-matters-today">Aryan Nation</a> white supremacist militia meetings. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Randy Weaver supporters at Ruby Ridge in northern Idaho." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378882/original/file-20210114-22-s8w942.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Supporters of Randy Weaver. The Ruby Ridge standoff sparked the expansion of radical right-wing groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RubyRidgeAnniversary/d360905c59104a4a9a2c41c25874643b/photo?Query=ruby%20AND%20ridge&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=75&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Jeff T. Green, File</a></span>
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<p>Weaver ascribed to the <a href="https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/106598/Contribution_514_final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Christian Identity movement</a>, which emphasizes adherence to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645906">Old Testament laws</a> and white supremacy. Christian Identity members believe in the application of the <a href="https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2012-politics-issue/his-truth-marching">death penalty</a> for adultery and LBGTQ relationships in accordance with their reading of some biblical passages. </p>
<p>During the standoff, Weaver’s wife and teenage son were shot and killed before he surrendered to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/26/ruby-ridge-1992-modern-american-militia-charlottesville">federal authorities</a>.</p>
<p>In the Waco siege a year later, cult leader David Koresh and his followers entered a standoff with federal law enforcement at the group’s Texas compound, once again concerning <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/19/17246732/waco-tragedy-explained-david-koresh-mount-carmel-branch-davidian-cult-25-year-anniversary">weapons charges</a>. After a 51-day standoff, federal law enforcement laid siege to the compound. A fire took hold at the compound in disputed circumstances, leading to the deaths of 76 people, including Koresh. </p>
<p>The two events spurred a nationwide <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/26/ruby-ridge-1992-modern-american-militia-charlottesville">militia buildup</a>. As sociologist Erin Kania <a href="https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=rr">argues</a>: “Ruby Ridge and Waco confrontations drove some citizens to strengthen their belief that the government was overstepping the parameters of its authority. … Because this view is one of the founding ideologies of the American Militia Movement, it makes sense that interest and membership in the movement would sharply increase following these standoffs between government and nonconformists.”</p>
<p>Distrust of the government blended with strains of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-04-24-9504240157-story.html">Christian fundamentalism</a> have brought together two groups with formerly disparate goals. </p>
<h2>Christian nationalism and violence</h2>
<p>Christian fundamentalists and white supremacist militia groups both figured themselves as targeted by the government in the aftermath of the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco. As <a href="https://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/fac_profiles.cfm?id=177">scholar of religion Ann Burlein</a> <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/lift-high-the-cross">argues</a>, “Both the Christian right and right-wing white supremacist groups aspire to overcome a culture they perceive as hostile to the white middle class, families, and heterosexuality.”</p>
<p>Significantly, in 1995, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/mcveighaccount.html">cited revenge</a> for the Waco siege as a motive for the bombing of the Alfred Murrah federal building. The terrorist act killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.</p>
<p>Since 1993, at least 11 people have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/29/us/30abortion-clinic-violence.html">murdered in attacks on abortion clinics</a> in cities across the U.S., and there have been numerous other plots. </p>
<p>They have involved people like <a href="https://womrel.sitehost.iu.edu/REL%20133/Juergensmeyer_Terror/Soldiers%20for%20Christ.pdf">the Rev. Michael Bray</a>, who attacked multiple abortion clinics. Bray was the spokesman for Paul Hill, a Christian Identity adherent who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/us/florida-executes-killer-of-an-abortion-provider.html">murdered</a> physician John Britton and his bodyguard James Barrett in 1994 outside of a Florida abortion clinic. </p>
<p>In yet another case, Eric Rudolph bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In his confession, he cited his opposition to abortion and anti-LGBTQ views as <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4600480">motivation to bomb</a> Olympic Square. </p>
<p>These men cited their involvement with the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/holy-hate-far-right%E2%80%99s-radicalization-religion">Christian Identity</a> movement in their trials as motivation for engaging in violence.</p>
<h2>Mainstreaming Christian nationalist ideas</h2>
<p>The presence of Christian nationalist ideas in recent political campaigns is concerning, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09758-y">given its ties to violence and white supremacy</a>.</p>
<p>Trump and his advisers helped to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/opinion/christian-nationalism-great-replacement.html">mainstream</a> such rhetoric with events like his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/11/22527796/ig-report-trump-bible-lafayette-square-protest">photo op with a Bible</a> in Lafayette Square in Washington following the violent dispersal of protesters, and making a show of pastors <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-secretly-mocks-his-christian-supporters/616522/">laying hands on him</a>. But that legacy continues beyond his administration. </p>
<p>Candidates like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-pennsylvania-religion-nationalism-8bf7a6115725f508a37ef944333bc145">Doug Mastriano</a>, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania who attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally, are now using <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism">the same messages</a>.</p>
<p>In some states, such as Texas and Montana, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html">hefty funding</a> for <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/power-issue-tim-dunn-pushing-republican-party-arms-god/">far-right Christian candidates</a> has helped put Christian nationalist ideas in the mainstream. </p>
<p>Blending politics and religion is not necessarily a recipe for Christian nationalism, nor is Christian nationalism a recipe for political violence. At times, however, Christian nationalist ideas can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09758-y">serve as a prelude</a>.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-capitol-siege-recalls-past-acts-of-christian-nationalist-violence-153059">an article originally published on Jan. 15, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Perry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Distrust of government blended with strains of Christian fundamentalism can produce a violent form of Christian nationalism, a scholar explains.Samuel Perry, Associate Professor, Baylor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1834532022-05-29T19:55:38Z2022-05-29T19:55:38ZHow self-publishing, social media and algorithms are aiding far-right novelists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465439/original/file-20220526-20-azqib1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C2799%2C1875&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert P. Alvarez/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Far-right extremists pose an increasing risk in Australia and around the world. In 2020, ASIO revealed that about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/22/asio-reveals-up-to-40-of-its-counter-terrorism-cases-involve-far-right-violent-extremism">40% of its counter-terrorism work</a> involved the far right. </p>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/14/nyregion/buffalo-shooting">mass murder in Buffalo, USA</a>, and the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chch-terror">attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019</a> are just two examples of many far-right extremist acts of terror. </p>
<p>Far-right extremists have complex and diverse methods for spreading their messages of hate. These can include through <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2021/01/20/far-right-extremists-on-social-media-arent-going-away-theyre-hunkering-down/">social media</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/01/gamergate-alt-right-hate-trump">video games</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/17/eva-wiseman-conspirituality-the-dark-side-of-wellness-how-it-all-got-so-toxic">wellness culture</a>, interest in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-far-right-and-white-supremacists-have-embraced-the-middle-ages-and-their-symbols-152968">medieval European history</a>, and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2004/turner-diaries-other-racist-novels-inspire-extremist-violence">fiction</a>. Novels by both extremist and non-extremist authors feature on far-right “reading lists” designed to draw people into their beliefs and normalise hate.</p>
<p>As literary studies scholars, our research grew out of exploring these reading lists and investigating why extremists write fiction. In 2020, we began looking at how someone who casually encountered a reading list online might access the books and pursue the ideas they contain. </p>
<p>We found a group of about 15 novels by self-identified neo-Nazis and other white supremacists that were known to counter-terrorism experts. Others were not. These books were disturbingly easy to get, because they were sold on sites including Amazon, Google Play, and Book Depository. </p>
<p>Publishing houses once refused to print such books, but changes in technology have made traditional publishers less important. With self-publishing and e-books, it is easy for extremists to produce and distribute their fiction. </p>
<p>In this article, we have only given the titles and authors of those books that are already notorious, to avoid publicising other dangerous hate-filled fictions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ideologically-motivated-far-right-extremists-have-killed-close-to-500-people-since-1990-and-10-percent-were-targeted-based-on-religion-105915">Ideologically motivated far-right extremists have killed close to 500 people since 1990 – and 10 percent were targeted based on religion</a>
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<h2>A literature of hate</h2>
<p>Far-right extremists have a long and successful history of spreading their ideas and helping inspire violence by writing and publishing novels. “The Great Replacement Theory”, which <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/17/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained">allegedly motivated the mass-murderer in Buffalo</a>, and which the Christchurch attacker embraced in his manifesto, was articulated in 1973 in a French novel, <em>Le Camp des Saints</em> by Jean Raspail. </p>
<p>A few years later, the American neo-Nazi <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/william-pierce">William L. Pierce</a> published The Turner Diaries (1978). The novel is now known as <a href="https://icct.nl/publication/the-turner-legacy-the-storied-origins-and-enduring-impact-of-white-nationalisms-deadly-bible/">“the bible” of the far-right</a>. In 2021, the Australian Classification Board classed it as <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/turner-diaries">Category 1: Not Available to Persons Under 18 Years</a>. Australian Border Force have reportedly seized copies, as they have with other known extremist books, including <em>Le Camp des Saints</em>. </p>
<p>Pierce claimed to have sold 185,000 copies of The Turner Diaries in the 20 years after it was published. Exact sales figures for the book and others like it are impossible to obtain. Some we identified as having far-right extremist narratives, written by authors with ties to militias in the USA, have appeared on New York Times bestseller lists.</p>
<p>The Turner Diaries has been directly linked to <a href="https://icct.nl/publication/the-turner-legacy-the-storied-origins-and-enduring-impact-of-white-nationalisms-deadly-bible/">more than 15 acts of violence</a>, including the deadly Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The Christchurch terrorist used phrases from The Turner Diaries <a href="https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/">in his manifesto</a>.</p>
<p>White supremacists from the USA, the UK and elsewhere have written novels to help spread their violent ideas since. Some write under pen-names and are impossible for us to identify, but the settings of some books suggest the authors may be Australian. Many imitate The Turner Diaries, in that they are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576100903488451">“blueprints” and “fantasies”</a> of terrorist acts leading to race war. Others are in popular fiction genres, including crime and historical fiction. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C1985%2C2089&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C1985%2C2089&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465220/original/file-20220525-18-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, after the April 1995 terrorist attack, which killed 168 people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Longstreath/AP</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-shut-down-far-right-extremism-in-australia-we-must-confront-the-ecosystem-of-hate-154269">To shut down far-right extremism in Australia, we must confront the ecosystem of hate</a>
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<h2>Why would far-right extremists write novels?</h2>
<p>Reading fiction is different to reading non-fiction. Fiction offers readers imaginative scenarios that can seem to be truthful, even though they are not fact-based. It can encourage readers to empathise with the emotions, thoughts and ethics of characters, particularly when they recognise those characters as being “like” them. </p>
<p>A novel featuring characters who become radicalised to far-right extremism, or who undertake violent terrorist acts, can help make those things seem justified and normal. </p>
<p>Novels that promote political violence, such as The Turner Diaries, are also ways for extremists to share plans and give readers who hold extreme views ideas about how to commit terrorist acts. Authors can make suggestions through fictional narratives that might otherwise be censored, for example that politicians should be assassinated or buildings bombed.</p>
<p>Some known violent extremists have tried to make money from selling their books, but their main purpose is to spread hate-filled ideologies. </p>
<p>One author wrote that his books, which include crime and romance novels, all have “a political and racial message”. These books, he added, “make great gifts for that politically incorrect friend or significant other in your life”.</p>
<h2>Publishing extremist fiction</h2>
<p>50 years ago, Pierce had to start his own neo-Nazi press, as no publisher would print The Turner Diaries. The novel circulated mainly among white extremists, until it came to wider public knowledge following the Oklahoma City bombing. After that, a mainstream publishing house began to circulate the book, ostensibly to warn Americans about its violent ideology.</p>
<p>In the late 20th century, far-right extremists without Pierce’s notoriety found it impossible to get their books published. One complained about this on his blog in 1999, blaming feminists and Jewish people. Just a few years later, print-on-demand and digital self-publishing made it possible to circumvent this difficulty. </p>
<p>The same neo-Nazi self-published what he termed “a lifetime of writing” in the space of a few years in the early 2000s. The company he paid to produce his books – iUniverse.com – helped get them onto the sales lists of major booksellers Barnes and Noble and Amazon in the early 2000s, making a huge difference to how easily they circulated outside extremist circles. </p>
<p>It still produces print-on-demand hard copies, even though the author has died. The same author’s books also circulate in digital versions, including on Google Play and Kindle, making them easily accessible</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C30%2C5022%2C3280&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C30%2C5022%2C3280&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465435/original/file-20220526-12-3nr5xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man reads scripture at a memorial for the victims of the attack on 15 May 2022 in Buffalo, NY.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Bessex/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distributing extremist novels digitally</h2>
<p>Far-right extremists use <a href="https://www.counterterrorismgroup.com/post/far-right-extremist-use-of-social-media-platforms-to-communicate-and-spread-radicalized-beliefs">social media to spread their beliefs</a>, but other digital platforms are also useful for them. </p>
<p>Seemingly innocent sites that host a wide range of mainstream material, such as Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive, are open to exploitation. Extremists use them to share, for example, material <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/us-based-internet-archive-hosts-massive-amount-neo-nazi-white-supremacist-and-holocaust">denying the Holocaust alongside historical Nazi newspapers</a>.</p>
<p>Far-right novels are also shared easily online through social media platforms such as Gab and Telegram, alongside other extremist material, as well as on dedicated websites.</p>
<p>Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing service has been called “<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-hate-store-amazons-self-publishing-arm-is-a-haven-for-white-supremacists">a haven for white supremacists</a>” because of how easy it is for them to circulate political tracts there. The far-right extremist who committed the Oslo terrorist attacks in 2011 recommended in his manifesto that his followers use Kindle to to spread his message.</p>
<p>Our research has shown that novels by known far-right extremists have been published and circulated through Kindle as well as other digital self-publishing services. </p>
<p>When we began our research in 2020, The Turner Diaries was sold through Amazon, though it has now been taken down. Novels by less notorious neo-Nazis and other violent extremists are still sold there, and by other major e-book distributors, such as Google Play. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-polarization-is-bad-but-the-us-could-be-in-trouble-173833">Not all polarization is bad, but the US could be in trouble</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Radicalising recommendations</h2>
<p>As we researched how novels by known violent extremists circulate, we noticed that the sales algorithms of mainstream platforms were suggesting others that we might also be interested in. Sales algorithms work by recommending items that customers who purchased one book have also viewed or bought.</p>
<p>Those recommendations directed us to an array of novels that, when we investigated them, proved to resonate with far-right ideologies. </p>
<p>A significant number of them were by authors with far-right political views. Some had ties to US militia movements and the gun-obsessed “prepper” subculture. Almost all of the books were self-published as e-books and print-on-demand editions. </p>
<p>Without the marketing and distribution channels of established publishing houses, these books rely on digital circulation for sales, including sale recommendation algorithms. </p>
<p>The trail of sales recommendations led us, with just two clicks, to the novels of mainstream authors. They also led us back again, from mainstream authors’ books to extremist novels. This is deeply troubling. It risks unsuspecting readers being introduced to the ideologies, world-views and sometimes powerful emotional narratives of far-right extremist novels designed to radicalise. </p>
<p>Banning and removing books by known violent extremists from sale can help limit how easily they are found, and whether money can be made from them. New novels can be quickly and easily written and published under pseudonyms, however, so we think it is more useful to help readers recognise and understand what far-right fiction is like and what it is trying to do.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465440/original/file-20220526-24954-g1ekn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abdul Aziz delivers his victim impact statement in the Christchurch High Court, 26 August 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Kirk-Anderson/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-radicalisation-be-defeated-yes-if-we-understand-that-it-happens-when-peoples-bonds-are-broken-168399">Can radicalisation be defeated? Yes, if we understand that it happens when people's bonds are broken</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Recognising far-right messages</h2>
<p>Some extremist novels follow the lead of The Turner Diaries and represent the start of a racist, openly genocidal war alongside a call to bring one about. Others are less obvious about their violent messages. </p>
<p>Some are not easily distinguished from mainstream novels – for example, from political thrillers and dystopian adventure stories like those of Tom Clancy or Matthew Reilly – so what is different about them? Openly neo-Nazi authors, like Pierce, often use racist, homophobic and misogynist slurs, but many do not. This may be to help make their books more palatable to general readers, or to avoid digital moderation based on specific words. </p>
<p>Knowing more about far-right extremism can help. Researchers generally say that there are three main things that connect the spectrum of far-right extremist politics: acceptance of social inequality, authoritarianism, and embracing violence as a tool for political change. Willingness to commit or endorse violence is a key factor separating extremism from other radical politics. </p>
<p>These positions emerge in fiction in some noticeable ways that are quite consistent across different genres.</p>
<p>Often, the story is set in an imaginary near future where everything from natural disasters to terror attacks, open war and citizen rebellion against an oppressive (always left-wing) government have caused society to fall into violent anarchy. Historical novels are usually set during times of social upheaval, such as the American Civil War.</p>
<p>Social inequality is written into the worlds of these novels. The protagonist is almost without exception a white heterosexual cisgendered male with military experience. </p>
<p>Marginalised groups, including LGBTQI+ people, migrants, and people of colour, are almost always present in the story. They are often blamed for social collapse through a conspiracy theory that is typically also anti-Semitic. They are always enemies of the protagonist and are violently killed. </p>
<p>White women are spared only if they follow the orders of the protagonist and support his violence. Feminists, if they appear, are his enemies. The protagonist’s violence (and that of others like him) keeps him and his family safe and ultimately leads to a new society being established. That new society is always authoritarian and led by a white male.</p>
<p>These storylines depict white male violence as necessary and appropriate for solving whatever problems the protagonist, his family and society face. The violence is often graphic, and typically includes details of weapons and tactics used to inflict it. </p>
<p>Some books that feature these sorts of characters and storylines are not by authors with known radical or extreme politics. Those books could still reinforce a hateful message, especially if they are part of a digital “recommendations” trail that leads readers from one similar book to another. </p>
<p>It is very unlikely that anyone would become radicalised to violent extremism just by reading novels. Novels can, however, reinforce political messages heard elsewhere (such as on social media) and help make those messages and acts of hate feel justified. </p>
<p>With the growing threat of far-right extremism and deliberate recruitment strategies of extremists targeting unexpected places, it is well worth being informed enough to recognise the hate-filled stories they tell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Young is a member of the Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Boucher is a member of the Religion, Society and Culture Network</span></em></p>Extremists have a long and successful history of spreading their ideas through fiction.Helen Young, Lecturer, Deakin UniversityGeoff M Boucher, Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1536762021-01-22T15:58:32Z2021-01-22T15:58:32ZCapitol mob wasn’t just angry men – there were angry women as well<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380067/original/file-20210121-15-17vtax2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C16%2C5523%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There were women among the crowd that marched to the Capitol and stormed the building.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-near-the-u-s-capitol-on-january-06-2021-in-news-photo/1230476985?adppopup=true">Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/capitol-insurrection-visual-timeline/">terror inflicted on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6</a> laid bare <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-boogaloo-and-who-are-the-rioters-who-stormed-the-capitol-5-essential-reads-153337">America’s problem with violent extremism</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-law-enforcement-is-using-technology-to-track-down-people-who-attacked-the-us-capitol-building-153282">The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have begun to piece together</a> the events of that day, while attempting to thwart any impending attacks. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/storytelling/capitol-riot-mob-arrests/">Scores of people have been arrested and charged</a> over the attack – the vast majority being men. </p>
<p>In the wake of these events, there were stories attributing the violence and destruction to “<a href="https://www.thelily.com/what-happened-at-the-capitol-was-pure-white-male-privilege/">white male rage</a>” “<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/capitol-riot-male-rage.html">violent male rage</a>” and “<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/capitol-breach-white-rioters-protesters-georgia-election-20210111.html">angry white men</a>.” </p>
<p>But what about the women?</p>
<p>To distill the violent insurrection into a tale of angry male rage is to overlook the threat that women in the mob posed to congressional officials, law enforcement and U.S. democracy that day. </p>
<h2>Long history of women’s involvement</h2>
<p>Several women have been identified as alleged participants in the events of Jan. 6. Among those women are a <a href="https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/01/11/still-no-charges-against-former-cmsd-employee-linked-capitol-riots/">former school occupational therapist</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-protest-officials-insight/off-duty-cops-other-officials-face-reckoning-after-rallying-for-trump-in-d-c-idUSKBN29I315">an employee of a county sheriff’s office</a>, a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/jenna-ryan-texas-realtor-capitol-riots-sign-vandalised-1560515">real estate broker</a> and a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/13/we-mock-the-rioters-as-ignorant-at-our-peril-459072">former mayoral candidate</a>. </p>
<p>At least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/oath-keepers-capitol-riot.html">one woman</a> is being investigated for her role in organizing the attack with fellow members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia movement. And <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/07/ashli-babbitt-dead-capitol-riot/">Ashli Babbit, a female veteran</a>, was shot dead by police while attempting to breach the Senate floor.</p>
<p>The women who took part in the siege of the Capitol are part of a long history of women’s participation in extremist violence, both in the United States and abroad. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A headshot of Jessica Watkins." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380060/original/file-20210121-23-1ci8szt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jessica Watkins, seen here in a photo from the Montgomery County jail, is facing federal charges that she participated in the assault on the U.S. Capitol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CapitolBreachArrests/b6464e489c5c4245a59807864fb2fd4a/photo?Query=Capitol%20AND%20Breach&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1239&currentItemNo=21">Montgomery County Jail via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women have buoyed American far-right organizations and causes for centuries. In <a href="https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/seyward-darby/sisters-in-hate/9780316487771/">her recent book</a> on women at the forefront of contemporary white nationalism, author <a href="https://seywarddarby.com/">Seyward Darby</a> writes that women are not “incidental to white nationalism, they are a sustaining feature.” </p>
<p>Since the late 1800s, women have supported and enabled the terrorist white supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan, while hundreds of thousands joined its female affiliate, Women of the Ku Klux Klan, and its predecessors. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3178170?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Women helped establish</a> the Klan’s culture, bolstered its recruitment efforts and manufactured its propaganda. Despite its hyper-masculine ideology, which identifies white men as the primary arbiters of political power, women have also held leadership positions <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00380237.2016.1135029">within the modern-day Klan</a>. </p>
<p>More recently, women have joined the far-right Proud Boys movement, which has <a href="https://www.wiisglobal.org/not-convinced-a-gender-perspective-matters-to-todays-political-activism-meet-the-proud-boys-and-their-girls/">openly recruited female foot soldiers</a>. In December, a growing rift between male and female Proud Boys was reported. After experiencing intense sexist backlash from men in the organization, women led by <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-are-at-war-with-their-proud-girls-female-extremist-wing?ref=home">MMA fighter Tara LaRosa</a> began their own group, the Proud Girls USA. </p>
<p>To leave one extremist organization in order to form another suggests a deep commitment to the far-right cause.</p>
<h2>Discounting is dangerous</h2>
<p>A 2005 study <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10576100601101067?casa_token=5Up9CxiwQpAAAAAA%3ATmDm-CtsOasDz__iRni78NJf3UFY-tylaKfYChMRuwCqsdr1uVeH__sOjOGQ4qtA3EvR0qWuIYCE">noted a disconnect between the rise in women</a> within American right-wing terrorist organizations and the attention it received from law enforcement. </p>
<p>Despite a marked increase in women’s engagement in acts of terror against the state and racial minorities, security officials <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100601101067">have largely failed to publicize</a>, search and interrogate women operatives in these organizations, even after they become known to law enforcement. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100601101067">There is also evidence</a> that American far-right women have drawn inspiration and tactical knowledge from women engaged in extremist violence abroad. </p>
<p>Evidence from the global war on terror points to the potential dangers of ignoring the growth of violent extremism among women. In Iraq, for example, female terrorists carried out large numbers of deadly suicide attacks against American assets during the U.S. occupation. </p>
<p>The rest of the world has since been forced to grapple with the reality of violent women after female terrorists staged lethal attacks in Nigeria, Somalia, Tunisia, the Philippines, Indonesia and France. </p>
<p>Recent terror attacks in American cities such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/02/one-year-after-san-bernardino-police-offer-a-possible-motive-as-questions-still-linger/">San Bernardino</a>, California, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/24/las-vegas-cop-killers-packed-ammo-and-wore-adult-diapers-as-they-prepared-for-their-revolution/">Las Vegas</a> that featured women among the perpetrators confirm violent women have already inflicted damage on U.S. soil.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ku Klux Klan security guards escorting two women members." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380069/original/file-20210121-13-1lwibg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan security guards escort two female members after a Klan meeting in Castro Valley, California, in 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/KuKluxKlan1979Women/a1d3e8cff91c4ccdaa56b3f0d2e2f257/photo?Query=women%20Ku%20Klux%20Klan&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=17&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/PS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gender bias can be deadly</h2>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://www.jakanathomas.com/research.html">my research</a> suggests that attacks by female terrorists are often more destructive than those executed by their male counterparts.</p>
<p>In an analysis of over 2,500 global suicide attacks, I show disparities in the severity of male and female attacks are greatest where gender stereotypes suggest that women are neither violent nor political. Such tropes can blind security officials and civilians to the threat posed by women terrorists, causing them to overlook the potential for female complicity. </p>
<p>Female terrorists, including in <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/isis-female-suicide-bombers-battle-mosul-631846">Iraq,</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3395973.stm">Israel</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/africa/nigeria-vexed-by-boko-harams-use-of-women-as-suicide-bombers.html">Nigeria</a>, have been able to deflect suspicion because they were women. My research shows that gender bias can become deadly when it stops effective counterterrorism policies, such as surveillance, searches and interrogations, from being implemented. </p>
<p>Additionally, since ordinary citizens played an unusual role in exposing the identities of the Capitol attackers, gender biases among civilians are also relevant. Failure to accept women’s complicity in the Capitol siege and the broader movement may prevent the identification of female offenders and impedes efforts to punish and deter future attacks.</p>
<p>American women have been key pillars of support for violent right-wing extremists for centuries. They have been right-wing extremists themselves – racist skinheads, neo-Nazis and Klanswomen. Women are also Oath Keepers, <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/05/26/what-to-know-about-kentucky-three-percenters-group/5258749002/">Three Percenters</a> and Proud Boys. They were capitol rioters.</p>
<p>To construct an accurate account of the Capitol attack, it’s necessary to ask “Where are the women?” And the answer is, “Right there.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jakana Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To distill the violent insurrection at the US Capitol into a tale of angry male rage is to overlook the threat that women in the mob posed.Jakana Thomas, Associate Professor, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522952021-01-15T13:22:40Z2021-01-15T13:22:40ZWhite supremacists who stormed US Capitol are only the most visible product of racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378896/original/file-20210114-22-18kdcsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C13%2C4486%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Known white supremacists have been identified among the Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230468360?adppopup=true">Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were members of <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/several-well-known-hate-groups-identified-at-capitol-riot">right-wing groups</a>, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. </p>
<p>The increasing violence and visibility of these groups have turned them into symbols of white supremacy and racism. They were involved in the deadly <a href="https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/">Unite the Right</a> march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/22/portland-police-far-right-protest/">street clashes</a> with racial justice protesters in Portland, Oregon, last year. At a Trump rally in Washington, D.C., in December, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/protesters-rip-set-fire-to-blm-signs-at-two-dc-churches-organizers-respond/2507057/">Black Lives Matter banners</a> were torn from two historically Black churches and destroyed. The Proud Boys’ leader has been <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/proud-boys-leader-arrested-charged-burning-church-black-lives-matter-banner.html">criminally charged in those acts</a>.</p>
<p>Many Proud Boys <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/30/who-proud-boys-group-mentioned-debate-has-violent-history/5868406002/">reject the label “white supremacist”</a>, arguing their aim is to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-1e9gHews8&t=47s">save America</a>” and to defend “<a href="https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2017/11/proud-boys-group-wisconsin/">Western values</a>.” </p>
<p>White supremacy was itself a longstanding Western value. And white people don’t have to be white supremacists to benefit from the ways it still shapes American society.</p>
<h2>White supremacy, then and now</h2>
<p>As an ideology, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/12/27/war-races-how-hateful-ideology-echoes-through-american-history/">white supremacy</a> is the belief that white people are inherently superior to people of color. It relies on the notion that distinct races of people exist, and ranks those categorized as “white” at the top of the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0003-066X.60.1.16">racial hierarchy</a>. </p>
<p>For hundreds of years, American leaders overtly embraced white supremacy. It was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240?src=recsys">used to rationalize</a> the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans and their descendants from the Colonial period to the 19th century. In an 1858 debate, <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/this-is-a-country-for-white-men-white-supremacy-and-u-s-politics/">President Abraham Lincoln said</a>, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” </p>
<p>Known for abolishing slavery, Lincoln’s position may come as a surprise. But many U.S. abolitionists wanted <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/15/805991106/early-novel-written-by-free-black-woman-called-out-racism-among-abolitionists">white people to maintain power</a> in government and everyday life, including after Black people were freed from bondage.</p>
<p>After abolition in 1865, white supremacy continued in official and unofficial ways. It drove the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">legal racial segregation of Jim Crow</a> and the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america">banking practice of redlining</a>, which robbed Black families of the loans necessary to buy homes in certain neighborhoods. White supremacy also underlay the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-boarding-schools-tried-to-kill-the-indian-through-assimilation">forced assimilation</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states">killing of Native Americans</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black-and-white image of Native students in Victorian dresses holding violins" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378866/original/file-20210114-18-ft2k8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boarding schools for Native American youths, like Montana’s Fort Shaw, cut students off from their culture and taught them that white values, practices and dress were American culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/7uuXPBbAFMJEkDEsf7TdYNrBhJxDVN4YlfMyEDW6sbYnmjNvuUvPGj53-dZKoihceFa6bIjUh3DSfwKhLv9o63hN2KqYIbvUQQedz0dUaZTFfS2-4EDv5AxB_E3iAgWTg2pCRKX--USTjv_Lg2UAPN5dRaqyJ8nD6IbAOw">Montana Historical Society Photo Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Outright racist policies were banned after the civil rights era of the 1960s. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-the-civil-rights-era-white-americans-failed-to-support-systemic-change-to-end-racism-will-they-now-141954">systemic racism remained</a>. Today’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-americans-mostly-left-behind-by-progress-since-dr-kings-death-89956">well-documented inequalities</a> between Black and white Americans in savings, longevity, home ownership and health are directly related to the white supremacist hierarchy created centuries ago. </p>
<h2>Hidden white supremacy</h2>
<p>White people need not endorse white supremacy to benefit from this hierarchy. As <a href="https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-03-04.htm">psychologist Beverly Tatum</a> has explained, the privileges afforded to whiteness are so much a part of the structure of U.S. society that many white people don’t even notice them. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Woman wearing a mask holds a sign likening COVID-19 to racism – 'assume you have it'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378861/original/file-20210114-15-rc98jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Decrying the insidiousness of white supremacy at a protest march.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-wearing-a-mask-holds-a-sign-likening-covid-19-to-news-photo/1229553338?adppopup=true">Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, a white man is unlikely to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/nyregion/bloomberg-stop-and-frisk-new-york.html">stopped and frisked by police</a>. A white high school student probably won’t be asked if she’s in the right room on the first day of an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/the-race-gap-in-high-school-honors-classes/431751/">honors class</a>. And it likely won’t occur to either to reflect on these privileges.</p>
<p>A white person is similarly unlikely to wonder why no one ever asks “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/08/opinion/where-im-really-from/">but where are you really from?</a>” after introducing themselves. And a white child likely won’t notice that nearly <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/26/20829771/slavery-textbooks-history">everyone in their textbooks</a> looks like them.</p>
<p>All of these affronts, both minor and major, are experiences many people of color face throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Not noticing one’s racial privilege does not make a white person a white supremacist. That racial privilege affects countless aspects of daily life does, however, mean that U.S. society is still shaped by white supremacy.</p>
<h2>All people have a racial identity</h2>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10123-002">Research shows</a> that white people must recognize and understand how they benefit from white supremacy to combat it. Doing so necessitates an awareness of one’s own racial identity – which is <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OL0i8HAAAAAJ&hl=en">something I study</a> as a developmental psychologist. </p>
<p>In general, white people easily <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-31370-007">identify as white</a> on official forms or in research settings. But when asked about their racial identity – that is, the way they understand themselves in terms of race and their experiences as a member of their racial group – <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14780887.2011.586449">they often have trouble answering</a>. </p>
<p>For example, in ongoing interview-based research with white teenagers, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SnhdUXcAAAAJ&hl=en">my colleagues</a> and I ask questions like, “How important is being white?” and “What does it mean to be white?” The teens generally claim their race “doesn’t really matter.” </p>
<p>This response reflects a tendency to think of whiteness as <a href="https://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-5">normal and invisible</a>, and race as something “other” people have.</p>
<p>Yet many of these same white teenagers also told us stories of witnessing racism in their schools and within their friend groups. They can see and name obvious racism, but most do not recognize their own white privilege as a part of the same system. </p>
<p>For that reason, although racism is often seen only as prejudiced beliefs and behaviors – as embodied by the Proud Boys and other such groups – it is better defined as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-03-04.htm">a system of advantage based on race</a>. Most teenagers in our study do not endorse racism, but they are all growing up in, and benefiting from, a society shaped by it. </p>
<p>If and how white people acknowledge that fact informs their own identities – and affects the society they forge. Research shows people who recognize the history of racism are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797612451466">more likely</a> to identify racism today, in both overt forms like the violence at the Capitol and in more covert daily forms.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2017/11/proud-boys-group-wisconsin/">Extremists like the Proud Boys</a> are putting American white supremacy in the headlines today, just as the Ku Klux Klan did 50 years ago. But they are merely its most visible product.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ursula Moffitt receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Extremist groups like the Proud Boys get white supremacy into headlines. But all white people benefit from white supremacy, whether they know it or not.Ursula Moffitt, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455052020-09-08T12:18:22Z2020-09-08T12:18:22ZPortland and Kenosha violence was predictable – and preventable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356430/original/file-20200903-20-1pypf6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5169%2C3433&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Portland police hold back Chandler Pappas, who was with the victim, in the wake of a fatal shooting on Aug. 29, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portland-police-hold-back-chandler-pappas-who-was-with-the-news-photo/1228264216">Nathan Howard/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. reached a deadly moment in protests over racial injustice, as back-to-back shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 25 and 29 took the lives of three people and seriously injured another. </p>
<p>It was tragic – but not surprising. </p>
<p>The alleged shooters were at the protests for different reasons: One was a pro-police supporter who believed he was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-is-kyle-rittenhouse-and-what-happened-in-the-kenosha-shootings-11598653456">protecting local businesses</a> in Kenosha and the other an “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-known-of-michael-reinoehl-person-of-interest-in-portland-killing-11599087170">antifa supporter” and “fixture of anti-police demostrations”</a> in Portland. The victims included apparent <a href="https://apnews.com/0994e25654d255e552aaad8a15e16c84">supporters of Black Lives Matter protests</a> and a <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/08/man-fatally-shot-after-pro-trump-caravan-was-patriot-prayer-friend-and-supporter.html">supporter of a far-right group</a>. Together, they reflect an escalating risk of spontaneous violence as heavily armed citizen vigilantes and individuals mobilize at demonstrations and protests.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YNZE_wMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of extremism</a> and director of the <a href="https://www.american.edu/centers/university-excellence/peril.cfm">Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab</a> at American University, I have spent the past few months watching people mobilize across the political spectrum – about Second Amendment rights, state shelter-in-place orders and police brutality, and in reaction to those protests – while leaders respond insufficiently to the threat of violence. </p>
<h2>Foreseeable conflict</h2>
<p>I wasn’t the only one expecting violence. In mid-July, terrorism expert <a href="https://extremism.gwu.edu/jj-macnab">J.J. McNab</a> <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/daily-bulletin-congressional-panel-gets-warning-on-boogaloo-violence/">testified before Congress</a> about her concern “that there will be a shootout at one or more of the Black Lives Matter protests,” warning of the dangers of having <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/05/kentucky-derby-2020-protests-breonna-taylor-angry-viking-louisville/5729427002/">heavily armed groups with conflicting goals</a> at the same events.</p>
<p>The danger existed long before that, though. In my new book, “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691203836/hate-in-the-homeland">Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right</a>,” I explain that the past three years – from the <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/sites/default/files/Unite_the_Right_Rally_in_Charlottesville_Timeline.pdf">Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally in 2017</a>, through mass shootings in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html">Pittsburgh</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-paso-shooting-victim-death-toll-rises-22-today-death-penalty-for-domestic-terrorism-in-walmart-shooting-2019-08-05/">El Paso</a>
to this more recent violence – have shown the growing activity of the extremist fringe in U.S. society. </p>
<p>Yet over the past year, the presence of a wide range of militia and vigilante groups has repeatedly caught local communities and national leaders unprepared to handle the threat they pose.</p>
<p>The pandemic has changed some things: The threat from planned extremist violence, like in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-zealand-mosque-shootings">Christchurch, New Zealand</a> in March 2019 and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poway-synagogue-shooting-suspect-john-earnest-in-custody-after-1-dead-3-injured-today-live-updates-2019-04-27/">Poway, California the following month</a>, is probably lower now – in part because there are fewer large public gatherings for extremists to target. But the threat of spontaneous violence – especially at protests organized around racial injustice and police brutality – is high. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hug each other and hold candles at a vigil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356432/original/file-20200903-22-v93obi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People comfort each other a vigil for victims of an Aug. 3, 2019, shooting in El Paso.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXTexasMallShooting/a4b990a566fc4dec961a354706a3a440/photo">AP Photo/John Locher</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Militia and vigilante groups’ conflicting goals</h2>
<p>Americans’ collective inaction to stem the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/19/facebook-qanon-us-militia-groups-restrictions">growth of militia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/vigilantism-again-in-the-news-is-an-american-tradition-141849">vigilante groups</a> is, in part, rooted in confusion about their goals. </p>
<p>Extremist and paramilitary groups in the U.S. are motivated by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/militias-warning-of-excessive-federal-power-comes-true-but-where-are-they-143333">wide range of competing factors</a>. Some are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/border-militia-mexico.html">white supremacists</a> seeking to <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">spark a race war</a>. Others are <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/militia-richmond-virginia-gun-rally.html">fighting a government</a> they <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/oath-keepers/9780231550314">perceive to be tyrannical</a>. Still others are oriented around <a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/creator-of-kenosha-guard-group-explains-call-to-action-before-deadly-shooting">vigilante support for or defense of local businesses</a> and law enforcement. </p>
<p>Left-wing militias have also grown in recent years, primarily organized around <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/socialist-left-guns-nra-trump.html">resistance to the far right</a>. These include the recently formed <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/armed-black-demonstrators-challenge-white-supremacist-militia-georgias-stone-mountain-park-1515494">Not F**cking Around Coalition</a>, a Black militia group that has shown up at protests this summer to challenge white supremacists. </p>
<p>At this summer’s protests, that division has been on clear display. Even within groups that ostensibly share the same goals – such as the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/american-boogaloo-meme-or-terrorist-movement/613843/">Boogaloo bois</a>, who call for revolution or civil war – there is little alignment. </p>
<p>In late May, three alleged members of the Boogaloo movement were arrested in Las Vegas for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/three-men-connected-boogaloo-movement-tried-provoke-violence-protests-feds-n1224231">allegedly plotting to spark violence at a Black Lives Matter protest</a>. But a month later in Richmond, Boogaloo groups marched alongside Black protesters and chanted to “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887467436/-were-willing-to-do-what-it-takes-causes-collide-in-richmond-s-streets">drown out the white supremacists</a>” who showed up.</p>
<p>Despite their conflicting goals, militia and vigilante groups all share a sense of dire threat and a belief that their lives, their future survival or people they want to protect are threatened by some outside group. This is <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/extremism">“us versus them” thinking at its most extreme</a>; militias feel compelled to defend against those threats. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3789%2C2518&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3789%2C2518&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345820/original/file-20200706-3980-1q7hz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Armed civilians have been attending public protests throughout the year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/armed-counter-protesters-and-a-police-officer-stand-watch-news-photo/1223867050">George Frey/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conditions ripe for online radicalization</h2>
<p>Extremists thrive when people feel uncertain and isolated. They invite new members to join a community and engage heroically to thwart a pressing threat. One review of existing literature finds that almost all recent research finds the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00108-y">need for belonging</a>” is key to extremism, along with a need for control.</p>
<p>That’s why the current moment is a tinderbox for paramilitary and extremist growth. Millions of Americans are anxious about an unseen virus, are isolated during shutdowns, face widespread economic uncertainty and are spending much more time online, where encounters with propaganda and misinformation are more likely. </p>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been <a href="https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/08/01/armed-civilians-militia-like-groups-surge-into-public-view-this-summer-at-rallies-and-counter-protests/">explosive growth</a> in radical political groups, civilian militia, vigilante and conspiracy group membership on social media – across the ideological spectrum. Earlier this summer, Facebook banned <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-bans-hundreds-of-groups-users-linked-to-boogaloo-movement-2020-7">hundreds of accounts</a> associated with the far-right “boogaloo” scene, which advocates for revolution and civil war. Last month, Facebook removed nearly 10,000 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/19/facebook-qanon-us-militia-groups-restrictions">QAnon groups and 980</a> “offline anarchist groups,” including some that “identify as Antifa.” </p>
<p>Social media plays a role in the radicalization of <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_PIRUS_UseOfSocialMediaByUSExtremists_ResearchBrief_July2018.pdf">90% of recent extremists</a> in the U.S. The current situation is no exception.</p>
<p>Throughout the spring and summer of 2020, across the country, heavily armed vigilante and militia members responded to incendiary calls to action and to misinformation on social media related to state regulations on gun ownership, shelter-in-place orders and, finally, Black Lives Matter protests. Calls have gone out to “<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/26/facebook-kenosha-guard-militia-protest/">armed citizens to protect our lives and property</a>” to show up at protests to defend against “evil thugs.” </p>
<p>In Kenosha, local law enforcement legitimized vigilante and militia presence by thanking them for being there. “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kenosha-police-thanked-armed-militia-and-gave-water-2020-8">We appreciate you guys</a>,” one police officer in an armored vehicle says on a widely circulated video as he tossed a water bottle to armed militia members. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kenosha-police-thanked-armed-militia-and-gave-water-2020-8?op=1">Thanking citizen vigilantes for their support</a> essentially empowers individuals to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/after-kenosha-shootings-former-sheriff-david-clarke-advises-radio-listeners-how">take matters into their own hands</a>.</p>
<p>Under these conditions, if there’s anything surprising about the violence that has erupted, it’s that it took so long for it to happen. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsam.wunderle%2Fvideos%2F10216501641126335%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="100%" height="291" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">A video of Kenosha police thanking armed civilians.</span></figcaption></figure>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>There are several ways to reduce the threat of future violence, but they all include minimizing the number of people who feel empowered – by local authorities <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/trump-support-kyle-rittenhouse-election-violence.html">or elected officials</a> – to act violently. </p>
<p>Leaders at all political levels could affirm people’s right to protest peacefully while unequivocally condemning vigilante and militia mobilization, regardless of the reason. Many studies have found that incendiary or hateful rhetoric from politicians both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2020.1739033">deepens political polarization</a> and increases support for political violence. Research in Germany has shown that when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/386271">politicians use incendiary language</a>, violence increases. But when they use different words, <a href="https://fortune.com/2017/02/13/donald-trump-national-security-cve-right-wing-extremism-terrorism-germany/">violence drops</a>.</p>
<p>If public rhetoric doesn’t cool down, I expect escalating polarization and politicization of the protests and vigilante violence may make matters worse in the coming months. I’m particularly concerned because firearms purchases have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/03/politics/gun-background-checks-fbi/index.html">skyrocketed during the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>However, communities could work to <a href="https://www.westernstatescenter.org/2020-white-nationalism-in-schools-trainer">interrupt the radicalization</a> of <a href="https://www.american.edu/centers/university-excellence/upload/splc_peril_covid_parents_guide.pdf">young people, and adults</a>. <a href="https://www.american.edu/centers/university-excellence/peril.cfm">My own research lab</a> recently released a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/PERIL">guide for parents and caregivers to online radicalization</a>, in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center, in order to better help recognize risk and build resilience to extremist narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This fall we will study how tools like that affect parents’ abilities to intervene at early stages of radicalization.</p>
<p>Our aim is to reduce the chances of people adopting extremist views and joining militia or vigilante groups in the first place. After all, having fewer extremists seems likely to reduce extremist violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Miller-Idriss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The increasing visibility of a wide range of militia and vigilante groups has repeatedly caught local communities and national leaders off guard.Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education and Sociology, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490062015-10-14T03:55:34Z2015-10-14T03:55:34ZIllegal guns fuel violent crime, wreak deadly havoc in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98250/original/image-20151013-31126-j4uo6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man walks among crosses outside Pretoria, South Africa, representing farmers killed in violent attacks.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Juda Ngwenya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Police statistics in South Africa show a worrying trend: the increased use of illegal small arms and light weapons in the country’s growing problem of <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/resource_centre/publications/statistics/crimestats/2015/crime_stats.php">violent crime</a>.</p>
<p>Gun-related murders are the leading cause of violent death, placing the country <a href="http://businesstech.co.za/news/government/91284/south-africa-is-the-second-worst-country-for-gun-deaths-in-the-world/">second</a> in the world after the US. South Africa’s population is <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/">51,8 million</a> compared to the US’ <a href="http://www.census.gov/popclock/">321,9 million</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.genevadeclaration.org/">Geneva Declaration Secretariat</a> says South Africa’s homicide rates are indicative of a warzone or a country in crisis, struggling with stability.</p>
<p>Although South Africa’s <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2013/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2013-Chapter-6-EN.pdf">homicide rates</a> have declined consistently since democracy, they remain among the highest in the world. They are about four times the global average at more than 30 per 100,000 people. </p>
<p>The South African Police Service stopped publishing disaggregated <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/docs/reports/15year_review/jcps/firearms.pdf">firearm data</a> in 2000. Different processes are used to collect and monitor data, so firearm statistics have become fragmented and speculative. </p>
<p>A consistent and disturbing trend in post-apartheid South Africa is the rate that state-owned guns land in the hands of criminals through theft, negligence, <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/will-fewer-firearms-make-south-africa-safer">fraud</a> and <a href="http://www.gfsa.org.za/gfsa-condemns-theft-of-guns-by-corrupt-cops/">corruption</a>. The police’s secretariat recently said that more than <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-03-24-national-firearms-summit-the-battle-over-sas-guns-rages-on/#.Vhy5Mfmqqko">1900 guns</a> belonging to the police, defence force and the prisons went missing over the past year.</p>
<p>Police sting operations frequently uncover and destroy large illegal <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/south-africas-efforts-to-collect-and-destroy-firearms-losing-the-battle-but-winning-the-war">caches</a>. Several <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper134.pdf">amnesty programmes</a> have been used to <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/assessing-the-impact-of-firearm-amnesties-for-south-africa">reduce</a> the number of illegal firearms in circulation. The 2005 amnesty netted 100,000 guns. But without reliable, transparent crime statistics and ongoing research, measures to eliminate illegal small arms and light weapons will remain largely “hit and miss”. Their proliferation will remain largely misunderstood.</p>
<h2>A continental problem</h2>
<p>Africa is awash with arms. It has the greatest number of <a href="http://paperroom.ipsa.org/papers/paper_33138.pdf">armed conflicts</a>. Numerous <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/pubs/Books/SocietyUnderSiege1/Batchelor.pdf">intra-state clashes</a>, extremist insurgencies and resource conflicts dominate the post-Cold War geopolitical landscape.</p>
<p>A distinct feature of these <a href="http://essays.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/kaldor.htm">“new wars”</a> is the use of fast-paced, mobile, guerrilla warfare tactics. The tools, increasingly hi-tech, are <a href="http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/">small arms and light weapons</a> – the perfect instruments in this theatre of violence.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/">United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research</a> categorises small arms as revolvers, self-loading pistols, rifles, submachine guns and light machine guns. Light weapons are heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable launchers of antitank and antiaircraft missile systems and mortars of less than 100mm calibre.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98232/original/image-20151013-31132-1gdxbtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turkana boys play with rifles in the Turkana, northwest Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Goran Tomasevic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Small arms and light weapons have distinctive <a href="http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ai/article/view/94921">advantages</a> which make them ideally suited to “modern” guerrilla warfare and urban armed crime. They are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>low cost and widely available. They are accessible, cheaply manufactured and easily distributed by illegal trading and trafficking;</p></li>
<li><p>increasingly lethal. Non-state actors, informal militias, and extremists have lethal firepower that often exceeds that of state military forces;</p></li>
<li><p>simple and durable. They are easy to maintain, can be recycled and can last decades; and</p></li>
<li><p>in need of little training. Their utility is unrestrained by gender or age, increasing their use by informal militias and child soldiers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The <a href="http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=19">AK-47</a>, an iconic struggle weapon of African liberation, lasts 20 to 40 years. It is also the weapon of choice for terrorists and drug lords globally. It is easily transported, smuggled to conflict zones and cached.</p>
<p>The sources of the proliferate weapons in Africa are many and diverse, legal and illegal. Their flow is extremely difficult to track or monitor. One important source is the <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2001/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2001-Chapter-02-EN.pdf">stockpiles of Cold War weaponry</a> still circulating throughout the continent. Small arms and light weapons are frequently <a href="http://www.accord.org.za/publications/conflict-trends/downloads/476-conflict-trends-2009-1">recycled</a> from conflict zone to conflict zone, and among fighters, security forces and war profiteers.</p>
<p>The scourge of the weapons has transformed the landscape of African armed violence. Their accumulation has devastating <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2484743">consequences</a>, with huge humanitarian costs, human rights violations and abuses. They are implicated in the massive flows of refugees and internally displaced people in Africa.</p>
<p>The weapons fuel, aggravate and escalate conflicts. They also spawn a culture of <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/Social%20Impact%20.pdf">violence</a> and impunity. Their intractability thwarts conflict resolution and peace-building efforts on the continent.</p>
<p>Given the accessibility, low cost and portability of the weapons, the lucrative, illicit arms trade is extremely challenging to governments. Even the most comprehensive, long standing arms <a href="http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes">embargoes</a>, non-proliferation <a href="http://www.aefjn.org/index.php/366/articles/africa-fight-against-small-arms-and-light-weapons.html">treaties</a>, and <a href="http://www.poa-iss.org/FirearmsProtocol/FirearmsProtocol.aspx">UN protocols</a> have <a href="http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ai/article/view/94921">failed</a> to shut down their illicit trade and trafficking.</p>
<h2>Structural violence in South Africa</h2>
<p>Arms are entrenched in the South African psyche, thanks to a militarised police state under apartheid and a history of protracted armed conflicts. Accumulating small arms and light weapons was rife during apartheid. </p>
<p>With post-Cold War <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/Pubs/Newsletters/OAU/OAUISS1.html">weapons</a> still in circulation and <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2001/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2001-Chapter-02-EN.pdf">caches of arms</a> of the liberation armies seemingly not accounted for, post-apartheid South Africa was always at risk of continued instability from armed crime.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98238/original/image-20151013-31132-1v930ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child soldier with the Mai Mai militia in the DRC brandishes an AK-47.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has been the post-conflict experience in Africa, where criminal syndicates fill the vacuum caused by the cessation of political hostilities, capitalising on existing arms networks. Porous and extensive <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/pubs/CRIMEINDEX/00VOL4NO3/Borders.html">borders</a> such as those of South Africa facilitate the illegal trafficking of weapons, other illicit goods and the movements of crime syndicates.</p>
<p>Research confirms that the proliferation of arms and the <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/Social%20Impact%20.pdf">process of militarisation</a> in regions where structural violence is the norm exacerbate societal dysfunction, political turmoil and erode state authority.</p>
<h2>Disconcerting future</h2>
<p><a href="http://sanews.gov.za/south-africa/police-arrested-ficksburg-killing-appear-court">Incidents</a> in South Africa reflect the growing <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2013/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2013-Chapter-6-EN.pdf">militarisation</a> of the police, reminiscent of apartheid policing and armed struggle. This speaks to serious regression in South Africa’s progressive agenda of human rights, dignity and democracy.</p>
<p>The 2012 <a href="http://theconversation.com/marikana-tagedy-must-be-understood-against-the-backdrop-of-structural-violence-in-south-africa-43868">Marikana massacre</a> epitomises this military-style brutality by police, who killed 34 striking miners. The <a href="http://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/Annual%20International%20Report%202012.pdf">Human Rights Commission</a> criticised the police for using excessive and lethal force.</p>
<p>Research suggests armed violence, systemic poverty and inequality are <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2013/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2013-Chapter-6-EN.pdf">linked</a>. Countries with entrenched armed violence, as experienced in South Africa, are in danger of being trapped in cycles of <a href="http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2013/en/Small-Arms-Survey-2013-Chapter-6-EN.pdf">under-development</a>. The proliferation of weapons contributes to <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/Social%20Impact%20.pdf">disintegrative trends</a> in society, accelerating tensions through criminal activities and civil conflict.</p>
<p>South Africa, which is one of the most <a href="http://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-south-africa-the-most-unequal-society-in-the-world-48334">unequal societies</a> in the world, with severe levels of structural violence and poverty, is particularly vulnerable to ever widening socioeconomic cleavages. Proliferating illicit weapons pose a real threat to sustainable peace and the fabric of society as they accelerate armed criminal violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn Snodgrass receives funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>South Africa’s homicide rates have declined consistently since democracy, but remain among the highest in the world. They are about four times the global average at more than 30 per 100,000 people.Lyn Snodgrass, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/439762015-06-27T13:33:54Z2015-06-27T13:33:54ZWhy kill? The dreadful psychology behind acts of terror<p>We have been witnessing a steady surge of killing in the name of religion. Buddhist monks <a href="http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2015-02/12/ashin-wirathu-audience-with-the-buddhist-bin-laden-burma">chasing and burning Muslims</a> in Burma; Christian extremists attacking Muslims in <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/01/un-muslims-ethnically-cleansed-car-2015196546788288.html">Central African Republic</a>; Sunnis <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/saudi-arabia-suicide-bombing-shiite-mosque-attacked-during-friday-prayers-casualties-1934453">slaughtering their Shi’ia counterparts</a> in a clockwork fashion during Friday prayers across the Islamic world. And now the butchering of innocent civilians in the name of religion in a single calendar day in <a href="https://theconversation.com/terror-in-tunisia-tourist-deaths-on-the-beaches-of-sousse-will-kick-start-a-national-crisis-43957">Tunisia</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33287136">Kuwait</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/shoestring-surveillance-and-a-shattered-social-model-latest-france-attack-puts-hollande-in-a-bind-43950">France</a>.</p>
<p>Killing comes with a purpose. It can be rational. Those engaged in it have a prior knowledge surrounding the outcome. It is this knowledge that motivates them to undertake that specific action. </p>
<p>Killing in the name of religion has a more sustained rational basis than one could ever imagine. It is the ultimate ideological statement. The purpose here is not the satiation of a private desire. It is more communal. The killer, the suicide bomber, or the butcher enacting his act in front of a recording device are all engaged in an act which they perversely believe their community or religion wants them to do. You kill because you think there are plenty of people out there who would celebrate your act of killing. </p>
<p>Perhaps the ultimate metaphor of the 21st century is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/terribly-effective-islamic-state-propaganda-draws-the-west-into-another-conflict-31801">parading of the hapless victims</a> on their slow march to slaughter. The radical religious killer slaughters not in isolation but in view of the entire world. The upcoming homicide is carefully choreographed. Then it is plastered across the world.</p>
<p>It is ultimately a statement about power. In a religious conservative’s worldview, all religions are a struggle for power – and the ultimate kind of power is violence. Theirs is not a powerful religion if those who have affirmed their faith in this religion are pushed around. Something needs to be done. That asymmetry needs to be countered and combated. Their religion needs to be seen as powerful. Its power has to be felt. It does not matter if the radical has to kill children at <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/11/blast-targets-school-northeast-nigeria-2014111081117467108.html">school in one’s own community</a>. One need not distinguish between an enemy soldier and families on a vacation. </p>
<p>The trigger-happy killings that unfolded before our eyes in Tunisia and Kuwait may be described not as an end in themselves, but as a means to achieve multiple ends. Taken together these killings and those that have come before them are a means to self-empowerment and a tag of honour in the face of humiliation. </p>
<p>In a related context, we are witnessing religious radicals’ actions being undertaken by others – such as the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/girl-aged-12-nigeria-market-suicide-bombing-150624044055589.html">12-year-old suicide bomber</a> in Nigeria who detonated explosives in a market in an attack that bears all the hallmarks of Boko Haram. </p>
<p>We are swiftly moving into a situation where one’s action is being performed for one by someone else – an intermediary – someone who stands between the person wanting the act done and its doing.</p>
<p>In the end, the killing of the innocent will not end all tragedies the radical thinks has befallen their community and religion. Yet, for the moment the killing will do. The victims in this narrative are emissaries and scapegoats, whose violent expulsion from the midst of this world can momentarily resuscitate the killer’s own twisted imagination of their religion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amalendu Misra receives funding from the British Academy and the Nuffield Foundation.</span></em></p>Religious killing is the ultimate ideological statement, but it will not solve the murderer’s grievances.Amalendu Misra, Senior Lecturer, Department: Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/326902014-10-22T23:18:18Z2014-10-22T23:18:18ZTough is not enough: ten smarter ways to counter violent extremism<p>More than a decade of security-based transnational approaches to combating terrorist activity and propaganda have demonstrated that these alone are ineffective. Sometimes, security measures can actually damage efforts to roll back the appeal and take-up of violent extremism. While such measures should be used in domestic contexts where threats are critical or imminent, failure to accompany these with robust “soft power” initiatives will prove fatal in the longer-term.</p>
<p>Business as usual is not an option. Here is what needs to change if we are to succeed in countering violent extremism. </p>
<h2>1. Rethink current approaches to creating a counter-narrative</h2>
<p>Counter-narrative remains a key strategy in the struggle to diminish violent extremism’s appeal, especially for young people. Governments around the world have been slow to respond to community needs and desires regarding this.</p>
<p>Most governments now accept that credible counter-narratives must be community- rather than government-generated. Yet many agencies have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2014.937097">remained ambivalent</a> about forming genuine partnerships with community organisations that can develop authentic counter-narratives to reach and, more importantly, influence those at risk. </p>
<p>Communities have tuned out to the “negative case” made by standard counter-narratives. They are seeking more <a href="https://www.counterextremism.org/resources/details/id/441/community-and-radicalisation-an-examination-of-perceptions-ideas-beliefs-and-solutions-throughout-australia">“affirmative” narratives</a> that offer genuine alternatives to hatred, enmity and terror. </p>
<p>Greater effort is needed to promote social inclusion and community belonging for those who feel marginalised and disempowered. This involves focusing on what binds us together rather than on what divides us. </p>
<p>An inclusive narrative must acknowledge the social and political idealism that makes some young people vulnerable to dimensions of terrorist messaging that promise a new or better world. We must offer genuine alternative forms of social activism and transformation, which explicitly reject violence while seeking change.</p>
<h2>2. Follow the lead of Germany and Denmark in rehabilitating returned fighters</h2>
<p>Counter-narratives are not just about what we say but also what we do. This includes how we treat those returning from foreign conflicts. </p>
<p>While it is clear that some foreign fighters return home hardened and committed to violent extremism, others do not. They find themselves disillusioned by the gap between the propaganda and the reality of foreign conflict. Rehabilitation for this latter group is essential.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dw.de/german-program-triggers-international-deradicalization-network/a-17898077">Hayat program</a> in Germany and the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/09/denmark-introduces-rehab-syrian-fighters-201496125229948625.html">Aarhus program</a> in <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/world/give-them-a-job-how-denmark-deals-with-returned-islamist-fighters-20141022-119cj0.html">Denmark</a> are good examples of how to bypass over-securitisation of returned fighters and instead offer counselling, support and rehabilitation. These programs acknowledge the different reasons people participate in foreign conflicts. These reasons include idealism, humanitarianism and peer pressure, as well as a commitment to violent extremism as an ideology. </p>
<p>A key benefit of rehabilitating returnees is that they have greater credibility with potential recruits and can positively influence them. </p>
<p>Embracing those who respond to rehabilitation demonstrates the principles of a supportive society. That in itself is a powerful message to undermine the narrative of alienation, isolation and rejection that terrorist recruiters promote.</p>
<h2>3. Assertively challenge media’s role in fostering disunity and xenophobia</h2>
<p>Some media reporting can severely undermine the crucial message of social inclusion by amplifying xenophobia, eroding trust and promoting social disharmony. The more coverage of terrorist-related issues demonises Muslim communities at large, the more entrenched a victim mentality can become for those targeted by sensationalised coverage.</p>
<p>The sense of being “under siege” by media is experienced by the vast majority of peaceful Muslims around the world. This produces frustration, humiliation and fear for these communities and can actually <a href="https://www.counterextremism.org/resources/details/id/441/community-and-radicalisation-an-examination-of-perceptions-ideas-beliefs-and-solutions-throughout-australia">increase radicalisation</a> leading to violent extremism.</p>
<p>Such coverage also encourages attacks on ordinary Muslims in diaspora communities because it appears to legitimise such actions. Those who experience such targeting become more mistrustful of the democracies in which they live. This makes them less likely to <a href="https://theconversation.com/fairness-and-trust-make-all-the-difference-in-countering-terrorism-32319">co-operate with authorities</a>, even when they have important information or views to share.</p>
<p>The “us and them” narratives of much media reporting need to be confronted assertively, by governments as much as by communities. </p>
<h2>4. Demystify the ‘special nature’ of violent extremism</h2>
<p>Part of the appeal of violent extremism is that it seems to transcend ordinary criminal violence. It is characterised as a higher form of social action, in which forms of social, religious and ideological power and aspiration combine to reach beyond the ordinary and everyday.</p>
<p>An effective way to diminish the appeal of violent extremism is to demonstrate that it is no different from other, more mundane violence. Stripped of its romanticised trappings as a higher calling, violent extremism should be treated as part of a broad-spectrum campaign against violence of all kinds. </p>
<p>This approach exposes the ordinariness of violence, its consequences and its failure to achieve the promise of social change that lures many young people.</p>
<h2>5. Use social media more often, more strategically and more creatively</h2>
<p>Social media outlets have been exploited by those promoting online dimensions of radicalisation and violent extremism. Sustained effort to challenge extremist messaging and representation through social media has been lacking, yet examples of effective strategies do exist. </p>
<p>Programs such as <a href="http://alltogethernow.org.au/">All Together Now</a> in Australia and <a href="http://exitwhitepower.com/">Exit</a> in Europe are leading the way in helping disengage those on pathways to extremism through social media. While in democratic countries censorship of social media remains untenable for excellent reasons, much more could be done, more nimbly and more creatively, to use social media as a counter-strategy.</p>
<p>If, as some <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539150701846443">leading research</a> has argued, terrorism is a communicative act, then we need to invest seriously in challenging and disrupting its messaging using the same communication channels and strategies. </p>
<p>A key element here is embracing multimodal communication platforms that combine image, text and sound to reach people in the same way that sophisticated violent extremist propaganda routinely achieves.</p>
<h2>6. Develop cognitive and emotional skills to deconstruct extremist ideology</h2>
<p>Education is a key to disrupting and dismantling terrorist ideology. In an age awash with information, media and diverse forms of knowledge, many young people struggle with the critical skills required to sift, sort and evaluate it all. </p>
<p>These cognitive and emotional skills need to be comprehensively embedded in the curricula of schools and universities. The goal must be to equip young people to evaluate and argue against the interpretations of religion, history, politics and identity that are the bread and butter of terrorist recruitment narratives.</p>
<p>Nor should we stop at the cognitive domain in thinking about how best to skill up our youth to critique and reject violent extremist ideology. Terrorist messaging does not just target the head. It focuses in increasingly sophisticated ways on the heart through visual and aural communication. </p>
<p>Understanding the nexus between cognition and emotion, and developing in young people the understanding and ability to step back and analyse before acting, should be a primary focus of any counter-terrorism strategy.</p>
<h2>7. Understanding the ‘supply chain’ means targeting recruiters</h2>
<p>Recruiters are the middle-men and women in the supply chain of violent extremism. Counter-terrorism strategies have tended to focus on grassroots initiatives to prevent the take-up of violent extremism at community level, while “disrupt and degrade” efforts have concentrated on the leadership of terrorist groups.</p>
<p>Focusing on remote figureheads may help score largely symbolic goals for governments and task-forces. But the middle-men and women, as always, are the linchpin. Without them the leaders cannot marshal the human resources to execute their strategies.</p>
<p>Targeting recruiters should not just be about removing them from circulation – as a securitisation model would propose. It should also aim to undermine their influence with alternatives that speak to the deeper needs and desires of those susceptible to their influence. It is vital to work with communities to identify, understand the strategies of and disempower locally influential recruiters in order to nullify their messages and reduce their reach and appeal. </p>
<h2>8. Women are emerging as key players in violent extremism</h2>
<p>Programs to counter violent extremism tend to focus on alienated, angry young men and the ways that certain constructs of masculinity and violence may be linked. But the complexities of contemporary violent extremism have increasingly seen women emerge as influential players – as spokespeople, recruiters, enablers and in some instances as fighters.</p>
<p>While female fighters and violent extremists are hardly new, complex issues involving power, disenfranchisement and agency for women are making themselves felt in new ways. </p>
<p>Strategies relying on the assumption that women are generally key influencers away from violent extremism need to be rethought. While this may be true in some instances, the increased involvement of women in terrorist propaganda and social influence suggests a more complex social and gendered territory. It raises the question of whether we need to develop more nuanced, gendered strategies of countering violent extremism. </p>
<h2>9. Community, community, community</h2>
<p>All of the previous points require deep, long-lasting, inclusive partnerships with communities at a grassroots level. A signal weakness in transnational strategies to date has been the tendency of government agencies to focus relationship-building efforts on selected community leaders.</p>
<p>These leaders, while important in some instances, are only part of the story. Communities are increasingly telling us that an older generation of leaders lacks the credibility, authority or authenticity to work effectively with younger community members who are radicalising towards violence.</p>
<p>The central issue of trust – the single most important element in brokering successful joint efforts between governments and communities to mitigate violent extremism – goes well beyond developing trust and engagement with a relatively small number of community leaders. They may sometimes lack the backing of critical elements within their own constituencies. </p>
<p>We must be smarter, more expansive and more multi-layered in developing community relationships. A multi-level strategy – one that targets and builds grassroots trust, transparency and engagement as well as cultivating leadership roles and government liaison – is far more likely to succeed in tackling violent extremism than one that is narrowly focused on selected representatives and structures.</p>
<p>These structures often exclude women, young people and voices of difference or dissent within communities. These groups are precisely those we need to engage if we are to mount credible alternatives to violent extremism. This means listening carefully and genuinely to what communities are saying, and adopting not only a “whole of government” but a “whole of community” strategy. </p>
<h2>10. Help researchers by sharing key data and information</h2>
<p>National security expert Marc Sageman recently <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.895649">published an essay</a> calling for greater leverage of research capacity by government agencies concerned with countering violent extremism. Sageman focuses on ways in which government agencies’ reluctance to share primary source data have stalled research capabilities – an essential contribution to the evidence base on which strategies, policies and programs are founded.</p>
<p>Intelligence agencies have the empirical data but not the methodological skills to analyse and interpret these; researchers have the analytical and methodological skills but lack the data. The result is that breakthroughs in understanding terrorism and how to counter it are being impeded. </p>
<p>A smart strategy would develop security-sensitive ways of giving researchers the data they need. This would help spur transnational effectiveness by enabling researchers to develop the large, robust datasets and theoretical underpinnings that are essential to serious inquiry in this space. Without this, research remains a severely under-utilised resource.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Grossman receives research funding from the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee and Victoria Police. This article is a revised version of an invited talk given at the RMIT/Curtin University EU-Australia Policy Forum on Counter-Terrorism and Security on October 7, 2014.</span></em></p>More than a decade of security-based transnational approaches to combating terrorist activity and propaganda have demonstrated that these alone are ineffective. Sometimes, security measures can actually…Michele Grossman, Professor and Director, Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.