Domestic Terrorism on the Rise
Christian Identity and the internet's ability to unite fringe groups are giving a new rise to domestic terrorism in the United States. And I'll prove why in an essay that's totally unnecessary but I really enjoy writing this sort of thing. So here we are.
The Department of Homeland Security defines a domestic terrorist this way:
"Domestic terrorists are individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as racial bias and anti-government sentiment..." intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government, or affect the conduct of the government."
"...in fact, there have been more arrests and deaths caused by domestic terrorists than international terrorists in recent years." (FBI Director's Statement before the House Homeland Security Committee on May 8, 2019)
You can see the increase in extremist's violence charted in this interactive map created by the Anti-defamation League: LINK
If you go back to 2014, 2015, you can see activity steadily sits in the double digits (2014 = 36 , 2015 = 63, and then a sharp rise in 2016 to quadruple digits = 1,321, then it doubles in 2017 to 2,482 and 2018 = 3,045.
And if you scroll down you can see details of the attacks that didn't quite make headlines. Even some funny ones. One Minnesota man made a pig pinata that said "Fuck the Police" with an explosive device inside of it. And the less funny ones, like the man who killed 11 people in a Synagogue in Pennsylvania.
And if you need a close-up 1 to 1 comparison. In 2017 you can see only 13 people died of domestic terrorism. While last weekend 31 people were killed in the two-pronged attack in El Paso and California. (LINK to 2017 data)
It's dismissive to say these are random crazy men who choose shoot up a place in isolation. Because these attacks, though seemingly random, have a common ideology, that has pervaded in America, and caused one Civil War already. That ideology is Christian Identity. This common ideology is present in multiple present-day groups that could congeal or unite under extreme circumstances. From racially motivated attackers like Dylan Roofe to border security guards who see immigrants as a deadly serious threat. You can see the pervasiveness of these thoughts in manifestos on 8chan, GAB and other forums where ideologically-motivated mass shooters are recruited and inspired to carry out their acts.
Proud Boys
Nativists
Immigration Hardliners
Pro-Gun Advocates
White Supremecists
Hate groups (Neo-nazis, KKK)
Chrisitian Identity Advocates
Conspiracy Theorists (Alex Jones, Q Anon)
End of Day Preachers and believers
Pro-Militia
Anti-Government Extremists
Each of these groups has a core in the Christian Identity movement, which we'll get into in the history portion. The issue of domestic terrorism is not a specific problem arising from a single one of these groups. The danger is the radicalization of these common ideologies and the possibility of of these groups congealing under a united front.
The danger, as Robert Evans posits in his 7 part series "It Could Happen Here": is that if any single one of these groups was able to disrupt the government enough to require military action. That retaliation from the government could propagate an "us vs them" mentality that could unite these groups. End of days, martyrdom, victimhood, persecution; for these reasons the groups would finally feel justified in violent extreme action against The State (and thereby The New World Order).
This may sound alarmist, and it is a little bit, I know that. But I think it's something to keep an eye on, because it happens in other countries all the time. After all a civil war is just unchecked violent groups rising up to disrupt a country's infrastructure. And that's a slippery slope that can get very slippery very quick. And there are just enough pieces in this puzzle to keep an eye on it. For instance, did you know liberals are actually buying more guns in the US. And one of the reasons for that is linked to fear of far-right extremist attacks, as cited in this BBC (LINK).
A Brief History
To backtrack a bit, let's talk about the through-line that unites these groups. Christian Identity wasn't the spawn of fascism, racism and domestic terrorism, but it has been the quiet vehicle keeping them alive in America. You can see the sentiments of Christian Identity drawn up from this ideal in manifestos from marches against MLK to the Mosque shooting in New Zealand.
While I'm not going to go into the entire history, because that would have to be its own article. What's important is important are two main things: proud white christian heritage, and the idea of The New World Order persecuting white men. The idea that white people are the special chosen people of the earth and that they are being attacked by a cabal (of Jews and minorities). A cabal that is totally in charge of things from faking the Holocaust and Sandy Hook to owning the "liberal media" and Hollywood. Take a second if you would and look back up at the list. Some form or another of Christian Identity and The New World Order idea plays into the ideologies of every group on that list.
So how did this start? Well fears of blacks and minorities have always been a prevalent issue in America. White people have stood at the docks and thrown bricks at every type of immigrant from the Irish and Italians, to the present-day Mexicans. And a fear of black people has kept the KKK alive, even today, 140 years after the end of the Civil War. (Fun fact, the KKK regularly marched at our Christmas day parade in my home town in South Carolina.) The real fear isn't crime. The real fear arises as a trend when the white middle class feels threatened by a rising lower class, which isn't blamed on white lower class but on minorities swindling the system. (As illustrated in this beloved pop-song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d73tiBBzvFM)
So his solution was to tone down the pro-nazi rhetoric and amp up the pro-white rhetoric. And a long line of this dialogue has propagated from Welsey Smith ad Christian Nationalistic Crusade in the 60's to present day Gavin McInnes and his violent group of Proud Boys who led the march in Charlottesville.
The Funny Thing about Conspiracy Theories
In Testimony FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists are on the rise,” (like: Q-Anon, Youtube Theorists, Alex Jones)also"...I will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”
While not all conspiracy theories are deadly, those specifically identified in the FBI’s 15-page report have led to either attempted or successfully carried-out violent attacks. For example, the Pizzagate conspiracy. Where tweets by Q-Anon and rhetoric by Alex Jones led a 28-year-old man to invade a D.C. restaurant with his assault-style weapon.
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| Supporters who believe Pizzagate was real |
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| Supporter who thought Pizzagate was real |
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| this was the first result in the Google Search for Pepe |
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| This is about the third. |
As this sort of dialogue becomes normalized, over time the Jewish Cabal idea can slowly pivot from being a joke, to being reality. And I know this sounds far fetched, but normalizing this sort of ideology can be traced to Boris Johnson, Hitler, and of course our commander and thief, Trump. Through humor, through dog whistling, and tongue and cheek speech.
A huge issue is how Trump thrives off of conspiracy theories. Not because he's a necessarily an idealist, but because it draws headlines. And headlines for Trump means free publicity. His Birther conspiracy about Obama kept him in the headlines for months and arguably set him up to be someone who looked to be on par with a president. And while not openly a Sandy-Hook denier or Q Anon advocate. He enjoys dancing around advocating these conspiracy theorists to draw headlines. This is why he won't shut the fuck up about The Clintons, because they've been a great foil for conspiracie; alleging that Hillary killed Seth Rich in 2016, the "lock her up" slogan, and using them as a shield against accusations of rape and as a pivot from Trump's relationship with Jeffery Epstien.
As I said, I don't think Trump is an idealist, I don't think he's a fascist or active White Nationalist. I think he knows that trolling the media by talking about these things keeps the attention on him. The unintended consequence is the normalizing of racist and extremist rhetoric. The issue is that this rhetoric from an authority figure validates people who are involved in violence and dehumanizing minorities. From the El Paso shooting, where the shooter mimed Trump's own "invasion" theory. To Cesar Sayoc, the terrorist who mailed bombs to ex presidents and members of the press.
And when Trump says "it isn't a bad thing to be called a nationalist, I'm a nationalist", that is normalizing a dark path toward fascism. Because as we talked about in The History, fascism is what started this movement. And if unchecked, that could very well be where it ends.
The Slippery Dragon
Here's a question, have you ever heard of a white church having surveillance put on it by the Department of Homeland Security? Or a white neighborhood having a curfew? Or laws that groups of a certain number of white men can't gather at a time? Probably not, because it doesn't happen in the United States. Despite the majority of serial killers, domestic extremists, and the continued presence of the KKK (the US's oldest domestic terrorist group) the government does not perceive white men as a threat.
These groups know this, and therefore government will also be slow to crack down on this kind of activity. And like a festering wound, it will get worse, because we are going to continue to ignore it.
Remember that militia that staged the armed take-over a federal building in Oregon? Aside from the leaders, most of the men were only sentenced to a few months of probation. And while one leader was shot while reaching for a firearm in a scuffle with police, I don't believe that could have happened to anyone but a group of affluent white people. Imagine how this might have played out differently if the group was say, black militants or a Hispanic "gang", or (and here's the ringer) Islamic militants.
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| Look at all these unharmed violent militants |
The issue is there is no difference. Violent young men drawn to a dogma provided by older men who seek power and prominence will always be the creators of violent militant groups, whether it's in America or South Africa. The problem America faces, is that we are letting them continue to get away with it.
Robert Evans was a war correspondent in the Middle East and Syria. He spent a lot of time embedded with people fighting these militants in countries that used to be stable democracies. He outlines how militants in those countries rise to prominence, disrupt the government, and how (if unchecked) it could happen here.
