America’s Next Morning of Terror
America’s Next Morning of Terror
The question is not if—but when will the United States experience the next mass casualty act of far right extremist terrorism. The next Timothy McVeigh is out there, we just don’t yet know their name.
The question is not if—but when will the United States experience the next mass casualty act of far right extremist terrorism. The next Timothy McVeigh is out there, we just don’t yet know their name.
At 9:02am on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a far right extremist and White supremacist terrorist, detonated a truck filled with more than 4,800 pounds of an ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture, in front of the north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The explosion killed 168 people, and injured hundreds of people.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was perpetrated by thousands of individuals, however, there was not a singular narrative that motivate each of those individuals in the same way.
There were far right extremist militia groups and networks that planned and coordinated the attack, including groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. There were radicalized adherents of conspiracy theories such as QAnon, who believed they were there to witness the culmination of events that would sweep their perceived enemies out of power. There were religious fundamentalists and Christian Nationalists who believed that they were acting as spiritual warriors—there in the service of a leader ordained by God.
The attack on the Capitol on January 6th was not a singular event, but an event that has become canonized within the apocalyptic narratives of far right extremists that include events such as Ruby Ridge, the eleven-day siege at the cabin of adherents of the Christian Identity Movement in Boundary County, Idaho, and the Waco Siege, the 51-day siege at the compound of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.
As with Ruby Ridge and Waco, the far right’s rewritten history of January 6th is a powerful story that includes corrupt government officials, political prisoners, and martyrs. There are literally hundreds of stories of “Christian Patriots” who claim that they are being persecuted for their political beliefs, and right-wing media has repeatedly portrayed the rioters that invaded the Capitol as “peaceful protesters.”
The far right’s narrative of the events of January 6th has no doubt already radicalized or further radicalized an assortment of far right extremists. Also, while some individuals who have been arrested and charged for participating in the Capitol Riot have expressed remorse and regret, there are many who have remained defiant and have been further radicalized by the experienced. This has set the stage for far right extremists to feel both justified and empowered to commit acts of violent terrorism.
In many ways, today’s cultural and political environment is similar to that of 1995.
Today, the country is only a few years removed from the protests for racial justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, protests that enveloped many cities in the summer of 2020. In 1995, the country was only a few years removed from the acquittal of four police officers for the beating of Rodney King, a verdict that resulted in riots that embroiled Los Angeles and led to protests and unrest in several other American cities in the Spring of 1992.
In recent years, there have numerous mass shootings targeting marginalized communities including the Black, Latino, and LGBTIQ communities. In the mid 1990s, there were numerous acts of anti-abortion extremist violence, and several doctors and other medical professionals that provided abortion services were the target of assassinations or assassination attempts.
The most significant difference between today and 1995 is the Federal Assault Weapons Ban—signed into law by President Bill Clinton in August of 1994.
Also, while far right extremist groups were similarly resurgent as they are today and Republican lawmakers had adopted similar extremist rhetoric—there was not a voice with the kind of singular influence of former President Donald Trump. In fact, the Republican Party is arguably significantly more radicalized by the far right than at any point during the 1990s.
All of these elements combined with the increasing embrace of violent and geocidal rhetoric by far right media figures, the spreading of far right extremist propaganda through the internet and social media, and a right-wing multimedia ecosystem that is influential far beyond the reach of conservative talk radio of the 1990s, has created a dangerous feedback loop of far right extremist radicalization.
It is important to take seriously both the attempts to undermine and substage our democratic institutions and the threat of right-wing extremists domestic terrorism. The next act of violence by right-wing extremists may not be carried out mob of thousands of people, but by a single radicalized individual with a dedication towards a “righteous goal.”
We gotta fix that 1/6 narrative! More legal pressure on propaganda outlets.