Morning Briefing: Far Right Extremists Increasingly Share Violent Tactics
Morning Briefing: Far Right Extremists Increasingly Share Violent Tactics
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bulletin reportedly warned that far right extremists are increasing communicating to share violent tactics.
Take advantage of the current discount on paid subscriptions to Radical Reports! Receive a 25% discount on both monthly and annual paid subscriptions - FOREVER. That’s only $3.75 per month or $37.50 per year. This discount is available through April 30th.
Morning Briefing: A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bulletin reportedly warned that “domestic violent extremists have in the last year increasingly shared tactics with each other on using guns to attack electric power stations in a move that likely escalates the threat to US critical infrastructure.”
Last week, Elizabeth Rosenberg, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and Joshua Geltzer, Deputy Homeland Security Adviser, held a roundtable discussion with “public and private sector participants on the use of virtual assets by Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) and foreign Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs).”
According to a U.S. Department of the Treasury press release, the discussion focused on how “DVEs and foreign RMVEs have raised, moved, or used funds using virtual assets and some of the challenges in identifying and reporting misuse of virtual assets by these groups, along with potential opportunities for collaboration.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe told the jury during closing arguments of the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial that “for these defendants, politics was no longer something for the debating floor or the voting booth. To them, politics meant actual physical combat.”
A new study “examined the effects of deplatforming on online discourse and alternative social media platforms.” The study, published in Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, found that “deplatforming can have complex effects” and that “deplatforming encourages a shift to the long-tail of niche platforms, leading to a negative shift in the tone of content on those platforms but no significant change inexpression on the mainstream platforms.”
Must Reads
Hannah Allam reports that “Waco still resonates three decades later partly because of the enduring horror — 86 dead, including more than 20 children — and partly, extremism analysts say, because the events are easily exploitable in today’s polarized, gun-saturated cultural landscape. The introduction to the siege might come through mainstream retellings by Netflix or Showtime, but follow-up online searches quickly lead to anti-government forums that draw a through line from Waco to what are presented as federal excesses in the prosecution of rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021… Extremists still hold up Waco as Exhibit A of a ‘tyrannical government’ that seeks to disarm citizens in violation of the Second Amendment, an idea that has moved from the fringes to the mainstream in the hard-right shift of conservatism in recent years. Many political analysts view it as no coincidence that Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, chose Waco last month as the first stop for his 2024 campaign.” [The Washington Post]
Melissa Gira Grant writes that “Kacsmaryk’s bow to Comstock comes in the latest order in a landmark abortion case brought with the backing of anti-abortion groups attempting to ban mifepristone, one drug used in medication abortion. It is one of the most consequential post-Dobbs reproductive rights cases, devised by legal minds on the Christian right, such as Alliance Defending Freedom, for the express purpose of winning a total, nationwide abortion ban. Kacsmaryk moves them closer to that goal in his order, citing the Comstock Act to support the plaintiffs’ attempt to overturn the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. Further, Kacsmaryk claims that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their argument that the Comstock Act already prohibits mailing mifepristone. The result is that the FDA’s approval of mifepristone will be overturned, effective this Friday, unless a higher court reverses Kacsmaryk’s ruling.” [The New Republic]
Annika Brockschmidt writes that “when a mass shooting happens, and the perpetrator has left a manifesto or text that could give insight into his motive, worldview and state of mind, one of the first go-to rules for the media is: do not circulate the content. Don’t reproduce it uncritically or at all; don’t skim it and publish your take without waiting for the analysis of experts in the field. And yet, so many German media outlets broke all of those rules last month when a 29-year-old former Jehovah’s Witness entered a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Hamburg and shot and killed 8 people, including himself. Journalists quickly found a book he had written which was then readily available on Amazon, and which he had advertised on the day of the murders on his LinkedIn page. In this age of clickbait, headlines like ‘crazy Devil manifesto’ made the rounds quickly, with some non-specialists in the field of right-wing Christian violence weighing in quickly, seemingly having only skimmed the book, but offering hot takes nonetheless.” [Religion Dispatches]
This Week in Extremism: Kris Goldsmith of Veterans Fighting Fascism
This Week in Extremism: A conversation with Kris Goldsmith of Veterans Fighting Fascism about about far right extremism in the military and among veterans, as well as a new report from Task Force Butler. Join the discussion in Twitter Spaces on Friday, April 28th at 1:00pm EST (12:00pm CST / 10:00am PST).
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
