What are the extremists’ goals?
“Far-right extremism” encompasses a
broad number of groups whose specific
beliefs and goals vary. They fall into two
broad, overlapping categories: white
supremacist groups who believe they
must defend the white race from “extinc-
tion,” and anti-government paramilitary
groups, or militias, who see themselves
as revolutionary heroes opposing a
tyrannical federal government and the
“New World Order”—a secretive global
government run by Jews and socialists.
Some militias are dedicated to the violent
overthrow of the U.S. government; some “accelerationists,” such
as the Boogaloo Bois, aim to spark a civil war between the races
and to establish the U.S. as a white, Christian ethno-state. The
violent attack on the Capitol, law enforcement officials say, was
spearheaded by these groups, all of which, says Kathleen Belew, a
University of Chicago historian who studies white supremacists are
“fundamentally opposed to the exercise of American democracy.”When did the militia movement begin?
While armed anti-government groups are a longtime presence in
the U.S., the modern militia movement dates to the 1980s. It grew
in response to the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992 and the
subsequent passage of gun restrictions, including the assault weap-
ons ban in 1994—which alarmed those who see all gun restric-
tions as a form of tyranny. Two incidents in this era galvanized the
movement. The first was a 1992 standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho,
where federal agents executing a warrant on a white supremacist
killed his wife and son in a shoot-out. Then in 1993, a federal
siege of the Branch Davidians compound in Waco, Texas, led to
a firefight and a fire that caused the deaths of 82 members of the
religious sect. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh—an army veteran with
ties to militia and white supremacist groups—detonated a massive
truck bomb that destroyed a federal building in Oklahoma City,
killing 168 people and injuring more than 680. After the national
revulsion over that attack, militia activity
dropped significantly. But it came back
with a vengeance in 2008.What happened in 2008?
The election of the country’s first black
president, Barack Obama, which horri-
fied far-right extremists. Experts say the
2008 economic collapse deepened their
fears and cynicism, while Facebook and
other social media facilitated recruitment
efforts. Two of the most prominent anti-
government groups emerged around this
time: the Oath Keepers, a militia focused
on rallying former military and police to
“honor their oath against tyranny,” and
the Three Percenters, whose name refers
to the supposed percentage of Americans
who took up arms against tyrannical
British rule during the Revolutionary
War. In 2009, the Department of
Homeland Security issued a report warn-
ing of a dangerous surge in right-wingextremism—which was withdrawn after
conservatives charged that the Obama
administration was trying to criminalize
and suppress dissent.How many people are involved?
Experts estimate there are now tens of
thousands of far-right extremists con-
nected to several hundred groups. The
Southern Poverty Law Center identified
576 “extreme anti-government groups”
in 2019, 181 of them militias. The
group counted 155 “white nationalist
hate groups” the same year, a 55 per-
cent increase over 2017. But experts caution that such groups’
influence extends far beyond the people who identify themselves as
members. Just as ISIS’s online propaganda spawned “lone wolf”
attacks, law enforcement officials say, white supremacist rhetoric
helped inspire Patrick Crusius, 22, to open fire on Hispanics at a
Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23, and Dylann Roof, 26, who
murdered nine black parishioners in a church in Charleston, S.C.Why is the threat growing?
A major factor, experts who study white supremacists say, is
the election and rhetoric of Donald Trump. His outspoken anti-
immigrant stance and defense of the white supremacists who
marched in Charlottesville in 2017 (“very fine people”) electrified
extremist groups, who believed the president of the U.S. was signal-
ing his approval. With Trump, “the fringe entered the mainstream,”
said Lawrence Rosenthal of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at
the University of California, Berkeley. Militias were further mobi-
lized by government restrictions in response to the pandemic, which
they see as tyrannical overreach, and the rise of the Black Lives
Matter movement. White supremacists and militia members clashed
with BLM demonstrators across the country last summer, and pro-
tested pandemic restrictions at many state capitols. In Michigan,
14 militia members were charged with developing an advanced
plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and try her for treason.
Following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrec-
tion, authorities found strong evidence
that militias played a central role in
organizing and directing the attack.What’s being done?
President Biden vowed in his inaugural
address to confront “a rise in political
extremism, white supremacy, [and]
domestic terrorism.” He’s ordered
the director of national intelligence to
work with the FBI and DHS to com-
pile a comprehensive assessment. But
even as that assessment begins, experts
warn that the Capitol attack and the
Democrats’ return to power have fur-
ther energized far-right extremists, and
that a long and fraught conflict lies
ahead. Lindsay Schubiner, a program
director at the Western States Center
who studies white nationalism, said,
“This isn’t something that can be put
back in the bottle.”Briefing NEWS^11
Boogaloo Bois in Lansing, Mich., on Jan. 17The white supremacist threat
Re
ute
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The role of military veterans
Law enforcement officials who track militias and
other extremist groups cite a growing worry: a
rising number of military veterans within their
ranks. Experts say veterans and active-duty
military may compose up to 25 percent of militia
members. Several groups have been founded
by veterans, including the Oath Keepers, which
actively recruits former police and military mem-
bers. Militias have a history of targeting veterans
for recruitment “because they have operational
skills that are useful,” said historian Kathleen
Belew, who studies far-right groups. She warns
that because of their experience with tactical
planning, weapons, and explosives, veterans
can have an “enormous impact on the level of
violence white-power groups can carry out.”
Nearly 20 percent of those charged with crimes
in the Capitol insurrection thus far are veterans
or active-duty soldiers. Congressional lawmak-
ers have called on the Pentagon to investigate
and address extremism within the ranks.In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, federal officials are warning of more attacks by ‘violent domestic extremists.’