Right Wing, White-Supremacist Violence Highlighted in Report on Domestic Terrorism
Members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. Source.
Right-wing domestic terrorist activity is increasing in the United States.
According to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the number of right-wing attacks in the U.S. has risen significantly in the past six years. In 2013, the CSIS Transnational Threats Project recorded less than ten right-wing terror attacks or attempted plots. By 2016 that number was over 50. Last year, around 45 attacks or attempted attacks were recorded, which is down from 2016, but still represents a continued stretch of time where right-wing domestic terrorism is higher than it has been since 1995. Data from this year alone reveals that right-wing groups are responsible for over 90% of domestic terrorist attacks. CSIS predicted that number will increase in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Elections, which are expected to result in outbreaks of violence at protests around the country.
The source of most of these attacks? White supremacists.
An update to the CSIS report released at the end of last month confirmed that nearly two-thirds (41%-67%) of right-wing domestic terrorism attacks in 2020 came from white supremacists, often associated with neo-nazi groups like the Order, the American Nazi Party and Vanguard America.
CSIS also noted that many of these attacks have occurred in opposition to Black Lives Matter protests which took place continuously across the U.S. this summer, writing: “Overall, the data suggest that domestic terrorism evolved based on the surge in public demonstrations that began in May.”
Not all cases of white supremacist affiliated terrorism occurred at protests, however. NPR reported that investigations into last month’s plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan linked the activities of those involved to multiple white supremacist and alt-right groups which had “acted in concert based on a shared extreme ideology."
That ideology is one based on multiple conspiracy theories that hinge around a false belief that government powers are conspiring against white people. The most prominent of these is called the ‘Zionist Occupied Government’ belief, in which white supremacists allege that Jewish people have taken control of most (if not all) branches of national and world government institutions and are using these positions to perpetrate a ‘white genocide.’ There is also the ‘Great Replacement’ theory that white people have to defend their place as the majority of the world population, and that America in particular is ‘falling’ to an influx of minorities and ‘destroying the white race.’
These conspiracy theories are just that - baseless, hateful, violent conjecture, but they draw people in, particularly disenfranchised young white men who gather in groups on websites like 4chan, 8kun (which replaced 8chan when it was taken down after the white supremacist-motivated El Paso shooting) and Twitter to lament lost jobs and opportunities. People like this often want someone to blame for perceived closed doors in their lives and careers, and the white supremacist movement gives them exactly that.
Despite these reports, white supremacist violence is not in focus at the White House. Even as the Department of Homeland Security warned against the threat posed by white supremacists, President Trump has railed against Antifa, and sought to have them classified officially as a terrorist organization.
This is unbalanced targeting for a number of reasons.
Although Antifa (which stands for “anti-fascist”) activists have been violent this year, the levels of violence from left-wing extremists is far lower than that associated with right-wing extremists. According to the CSIS report, “right-wing terrorist attacks caused 335 deaths, left-wing attacks caused 22 deaths [since 1994].” Only one of the deaths caused by left-wing activity was associated with Antifa.
Trump’s targeting also ignores the fact that although both white-supremacist groups and Antifa supporters work in a mostly decentralized structure, there is less national organization to the Antifa movement than far right extremist groups.
All that said, the Antifa ideology is also fundamentally violent. It is based around the belief that opposing fascism and other anti-democratic values (like white supremacy) sometimes requires violent intervention. The violence advocated by Antifa followers may be reactionary, but CSIS notes that it can still pose a threat. “In February, March, and April 2017, Antifa members attacked alt-right demonstrators at the University of California, Berkeley [...] In July 2019, William Van Spronsen, a self-proclaimed Antifa, attempted to bomb the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, using a propane tank but was killed by police.”
Despite these instances, analysts have cautioned against drawing a false equivalency between the alt-right and Antifa, noting that at this stage it is undeniably white-supremacist activity that poses the biggest domestic terrorist threat to the U.S.