The Epidemic of Right-Wing Extremist Radicalisation
The epidemic of right-wing extremist radicalisation, or as an acronym: E.R.E.R., which looks like how President Trump thinks “error” is spelled.
In this piece, I want to examine the apparent emergence of proud conservative flag-waving American right-wing extremists who recognize that their racial and most often male privilege is under threat in the face of the growing recognition of inequality. However, these Americans who self-identify as the alt-right, don’t frame their discontent in such a nuanced way, preferring to disguise their racism as harmless self-preservation against growing acknowledgment of racial prejudice and the consequent attempts at rectification. Before moving on, I would like to note that alt-right darling Richard Spencer, or what it would look like if Steve Bannon’s face had a baby with itself, is not representative of all straight white men-- nor are right-wing extremists in general. This is of course not the same courtesy they afford the world’s over one billion Islamic adherents. Not that I’m comparing the alt-right to ISIS. Wait. Yes I am.
When hatred held by right-wing extremists begins to infringe on inalienable constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, an agreed-upon line is unquestionably crossed and we must actively oppose the actions behind dangerous racist, Islamophobic, sexist, homophobic, and Xenophobic convictions. Honestly, with all of these extremists’ epic list of fears and targets of hatred, scientists should develop a vaccination to counteract such characteristics. But then right-wing extremists would vaguely claim such vaccinations cause liberalism: the ill-informed and likely inbred cousin of “vaccines cause autism.” Or, they could just meet people they find different to themselves and realize that what people look like or who they love is the last fucking thing that matters. But which is more realistic?
Moving on to our first big inquiry: what is the cause of America’s newly found right-wing extremist radicalisation? Is it making a reemergence, or has it remained dormantly intact since the rise of the Fascist parties in Italy and Germany preceding World War II? And if it’s the latter, how has it been validated and mobilized in recent years? Well, there's an interesting concept called “Terror Management Theory,” or TMT, developed in 1986 by social psychologists Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon based upon Ernest Becker's ideas, who was a Jewish-American anthropologist and writer. Stated on the The Ernest Becker Foundation’s website, their goal is to “advance understanding of how the unconscious denial of mortality profoundly influences human behavior.” TMT, similarly, is a social psychology concept that humans develop distress and anxiety related to the awareness of mortality and the inevitability of death. Or, in fancy Latin terms: “memento mori,” meaning “remember you must die.” It seems that right-wing extremists are too good at remembering; they’re really taking this “superiority” mindset to the next level! TMT suggests that investment in cultural beliefs and world views pacifies such psychological distress.
Radicalization thus asserts itself, or perhaps excuses itself, as a version of terror management, which seems counterintuitive; radicalization only produces more terror through the weaponization of a perceived victimhood; in this case, white men claim they are victims and that they are a minority. Although, do you see the weird shit they wear? Those cowboy boots, khakis, plaid shirts, red baseball hats, white robes with pointed heads, and poor wispy attempts at facial hair? They proudly brandish confederate flags, which of course represent the losing bad guys. They’re kind of asking for it.
There is, however, truth to the claim that white men are a minority in America— when you only look at population, which according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) only measures 49% of the country as male. Those poor guys are at such a great numerical disadvantage of two percent! Women have been taking “their” jobs since World War II…. if only they would take the one in the Oval Office. Historically, our society has been deeply patriarchal, and these men do not experience the same or even similar disadvantages that women, or people of colour, or members of the LGBTQ+ community do. Women’s bodies, for example, are used for political strategy: to abort legally or not to abort legally. Imagine if men were prohibited by law to masturbate because they’re “killing babies” when ejaculating. You can only imagine, because it would never happen. Think about the amount of times we’ve heard about police standoffs and the black guy got talked down instead of shot and killed. And that he was declared “mentally ill.” But no, of course, those poor white men got to "keep their lives." Blah, how lame...who wants that? Black people could never understand how painful that must be. I guess that’s because they’re too dead by then.
Despite the factual contradictions facing right-wing extremists, only how they feel is what really matters to them. Okay, well, I feel like I have two million dollars in my bank account. Not one million, because I aim high. I also feel like I weigh twenty pounds less than the scale shows. Now I feel like the King of America, which I feel like is an existing position. Tomorrow, I’ll feel like I’ve been to the fifth dimension. And I feel like I know that because I feel like I already did it. But really, it seems to boil down to looking for meaning in the face of mortality. Or perhaps, that’s how their words and actions can be justified. Because I don’t know about you, but I can look for meaning just fine on my own without making a trip to Home Depot to buy Tiki torches, ironically from non-white Polynesia, to protest my privilege getting checked while screaming “Jews will not replace us.”
An extremist figure I mentioned at the beginning, Richard Spencer, or guy with two first names which is never a red flag, or confederate flag! (good one)-- calls himself an “identitarian” and prefers the term “alternative right” over “racist” or “white supremacist.” Mr. Guy-Who-Owns-a-Thesaurus-because-He-Can’t-Own-People, told VICE Magazine in a 2015 interview that, "Identity is the most important question to answer. Who are we racially? Who are we historically? Who are we in terms of our experience? Who are we in terms of our community?" Spencer himself is credited with coining the term “alt-right” in 2008 in an article in Taki’s Magazine, a far-right publication. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) website, “Spencer was using “alternative right” to refer to people on the right who distinguished themselves from traditional conservatives by opposing, among other things, egalitarianism, multiculturalism and open immigration. As a spokesperson for the alt right, Spencer has tried to use the media to mainstream racism and anti-Semitism,” which helped catapult him to national and international fame. Wikipedia, however, labels him a white supremacist.
Oh my God, I just discovered the racist version of wanting to be called by self-identified pronouns: instead of he/him/his or she/her/hers or they/their/theirs, we get alt-right or white supremacist or white nationalist or Nazi. Make sure to ask the next racist you come across which one they prefer before you accidentally call them a piece of shit rather than their preferred term, which could quite frankly also be Master. So if Spencer’s search for meaning is found through his racial identity, then it makes sense as to why he would care so much about everyone else’s, because he assumes every person’s “meaning” resides in where they fit into his perceived racial hierarchy.
According to Vox, “A common thread among people who are radicalized is a lack of purpose in life, which radical views — especially if a person acts on them — can help fill.” Mia Bloom, an expert on radicalization at Georgia State University adds, “People tend to be seeking some meaning in their lives. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves.” Peter Bergen, another expert on radicalization at New America, bluntly told Vox: They’re people we would often consider losers-- “They are often people whose lives aren’t going well.” I mean, Bergen’s right. They are losers, as I’ve said, and all legitimate historical books prove. What has occurred amongst right-wing extremists in recent years, especially since President Obama’s first term, is that they have become actively conscious of shifting power dynamics, wherein their advantages over others are shrinking because actual minorities are voicing their discontent and fighting for change through voting and running for office. Right-wing extremists view diversity as an infectious illness. They never had to fight, or felt they had to fight, for their “default” superiority to be recognized until the most powerful man in the world was a black man. And now it’s an orange guy? When will it end!? Probably after the orange guy’s third term, along with the rest of the world.
Becoming conscious of one’s thus-far predictable and consistent place in a changing society faces one with an indeterminable future. The only thing anyone can be certain of, bringing us back to TMT, is that we all die. Our distresses develop related to the awareness of mortality and the inevitability of death, and most people want to live with meaning and leave a mark-- in this case a swastika-- before they die. Right-wing extremists believe that the best way to spend their time alive is by defending and advocating for a white ethno-state in which “whites should live separately from non-whites and Jews.” Richard Spencer generally shies away from blatant displays of anti-Semitism, but he began expressing anti-Semitic views more openly in 2014, when he wrote that Jews have an identity apart from Europeans.
At a press conference two years later, he announced that he did not consider Jews to be European, also known as “white” in the alt-right community. Arguably, it becomes clear using TMT, right-wing extremists’ aversion to people of colour and Jewish people is self-imposed. Right-wing extremists’ awareness of mortality, which no amount of alleged superiority can overpower, leads them to indulge in ideologically racist cultural beliefs, which usually harden. A group identity can reduce this fear. Consequent threats to this group lead to increased commitment to the values of the ingroup which acts as cultural anxiety buffer. Being part of an ingroup is like listening to sad music when you’re sad: you only amplify how you already feel. And you’re now a masochist.
Pyszczynski et al. (2009) cited research showing that increased thoughts of mortality increased U.S. conservatives’ support for using extreme military measures such as atom bombs to kill terrorists. Individuals can die, but ideology clearly does not. Like some sort of psychological heirloom. I’d rather receive two million dollars. At a minimum, one thing we can credit right-wing extremists for is creating unity within their own factions….on opposite day. I’m referring to the unforgettable “Unite the Right” rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia in October of 2017, which falsely frames this “movement of identity” as unified.
According to the ADL’s website, Unite the Right brings together white supremacist groups that historically avoid one another – people who belong to racist skinhead gangs like the Hammerskins don’t hang out with clean-cut, khaki-wearing alt right types, or with members of the Ku Klux Klan. In the days immediately after Unite the Right, those divisions re-emerged, stronger than ever. Groups like the “hard right” National Socialists and the American Nationalist division share a the common goal of a white ethno-state “but disagree on the best path forward,” and the differences will likely keep anything on the scale of Unite the Right from happening again in the near future. Who knew there could be a bright side on a black--imeanwhite-- sphere?
The most concerning thing, and really why I’m talking about this now, is that the Unite the Right rally showed America and the world that hundreds of white men were willing to show their faces in broad daylight as they chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans. And somehow, Unite the Right participants did not expect the fallout that occured, because to them, these words and actions are ordinary. Some lost their jobs or were ostracized at school after they were identified in photographs of angry tiki torch marchers, or other photos from the event. A Neo-Nazi website called “The Daily Stormer” posted a derogatory story about murdered counter-protester Heather Heyer, and was consequently dropped by web hosting company GoDaddy.
But of course, I would be remiss not to point out that there were good people on both sides! Certainly, our Commander in Chief, the 45th President of America, the Secret Service’s Agent Orange, the man who pays Russian hookers to pee on him, the man who has “the best words,” the straight-shooter who “says it like it is,” who brags about how he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and lose no supporters, whose immigrant wife-- “Melanie,” as he called her on twitter--worked illegally in the United States, who lost the popular vote and still became president because the American voting system needs to be reformed, who is the father to a daughter he would rather marry, recognizes that “there is blame on both sides.” I wonder which pronoun he prefers? Right-wing extremists don’t need that “GoDaddy” website; they have their own daddy in the White House! And I mean white.
Any and all attempts at discretion thrown out the window, President Trump was infamously quoted saying “I think there is blame on both sides,” reiterating a day later: “There is blame on both sides,” “there were many fine people,” citing “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.” To be fair, he did condemn Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan at one point, but it was dispassionate and delayed. He included criticisms of an “alt-left,” and defended those who gathered in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of the confederate general Robert E. Lee. These claims were interpreted by many on “both sides” of the conflict as a defense of white supremacy-- further giving validation to their cause and energizing their movement. In The Atlantic, Richard Spencer is quoted to have said he is “really proud of (Trump).”
The President, though perhaps not a friend to right-wing extremists is certainly not their enemy considering the difficulty he displayed in specifically condemning their actions, even inviting one into the White House in the form of a personified Jabba The Hutt, a.k.a. Steve Bannon, and not being able to resist criticizing those trying to protest them, implying a moral equivalency between the two. The first public rally following Charlottesville occurred in December of 2017 in Washington D.C. organized by a then-newly formed group called Operation Homeland meant to wash away a bad public image, terrorist violence, and a history of mass genocide-- which a simple name change easily accomplishes and is definitely something innocent people do-- created by Richard Spencer and Eli Mosley, a leading white supremacist who was caught lying about being an Iraq War veteran. Okay, but even if he didn’t actually do it, at least he wasn’t captured. This rally occurred to protest the verdict wherein a jury of six men and six women found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a man who has seven previous felony convictions and has been deported from the United States to his native Mexico five times, not guilty of killing 32-year-old Kate Steinle in 2015. He was convicted of the lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Right-wing extremists claim that were San Francisco not a “sanctuary city,” Kate Steinle would likely still be alive today.
Auditioning yet again for an induction into the Racist’s Hall of Fame, President Trump tweeted on November 30, 2017, days before the rally, “A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration.” Because of course, Zarate represents all Mexicans (who are all rapists and murderers) and that is not at all fear mongering. Despite the President’s inappropriate capitalisation in that tweet, I have mad respect for no typos; he really overcame his illiteracy for this one.
This leads me into my final point: consequent violence. The violence at Unite the Right followed an atypically violent spring and early summer, marked by the escalation of “street fighting” tactics – and an array of offensive and defensive gear. A significant number of white supremacists and militia members came to the Unite the Right rally openly carrying firearms. In the months following Unite the Right, some white supremacist groups have embraced street fighting, most notably the Rise Above Movement (RAM), Patriot Front, and Atomwaffen Division. Atomwaffen, by the way, means “atomic bomb.” They might as well call themselves Der Mörder, which means “murderer.” At least they’re sticking with a German theme; they know their roots! Violent language continues to be a mainstay of white supremacist message boards.
Atomwaffen Division, in particular, is using Charlottesville as a rallying cry for an all-out race war and has since published a propaganda video of members firing guns and screaming “gas the kikes” and “race war now.” Florida League of the South member Christopher Rey Monzon was arrested for allegedly charging into a crowd of demonstrators with a flag pole outside a Broward County Commissioners’ meeting, where officials were considering renaming streets named for Confederate generals. Again! Why do you want all these losers’ names hanging around?! Your Daddy in Chief hates losers! In September, several dozen Patriot Front associates organized a “flash mob” demonstration outside Houston’s Anarchist Book Fair, unfurling a “Blood and Soil” banner, detonating smoke bombs and chanting phrases like “Blood and Soil,” homophobic slurs, and “anti-White.” Whenever I see “flash mob” I personally think of spontaneous dance groups. I guess the “Heil Hitler” hand gesture could count as a dance move (appropriately unrhythmic)?
Following an October “White Lives Matter” rally in Shelbyville, Tennessee, a group of white supremacists attacked an interracial couple at a restaurant in Brentwood, Tennessee. In December, white supremacist William Atchison disguised himself as a student, took a gun into a high school in Aztec, New Mexico, and killed two students before killing himself. While the public fallout from Unite the Right may have discouraged many white supremacists from attending major public gatherings, it seems to have energized the delegation that circulates racist literature on college campuses. These are target-rich environments for white supremacists, who are always trying to recruit new members from increasingly diverse and inclusive campuses, which offer intellectual metaphorical medicine to counteract the E.R.E.R..
Since September 2016, of the 354 cases recorded by the Center on Extremism regarding white supremacist flyering on college campuses nationwide, more than 160 of those incidents occurred after the Unite the Right rally. Matthew Heimbach launched his “National Socialism or Death” college speaking tour in mid-February of 2018 at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus. Heimbach’s tour name perfectly encapsulates these right wing extremists’ struggle with mortality. They think the only way to exist is as one of them. Do they think they can wave Tiki torches in Death’s face and bargain their way out of it by claiming they were “national socialists”? Maybe they feel like they can, and I guess that’s all that matters.
So, where do we go from here? In a Frontline and ProPublica investigation, entitled Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, which premiered in August of 2018 on PBS, reveals just how ill-prepared law enforcement was to handle an influx of white supremacists from across the country and explores how, according to experts, white supremacists have moved out of the shadows to gain a foothold in mainstream culture. Sure, things are looking terrible, abysmal, horrific, synonym, synonym, etc. but! now we know that they are here. Before, we were just innocently, naively, and perhaps ignorantly eating our spaghetti with Sigourney Weaver. Then, the next thing we knew, a carnivorous alien monster burst out of America’s stomach. But now that right-wing extremists have all-too overtly revealed the extent of their size, we can confront the problem with something which they would never think to do: engaging in common decency. We must stop teaching ourselves and young malleable minds to measure everyone of a certain race, or gender, or sexuality by what relatively small numbers do, because otherwise we will stay stuck in an infinite, exhausting, self-destroying cycle of terror and radicalisation until the black sphere becomes a black hole that no amount of pretend-vaccinations could prevent before we are all consumed by vast nothingness where no meaning can be found at all. But on the bright side, as long as white people can exploit the first amendment to spread their unjust, untrue, hateful rhetoric, all is right in America.
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