When thinking of terrorism and threats to national security, it’s common to believe the main source comes from foreign members of radical islamic groups as opposed to homegrown white supremasists. However, from 2009 to 2018 alone, far-right extremists and white supremacists have been responsible for 73% of terrorist related fatalities1. Since 9/11, white extremists have been carrying out terrorist attacks at a rate of almost triple of their foreign counterparts1. Post 9/11 culture has painted terrorists and extremists to be exclusively middle eastern at the expense of exonerating any that don't fit that description.
Turning a blind eye to white terrorism has led to the rise of alt-right groups as the most significant terrorist threat to Americans. Their success rate is at an all time high. In 2018 right wing extremists murdered 49 people, which has been the highest death toll since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing1. Minimizing the threat of alt-right terrorism has enabled them to fly under the enforcement radar, empowering them to carry out lethal attacks with relatively high success rates. Their success can also be attributed to a lack of censorship, and their strategic use of weaponized communication.
The threat of alt-right terrorism has ironically been minimized even though alt-right extremists have killed many more people than Jihadi extremists since 9/112. The threat of alt-right extremism is so minimized that millions of Americans are emboldened to actively voice hateful speech and eliminationist rhetoric on social media, and even radio talk shows3.
ISIS related content on the other hand, seems to be kept pretty in check by government and social media organizations and is not seen to pose a significant threat4. The majority of searches and discussion on ISIS related content in Youtube and Twitter proves to be extremely negative with the majority rejecting their message4. While ISIS content is subject to increased monitoring, content deletion account suspension and largely subsumed by a significant amount of anti isis tweets, white extremist content is not4.
In fact, white supremacist related content is at an all time high while the FBI claims to not have the resources to "distinguish between those who talk and those who act"5. Even worse, the algorithms used by social media have actively circulated and amplified white backlash which the alt-right has exploited in order to promote extreme viewpoints, making them more tolerable within public discourse3. Their success can partially be attributed to their skillful use of weaponized communication (among other tactics).
Weaponized communication is defined as "the strategic use of communication as an instrumental tool and as an aggressive means to gain compliance and avoid accountability"6. Weaponized communication is a form of violence because it forces compliance through manipulation and is typically used to avoid accountability6. It is especially dangerous because of the way it manipulates people into blindly following.
White supremacist groups have various manipulation tactics in which they use communication as a weapon. First, they victimize whiteness and construct it as a constant state of oppression3. This is an aggressively manipulative tactic for two reasons: one, it channels the very powerful emotions of fear, anger and frustration of individual misfortunes and attributes it to whiteness. This collective grievance is exploited to foster echo chambers in online communities where the anger is directed at minority and POC communities3. The alt-right furthers their emotional manupulation by using irony, memes, and videos to encourage participation in white supremacist rhetoric. The alt-right is dangerously effective in encouraging users to disregard political correctness3. Encouraging hate speech in an ironic or funny manner slowly opens the door for more radical ideas to seep in. Hate speech is rarely harmless, especially when it becomes a global call to action for terrorist acts.
Not only is the point of entry for radicalization less narrow due to weaponized communication, internet platforms also make it easier for alt-right members to connect worldwide7. Since 2011, ⅓ of white extremist attacks claimed to be copycats, inspired by prior terrors incited by other white extremists7. Alt-right members use online platforms to write their manifestos and encourage others to enact violence. The increase of alt-right terrorist attacks is paralleled with the rise of hate crimes against minorities, which are occurring more often7.
The type of terrorism we should all be concerned about is unfortunately not the kind with the spotlight. The U.S. has exaggerated the threat of foreign and non-white attackers while white citizens appear to be absolved from perpetuating the same brand of terrorism western culture seems to be emphatically against. Alt-right ideologies are especially harmful to democracies due to their use of weaponized communication to create a strong following while actively promoting terrorism. Instead of counter-acting their messages, various social medias amplify their online reach while the FBI practically ignores it. It is time for our society to focus on the insidious ideologies that pose an immediate and dire threat to our livelihood.
Works Cited
Bergengruen, V., & Hennigan, W. J. (2019, August 8). America's lost battle against White Nationalist terrorism. Time. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://time.com/ 5647304/white-nationalist-terrorism-united-states/.
Walters, J., & Chang, A. (2021, September 8). Far-right terror poses bigger threat to us than Islamist extremism post-9/11. The Guardian. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/post-911-domestic-terror.
Ganesh, B. (2020). Weaponizing white thymos: Flows of rage in the online audiences of the alt-right. Cultural Studies, 34(6), 892–924. Retrieved November 2 from https://www.tandfonline .com /doi/full/10.1080/09502386.2020.1714687
Siegel, A. A., & Tucker, J. A. (2017). The Islamic State’s information warfare. Journal of Language and Politics, 17(2), 258–280. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17005.sie
Reitman, J. (2018, November 3). U.S. law enforcement failed to see the threat of white nationalism. now they don't know how to stop it. The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/ FBI-charlottesville-white-nationalism-far-right.html.
Mercieca, J. R. (2019). Dangerous demagogues and weaponized communication. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 49(3), 264–279.https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2019.1610640
Cai, W., & Landon, S. (2019, April 3). Attacks by white extremists are growing. so are their connections. The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/03/world/white-extremist-terrorism-christchurch.html
Hi Marilisa! First off I wanted to say awesome job on your title! This automatically brings the reader in and gets them questioning who the threat is and where it is coming from. I also love how right off the bat in the first paragraph you include a heavy statistic that 73% of terrorist related factalities come from far right extremists. This is a statistic that people really need to recognize as legitimate and understand. I completely agree with you that for a lot of people they believe that the biggest threat to terrorism lies outside of our borders when in fact the biggest threat is right at home. Therefore I really like the fact that you focused on this topic for your blog post. The post as a whole was filled with detailed facts, conveying points, and a lot of numeric statistics which only makes your argument stronger. I think the fact that you call out white supremacist groups, radicalization, and far right extremism is going to open a lot of peoples eyes to what we both believe is the true threat to the United States right now in terms of terrorism. The only thing that I think could have made your post possibly stronger was if you included hyperlinks. That way, readers can then click on those links and see all of the other sources that are saying the same thing as you, the real threat is within. This will only strengthen your point. I recently listened to a podcast put on by the organization RAND called “Exiting Extremism” where they highlighted how threatening extremism is to our country and how people end up in extremist groups and then how difficult it is for them to leave. I think you will really like it, I totally recommend you taking a listen! They had a few guests on there who were former members of white supremacists groups themselves so it will definitely help your future research
if you chose to continue exploring this topic further. Awesome job and I look forward to reading your future posts!
Marilisa,
I really enjoyed your blog. I have yet to see many other blogs like this on the site, which is why I am glad you took the time to write about it. All of the points you make are completely valid. I think many Americans are quick to assume that radical Islamic terrorists are the greatest threat to our democracy, but as we have learned throughout this course it is actually white supremacy. The New York Times article you highlight (footnote 5) really caught my attention. Law enforcement, at all levels in this country, truthfully has not done enough to stop white supremacy. This article essentially states that law enforcement hasn’t been able to see the threat of white nationalism and now it is out of control, a point that you made throughout your blog. What I think is ironic about this article is that it was published in November 2018. Since then, as your blog is noted, terrorist attacks committed by white supremacists have only continued to grow. One of the most prominent of these attacks was to the US Capitol building on January 6. There was plenty of indication to law enforcement that the “stop the steal rally” could become out of control/ become a threat and yet it was not taken seriously enough. People died and our nation’s Capitol Building, one of the most fundamental symbols of our democracy, was under attack. How can law enforcement know all of this information, all of these outcomes that have occurred time and time again, and yet will sit back and allow white nationalists to continue to ruin and threaten our democracy? I really enjoyed your blog post and I think it’s a super important topic to bring up as we learn about eroding democracies. If our politicians, law-enforcement officers, and other officials are not willing to acknowledge and stop the spread of white supremacy, the state of democracy in the United States will most certainly remain threatened.
Hey Marilisa!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post — I feel like this topic doesn’t get enough attention. I believe it is easier for Americans to label other ethnic groups as terrorists because it allows them to ignore the true underlying issues within our system. Personally, I believe if white supremacist groups were targeting other white people then this issue would almost be resolved. I think it’s very important to note that the majority of fatalities caused by white supremacists are of people of color. America will not be able to combat this issue until we change our definition of “terrorism”. I liked how you mentioned how law enforcement has yet to see the true threat of alt-right groups — reading this blog (2 years later) made me realize that nothing has really changed. I find it ironic that law enforcement is not able to tell the difference between talk and action — why not consider any form of talk action? Would it not be better to be on the safer side? Why risk it? I believe a threat is a THREAT and every threat deserves proper investigation and punishment.