From Informed Comment
The far right militias, some of whom invaded the Capitol on 1/6, are now planning armed invasions of all 50 state capitols in advance of Jan. 20, according to the FBI, and are coming back for a second try at taking over the national Capitol. One reason Twitter kicked Trump, QAnon, and other undesirables off its platform was that they saw organizing for a Jan. 17 uprising.
These groups are what social scientists call "accelerationists." They believe that through direct action and spectacles of violence they can increase the speed of polarization in society, fomenting a race war or at least a war between those who firmly support the cause of the white race and those who wish to diminish its prerogatives (as they see them). Some of them infiltrated last summer's Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd, engaging in violence and destruction as a false flag, hoping it would be blamed on African-Americans and that whites would then become alarmed and join them.
These elements on last Wednesday were trying to find and kill or kidnap Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, and perhaps other legislators, in hopes of igniting nationwide violence that would benefit them.
It can be a frighteningly effective tactic. Accelerationism, what I call "sharpening the contradictions," was the tool that al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and then ISIL used to take over 40 percent of Iraq. They have also had some success in pushing France to the far right and in damaging French traditions of civil liberties and tolerance.
The Southern Poverty Law Center analysis notes that adulation of Trump has given many of these disparate groups a common loyalty and orientation. In essence, they have become Trump's private militia, like Mussolini's black shirts. It is this loyalty to him, which he has cultivated (he called them "very special" on 1/6), that has endangered the Republic, since they are now determined to stop the inauguration of Joe Biden.
So who are these groups and what do they want?
There are about 940 distinct hate groups in the US, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
With the efforts of the odious Trump and his white supremacist cronies, members of these groups have infiltrated the US government.
- "The Trump administration has installed members of hate groups into government -- particularly those with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim or anti-LGBTQ animus -- and put in place highly punitive policies that seemed unthinkable just a few short years ago. These political moves will far outlast this administration, as Trump and his allies in the U.S. Senate have pushed through hundreds of new federal judges, many of whom are hostile to civil rights concerns and will serve for decades."
About a dozen Capitol police are being investigated on charges of having collaborated with the insurrectionists.
Not all hate groups are categorized as "anti-government." In 2018, SPLC identified 576 extreme anti-government organizations.
Not all anti-government groups are organized on a paramilitary basis. They estimated that there are 181 militias. It was members of the militias who were dressed in military garb as they invaded the Capitol, and who appear to have contemplated violence against our elected representatives.
The SPLC has gathered information on 25,000 militiamen.
The capabilities of the militiamen have been vastly enhanced by the veterans of Bush's Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, who have joined them in significant numbers and have brought with them tactical and firearms and explosives expertise.
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