Over the past several years, America has faced an onslaught of dangerous extremism. Far-right domestic terrorism poses a clear security threat to already marginalized communities. Antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia are common motives behind these attacks, amplified by hateful conspiracy theorists and groups such as the Proud Boys and QAnon. Some of these harmful conspiracy theories have entered the mainstream political discourse. Recently, the Biden Administration, specifically the Department of Justice, has put forth a plan to address and counter this issue. Nevertheless, right-wing violence remains a serious concern today and shows no sign of slowing down. What are the mechanisms that motivate this violence?

The ideological underpinnings of the alt-right and white supremacists, antisemitism, xenophobia, racism, etc. have culminated in more than three times as many deaths as Islamist terrorism in the United States. From 2011 to 2020, 20% of extremist-related killings were caused by someone affiliated with Islamist extremism, and 75% of extremist-related killings were carried out by someone affiliated with right-wing extremism. The Anti-Defamation League found that right-wing terror attacks motivated by white supremacist ideology and anti-government ideology are the most prevalent. Despite the term “terrorism” being incorrectly — even exclusively — reserved for jihadists by some, the word is more nuanced. Terrorism can apply to many different groups attempting to achieve various types of goals including state-supported terrorism, left-wing terrorism, right-wing terrorism, national separatist movements, and eco-terrorism.   

According to Title 22 of the United States Code, terrorism is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.” The definition of terrorism has changed and developed over time. Regardless, everyone has an idea as to what terrorism is, as well as the devastation and political and social instability that result from it. Terrorism is effective because sparking disorder is cheap while maintaining order is very costly. A Pentagon organization examining the monetary cost of terrorist attacks (the cost to the terrorists perpetrating these attacks) in Afghanistan found that a remote-controlled bomb costs about$400 and a suicide bombing jacket can cost as little as $1,200. Even elaborate terrorist attacks can be less expensive than one may initially believe. The United Nations reported that the 2005 London bombings, perpetrated by Islamist terrorists who targeted the London public transportation system and commuters during morning rush hour, cost around $14,000. Meanwhile, London’s public transportation system costs billions of dollars to operate. Terrorists achieve their political goals by exploiting the vulnerabilities of being a citizen, poking at the underbelly of society, and preying on its fragility. The mechanisms that make up a democratic state are very complex, and maintaining this state is highly demanding. As such, terrorists view this difficulty as an opportunity to fulfill their political agendas. 

Historically, right-wing violence has not been as prevalent as it is currently. For example, in the 1970s and 1980s left-wing terrorist attacks, specifically brutal acts of violence motivated by Marxist-Leninist political goals, erupted around the world. This was further heightened by the Cold War, but as Soviet Russia collapsed in the 90s, left-wing terrorist groups in the West disappeared as well. Throughout the past several decades, terrorist groups dedicated to environmentalism, anti-abortion, and animal rights causes emerged as well, but they, too, gradually faded into obscurity. Now, a “new wave” of terrorism is taking shape. 

Right-wing terrorism is sweeping across the West, just as left-wing terrorism had decades ago. America’s current political climate exacerbates this difficulty; increases in anti-immigration, Islamophobic sentiment, and conspiracy theories like the “Great Replacement” and “white genocide” entering the mainstream through dog whistles have contributed to this. White supremacists such as the Christchurch mosque shooter cited both of the aforementioned conspiracy theories — which fixate on the premise that white people are at risk of being wiped out through immigration to justify violence against people of color — as motivation for carrying out the heinous terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. A 2016 report conducted at George Washington University found that “white nationalist organizations have seen their follower numbers on Twitter grow by more than 600% since 2012.” Certain politicians and news commentators are mobilizing these attacks by demonizing immigrants and other minority groups, subsequently radicalizing their own supporters. The increasing prevalence of disinformation and conspiracy theories has given rise to urgent concern among domestic terrorist experts: "This tent that used to be sort of 'far-right extremists' has gotten a lot broader. To me, a former counterterrorism official, that's a radicalization process," said Georgetown University law professor Mary McCord.

On the other end of the spectrum, extremist left-wing groups are fighting fire with fire and should also be condemned for their acts of violence. However, we must be aware that it is right-wing violence that quantifably poses the greatest threat to domestic security, not leftist or jihadist violence (although both are morally reprehensible). Although the Biden Administration promises to confront and mitigate the problem, it is not clear if the policies put in place will be effective or not. Furthermore, efficient counter-terrorism policies to combat far-right extremism may be further drawn back by partisan bickering in Congress. Regardless, there is still much work to tackle this matter, and the fragile state of America’s political discourse only makes finding a solution more difficult. 

We must treat right-wing terrorism with urgency, pressuring the federal organizations to collect and publish data on far-right violence as well as to create more robust counterterrorism programs and laws. We must address the significant security concerns for marginalized American communities specifically targeted by this brand of political violence. We must undo the legal obstacles that restrict local law enforcement from accurately responding and categorizing hate crimes. Many things must be done to address this issue that has been ignored for too long. Confronting domestic right-wing terrorism should be a priority on every politician’s agenda, regardless of political party. Preventing more lives from being lost as a result of political extremism is in everyone’s best interest.

Sources/Further Reading: 

• Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia Press, 2006), 1-41.
• Martha Crenshaw, “The Logic of Terrorism: Terrorist Behavior as a Product of Strategic Choice,” in Origins of Terrorism, ed. Walter Reich (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998), 7-24.
• J.M. Berger, “The Difference Between a Killer and a Terrorist,” The Atlantic, April 26, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/the-difference-between-killer-and-terrorist/558998.
• Jacob Davey and Julia Ebner, “‘The Great Replacement’: The Violent Consequences of Mainstreamed Extremism,” Institute for Strategic Dialogue, https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/The-Great-Replacement-The-Violent-Consequences-of-Mainstreamed-Extremism-by-ISD.pdf.
•  Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok, “Countering Anti-Immigration Extremism: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Strategies,” CUNY Law Review 12, no. 2 (Summer 2009), https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1239&context=clr.
• Jerome P. Bjelopera, “The Domestic Terrorist Threat: Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service (2013), https://fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R42536.pdf.
• Steven J. Zipperstein, “The Conspiracy Theory to Rule Them All,” The Atlantic, August 25, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/conspiracy-theory-rule-them-all/615550/.
• Pete Simi and Robert Futrell, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 11-20. Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware, “The Terrorist Threat from the Fractured Far Right,” Lawfare, November 1, 2020, https://www.lawfareblog.com/terrorist-threat-fractured-far-right.
• Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Razzan Nakhlawi, “A mob insurrection stoked by false claims of election fraud and promises of violent restoration,” Washington Post, January 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-capitol-mob-attack-origins/2021/01/09/0cb2cf5e-51d4-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html.
• Amarnath Amarasingam and Marc-André Argentino, “The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making?” CTC Sentinel, 13, no. 7 (July 2020): https://ctc.usma.edu/the-qanon-conspiracy-theory-a-security-threat-in-the-making/.