White Supremecists Slay 49 in NZ Mosques

[Dill]

(03-20-2019, 11:38 AM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: We need to be objective about this and treat every case individually to determine what is representative of white supremacy rising and what isn't. I appreciate you noting the statistics of reported hate crimes, but I don't see how any of that proves that white supremacy is "rising" in a way that makes it more or as much of a threat to the US as Islamic extremism.

I think the Center for Strategic and International Studies frames and answers the question of rising "white supremacy" usefully.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/rise-far-right-extremism-united-states

First of all, they compile their data from UMd's terrorist database, one of the best in existence, address definitional issues mentioned in my previous post (including "sovereign citizens"), and then point to developments which secure their "trending upward" claims.  Their first point concerns the increasing and increasingly sophisticated use of the internet for organizing and recruiting.  Second, they report that

. . .  right-wing extremists are increasingly traveling overseas to meet and exchange views with likeminded individuals. [5] In the spring of 2018, for example, several members of the Rise Above Movement (or RAM)—Robert Rundo, Ben Daley, and Michael Miselis—traveled to Germany, Ukraine, and Italy to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday and to meet with members of European white supremacist groups. RAM is a white supremacist group headquartered in southern California. Its members posted photographs on their Instagram accounts of their Europe trip with the RAM logo and words like “RAPEFUGEES ARE NOT WELCOME HERE” and “REVOLT AGAINST MODERN … ACTIVISIM-ATHLETICS-VIRTUE … RIGHT SIDE.” 26 In Ukraine, RAM members met with groups like the Azov Battalion, a paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, which the FBI says is associated with neo-Nazi ideology. The Azov Battalion also is believed to be training and radicalizing white supremacist organizations based in the United States. 27 These foreign connections provide U.S.-based groups with an opportunity to improve their tactics, develop better counter-intelligence techniques, harden their extremist views, and broaden their global networks.

Their third point concerns the dramatic stimuli, both positive and negative, far right groups have received over the last decade--the election of a black president, the prominence of the immigration issue, and the election of a president who winks in their direction and supports the kind of policies which don't mention race but, in effect, meet white supremacist rhetorical standards and goals (ban Muslims and lock out those rapists Mexico is "sending" us). They perceive greater "permission" to act.

So the overall picture is a ferment and flux of rising far right actors, some learning to act individually and others banding in groups and realizing international connections and resources like never before.

You refer to media alarmism about right-wing terror (which I confess I have not really seen). Yet CSIS's policy recommendations seem rather moderate and reasonable: "With the rising trend in right-wing extremism, U.S. federal and local agencies need to shift some of their focus and intelligence resources to penetrating far-right networks and preventing future attacks."