The search by ordinary people for certainty in increasingly exclusionary groups with radical agendas is tearing at the fabric of modern America. Where once the distinctions between fascism and libertarianism were clear, this is no longer the case. 

The reinvigoration of right-wing extremism across western democratic countries has been a cause for concern in recent years. It has long been a threat in the US domestic terrorism landscape, as evidenced by prominent right wing extremist attacks such as the Charleston church attack in 2015, murders by neo-Nazis in Tampa in 2017, a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018, and a high school shooting in Florida that same year. These attacks collectively claimed 39 lives.

In 2019 alone, fatal attacks were recorded at a Walmart in El Paso, a Jewish supermarket in Jersey City, a festival in Gilroy, a courthouse in Dallas, a synagogue in Poway, and the ambush execution of a police officer in Arkansas–all associated with the extreme right-wing.  Since 2020, however, the nature of the violence has changed ever so slightly with anti-government extremists supplanting white supremacists as the most lethal category of domestic terrorism. From the murderous Boogaloo Boy-linked attacks in May and June, to the vehicle bomb detonated in downtown Nashville by an anti-government individual in December, to the shootings against law enforcement in Nevada and New York, anti-government extremism poses an escalating risk to national security.

And these are just the major incidences. Between 2010 and 2021, the US Department of Justice charged some 1,584 people with domestic terrorism, all associated with typically extreme right-wing behaviors such as being anti-government, anti-abortion or racially and/or ethically motivated. While 2021 was a relatively quiet year for extreme right violence, charges nonetheless peaked at 449 due to the US Capitol Siege on 6 January 2021.  It should come as no surprise, then, that a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security report in October 2022 described this threat as “one of the most persistent threats to the United States today.”

What is right wing extremism?

Right wing extremism belongs to the broader right-party family of political thought, which is to say that its roots are entangled with ideas about human nature as fundamentally competitive (rather than cooperative). Members, broadly defined, generally adhere to ideologies which tend to favour social hierarchy, law and order, tradition and duty, and authority.

Right wing extremism is like the odd cousin who is rarely invited to right party family events. This is because, like all extremists, they take these beliefs further and, in the case of America, outside of a democratic context by exhibiting authoritarian tendencies, directly opposing democratic processes and principles (such as belief in the equality of peoples), and exclusionary nationalism. Extremists further support, endorse or practice the use of violence as a method for achieving their goals. Fascists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, some extreme religious movements, and select anti-government elements tend to exhibit these traits.

Put differently, these movements are highly intolerant of diversity and the democratic and liberal modes of advanced societies. They often see violence as morally legitimate and defensible against their ideological enemies. Fellow citizens are often targeted based on their ethnicity, religion, left wing politics, or sexuality (especially the LGBTIQ community). Such extremists believe they hold a mandate to decide how society is structured, who is allowed to belong, and how citizens should be living their lives – right down to the granular details on sexual practice and morality.

Defeated by not destroyed

The persistence of right-wing extremism in its diverse forms is not entirely surprising. Formal fascist movements were fuelled in part by community disenchantment and disaffection in a rapidly industrialising world, and manipulated by charismatic leaders who promised greatness. While they were subject to military defeat at the culmination of World War II in 1945, the enduring lure of fascism remained in pockets around the world. Fascism possesses a unique power which democratic systems struggle to replicate: it holds great emotional appeal. Fascism creates a feeling of belonging and order – a sense of being imbued with a collective destiny more powerful than what they could imagine as individuals. In current times, entities such as Christian Identity, Aryan Nations, the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Order, the satanic Nazi cult, or the Order of Nine Angles, exhibit these traits. Such extreme right ideologies offer certainty and unity in a world they often perceive as disordered, in decline, or corrupt beyond repair.

While anti-government actors have emerged as a lethal security threat, for the time being, their ideological roots are not clearly fascist. Anti-government groups such as Sovereign Citizens, right wing libertarians, or the more headline-grabbing Boogaloo Boys, typically exhibit hostility to the broader social controls advocated by fascism (or other forms of authoritarianism), and do not universally exhibit exclusionary nationalism, often connected to that sense of belonging. Such a conundrum affects the definitional core of what we see as the extreme right, but also provides insight into the heterogeneity and the idiosyncrasies so common to fringe ideologies.

Reinvigoration of the extreme right  

James Downes suggests that the revitalisation of the extreme right may be connected to ordinary voters protesting the mainstream and the broader opposition to immigration (an exclusionary nationalist platform on which extreme right parties tend to campaign). Meanwhile, Danial Byman notes that there has also been an internal shift in US politics: where once leaders of the extreme right, such as Ku Klux Klansman David Duke, were denounced by the mainstream, they received some measure of support during the Donald Trump Presidency. An increasingly blurred line between the extreme and mainstream has been noted elsewhere, in addition to the idea that the broader population is disenchanted with business as usual, and are no more likely to support violence to achieve social change. This is not a unique phenomenon to the US either. Other western democratic countries have recorded noteworthy swings to the far right, such in Hungary and Austria.

The increasing tolerance for anti-democratic movements in the West is not the least of the evolving threats posed by the extreme right. Numerous studies illustrate extreme right groups seized on the anger and helplessness created by COVID-19 to increase their proselytization and propaganda dissemination, swell their recruitment bases with the disaffected, and expanded their domestic and transnational networks online (and offline).

Much like fascist dictators exploiting the upheavals of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the current context is one that is rife with uncertainty. Right wing extremist movements tend to offer simple solutions to complex issues, anchored in ideologies that typically promise certainty. Whether it is a return to the so-called golden days when times were simpler, the reconquest of the nation for a special section of society, the regeneration of society from its current state of decay, the reclamation of libertarian ideals, a purer religious vision, or a society free from the trappings of law, regulation, and taxation, the promise for something greater remains.

In the pursuit of these visions of a better society – and the implicit promise of certainty and an orderly society restored – violence becomes not only defensible but obligatory. In such a way, we can consider the violence of the extreme right as a particularly wicked problem that continues to exhibit strategic evolution in pursuit of its goals, while also expanding its support bases and networks throughout susceptible domestic and international communities.

Dr Kristy Campion is Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead of Terrorism and Security Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University (Australia). She has published extensively on right wing extremism in western democratic contexts, with a focus on transhistorical and transnational networks, ideologies, and strategies. Her recent book, Chasing Shadows: the untold and deadly story of terrorism in Australia, is the first comprehensive work on terrorism in Australia and its international and domestic connections.

This article is published under a Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.