OUTLINE
I.
II.
Literature review
i.
ii.
iii.
Present data
i.
ii.
III.
iii.
Conclusions/Discussion
i.
ii.
Theory argument + explanation
Present and explain hypothesis (As political elites' language of the misogynistic collective victimhood narrative increases, violence and terrorism will increase.)
Explain study/data limitations (of terrorism studies in general, but also because misogyny is often overlooked, not classified as terrorism, etc.)
Data on timeline of increase in attacks
a. Should go into detail regarding specific attacks & their misogynistic
“Data” on timeline of rhetoric (RE: Trump, Tucker Carlson, extremist group leaders, etc.)
a.
Internet connection/radicalization
Explain data’s connection/correlation with theory/hypothesis (and ignored factor of misogyny)
components that are overlooked
Conclusions/summary
ARGUE FOR THE ESSENTIAL NEED TO EXPAND RESEARCH IN THIS AREA AND TO CATEGORIZE MISOGYNISTIC VIOLENCE AS TERRORISM
Redo: this = place outside information in this spot*******
I.
Intro (“theory argument” as starting point)
One would trust that when a particular ideology appears over and over (and over), attention would be paid to it. However, sexism and misogyny is, arguable, the form of discrimination most
viewed through a lens of innocuous acceptability.
i.
Detail the vast & numerous connections between misogyny and rightwing terrorism (aka  explain how they are inextricably linked and
mutually escalatory)
The white nationalist and misogynistic worldviews have much in common. Both are ideologies of nostalgia, idealizing a past in which women and ethnic minorities were subservient to
white males. Both misogyny and the notion of white genocide and other nationalist ideologies are extreme manifestations of more widespread structures of sexism and racism within society.
These ideas have become radicalized in extremist communities both online and offline, with both ideological
frameworks having extensive potential to motivate violence... The perpetrators of mass killings inspired by white
genocide and misogyny share the same rage and self-pity, often blaming society for their personal failures. The rest
of this section focuses on three key issues in which misogyny informs and exacerbates fears of the end of the white
race: birth rates and demographic change; “race mixing” and miscegenation; and masculinity and the protection of
white women from “invaders.” (Wilson, 5);
Essential to many strains of white supremacist or far-right ideology is a dehumanization of women, ranging from violent hatred to a belief that women are only suited to be housewives and mothers to white
families (Everytown);
A frequent commonality is misogyny. Hatred of women and violence against them – real or imagined -- links many of the men who embrace violent extremist ideologies or join such groups (UN, 3);
“In this respect, white power can be understood as an especially extreme and violent
manifestation of larger social forces that wed masculinity with militancy…” (Belew, 7).
“But it is not by coincidence that white power gathered steam amid the wider post-Vietnam
“remasculinization of America”” (Belew, 7);
Thus far, anti-feminist conspiracism is typically combined with other far-right ideologies
when manifested in terrorist attacks, as in the case of the Norway attacker, who killed 77
people in 2011 (DiBranco);
There is a robust symbiosis between misogyny and white supremacy; the two ideologies are powerfully
intertwined. While not all misogynists are racists, and not every white supremacist is a misogynist, a
deep-seated loathing of women acts as a connective tissue between many white supremacists, especially
those in the alt right, and their lesser-known brothers in hate like incels (involuntary celibates), MRAs
(Men’s Rights Activists) and PUAs (Pick Up Artists) (ADL);
“It is a belief system rooted not only in general patriarchy but in the absolute inferiority of women as a sex, and in men’s entitlement to women’s servitude (sexually, domestically, andin the
care of children and household)” (Miller-Idriss, 17);
Groundbreaking research shows that extremist attackers are often united in their violent misogyny, whatever their ideology (Smith);
“In Foucauldian terms, one can say that the anti-feminism of the right is used as a bio-political instrument in order to regulate the populace in accordance with a biological-national or racial conception of the family. …anti-feminism serves as a point of
intersection between racism, apocalyptic conspiracy theories and the opposition narrative” (Meiering, Dziri, and Foroutan, 10);
However, white, Western misogyny has always been part and parcel of far-right extremism in the United States, including such groups as the KKK, the Order, Aryan Nations, and groups that make up the Christian Identity movement. The ideology of these
groups was easy to identify as racist, nationalist, and as adoptive of fundamental Christianity. While not mentioned or paid attention to, misogyny always featured in these groups, driving such violence as abortion clinic bombings and assassinations of abortion
clinic doctors, all of which encompass and support an element of white supremacist thinking which has received considerable attention lately, that of “replacement theory.” (Gentry, 3);
research “…found that support for violence against women and hostile sexist attitudes are stronger predictors of support for violent extremism than religiosity, typically perceived to be one of the leading factors” (Diaz and Valji, 3); -- ADD TO INTRO
misogyny can motivate deadly and violent behavior on its own, but also has “ties to other extremist movements, whose far-right supporters have both adopted misogynist attitudes and used hatred of women to
recruit new supporters” (Everytown);
Members of the far-right take advantage of the naturally close relationship between misogyny
and white supremacy to spread their own ideas, inundating these spaces with both
misogynistic and racist attitudes. The result is that white supremacy and misogyny are core
features of many right-wing extremist movements. (Everytown);
Further, it reveals misogyny to be “integral to the ideology, political identity and political
economy” of violent extremist groups (Cannon);
(Extreme-right)-fluid/incoherent ideologies [conspiracy theories and victimhood—common trends] (Ong, 1);
A big reason for this shift toward hardline woman-hating is that the Alt Right has become
closely intertwined with the so-called manophere, largely outside traditional right-wing
networks (Lyons);
The overlap between "alt-right" and manosphere can be seen among several far-right
figureheads: Christopher Cantwell, the neo-Nazi arrested at Charlottesville, once wrote for A
Voice for Men. In August 2017, some "alt-right" activists organized a Make Men Great Again
conference. Matt Forney, a prominent racist and sexist writer at Return of Kings who has
written that raping or beating women is often justified (or that feminists actually want to be
raped), now writes on alt-right.com. (SPLC);
White nationalists point to degeneracy, homosexuality, miscegenation and the denigration of masculinity and traditional values as weakening the white nation, making it less capable of or willing to resist the
threat posed by racial others. Women not constrained by traditional gender roles, and the feminist ideology which encourages them, are the source of these dangers. As a result, white nationalism has long been
highly misogynistic... In this section, I advance my argument that misogyny (and the related ideology of incelism) and the notion of white genocide are in fact mutually escalatory. The two are not simply
related ideologies but together, create a single more volatile worldview, one which makes its proponents more prone to the use of violence. (Wilson, 5);
Both misogyny and the notion of white genocide and other nationalist ideologies are extreme manifestations of more widespread structures of sexism and racism within society. …both ideological frameworks
have extensive potential to motivate violence... The perpetrators of mass killings inspired by white genocide and misogyny share the same rage and self-pity, often blaming society for their personal failures
(Wilson, 5);
Yet these waves of white genocide-inspired and incel violence stem not from two separate extremist ideologies. Instead, although misogyny or fears over the replacement of the white race motivate individual
perpetrators to varying degrees, they are all driven by the same contemporary form of “racist misogyny.” White nationalism is infused with a strong hatred of feminism and desire to “police and enforce
...In an
examination of six such manifestos, Jacob Ware found a number of common themes: race,
immigration, and religion, the preservation of “European” culture, political rhetoric and a
justification of violence as a last resort. As I discuss below, misogyny is an important—and
often overlooked—part of the perpetrators’ motivations. Each killer has inspired the next, with
many making reference to their heroes who sought to stem the destruction of the white race.
For example, Patrick Crusius who attacked a Walmart in El Paso so as to “kill Mexicans”
wrote in his manifesto that he supported “the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto.”
Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch terrorist, named “Justiciar” Anders Breivik as his key
inspiration (Wilson, 9);
women’s subordination and to uphold male dominance,” while the misogyny of many incels and others is partly driven by a belief in racial hierarchy and white supremacy.
The misogyny is even further entrenched. Within Christian Identity … Women are portrayed as weak and virtue-less and above all corruptible, desperately needing White masculine leadership and strength.
Women reach their highest fulfilment in the supporting roles of wife and motherhood. Her sole purpose in this culture is to maintain a comfortable home for her man and to bear “beautiful, healthy white
babies.” To deviate from the performance of these roles is to become relegated to the ranks of a “sick feminist” traitor to the White race. …this dualistic perspective of women echoes that of Incels: women
must be beautiful; they must bear children; they must be submissive; their sole purpose is to please men; and yet they are not trustworthy; they will cheat on men, particularly betas, and their main driver is
wealth and prestige. Thus, the only thing surprising about Hoffman, Ware, and Shapiro’s (2020, 572) surprise that Incels and the far-right are joining up is their surprise. (Gentry, 11);
Narratives of masculinity in crisis, widespread in many societies, constitute a discursive opportunity for the far-right. …The normative frame of (White/majority) masculinity in crisis has proven particularly
effective, with feelings of aggrieved male entitlement becoming the ambient effect of much of the discourse of masculinity in crisis, which the far-right exploits. Research on far-right movements and
messaging has found that the “discourse around masculinity in crisis is very much anchored in far-right ideology; it strengthens the idea of the male fighting for the nation and its nuclear component, the
heterosexual family.” Central to the far-right’s symbolic practice of crisis masculinities is the figure of the emasculated male. (Greig, 7);
The Anti-Defamation League (2018) published an analysis of the link between misogyny and white supremacy, showing how the other side of gender politics makes a special alliance possible. Male
supremacy is, in this case, closely linked to the fear of white men losing their privileges. The fear of this loss unites classic far-right groups with women-hating men’s rights groups in opposition to feminism
and emancipatory gender roles. (Fielitz and Thurston, 89);
… Studies have found that anti-women
attitudes are the biggest predictors of attitudes of violent extremism, and this is true for farright groups as well. Research from Swinburne University has shown that far-right sentiments
were most often coupled with anti-feminist and anti-women statements, in comparison to antileft sentiment or racist sentiments. (McClintock);
Whatever the reason, once men are in a far-right group, the ideas of violent extremism and misogyny become mutually reinforcing.
ii.
Detail misogyny as its own form of terrorism (Section II in theory outlinemultiple sources)
The prosecution of a machete attacker in Toronto, Canada, the first incel adherent charged with
terrorism offenses, has also re-energized debates on definitional issues relation to extreme right
violence” (Ong, 1);
“In recent years, incel followers have taken to committing repeated acts characterized by some experts as terrorism. Adherents … blame their inability to have romantic or sexual relationships on attractive
women, and sometimes attractive men… who they claim have warped standards for physical attractiveness” (Ong, 5);
A recent ICCT Policy Brief referenced the increasing attention being paid to racist right-wing extremism in the US … The article continues, “There are emerging forms of extremism (such as some forms of male supremacy oriented around a return to “traditional” gender hierarchies) and forms of single-issue RWE (like violent anti-abortion extremism) that do not fit into this schema,” and argues in a footnote that “some of the most prominent forms of male supremacy (such as the ‘incels’) are not right-wing but are best understood as their own form of
extremism.” However, male supremacism, like white supremacism, is fundamentally a right-wing belief system... Violent anti-abortion extremism as well is a form of male supremacism, one typically motivated by religious fundamentalism (DiBranco);
The primary area of oversight amongst terrorism studies researchers is that the guiding ideology of deep-rooted misogyny promoted by incels is embedded within mainstream social structures and norms. Misogyny and patriarchy do not exist in a vacuum, and this is not exceptional to incels. As scholars at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism note: ‘Although
misogynist incels use more extreme dehumanizing language and glorification of violence, their belief systems and ideologies are developed from and supported by the cultural and societal contexts in which they live’ (Leidig);
and their
online discussions can be viewed as the fuse for violence, an ideology that promotes violent solutions.
Their rhetoric echoes that of white supremacists in terms of violent insurrection. The Southern Poverty
Law Centre has added male supremacy to its tracking of hate discourse in the US and argue for
inclusion in definitions of terrorism. (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 10);
In a developing blog on Incels, Zimmerman et al (2018) make a strong argument for recognising the violent extremism in Incel ideology as ‘a new violent political ideology based on a new wave of misogyny and white supremacy’. …
, much of the violence is ‘premeditated, politically motivated and perpetrated against civilians’ (p.2)
they are not organised in cells
The term ‘rejection violence’ comes from Lily Thacker (2019) who connects some of the lethal violence by white supremacists to punishment for women’s refusal of sex. Thacker argues that the Alt-Right are invested in
accentuating ‘a specific model of manhood, geared toward dominance and control… that views women as inferior, sees sex as an act, not of affection but domination and which valorises violence as a way to prove oneself to
the world’ (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 1);
… Incel men share the following characteristics: empathy with others who have committed violent
misogyny; overt anger or resentment toward women; and pre-operational hostile surveillance of places
frequented or populated primarily by women. They share with fundamentalists the propensity towards
lethal violence against women but also against general publics as revenge against rejection by specific
women. (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 25);
“The high-profile cases of violence committed by incels and the notion that incel ideology holds that
the in-group is vulnerable and threatened by the out-group have led some to conclude that the incel
ideology is a form of violent extremism and that incel forums constitute a source of radicalization”
(Speckhard, et.al., 91);
“Because incels use violence to pursue ideological and political goals it seems clear that incels violent
wing falls under the ideological violence genre of violent extremism
and anger, and believe that women's sexual liberation has resulted in desirable women choosing to
sleep only with attractive confident men. (Tomkinson, et.al., 4);
. In North America, the number of victims of incel constitutes a security
threat akin to that posed by Islamic fundamentalism. Between 2014 and 2018, attacked by Islamic
extremists killed somewhere between 74 and 91 people in North America. In comparison, incels killed
a total of 50 people between 2014 and 2018 in North America and Canada. Although incels have
killed less people there are clearly a rising threat. (Tomkinson et.al., 5);
. Broadly, incels believe that they are persecuted by the world; Feel a profound sense of loss, a displacement, of betrayal,
“researchers have found that incel affiliated men are more likely than others to support violence
…“Numerous researchers have pointed out that most male mass murderers in Western countries in recent years have a history of violence against women. (Tomkinson et.al., 6);
Another reason why extremist organizations appeal to aggrieved men is, I’m afraid, their misogyny. ...
A recent horrific case suggests that counter-terrorism officials need to be alert to the possibility that
extreme misogyny is in itself a form of radicalization. Last month a 19-year-old man was convicted of
the murders of two sisters … in north London. At his trial, it emerged…he had been referred to
Prevent in 2017 after using school computers to access far-right material (Smith);
The incel notion of “black pilling” in which people come to recognize the immutability of the status
quo and realize little can be done to alter a reality of a hierarchy of attractiveness among men,
increases their propensity for both suicidal and retributive violence. For those radicalized to violence
there remains little recourse other than suicide or exacting retribution against the society which has
treated them so poorly (Wilson, 10);
Today, the Incel movement is far-reaching and diverse, motivating self-proclaimed incels across North
America and Europe to launch their own violent attacks in retribution for their perceived romantic and
sexual rejections. However, beyond their misogynistic motivations, these attacks were in large part
sparked by the accelerationist rhetoric that exists within the Incel movement.
Whereas the incel identity is determined by the involuntary celibacy
that has been imposed upon them and their hatred for women, the Incel movement is more broadly determined by their belief that women and liberals are launching a war against men. Despite their claims of being in this war involuntarily, a concerning amount of incels agree that the
only solution is violence
(Barbarossa);
Men in the manosphere act out exaggerated misogyny through vitriolic language and ideas. Often they are purposefully inflammatory as a way to gain esteem among fellow community members and to get a rise out of the
feminists they despise so dearly. Their misogyny is extreme both in ideology—and in the ways they behave—they are willing to change their daily behaviors to avoid encounters with women, rape women in order to access the
sex they feel they deserve, and commit mass shootings to assert their presence and power in the world, sometimes knowingly sacrificing their own lives. Thus, feeling their societal power slipping as women earn more agency,
then men who embody manospheric misogyny enact hyperbolic masculinities and advocate for extreme forms of structural sexism in order to buttress their own relative place in society. (Guy, 10);
The key, as with all extreme misogynist groups, was in their victimhood. Misogynists you see are completely blind to the social system of patriarchy. To a misogynist, and in this case a MGTOW (pronounce mig-tau), literally
everything can and should be blamed on women — women who they shun and yet who in their manifesto are one of the three things they are still insistent on controlling (Baker);
…as women gain the economic and cultural power that allows them to be choosy about their partners,
men have generated ideas about self-improvement that are sometimes inextricable from violent rage.
(Tolentino);
iii.
Explain what a narrative is…
Narrative … can be understood as storytelling, or less precisely, as verbal expressions of a group’s ideology or worldview. Narrative in the latter sense is assumed to be crucial to justifications of violence against others and
providing group members with a sense of self-importance (Kruglanski, Chen, Dechesne et al., 2009) (Allan, et.al., 32);
"The increase in far-right mobilization and violence was influenced by a variety of factors, but the growth of the movement may be attributed, in part, to the strategy by white supremacists to soften racist rhetoric"--duke's 80s
strategy-"Duke understood that social acceptability of overtly racist messaging had decreased, and white supremacists could appeal to a wider audience by focusing on issues such as "white civil rights". More importantly,
members of the alt-Right have used the rhetoric of white victimization, among a growing population of immigrants and people of color, as an entry point to the movement" (Castle, et.al., 2);
“…a political narrative can have a polarizing function if it conveys unwelcome actions of a political opponent or international enemy and thereby creates a contrast…(Hoffman, 159); ---see “Figure 4” below; Related to this, it
is widely recognized that terrorist groups utilize an extensive range of communicative strategies to promote strategic objectives, one of the most pervasive of which involves the use of narratives. Typically, the main function of
these narratives is to convey ideology, values, justifications, or core concerns to sympathizers, would-be members, and the greater public. These narratives can be potent vehicles for persuasion, and failure to mitigate the
persuasive efficacy of terrorist narratives can have harmful effects, even allowing the ideologies contained therein to be assimilated by audience members, thereby increasing their likelihood to support or join the ranks of the
groups that produce those narratives. (Braddock and Horgan, 1);
“… meta-analyses showed that exposure to a narrative is positively related to the adoption of narrative-consistent viewpoints (Braddock and Horgan, 3);
Although it is likely impossible to quantitatively evaluate the degree to which specific terrorist narratives have induced an individual’s participation in violent activity, the potency of narrative as a persuasive tool, couple with
the themes inherent in terrorist groups’ narratives that spur psychological processes that contribute to radicalization, suggests that exposure to terrorist narratives can at least theoretically increase an individual’s risk for
supporting terrorism” (Braddock and Horgan, 7);
(Davey and Ebner)
a. Explain the victimhood narrative + its pervasiveness and various forms
across the extreme-right (RE: from woman-hating to the “Great
Replacement” theory)
“…puts gender at the center of the filtering process that makes some men cope and others turn to rage. These include elements like a sense of manhood that feels thwarted by women’s employment and education, changes in
the global economy and political culture, perceptions that women and minorities have ‘preyed upon global sympathies to get special bargains’, and an entitlement to holding ‘unchallenged moral authority over women and
children’” (Diaz and Valji, 5);
“…men who subscribe to this ideology believe that women’s empowerment has left them victimized and discriminated against. They play out their anger and resentment through violent acts, justifying these as merely
reclaiming what they believe is rightfully theirs” (Diaz and Valji, 5);
(misogyny and domestic violence as precursors to mass violence, public shootings, acts of terror)-“The birthrate conversation—and the question that goes with it, of women’s continued freedom—has become a key
recruitment tool for white supremacists. ..often the first political point of agreement a white supremacist recruiter online will find with a target, especially with young people” (Diaz and Valji, 7);
Women, invested with moral authority, were pictured as abused, degraded, and shamefully cast away by the enemy. What a heroic setting for the true patriot. How better to defend the American way? If the symbolic woman
is being raped by “them”, certainly she must be saved by “us” in a crusade against the lustful monsters of conspiracy” (Bennett, 45);
Essential to many strains of white supremacist or far-right ideology is a dehumanization of women, ranging from violent hatred to a belief that women are only suited to be housewives and mothers to white families. …core of
modern white supremacist extremism is the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that Jewish people are conspiring to “replace” the white population of the US and Europe with people of color... one key
white supremacist strategy is to … encourage white women to have white children. In advocating for white women to have children only with white men, white supremacists embrace misogyny and dismiss women’s rights
and dominion over their own bodies, demanding that they abandon personal or professional aspirations in favor of having as many offspring as possible and serving as homemakers. (Everytown);
The Red Pill (TRP), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUAs), men’s rights activists (MRAs) and involuntary celibates (incels) coalesce around sentiments of aggrieved entitlement, victimhood and
thwarted masculinity, believing themselves to be the true victims of a ‘gynocentric’ society. Men who feel threatened or emasculated by women’s employment, education or perceived equality “blame feminism for
increasingly infringing on spaces where they expected to go unchallenged.” (Cannon);
“American white supremacy had long depended upon the policing of white women’s bodies” … “…for a white woman to bear nonwhite children was tantamount to racial annihilation” (Belew, 159). ---“The prohibition of
interracial marriage has defined the world’s most entrenched racist regimes, and sexual threats to white female bodies have been used to justify the strictest anti-miscegenation laws in the United Sates” (Belew, 159); --treated women as objects/vessels – to perpetuate the white race---[the terrorist group, the Order]: “Characterizing birth as intimately tied to the battle at hand, the pamphlet worked to increase the policing of white female
bodies…” (Belew, 160). -Aryan Nation: “Miscegenation,” is the ultimate abomination and violation of the law of God” (Belew, 164). -- The Order: reproductive mandate “Fourteen Words” (Belew, 164);
“…Michael Kimmel’s conclusions in his 2013 book Angry White Men, a study that argues men in the United States are suffering from what Kimmel calls “aggrieved entitlement”, anger that something they believed they
were owed—sex, money, power—has been stolen from them by women, people of color, and immigrants” (Zuckerberg, 77);
“…sentiments about entitlement-curious characteristic of-new legions of angry white men: although white men still have the most power and control in the world, these particular white men feel like victims. …reflect a
somewhat nostalgic longing for that past world, when men believed they could take their places among the nation’s elite, simply by working hard and apply themselves” … *** “And when men fail, they are humiliated, with
nowhere to place their anger” (Kimmel, 3);
… “white genocide”&“great replacement” conspiracy theories–“…taken together espouse the idea that the white race is under threat due to rising feminism and declining birth rates, the growth of mixed-race marriages…”
(Ong, 1);
"...the alt-right seeks to upend traditional conservatism and build a male-dominated white state. … In their view, feminism has distorted the natural gender order and demasculinized men, to the detriment of modern society"
(Dignam and Rohlinger, 1);
Within secular male supremacist communities, the motivation for terrorist attacks stem predominantly from two core misogynist beliefs: 1) belief that men are entitled to sexual access to women, which misogynist
“incels”…have used to justify mass violence as retribution for being denied sex; and 2) the belief that feminists are a malevolent force controlling society at the expense of men, a frame similar to anti-Semitic conspiracy
theories regarding Jewish elites controlling the world (DiBranco);
Thus far, anti-feminist conspiracism is typically combined with other far-right ideologies when
manifested in terrorist attacks, as in the case of the Norway attacker, who killed 77 people in 2011.
the attacker’s xenophobia and Islamophobia ties closely into his belief in the right-wing conspiracy
theory around “cultural Marxism,” or “political correctness,” which he views as a threat taking over
Europe, with feminism identified in his manifesto as a “key, or even a dominant element.”... The
attacker’s manifesto credits “radical feminism” with control over the media, education, and
government, and that “the last bastion of male domination, the police force and the military, is under
assault.” (DiBranco);
“But instead of turning that sense of emasculation inward toward depression, interpersonal violence, suicide, or self-medication through drugs or alcohol, these young men were somehow convinced to externalize their sense
of emasculation, turn it into righteous political rage, and lash out at those forces that they came to believe responsible for their emasculation. Their failure was not theirs, as individuals; it was something done to them—by an
indifferent state, by predatory corporations or rapacious bankers, by a host of “others” who had preyed upon global sympathies to get special bargains. They were not failures; they were victims” (Kimmel, 20);
What holds this “paranoid politics” together – anti-government, anti-global capitalism and pro-small capitalist, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic—is a rhetoric of masculinity. These men feel emasculated by big money
and big government—they call the government the Nanny State—and they claim that “others” have been handed the birthright of native-born white men” (Kimmel, 141);
Anti-feminism and the far-right overlap because both weave narratives around real, observable phenomena surrounding race and reproduction. Birth rates…falling across the developed world. Women who reach higher
education levels tend to have fewer children. The “family wage”—where a man earns enough to support a wife and children—has disappeared. Working women have greater economic freedom, instead of being dependent on
men. Many of them find it easier (though still not easy) to leave abusive or otherwise intolerable relationships. Women who can control their fertility and their bank accounts do not have to be subservient to men. …&the
sexual revolution. …Western women are largely choosing for themselves whom to have sex with... …the far right argues that Muslim men control Muslim women, and that means “their civilization is rising [while] the West
is declining.” (Lewis);
Even though the link between claims to suffering and positions of power can never be completely fixed, we argue that victimhood today operates as a ‘master’ signifier, a dominant communicative logic that relies on auxiliary
vocabularies – of injured white masculinity, celebrated survivorship or heroic sacrifice – to reclaim power for the powerful and retrench existing hegemonic arrangements in liberal policies. Whether it is authoritarian
populists, networked misogynists or imperialist state actors, this logic of weaponized victimhood is, we contend, a crucial site of political struggle and, as such, a scholarly terrain of urgent interrogation (Chouliaraki and
Banet-Weiser ,3);
…Examining white supremacist discourse in the USA—“protection of white womanhood comes to symbolize the protection of the race; thus, gender relations occupy a central place in the discourse.” Metaphors of purity and
pollution recur in far-right discourse. (Greig, 9);
“Narratives help to explain the world as they establish sensible connections between isolated events. They provide a wider frame of interpretation that structures personal opinions. Narratives stir up emotions and can help to
motivate and mobilize. Thus, they are valuable tools for sowing fear and hatred—cornerstone emotions that help exclude whole groups of people. One way to trigger such emotions is to repeatedly postulate correlations and
causalities that do not exist. (Fielitz and Thurston, 161);
…use of racial epithets and overtly racist messages in propaganda has decreased—narratives of white victimhood and white genocide more popular–especially among the alt-Right (Castle, et.al., 4);
A particularly worrisome trend is how seamlessly the militant incel community has been integrated into the alt-right tapestry, with common grievances and intermingling membership bringing the two extremisms closer
together. As a 2019 report from the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right observed, the incel masses “are part of a growing trend of radical-right movements that are anguished by the success of neo- liberalism,”... The
Anti- Defamation League… noted the links between “men’s rights activism” and the neofascist militant Proud Boys, further reinforcing the convergence of politicized misogyny with far-right activism. (Gentry, 14);
"The stance of unapologetically embracing identity politics, and prioritizing the own (white) group, is articulated as a rational and just reaction to the politics of oppression being directed towards the group. This theme of
white victimization is a common occurrence in extreme right movements, and the Others are often blamed for these oppressive practices... The Alt-Right’s emergence is thus understood through the over-arching theme of lost
privileges, and by anchoring claims put forwards in science, legitimacy is bestowed upon the movement." (Garpvall, 14);
b. Explain collective victimhood narrative
A collective victimization narrative identifies victims—the in-group—who endure direct and structural violence from out-group. Direct violence—action taken by state against group …Structural violence refers to harm
caused through the imposition of policies, systems and mechanisms resulting in inequalities that can, and often do, impact living standards, such as poor housing, employment opportunities, and so forth –claims made by the
“Right” against mainstream/liberal society (Kfir);
Collective victimization has several features such as competitive victimization and moral disengagement. The former=the way the in-group sees the harm inflicted on it by the other groups, as well as stressing the injustice it has suffered is greater than victimized groups…In general, when individuals undertake action that they know goes against normative society, they look
for ways to justify it, including constructing an alternative moral value system, which is where prolonged exposure to violence and insecurity, cognitive dissonance, and conspiracy theories help shape their disengagement from mainstream norms (Kfir);
…Debbie Ging argues that the incels actually perform a so-called hybrid masculinity where they perceive themselves as victims, while at the same time expressing “a desire to establish male hegemony in the online spaces they inhabit, even if they may lack such claims to power in offline contexts”. According to Maria N. Scaptura and Kaitlin M. Boyle, the “endorsement
of ‘incel’ traits are associated with violent fantasies about rape and using powerful weapons against enemies”. Thus, emotions seem to be crucial for the radicalisation process within the incel community. Perceived injustices are likely to be experienced when incels compare themselves to men who have access to women. Taken together, I expect these notions of the
narration of collective identity and emotions as potential driving forces of online radicalization to contribute to an understanding of why members of the incel community appear radical. (Lewenhaupt, 16); ---My study suggests that the narration of collective identities and the emotional dimensions has played a crucial role in the radicalization process of the incel
community. My analysis indicates that a collective identity can emerge without a common goal that everyone in the group agrees on. Instead, members' experiences and emotions seem to be central factors to construct an identity around, particularly negative feelings regarding out-groups and perceived injustices that establishes a victim mentality. This drives radicalisation
since derogatory language normalises expressions of violence and hate. Further, the combination of positive emotions such as empathy towards the in-group and negative feelings such as contempt can energise collective action. (Lewenhaupt, 42);
"…the collective identity constructed in the Daily Stormer faction of the Alt-Right movement is one of white, heterosexual masculinity where the grievances are connected to themes of white victimization, contemporary
society’s flaws and anti-Semitic conspiracies. The movement offers a possibility for the participants to fight against these grievances, and as so offers a reclaiming of an identity deemed lost due to the modern-day life. They
share a sense of glorification of the past, where men were allowed to be men and they were the privileged group. Thus, it constructs a collective identity where the unfair treatment of them as white and male can be fought and
order can be restored. Portraying themselves as soldiers with a just cause expands the space for collective action, and the battle is understood as closely impending." (Garpvall, 28);
c. Explain the ubiquitous role the C.V. narrative plays in recruitment,
radicalization, condoning violence, willingness to commit acts of terrorism,
etc.
“And when men fail in their assigned gender roles, there is a gendered shame that fuels deep personal grievance” (Hudson and Hodgson, 4)--previous literature identified poverty as a risk factor for terrorism, but…“poverty puts masculinity in crisis” (Hudson and H odgson, 4)-As a
result, “The affected man makes attempts to regain his position in the appropriate gender order through acts of violence that are culturally perceived as normative performances of the masculine. (Hudson and Hodgson, 4);
…angry men found one another online: Incel msg. boards are littered with casual misogyny, w. highly trafficked threads--“Why women are the embodiment of evil” and “All women are sluts.”
“Your ‘freedom’ has brought white people and our land nothing but hardship. You whores [are]… sieving our entire race just because you want to sleep with Chad for a night and have one of his criminal bastard genes, and then pretend to have a career, instead of going for a breadwinner and breeding 6 warriors while being a happy hausfrau.” — alt right.com message board … Meanwhile, PUAs are longtime players in the misogynist manosphere, and their putative leader, RooshV, dedicated himself to decrying feminism, belittling women and teaching men
how to “date”—or, more accurately, how to be the most effective sexual predator you can be. Incels and PUAs believe that date rape is not only defensible, but is a skill that can and should be taught. (ADL);
In the wake of Unite the Right, the alt right trumpeted a new era of “white civil rights,” appealing to white men’s sense of encroaching disenfranchisement. A similar paranoia underpins MRA claims that feminism is a ploy to render men irrelevant. These (entirely imaginary)
threats are ideal recruiting tools for the unholy alliance of incels, MRAs, PUAs and white supremacists. The rhetoric also serves as a combustible prologue to violence... (ADL);
Misogynist rhetoric has been increasing in frequency and violence, especially since 2016…they focus on feelings of deprivation (like being “kissless” or “involuntarily celebate”) and on flipping feminist narratives to suit their own interests... The study also found that misogynist language and violent language tend to occur together and that posters expressing violent
misogyny often authored posts expressing violent racism or homophobia as well. (Ellis);
‘manosphere’: Serious accusations-levied against it for its role in encouraging misogyny and violent threats towards women online, as well as for potentially radicalizing lonely or disenfranchised men. Feminist scholars evidence this through a shift in the language and interests of some men’s rights activists on the manosphere, away from traditional subjects of family law
or mental health and towards more sexually explicit, violent, racist and homophobic language. (Farrell, et.al., 2);
Online men’s groups have given space to members’ glorification of tragedies like the Isla Vista Killings, in which Elliot Roger killed 6 people and wounded 14 others, after communicating extensively online about his contempt for women (and people of color). That rhetoric is believed to have attracted others, including Alek Minassian, the alleged perpetrator of the
Toronto van attack that killed 10 and wounded 16 people. (Farrell, et.al., 2);
“…white men also seek to reclaim their manhood. This challenge provides an enormously successful recruiting strategy: Join us, and we will see to it that your manhood is restored. And you’ll probably get a girl. The political really is personal. Even deeper, you will not only
become a real man, but you will be embarking on a sacred mission: to redeem the entire white race. Your valor, your courage gets you community and camaraderie with your brothers, access to women who will adore you, and a sacred mission of sacrifice and glory” (Kimmel,
146);
They perceive that they are systematically rejected by women; virtually all women are portrayed as unreliable, highly promiscuous, and attracted to a small number of males who dominate the romantic market; victimhood; missed rhetoric and narratives of a utopian pre-feminist past; derogatory, violent rhetoric against women and non-incel men…these new tropes of
victimhood are deeply intertwined with the notion of incels external locus of control, which is one of the strongest radicalization factors within incel communities… arguably the one with the highest radicalizing power: implies that there is no point in being kind to women and respecting them, since they will ultimately choose alpha males, no matter how rude or
untrustworthy they might be (Brzuszkiewicz, 6);
RWEDS is a growing concern, and the relationship between the Internet and recent attacks by right-wing extremists have shown RWEDS can motivate extreme right-wing terrorism, particularly by providing a narrative and community that facilitates radicalization…RWEDS is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the execution of a violent act…RWEDS
potentially enculturates audiences into an exclusionary worldview in which violence against minorities can be justified. (Ganesh and Bright, 37);
“Nonetheless, manospheric misogyny is starkly and violently reactive to the slow dismantling of Western patriarchy” … “At its core, manospheric misogyny is concerned with reifying the traditional patriarchal structures that have enabled men to access societal power throughout history. To do so, manospheric misogyny endorses and enacts an exaggerated form of
hegemonic masculinity, which the internet facilitates in novel ways” (Guy, 6)…“…many of the manosphere’s participants arrive there precisely because…they feel they do not meet society’s standards for men and are missing out on the power that is their birthright” (Guy, 9);
The political climate in which the Proud Boys was forged has played a crucial role in its outgroup formation and adoption of Proud Boy members are frequently the target of intentional efforts to “red pill” (a process of generating an awakening within the targeted subject about a fundamentally unjust or broken system of which they are an alleged victim). …Kutner, an
expert on the Proud Boys who has conducted extensive ethnographic research and interviews with members of the organization, “members are repeatedly exposed to memes, videos, podcasts, and other content that systematically desensitizes them to targeted violence.” Additionally, Kutner has defined the term ‘taking the red pill’ in context of the group’s radicalization
efforts as men opening their eyes to the perceived reality of male subjugation by women. (Kriner and Lewis, 29);
John’s rhetoric on violence remains ambiguous, allowing for plausible deniability…simultaneously signaling his audience–white supremacists. He discursively constructs a white identity under threat from racial contamination, and possible violence, providing the motivational framing to act in response to a clearly identified threat. In fact, such a response would seem
rational given the vicarious sense of victimization and injustice experienced by extremists. Both calls for violence in self-defense and dehumanization allows the reader to morally disengage from the harm they cause to others, and this cognitive distancing makes it easier to perpetrate inhumanities against them. (Castle, et.al., 12);
Creating a Culture of Political Violence as a ‘Defense’: Despite condemnation from mainstream media sources regarding these attacks, members of the Proud Boys have justified their actions as being within the confines of self-defense. …In turn, he claims that the Proud Boys are victims of a “left-wing city that hates them”... Thus, McInnes is blaming the liberal
government leaders and activists for both inciting and criminalizing the actions of the Proud Boys (Brubaker, 5);
… According to Borum, the social cognition (perception of reality) of those who partake in political violence is able to deeply vilify others by blaming them for a perceived unfair social deprivation. Borum is able to elaborate … By framing leftist protesters as the ones responsible for the dismantling of conservative values in the mainstream, the Proud Boys’ social
cognition is frames violence of the group as a form of necessary retribution. Though McInnes and the group’s claims of victimhood portray their violence as instigated, such actions are not unexpected. Using the work of scholar Jeff Victoroff, the humiliation-revenge theory of political violence can be used towards the Proud Boys. This theory states that a political group
that feels humiliated will be more likely to utilize political violence to obtain their goal. …the Proud Boys react to perceived threats against their power--rely on violence as the resort to prevent the humiliation that would come from this power loss (Brubaker, 6);
1. Creates links/common bonds between various groups  escalates
radicalization and violence—overlapping ‘other-ing’
“Once individuals from the dominant group internalize this notion of victimization where feminism and women are to blame, it is easier for them to apply that ideological framing to other categories of “others”, and why sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry and intolerance frequently go together” (Diaz and Valji, 8);
…increasing evidence of misogynistic views opening the cognitive door to wider forms of hate-based extremism based on protected categories of people, such as race, ethnicity and religion. …one pickup artist revealed: “If you’re already ready to go against feminism…then becoming a ‘racist’ is not a big deal.” (Cannon);
Men are encouraged to see women as sexual objects devoid of agency or humanity that they must dominate. This rhetoric is framed as a higher calling; these men don’t see themselves as sexist, but instead “fighting against their own emasculation and sexual repression at the hands of strident feminists.” It then becomes easy to repurpose this ideological framing and apply it
to ethnic or religious ‘others’. The narrative of men of color taking ‘our’ women is another widespread white supremacist trope, demonstrating the intrinsic link between misogynist violence and far-right extremism. …some have taken this cross-pollination as evidence of a gateway between the two ideologies, but correlation does not imply causality. …instead
conceptualize it as evidence of the intersectional, systemic and intrinsically linked nature of misogyny, racism and xenophobia (Cannon);
In online postings, incel attackers weave white supremacist ideologies into their toxic masculine
narratives – “…Elliot Rodger, often regarded as the first incel attacker, who was vehemently against
anti-interracial relationships, railed in his manifesto that he could not understand how “an inferior,
ugly black boy” could “get a white girl” when he “descended from British aristocracy” and the black
boy “from slaves” (Ong, 6);
“…white supremacist attackers such as Philip Manshaus and Stephen Balliet demonstrated incel refrains, even if their motives were clearly racial rather than misogynistic defiance. In the recent mass shootings in Hanau, the shooter Tobias Rathjen, demonstrated inherent misogyny, QAnon-esque conspiracy leanings, as well as a twisted interpretation of inceldom, where he
attributed his inability to find a romantic partner partly to alleged state surveillance” (Ong, 6);
Incels constitute part of an umbrella network that includes the (MRM), (PUA), fathers’ rights
movement, (MGTOW)–all united by the narrative that men are victims, a stance of anti-feminism,
and denial of gender inequality (Leidig);
This cross-pollination means the largely anonymous outrage of the men’s rights arena acts as a bridge to the white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology of the alt right. …it’s not a huge leap from “women’s quest for equal rights threatens my stature as a man” to “minorities’ and women’s quests for equal rights threaten my stature as a white man.” (ADL);
The alt right is defined by its white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology, but when alt righters talk about the women who are standing between them and their “rightful” position, their language is virtually indistinguishable from what you can find on misogynistic MRA or incel message boards. MRAs, believe that men are being victimized by employment and family law,
among other things. Incels, believe that all men deserve to have sex with women on demand and without regard for women’s interest or preference. (ADL);
…in building its membership from so many different communities of white men who ultimately feel threatened and rejected by women, the movement promotes a sense of male entitlement that is easily radicalized into white nationalism and white supremacy. (Romano);
“It’s that sense of shame, that specifically gendered sense of humiliation, of emasculation, that I heard again and again among the white nationalists I initially interviewed…”; “No matter where they fell in the organizational matrix on the extreme right—from older organizations such as the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan, and the American Nazi Party, to neo-Nazi
and racist skinheads, White Power groups like Posse Comitatus and the White Aryan Resistance, and radical militias—it was the constant refrain: our manhood is being challenged by “them”, so we have to show them that we are the real men and they are not” (Kimmel, 138);
“For many Proud Boys, entertaining content (from McInnes and others) acted as the gateway to a new
reality constructed of race preservation, conspiracy theories, and male self-awareness through
victimhood. These grievances are found in a manosphere—an ecosystem of disparate male grievance
groups that emerged as a reaction to feminism” (Kutner, 7);
A tight overlap exists between the "alt-right," white supremacist and male supremacist circles, which feed each other’s narratives of the dispossession and oppression of white men... Both the alt-right and the manosphere agree that feminism is the cause of Western civilizational decline…the misogyny intrinsic to the "alt-right" might be one of its distinctive feature, or a
“gateway drug.” (SPLC);
There is a great deal of overlap between incels and white nationalism. Men’s rights blogs often advanced the same notions as white nationalists... In 2017, Angela Nagle summarized the message of one now defunct blog: “women’s . . . freedom is leading to civilizational collapse”. The language of incelism is common among white nationalist groups, particularly online
where men joke about rape, vent their suspicion of false rape accusations and discuss women in degrading and violent terms. In turn, incels used highly racialized language (Wilson, 9);
…indiv iduals sometimes transition from one form of extremism to another, through a pathway they refer to as “fringe fluidity .” Indeed, acceptance of one extreme ideology can make an individual even more receptive to another radical worldview, in particular if the two share a common enemy . I contend that many of the perpetrators of violence …have alternated between extreme misogy ny a
nd a belief in a threat to the white race, creating a spiral of radicalization for some. (Wilson, 9);
…similarities between the incel and other extremist worldviews—perceiving society through a form of “radical dualism” comprised of groups with immutable differences with all problems the fault of outgroups. This worldview thereby increases the likelihood of support for or engagement in violence as a way of protecting the ingroup (Wilson, 12);
“…the bridging narratives…used across various groups to share models for perceiving the world and narratives to foster identity; they promote the formation of situational alliances and new coalitions. Through this process, radical narratives that are hostile to certain populations and legitimate the use of violence are strengthened across these groups and come to form a
toxic discursive context” (Meiering, et.al., 15);
“…Facebook, Reddit, 4chan, and others, groups of men with seemingly disparate ideologies—from Traditional Christian Conservatives to Involuntary Celibates and the alt-right—lament societal and interpersonal grievances. The content is a mix of self-help, conspiracy theories, and increasingly extremist indoctrination traded through manifestos, memes, and insults”
(Guy, 3);
“…anti-feminism unites the groups in the manosphere as the common language and sentiment through which they can communicate. Though myriad forms of hate and “-isms” proliferate among these groups, the manosphere coalesces around anti-feminism” (Guy, 14) … “…anti-feminism provides a focal point for the grievance of diverse groups in the manospehre,
allowing them to channel the cultural insecurities of individuals into a galvanizing nationalist sentiment” (Guy, 14);
The feeling that (White/majority) masculinity is in crisis continues to be a powerful “discursive opportunity structure” through which the far-right can fuse its racist ethnonationalism with a broader anti-feminism and gender conservatism. In the figure of the victimized (White) male are condensed a set of resentments and anxieties about the economic and social
transformations undermining established racial and gender orders. (Greig, 46);
(perception that ‘the system’ works against men)-What brought together both far-right sentiment and anti-feminist sentiment was a sense of aggrievement, or ‘aggrieved entitlement’. Common in both the online and stakeholders’ survey data was the idea that men commonly felt that the ‘system’ (courts, institutions) worked against men in favor of women. These ideas were
strongest in the YouTube social media data, where anger against the system expressed in anti-feminist video comments often are of the view that women already benefit within society and have unequal power compared to men. (Agius, et.al., 17);
The messaging to motivate incels towards violence is very similar to what is preached in far-right extremism. For adherents of far-right and incel ideology, accelerationist violence serves as a way to restore their masculinity... In the manner of WSE, recruiters maintain the position that men should join them if they want to “feel like a real man.” Through violent action, both
milieus are retrieving what they feel they lost and are reconnecting with what they are supposed to be, setting them on the path to be heroes, either for men or the white race as a whole. To call men to restore masculinity is an implicit call to action—their preferred and possibly only approach is through violence (Barbarossa);
2. Understanding Social Identity Theory
“As we scan our environment for differences between “us” and “them”, or need for a positive social identity leads to evaluations that are intrinsically in-group-favoring and out-group-discriminatory” (Strindberg, 15); “Human beings are inherently social” … “They “can promote cohesive ties, but they can also create or accentuate divisions between us and those who do not
belong to our group”” (Strindberg. 18); “…a radicalizing individual will almost always attach him- or herself to the narrative of a group, and it is that collective narrative—rather than entirely private thoughts and ideas—that provides the rationale for his or her evolution toward violent action” (Strindberg, 19)
“Abundant evidence indicates that socialization processes
are a necessary precondition for radicalization (by which we mean the process of becoming willing to conduct a terrorist act)” (Strindberg, 19)—honestly, what is more of a socialization process that identifying a common bond through a shared, perceived threat!? Importantly, these feelings impact not only how one feels about oneself and one’s fellow ingroup members, but
also how one relates to those who are not part of the ingroup (members of outgroup). …some group memberships…can be so important that they become part of our identity. Who we are as a group becomes intertwined with who I am as an individual” (Strindberg, 27); Self-categorization theory…“…when we begin to think of ourselves as members of a group, we begin to
act as members of the group” (Strindberg, 29); “Berger defines extremism as “the belief that an in-group’s success or survival can never be separated from the need for hostile action against an out-group.” ... Violent extremism, then, is a subset on one end of the extremism spectrum, defined as “the belief that an in-group’s success of survival can never be separated from
the need for violent action against an out-group” (Strindberg, 29);
*gr oup-level!
2a. Social Identity Theory in Terms of Right-Wing Terrorism
“In his study of literature from the right-wing extremist Christian Identity movement, Berger argues that, conceptually, “extremists tie an out-group to crises, and connect the ingroup to solutions,” but points out-these connections “can be unbundled into a series of more complex links.” For instance, elements of ingroup identity are linked to vulnerability assessment while elements of outgroup identity are linked to threat assessment. Both types of assessment can range from perceptions of minor vulnerability and threat to apocalyptic levels, and in turn are
“bundled into a crisis construct, which adds urgency to the in-group’s attempts to recruit and mobilize members.” The crisis construct, in turn, is linked to prescribed solutions to the problem posed by the outgroup, which can range from assimilation to annihilation” (Strindberg, 31); … “the great replacement” is another important example of a crisis construct… “The economic, cultural, and racial aspects of what has become known as “replacement theory” are inseparable, converging on a sense of existential urgency that can only be addressed by a robust
countermovement” (Strindberg, 32); [seminar at the 2006 Director of National Intelligence Summer Hard Problem Program noted broad agreement that…] “…perceived external threat is the most reliable source of ingroup cohesion and associated idealization of ingroup values, support for ingroup leaders, and punishment for ingroup deviates.” (Strindberg, 33); “The strategies that groups adopt to manage their identity depend on beliefs about the nature of the relationship between their group and a specific outgroup” “These beliefs are informed by the
group’s narrative and, in a feedback loop, inform and impact that narrative” (Strindberg, 34); “Radicalization, on this view, is “the escalation of an in-group’s extremist orientation in the form of increasingly negative views about an out-group or the endorsement of increasingly hostile or violent actions against an out-group”” (Strindberg, 49);
[incels]--“ in this milieu--demands for recognition and legitimacy are voiced in the gradual separation from the outgroup, IE mainstream society, takes place, as the ingroup sees itself as increasingly vulnerable and threatened by the outgroup” (Brzuszkiewicz, 10)-External locus of control=victim;
2b. Creates intense in-group association and extremely hostile out-group
association
“As a greater number of lone actors and extreme right groups foray into the violent space, sometimes resorting to terrorism, the polarization that results from in-and-out-group violence provides a fertile environment for further ideological convergence in the extreme right. It also contributes not only to greater reciprocal radicalization and violence between the extreme right
and groups espousing broadly opposing ideologies, but also ideological confluence…” (Ong, 7);
"It simply creates an ideological framework for understanding the causes of and proposed solutions to their grievances and cultivates a sense of "we-ness," or collective identity among participants, which keeps individuals engaged over time--even in online forums. (Dignam and Rohlinger, 5); ---"...users solidified their collective identity through the "oppressive othering" of
women as an inferior group. It is common for men to bond with one another and demonstrate their manhood through the public degradation of women... Users bonded through the shared dehumanization of women, with many forum conversations describing women as inferior, self-centered, and manipulative, often utilizing a plethora of other slurs including “slut,” “cunt,”
“bitch,”. (Dignam and Rohlinger, 11);
“In the misogynist incel community, the self-justification for violence laid out by the Santa Barbara perpetrator becomes part of the foundation for a social movement ideology, in which individual grievance is transformed into a community-wide injustice premised on male sexual entitlement (DiBranco);
“Once inside, these men developed a worldview that constantly shored up their own sense of masculinity through the emasculation of the “others” against whom they were fighting: feminist women, immigrants, Jews, gays—all depicted as not “real men,” but unqualified poseurs who’ve taken over the government and turned it against its authentic native sons” (Kimmel,
15);
“Recruits feel both connected and isolated—connected to one another through their intense bonding, and isolated from the rest of the world.” (Kimmel, 23);
“One 2019 study of posts on a forum called incels.me notes that incels.me created a community for people who feel isolated in the real world due to their inability to make sexual and romantic relationships with women, although the creation of such an in-group also necessitated the creation of a negatively portrayed outgroup of women and of non-incel men” (Speckhard,
et.al., 91);
As a result of this, she argues that social justice has begun to devolve into a competition based on showing who is really the worse off, creating a reactionary position contributing to deep and antagonistic social divisions…; You are no longer relatable, but merely an “other” whom you cannot fully recognize. --what happens on many MRM platforms. There is no coherent
exchange with feminists, no conversation, no coming to terms, but rather a squabbling of an unquantifiable sense of pain, suffering, and the resulting oppression. Consequently, discussions easily spiral into ad hominem attacks or strongman responses until one side disengages, leaving the conversation to be had among individuals who all agree and reassure one another of
given positions and perceptions. (Hodapp, 7);
The MRM provides a platform for these men in which they can regain hope for a restoration of the previous order and communicate with like-minded men for sympathy, validation, and the creation of responses. --anger creates a commitment and makes one feel as a stakeholder--anger seeks an outlet as well as connections to others. It would then seem like the MRM is
such an outlet, creating bonds based on anger, resentment, and perceived shared oppression/persecution” (Hodapp, 15);
The intensity of group polarization is increased when individuals feel they share some sort of identity or basis of solidarity with others in the group. … Consequently, as the groups polarization increases, the toleration for outside views and opinions decreases, often leading to an overwhelming amount of speech with very little variation in points of view (Hodapp, 47);
I argue that when politicians employ hateful, bigoted and discriminatory rhetoric against groups within society – typically as a means to mobilize their political supporters and to neutralize their opponents and deflect critics – an important byproduct of hate speech is produced: increased political polarization. When politicians employ hate speech to demonize political,
social, ethnic, cultural or religious groups in society, they prompt members of those groups to increase their affiliation with individuals who are of the same political, social, ethnic, cultural or religious background – ingroup members – and to decrease their tolerance and acceptance of individuals who are members of other rival or disparaged political, social, ethnic, cultural
or religious outgroups. Much in the same way that perception of threat has been theorized to increase negative attitudes toward outgroups and affinity within ingroups, I argue that hate speech and the strong emotions it arouses fosters “ingroup love and outgroup hate.” … hate speech helps to deepen and fuel political tribalism---has 2 effects related to terrorism. First, hate
speech facilitates the dehumanization of outgroup members which makes it easier for militants to commit acts of political vio lence against them. Increased outgroup hate reduces inhibitions of perpetrators of political violence while mitigating public backlash, at least from other ingroup members. This produces a condition under which terrorism is a less politically or
socially costly behavior. Second, by encouraging prejudicial and hostile attitudes against outgroups, hate speech, particularly by powerful political figures and parties, can foster greater unity and conformity of opinion among ingroup members. Hateful rhetoric often convinces its intended target population that they are superior to hated outgroups, that rival ethnic, social,
political, cultural or religious communities are hostile and threatening and that now is the time to reinforce their own community bonds to counter rivals. By producing this condition, hate speech legitimizes and builds community support for affiliated extremist political actors, producing resources, recruits, sympathizers and apologists for militant activities. The end result is
increased terrorism. (Piazza, 6);
“Hate speech & RWEDS—both share a double function: to ‘dehumanize and diminish members’ of a targeted group while simultaneously signally ‘to let others with similar views know they are not alone [and] reinforce a sense of an in-group that is (purportedly) under threat’” (Ganesh and Bright, 29);
The sense of being a victim serves as a basis for unity and solidarity because it implies a threat to the collective’s well-being and even to its survival. It heightens the need for unity and solidarity, which are important conditions for survival in view of the continuous harm caused by the rival. Collective victimhood may serve as ‘social glue’, bonding members of the
collective together on the basis of the present threat and past ‘chosen traumas’. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 17);
…sense of being a victim has the function of motivating patriotism, mobilization and action. It highlights security needs as a core value and indicates a situation of emergency which requires mobilization and sacrifice that are crucial for countering the threat. It implies the necessity to exert all the group’s efforts and resources in the struggle against the perpetrator. It plays a
central role in stirring up patriotism, which leads to readiness for various sacrifices in order to defend the group and the country and avenge acts of violence by the enemy. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 17);
…often affirm the perception of the world as a dangerous place, raise sense of intense vulnerability, increase awareness of group’s dependence on others and undermine beliefs in a just world. Sometimes …collective victimhood is accompanied by fear of physical or symbolic annihilation. Furthermore, collectives often develop feelings of helplessness, humiliation, lack of
control, mistrust of the rival group and the belief that little can be done to change the situation. (Bar-Tal, etl.al., 21);
One possible consequence of a continuous sense of victimhood is the evolvement of a siege mentality, which denotes a generalized mistrust of other groups and negative feelings towards them. It is based on a system of beliefs indicating that other groups have negative intentions to harm the collective. This syndrome develops when other groups support either directly or
indirectly the rival (the perpetrator) who is viewed as evil. (Bar-Tal, etl.al., 23);
Previous research found that narratives which focus exclusively on the suffering of the ingroup and demonize outgroups help bolster support for continued violence against the outgroup. As such, the roots of conflict-reinforcing narratives may stem from iterations upon social representations on r/The_Donald. (McLamore and Ulug, 30);
Rather, it can be interpreted that (incels) feel like society is out to get them, and thus they have only each other to turn to…can strengthen the sense of belonging while at the same time, intensify the experience of exclusion. (Lewenhaupt, 29);
What underlying values and attributes regarding practices and actions play into the narrative? Incels believe that society is gynocentric and that it is rigged in favor of women and goodlooking men. Incels are thus subjected to great injustice and believe that they have no part in this. Instead, they are victims of circumstances that they cannot affect. Accordingly, violence is
perceived as an appropriate and legitimate response, whether only expressed in terms of ideas or actions. Since incels are suffering under the hand of women and society, the community believes that women and society deserve whatever comes... Retaliation is narrated in a way that makes it seem as if incels can revenge each other. Society and women as a collective have
wronged them, and, therefore, if one incel were to commit an attack, that attack revenges the community as a whole. This perception of the community as a collective to be retaliated is mirrored onto society. (Lewenhaupt, 41);
“Threat or harm to a group or cause the individual cares about can move the individual to hostility and violence toward perpetrators” (McCauley&Moskalenko, 21) “Sometimes an individual is moved to individual radical action in response to political trends or events. The motivating grievance can be that of another individual or group cause, even though this victimization
does not include any direct harm to the radicalized one” (McCauley&Moskalenko, 24). Individual radicalization to political violence is relatively rare–and still usually have some connection to a larger political movement (McCauley&Moskalenko, 25) aka no such thing as an actual lone-wolf terrorist! “More than for other mechanisms of radicalization, there is a probability
of some degree of psychopathology for those moved to act alone against group grievances” (McCauley&Moskalenko, 26); “The increased group cohesion produced by facing a common threat is expressed in three changes in the nature of relations within the group: increased respect for group leaders, increased idealization of in-group values, and increased sanctions for
deviation from in-group norms” (McCauley and Moskalenko, 18);
3. Creates a sense of crisis/existential threat and a sense of urgency that
creates immediate devotion  justifies extreme measures/violence
“…moderators/elite users had to move adherents beyond focus on feminism--and contextualize the importance of political action through voting--framed the presidential election in the context of a political "war on men"...focusing on the threat Clinton posed to the Red Pill community and exalting Trump as an alpha male who would fight for men's political fortune
(Dignam and Rohlinger, 15);
"Most Red Pill men posting on the forum were easily politicized. Forum users described a Hillary Clinton presidency as cataclysmically emasculating insofar as it would irreversibly entrench feminism into American politics. This prospect inspired anger and fear among Red Pill users, with one even arguing that Hillary’s victory would “give the free card to all women in
the nation to be complete deplorable corrupt whores” (Dignam and Rohlinger, 16);
"In short, the sexual strategy of the Red Pill served as a foundation for politicizing the collective identity of forum users, with elite users transforming this oppositional consciousness into a political stance…one user summarized, "This war on masculinity has gone on for far too long, and our only hope of stopping it right now is Donald Trump"" (Dignam and Rohlinger,
16);
Kimmel interviewed 45 American neo-Nazis/white supremacists: “I heard many stories of what I came to call aggrieved entitlement—a gendered sense of entitlement thwarted by larger economic and political shifts, their ambitions choked, their masculinity lost. Joining these right-wing groups lent a gendered coherence to their sense of emasculation and frustration; their
manhood had been taken from them by unseen conspiratorial forces, and their recruitment was seen as a way to reclaim their manhood and to restore that sense of entitlement. To “take our country back,” in the words of the Tea Party slogan” (Kimmel, 15);
Framing a clash of cultures in defensive (rather than offensive) terms reduces public stigma, increases the legitimacy of the movement and the likelihood of recruitment into the organization. Internally, such a frame helps overcome the collective action problem and stimulates action on the part of its members. When an alien force is perceived as not only hostile but
threatening the very way of life or existence of one’s group, then conflict appears irresolvable and an extreme response is required immediately. (Wilson, 4);
There is a shared sense of aggrieved masculinity in which the use of violence is seen to restore power and influence. (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 5);
They suggest that it is the disappearance of the patriarchal dividend which sits at the heart of contemporary right-wing extremism: that men can no longer rely on a taken for granted legitimacy of white male dominance. This is less about being ‘left behind’ and more of a status threat, which fuels a sense of aggrieved entitlement. It is the attempt to restore dominance, which
sits at the heart of the culture wars, with some Alt-Right activists appropriating the term ‘counter-culture’ to underpin their ideological work. Analysis of this discourse reveals a tension between an outward presentation of strength and dominance and an inner core of uncertainty, doubt and resentment. Violence features strongly, invoking the traditional notion of it as the
maker of a man (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 36);
To explain why some Proud Boys increase their commitment to violence, it is important to understand the grievances that make involvement appealing to new recruits” … “Allusions to the concept of negative precarity are found in repeated images Proud Boys disseminate in their groups. These images construct a new perception of reality based on precarity as a white,
working-class American male at risk of losing his place in society amidst changing demographics…”(Kutner, 6);
Male supremacy=ideology with many faces. Its unifying thread is virulent, at times violent misogyny, and the practice of blaming women and a large feminist conspiracy for the ills of (mostly white) men today. Like other hate groups, male supremacists propagate conspiracies that see the world as a matriarchy propped up by “cultural Marxism” meant to eradicate or
subjugate men. It is driven by the belief that men are entitled to a superior place in society than women, which are biologically and intellectually inferior — as a result, any advancement that women might have obtained is nothing more than a usurpation. Like white supremacy, male supremacy is driven by fear and anger at the loss of white male status. (SPLC);
In many ways, white supremacy and male supremacy are one and the same. A perfect embodiment of this is the concept of “white shariah,” a shock-value concept that has been gathering steam in white nationalist circles. “White shariah” is the idea that the submission and rape of white women by white men is the only way to save the white race, since white women tend to
leave white men for their non-white counterparts, thus making violence necessary. (SPLC);
“The economic, cultural, & racial aspects of … “replacement theory” are inseparable, converge on sense of existential urgency-can only be addressed by a robust countermovement” (Strindberg, 32);
As these individuals share and communicate with one another in these contexts, it seems as though their suspicions are confirmed, and that men are truly suffering at the hands of women and feminism. Its confirmation can then lead to the increase in extremism…As individual views become more extreme and apparently universal, a mob mentality based on backlash to
feminism and political correctness arises, creating a sense of urgency resulting in (organization…) (Hodapp, 47);
“existential” threat--fulfills an instrumental purpose…By their very nature they demand attention and allow movements to attract recruits and resources. Framing a clash of cultures in defensive (rather than offensive) terms reduces public stigma, increases the legitimacy of the movement and the likelihood of recruitment into the organization. Internally, such a frame helps
overcome the collective action problem and stimulates action on the part of its members. When an alien force is perceived as not only hostile but threatening the very way of life or existence of one’s group, then conflict appears irresolvable and an extreme response is required immediately. (Wilson, 4);
An essential element in Incel rhetoric is that society…exclusively concentrates on women and their point of view. Incels claim that this corruption of society started when ‘beta’ men allowed for women to have more rights in an effort to gain female attention and receive sexual favors. This type of wooing is said to have gone too far, and now has irrevocably shifted the
gender balance dynamics against men. This narrative that we live in a corrupt, gynocentric society is fundamental in the strategic construction of there being an existential threat against men, which should be considered extremely dangerous … The framing of an enemy as posing an existential threat is replicated in other extremist milieus that often lead to violent action
against vulnerable groups, such as Jews and immigrants… example, the promotion of The Great Replacement theory, or white genocide, provides justification of white violence in the name of self-defense. This rationalisation is applicable to incels’ perception of women and progressives involvement in the decimation of masculinity (Barbarossa);
1 significant study takes a meta-analytical approach to the narratives set out in wide range of extremist communications … study suggests the use of such simplified narratives to justify, recruit and motivate is near universal among extremist groups, but tells us nothing about
effects of extremist narrative on potential/recruited supporters.
Accounts of convicted or former terrorists certainly suggest that revenge for perceived humiliation is frequently offered as an explanation for acts of violence, although retrospective
justification does not necessarily reveal motivation or vulnerability. Also important is vicarious or ‘proxy’ humiliation, where group identity is sufficiently powerful to make individuals feel grievances without experiencing them directly. (Allan, et.al, 32);
A re those who feel they are the victims o f discrimin ation and in jus tice more susceptible to s uch narr atives?
…the perpetrators recognize their violence is horrific and civilians are killed, but defend their actions on 2 grounds: 1st, no action would mean more would suffer and die, leading them to paint their immoral action as moral, and the only option they have. 2nd, they argue that similar violence had been inflicted on them by liberal, international progressives. Thus, for many
White supremacists, the Caucasian race is under attack from the “Other,” which is why they are taking action. (Kfir);
Another important mechanism of moral disengagement is dehumanization, which is the refusal to see the victims as humans. This is a relational process through which one group views another group as lacking humanness  killing or torturing becomes more acceptable. Dehumanization is common … in many racialist narratives such as The Turner Diaries, where the
protagonist claims that when the Organization clears “non-White” areas, it finds evidence of cannibalism and other horrific acts.(Kfir);
(animating rhetoric with self-victimhood)entrenches the idea of division in the social sphere between ‘us’ and ‘the enemy’. It fixates on an absolutist binary in society, consolidates the idea of an enemy of the people, and begins to sow the seeds for eliminating them. (Al-Ghazzi, 13);
In its moral function, the sense of being a victim delegates responsibility for both the outbreak of the conflict and the subsequent violence to the opponent. In addition, it provides the moral weight to seek justice and oppose the adversary, and thus serves to justify and legitimize the harmful acts of the ingroup towards the enemy, including violence and destruction. (Bar-Tal,
et.al., 16);
When the ingroup’s victimization is made salient, individuals reported less group-based guilt in response to violence perpetrated by their ingroup against another. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 25);
(research)…found that perception of victimhood serves the function of justifying ingroup negative behavior after it has occurred... (Bar-Tal, et.al., 26);
Victimhood- strongly related to a feeling of moral entitlement—can be defined as the belief that the group is allowed to use whatever means to ensure its safety, with little regard to moral norms. … thus not surprising that the sense of being a victim frees them from the limitations of moral considerations that usually limit its scope of action.--allows some freedom of action
because they believe it needs to defend itself to prevent immoral and destructive behavior of the rival. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 26);
The sense of collective victimhood may lead to intensified violent reactions that are viewed as a punishment for the harm already done and/or as prevention of possible future harm.--provides moral power to oppose the enemy and seek justice. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 27);
“When an individual’s social world has contracted to just one group, a “band of brothers” facing a common enemy, the group consensus about issues of value acquires enormous power. The social-reality power of the group extends to moral standards that justify and even require violence against those who threaten the group” (McCauley and Moskalenko, 139);
"Narratives function at the core of extremism; fuel the process of self-identification with an in-group and link problems and grievances experienced by the in-group to the existence and actions of out-group(s). Extremists use crisis narratives that imply all crises experienced by the in-group can only be solved ‘through hostile action against the outgroup’. (Davey and Ebner);
"According to extremism expert J. M. Berger, violent extremists employ five prevalent crisis narratives: conspiracy, dystopia, impurity, existential threat and apocalypse. … In other words, for this world view to be effective it needs to be compared to an imagined future where society continues but in a weak and degraded form. This helps exaggerate the perceived
existential threat whipped up by those advocating the Great Replacement theory, and facilitates a sense of urgency, which can inspire extreme actions" (Davey and Ebner);
d. Detail narrative sources—“political elites”—politicians, newscasters,
podcasters, extremist group leaders, etc.
Mudde (2004) defines populism as “[an] ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups: ‘the pure people’ and ‘the corrupt elite’. The notion of purity lends itself well to the past in opposition to the impurities – the injustices and difficulties – that people experience in the present. Imagining a past in which ‘we’ were not victims fuels the affective power of feeling like a victim today. It is that power that populist leaders seek to exploit. Applying the notion of memory structures to populism, the plot
forms that feature prominently are those that establish binaries that divide a society between traitors and patriots, intruders and natives, and the faithless and faithful. …these binaries become a ‘chain of equivalence’ as one leads to the other and as their signification gets extended. ‘The more extended the chain, the less these signifiers will be attached to their original particularistic demands’ and so the more malleable becomes their signification. (Al-Ghazzi, 3);
The rise and fall narrative as deployed by populist leaders takes shape along the lines of: ‘We were in a golden age. We were victimized and lived through a time of humiliation. It is now time that I lead you back into that golden age’—Once in power, the framing of this story focuses on how adversaries want to reverse progress or are blocking the leader from pursuing his/her emancipatory project. In either case, a binary between us and them is solidified in the present and justified in relation to the past and the future. (Al Ghazzi, 4);  the populist use of
these tropes and metaphors about history at large aims to invoke a forked historical consciousnessan awareness of turning points in memory plot structures. These tropes allow populist leaders to portray themselves as historic agents able to change collective trajectories/pathways. (Al-Ghazzi, 5);
…in populist discourse, once leader is in power—objective is to prolong the idea of a fateful choice or historic juncture in order to justify continued exclusion and violence. …the analysis of populism, it is important to consider the differences between political orientations that seek to change the status quo versus those that seek to extend it … populism is not necessarily
defined by a particular political or ideological content; rather, structures the representation of whatever political content it articulates in particular ways, including the invocation of ‘the people’ as an empty signifier (Al- Ghazzi, 6);
In populist narratives, leaders position themselves as embodying the people’s agency and as those who can propel society into the desired future in order to return to a distant glorious past and to break away from the humiliation of the near past. In analysing the US case,
links victimhood to a rhetoric of…an emotional-moral framework that aims to continuously
‘regenerate the felt intensities that underwrite demands for revenge and lamentations of victimhood’ (Al-Ghazzi, 5);
In the language of “middle America” and the “silent majority,” Trump linked anti-immigrant politics to issues of middle- and working-class economic anxiety, deindustrialization, political powerlessness, and a sense of declining self-worth among white men. (Belew and Gutierrez, 266);
Trumps campaign rally in Minneapolis, in October 2019 is a good example of his sharpened public nativist appeals. His speech was notable for edits unabashed appointment of “replacement theory“ the long held colonialist fear…that white people are under the grave threat of being subplanted by non-white and culturally non-western immigrants and refugees. … Trump
wove together a vivid racialized and gendered conspiracy theory... This demonization was not new—fits squarely with the political theorist Michael Rogan called the “counter subversive tradition” in the United States: a persecutory fantasy centered on the imagined destructive power of women, immigrants, communist, and people of color that has been used to justify
extraordinary violence and repression. (Belew and Gutierrez, 284);
While Trump and the right wing's language continues to normalize misogyny and violence, the administration's policies and politics have continued dismantling protections women need. Just as Trump's refusal to condemn violent white supremacists has emboldened groups like the Proud Boys and the boogaloo movement, his sexist language, and in truth his actions,
embolden the men who seek to punish female power with brutality and terrorism. (Walsh);
This persona further embodies their altruistic self-image and could work to further embolden their reliance on political violence. Utilizing Nostalgia to Justify their ‘Defense’: The group's susceptibility to humiliation as a result of a loss of power is also a product of a belief that drives much of their political violence: their nostalgic views toward manhood. (Brubaker, 7);
Kelly (2020)
…an analysis of their online presence by Julia DeCook--Michigan State University, the group utilizes
images that aim to invoke nostalgia of America’s past, when traditional gender roles were celebrated
and prevalent within mainstream culture … As a result, the Proud Boys’ masculinity has been a
driving factor behind their violent tendencies. Given the prominent calls for progressivism by the
American political-left and the liberalism of the modern society, they feel their values are under siege
and must be defended. ...Since they feel that their conservative ideals are no longer defended by
authorities and the state, they feel they must rely on themselves to defend their ideals and physical
safety. By instilling this identity of traditional masculinity upon themselves, their propensity for
violence is just an extension of the beliefs they are trying to defend. Conjointly, their nostalgic views
have created a sense of moral superiority that can further validate their actions. (Brubaker, 8);
…Laird Wilcox in the book American Extremists, a sense of moral superiority can be derived from a
sense of victimhood and willingness to sacrifice oneself, and the Proud Boys emulated these
characteristics. By claiming to be victims of the political left’s attacks, they have found justification
for their willingness to engage in violence against them and sacrifice the possibility of getting injured.
As a result, the nostalgic views of manhood that justify their actions also creates a sense of moral
superiority. This sense of superiority could then instill validation regarding the members’ beliefs, thus
creating a cycle of belief and validation. Certainly, the Proud Boys’ use of political violence is rooted
in their victimhood narrative and their regard for traditional views of masculinity. These two
components allow for the Proud Boys to hold themselves with high esteem and regard, resulting in an
identity that they wear proudly on their sleeve. (Brubaker, 9);
The conventional wisdom=politicians use violent rhetoric to polarize society and thereby pave the way for further violence that is politically beneficial to them. …classic “power politics” perspective, violent rhetoric mobilizes supporters—and marginalizes rivals—to the benefit of the politician…The use of even ‘mild’ violent political metaphors increases support for
subsequent violence, and scholars have shown that individuals that hold explicitly dehumanized views…are more likely to support aggressive actions such as torture of dehumanized groups. ---Finally, violent political rhetoric may simply be a way to signal to ingroup members to coordinate on a strategy, and screen pretenders from true-believers. Evidence from
propaganda and even outbreaks of genocide suggests that repeating such rhetoric, even when it’s blatantly false, may be a way for individuals to show their loyalty to the regime, or can serve as a mobilization signal to carry out violence. (Zeitzoff);
---“The prohibition of interracial marriage has defined the world’s most entrenched racist regimes,
and sexual threats to white female bodies have been used to justify the strictest anti-miscegenation
laws in the United Sates” (Belew, 159); ---treated women as objects/vessels – to perpetuate the white
race---[the terrorist group, the Order]: “Characterizing birth as intimately tied to the battle at hand, the
pamphlet worked to increase the policing of white female bodies…” (Belew, 160). -Aryan Nation:
“Miscegenation,” is the ultimate abomination and violation of the law of God” (Belew, 164). -- The
Order: reproductive mandate “Fourteen Words” (Belew, 164);
1. Confirmation/validation of extreme views by political elites rationalizes the
views and the step from in-action to action
…2016 election-President Donald Trump gave power to these online communities to be even more outspoken about their ideology…one manosphere Leader wrote, “his presence in office automatically legitimizes masculine behaviors that were previously labeled sexist and Misogynist” …even greater concern, it put a few men who share those ideas into positions of power near the president. Steve Bannon-example-the executive chair of the far right website Breitbart news. (Zuckerberg, 4);
“…something has changed among adherents of these groupsmen's rights activists increasingly regard their (white) pro-male identities as more than personal. They believe that if they identify and act collectively as men, they can effect political change. The election of a man who brags about sexually assaulting women illustrates the efficacy of this conviction" (Dignam and Rohlinger, 2);
…abrupt shift in 2016, as moderators and elite users celebrated the ascendance of alpha male Donald Trump in the presidential race and argued that forum participants needed to take advantage of this unique political opportunity to under-cut feminists."(Dignam and Rohlinger, 10);
"Moderators and elite users did an abrupt about-face on their views of political action. In fact, moderators and elite users quickly positioned Trump’s candidacy as an opportunity to push back politically against feminism and destroy Hillary Clinton, whom they regarded as the epitome of everything wrong with feminists." ... "...the Red Pill forum had a collective identity and a common enemy…" (Dignam and Rohlinger, 14);
In many ways, Donald Trump’s 2016 victory – secured after a recording of the candidate bragging about sexually assaulting women was made public – was a glorious vindication of misogynists’ worldview. In a Radix podcast following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, Richard Spencer said referring to Trump’s behavior as sexual assault was “ridiculous” and “puritanical.” The white supremacist added, “At some part of every woman’s soul, they want to be taken by a strong man.”…“I’m in a state of exuberance that we have a President who
rates women on a 1-10 scale in the same way that we do and evaluates women by their appearance and feminine attitude,” RooshV wrote on his website a week after the election. “We may have to institute a new feature called “Would Trump bang?’ to signify the importance of feminine beauty ideals….” …seems clear that misogynist extremists feel validated and empowered by the ascendance of a man who they believe views women through the same reductive lens: as sex objects without agency and humanity, as faithful but lesser helpmeets, or as harpies
coming to steal their power. (ADL);
…this is the paradox of violent rhetoric. The rhetoric itself matters, but many times the response of elites to the rhetoric matters more than the words themselves. Much of the public follows politics in a limited way, and look to ingroup partisans and the media for cues on issues. Trump supporters use cues from Fox News and Republican leaders to evaluate whether or not something Trump said or did crossed a line of acceptable discourse. Extreme language also allows Trump to gauge the loyalty of his supporters, hence his famous quote during a campaign
rally in 2016: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” This speaks to both the loyalty of his followers, but also—by making such a statement and not facing a strong rebuke from Republican elites—it showed Trump that he was unlikely to face an intraparty challenge from other Republicans. …the key point: violent rhetoric matters more as a way to signal and gauge “who’s with us, and who’s against us?” and less as a persuading mechanism (Zeitzoff);
Echoing: refers to the way in which interaction with people who hold similar/similarly extreme views amplify and reinforce radical beliefs and legitimises violent action over time. The community and anonymity provided in online echo chambers may have a disinhibiting effect on individuals, causing them to act and think more radically over time (Molmen);
Stormfront has served as a ‘safe space’ for articulating extreme opinions often considered unacceptable in other online/offline communities…thereby gives its members a sense of a ‘second home’, deepening emotional attachments between users. As an analysis of Anders Breivik’s activity on the forum shows, extreme virtual communities provide resources for potential extremists that facilitate radicalisation and the use of violence. Furthermore, these websites have been found to be a crucial part of the enculturation into an extreme worldview that gives
would-be terrorists a narrative that justifies their actions. (Ganesh and Bright, 32); Accordingly, references to the mass murder committed by Elliot Rodger occurs frequently, and several substories regard fantasies of revenge on those who have victimised incels or other men. The radicalisation is more evident in this narrative since approval and support for violence are explicit. Further, the perception of themselves as enlightened and superior to women and other men resembles the emotional batteries, can drive collective action and radicalization
(Lewenhaupt, 32);
2. Increase in emotional utility of victimhood narratives and conspiracy
theories
emotion plays important role in politicization—"Opinion leaders in online forums prey on the insecurities of participants and use emotions such as fear and anger to induce political participation" … "Savvy leaders can stoke adherents' emotions in ways that cast political
engagement as an extension (and obligation) of a collectivity" (Dignam and Rohlinger, 6);
“…how it works: They feel entitled to a sense of belonging/community, holding unchallenged moral authority over women and children, and of feeling that they count in the world and that their lives matter. Experiencing threats to the lives they feel they deserve leads these young men to feel ashamed and humiliated … this aggrieved entitlement—thwarted and frustrated—
leads some men to search for a way to redeem themselves as men, restore and retrieve sense of manhood that has been lost. Joining up=form of masculine compensation—alternate route to proving manhood” (Kimmel, 10);
“What mediates between these over deterministic structural explanations and the reductionist psychopathological ones is gender. Masculinity. ...the gendered connection between humiliation and violence we will find the key to understanding how some get into extreme politics…” (Kimmel, 11);
“The emotion of shame is the primary/ultimate cause of all violence,” psychiatrist James Gilligan in book Violence. “The purpose of violence is to dimmish the intensity of shame and replace it as far as possible with its opposite, pride—preventing the individual from being overwhelmed by the feeling of shame” (Kimmel, 19);
Conspiracy theories are attractive because they connect random events into a coherent, meaningful narrative. You’re not small by nature…you’re made small because those forces determined to keep you weak so they can get stronger…” (Kimmel, 165);
…a man can initially swipe right on self-empowerment without realizing the redpill that accompanies it. After taking it, members can turn any issue or criticism against them into evidence of their own oppression, while discounting the humanity of others. …“Generally, demagoguery figures audiences as risk averse subjects by converting the shared vulnerability
characteristics of public life into a feeling of precariousness. Demagogues encourage audiences to self-identify as victims based on felt precarity, encouraging the well-off and privileged to adopt the mantle of victimhood at the expense of those who occupy objectively more fraught positions”. The solution to felt or imagined precarity is linked with securitization efforts...
(Kutner, 8);
…American fanatics of the political far right feel they are already at war—and have organized via social media…Their call is often perceived grievance… (Adolph, 1)—Despite the noise they make, they are inherently reactionary, anti-democratic, and therefore can advance their cause only by amoral means such as voter-suppression laws, violence, or the threat of violence.
Many seem to consider compromise a form of betrayal. Their appeal is primarily emotional. (Adolph, 2);
…anti-feminist ideology has the capacity to become a 360-degree conspiracy theory, like the kind of anti-Semitic ideas that flourish online. Feminists are presumed to influence all government decisions, even though women are still underrepresented at every level of elected office. Across the fractured, diverse outposts of the manosphere, “one of the few things they will
agree on is a conspiratorial view of feminism,” … “They don’t consider that it was ever a movement for gender equality. They think it was a guise to assert control over men.” (Lewis);
“…violence and attempts to restore traditional masculinity are signs of crisis tendencies in identity”… “Furthermore…the alteration of fundamental power structures, as in the collapsing legitimacy of patriarchal power, create the most significant evidence for an identity crisis” (Hodapp, 17);
“…if a man feels emasculated in his daily life by any number of factors (loss of male privilege, feminism, lack of masculine identified skill sets), the Internet allows this individual to express the masculine self in its fullest sense without real-world situations imposing on such expression…it is unsurprising that MRA's, who argue that they are oppressed as men and victimized by women often rely upon aggressive, hyper masculine rhetoric and identities in online postings and interactions. While the real world seems to prevent them expressing what they see
as their authentic gendered selves, the Internet provides a format where masculine identity can be established in a controlled way without the external constraints these men claim to experience...” (Hodapp, 24);
“emasculation by feminizing males who failed to uphold hegemonic masculine performance creates a sense of shame often resulting in violent or aggressive behavior…male gender roles expose men to shame if they are not violent or aggressive, rewarding them with honor when they are (Hodapp, 40);
“…themes concerning respect and humiliation consistently in his interviews with male inmates, leading him to conclusion that shame is necessary, but not sufficient, for violence. Shame combines with other factors and emotions that create violent tendencies…“The purpose of violence is to diminish the intensity of shame and replace it as far as possible with its opposite,
pride, thus preventing the individual from being overwhelmed by the feeling of shame.” …most violent men are deeply and pathologically insecure and ashamed, feelings they attempt to avoid and bury under violent behavior, bravado, and machismo” (Hodapp, 145). “…Since violence is not an innate, biological trait, then the normalization of violence must be a cultural
phenomenon. … the problem of shame is not an individual phenomenon; rather, it is an emotion that is systematically part of gendered constructs and socialization.” (Hodapp, 146);
I hypothesize that together, a belief in white genocide and incel ideology create a more volatile sense of anger and victimhood than either on its own. Why these two ideologies combined hold such power to produce extreme violence lies at least in part in their nature as conspiracy theories. Conspiracies simplify complex issues by blaming a single group or the state and
amplify threats to the in-group … conspiracies act as a “radicalizing multiplier” of extremism in three ways: by exacerbating demonologies of “the other”; delegitimizing and condemning moderates as part of the conspiracy; and spurring violent action by justifying the killing of innocents, partly intended to “awaken” the people from their acquiescent
slumber. …conspiracies create a sense that problems are being deliberately caused by unseen forces, and therefore demand “urgent, extraordinary or violent action in order to rescue civilization from destruction.” In particular, the urgency of the threat of racial extinction makes immediate and often violent action necessary (Wilson, 10);
…an account of the historical rise of victimhood as an affective logic of communication that attaches public value to those who have the power to claim it…contemporary claims to victimhood are grounded on 20th-century ‘grand’ narratives of trauma (psychoanalysis) and injury (human rights), both of which consolidated the victim as a figure of emotional or social pain
whose performances of suffering carried new moral and political value, and that 21st-century post-recession and digital neoliberalism came to amplify, accelerate and complicate the circulation of these performances, rendering ‘platformized’ pain the new normal in liberal cultures. (Chouliaraki and Banet-Weiser 3);
…As example—Brenton Tarrant—white Australian terrorist who shot dead 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch New Zealand 2019—tried to defend his actions through reference to The Great Replacement and White Genocide ... Extremists argue that the violence is reactive and not proactive — carrying a strong utilitarian justification. (Kfir);
The victimization narrative appeals to many in the extreme far-right because it lets them make sense of a world that they claim to no longer recognize. It explains one’s unemployment, lack of companionship, and/or lack of success. It is a mechanism through which the contemporary world is seen as being stacked against them and designed to support the Other…also
provides the extreme far-right with a twisted moral defense for the indefensible, emphasizing that the only way they can be free from their victimhood is through violence because the political, social, economic, and legal systems support the Other against them. (Kfir);
Anti-feminism—particularly effective at capturing a sense of grievance because the narrative it constructs about the world can be backed up by observable phenomena. Statistics about the falling birth rate among Western, educated, and especially white women are cited frequently across the manosphere as evidence that when women acquire agency in society, Western societies are threatened…The Great Replacement documents these trends as warning that Western culture will be overrun by “nonwhites,” further stoking the sense that these men face
unparalleled loss. (Guy, 17);
This crisis…is linked to “a new ‘crisis of masculinity’ amongst male members of the working class and underclass...” … “the state and political status quo are battling to counter the emotionally manipulative narratives of populist movements that capture the alienation, anxiety, anger, humiliation and resentment of marginalised young men.” … Much populist action by
white men can thus be understood as an attempt to reinstate a dominant form of masculinity. (Greig, 32);
…far-right understands the political utility of this emotional upheaval. One study of young men affiliated with/supportive of white nationalist groups in US and several Scandinavian countries found: All deploy ‘masculinity’ as symbolic capital, an ideological resource (1) to understand and explicate their plight; (2) as a rhetorical device to problematize the identities of
those against whom they believe themselves fighting; and (3) as a recruitment device to entice others to join them. (Greig, 40);
3. Discuss the “political elites” w/ primary focus  Trump; the Manosphere;
Extremist/Terrorist group leaders (a few other anecdotal parties)
internet has helped accelerate and radicalize the views--“Far-right extremists are often radicalized in online spaces where antipathy towards women runs rampant. In these online fora, people broadly believe that men are an oppressed class.”--“Participants bond through shared misogynist attitudes and anxiety over their place in society”--“…the communities in the
manosphere are rooted in their shared ideas about men and masculinity, and a shared anxiety over men’s perceived losses in social status, providing a potent basis for potential radicalization.” (Everytown)…may not start w/ harmful intentions—"users quickly find a shared culture of racism and misogyny. The far-right also sees the manosphere as a prime recruiting space.
Misogyny is an effective initial outreach mechanism” (Everytown); exposure to extreme ideals—radicalizes—forms connection between manosphere and far-right; those previously part of less extreme misogynistic movements (e.g., PUAs), can wind up involved in more extreme groups, like “incel” groups, or even adopt other views from other extremist movements
altogether, like white supremacist extremism (Everytown);
…the manosphere reinforces the idea that men are socially and individually disadvantaged. These spaces commonly embrace dangerous solutions to this perceived problem, ranging from dehumanizing and objectifying women to carrying out deadly acts of terrorism as revenge. The entitlement and contempt…in these online spaces mean their interactions with women often
carry a threatening undercurrent: Women who assert their autonomy risk violent retribution.--Having embraced the radicalizing message of misogyny that blames a class of people (women) for their own perceived loss of social status, the aggrieved men are primed to accept the ideology of white supremacy [that] claims communities of color and Jewish people are
conspiring to strip white people of their social status. This hateful continuum makes misogynistic groups attractive prospects for recruitment into far-right…example, prominent neo-Nazi decided he would no longer post women’s writing or radio shows on his website in hopes of attracting young men looking for a space with a male-focused ideology. White supremacists
also commonly use anti-feminism to introduce young men to further extremist beliefs. (Everytown);
This “online ecology” consists of a myriad of sites, memes and forums constructed around narratives of male insecurity and resentment, and the view of feminism’s progress as an attack on traditional patriarchal values and culture (Cannon);
internet/social media–normalize hate speech/violence against women–create like-minded community–draw them down a path of extremism (UN, 1);
incel ideology-largely propagated online–decentralized network of websites, gaming platforms and chatrooms imbued with a heavy sense of misogyny and significant overlap to other violent ideologies, including right-wing extremism and white supremacy” (Ong, 6);
…example manifesto–“the incel…perpetrator of the 2014 Isla Vista massacre released a 107,000-word justification for his violence” (Ware, 4);
“…manifestos portray the acts they justify as self-defense and the last resort. Terrorists like to see themselves as the hero of an oppressed class, as “reluctant warriors, driven by desperation” (Ware, 7);
“Much research conducted…on antifeminist trends within the radical right. Breivik’s manifesto lamented: “The ‘man of today’ is expected to be a touchy-feely subspecies who bows to the radical feminist agenda,” warning “the feminization of European culture is nearly completed” …(Ware, 7);
“Trump's social media strategy included…"shit-posting" about Hillary Clinton to mobilize alt-right men against her, a strategy that was underestimated…" (Dignam and Rohlinger, 3);
"Antifeminist ideas more pervasive--and far more personal--in the digital age. Internet provides MRAs with relative anonymity/ability to confront women one-on-one, making the Internet the territory of choice for extremist misogynistic discourse" (Dignam and Rohlinger, 4);
"…elites politicized the Red Pill identity by linking community ideals of neoliberal alpha masculinity to Trump’s public image as a powerful, independent deal maker, then framed the electoral conflict as one between alpha masculinity and the “feminist establishment.” (Dignam and Rohlinger, 7)
"…Trump’s polarizing effect on the political environment, causing hypermasculinity, blatant misogyny, and violent tough talk to resurge in popularity on national stage, provided the perfect opportunity for Red Pill to combat feminism through political action. …the only action suitable was to vote for Donald Trump, who would make America manly again" (Dignam and
Rohlinger, 18);
…The growth of the community in the wake of Trump’s political ascendance—as well as the development of smaller affiliated subreddits such as Red Pill Right…suggests that the willingness of citizens to act on misogynistic philosophies is growing." (Dignam and Rohlinger, 19);
"The alt right is noteworthy for its misogyny…2016 presidential election energized alt right; by the end of 2016, adherents were forming real world organizations and engaging in activities ranging from propaganda distribution to acts of violence" (Pitcavage, 5);
Paul Elam’s A Voice for Men became one of the manosphere’s most influential websites with intentionally provocative articles arguing, for example, the legal system was so heavily stacked against men that rape trial jurors should vote to acquit “even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the charges are true.” Elam also “satirically” declared October “Bash a Violent
Bitch Month,” urging men to fight back against physically abusive female partners. He offered “satire” such as: I don’t mean subdue them, or deliver an open-handed pop on the face to get them to settle down. I mean literally to grab them by the hair and smack their face against the wall till the smugness of beating on someone because you know they won’t fight back
drains from their nose with a few million red corpuscles. (Lyons);
…just as Trump’s promises to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, block Muslim immigration, and restore “law and order” have emboldened nativists and racists, so has his history of casual misogyny and alleged sexual assault (“grab them by the pussy”) energized an explicitly sexist element within the noxious “Alt-Right” movement (SPLC);
8/3/2019, El Paso, Texas – 22 people killed in domestic terrorism attack; Patrick Wood Crucius – posted online manifesto minutes before the incident that echoed incendiary public statements made by Donald Trump and other prominent conservative politicians and commentators (Piazza, 1);
When #BlackLivesMatter became a major twitter trend…in 2014, #AllLivesMatter swiftly emerged as a counterclaim to a different victimhood: Why are white lives excluded from the movement? (Chouliaraki and Banet-Weiser, 1) … when Brett Kavanaugh came face-to-face with Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of rape in the public hearing of his US Supreme
Judge appointment in 2018, President Trump echoed a wider male sentiment when he complained about ‘how difficult… it is to be a young man today’” (Chouliaraki and Banet-Weiser, 2);
…the invocation of history itself as an empty signifier in the construction of the victim within populist discourse. This use of history as a discourse that enables collective self-victimization and the co-optation by those in power of the victim narrative and position, serves to establish political binaries between ‘us’ as the patriots, faithful, authentic and ‘them’ as the traitors,
faithless and intruders. Drawing on Donald Trump’s … populist discourse … national self-victimization works through his use of a ‘past decline/ future glory’ narrative to mobilize their base against their political adversaries and/or marginalized communities. (Chouliaraki and Banet-Weiser, 4);
Here [Trump] put white male grievance at the center of his campaign, who delivered his most outlandish lines with an am I serious? Smirk, and seemed to shred the niceties and norms ... When hit, he hit back twice as hard. (Belew and Gutierrez, 293);
"The movement’s emergence must be viewed in a bigger, political context. All factions were favorable towards Donald Trump, as he was credited with facilitating their ideas into mainstream politics. The increased polarization promoted by Trump and his often-inflammatory rhetoric has manifested itself through a rise of hate groups in the US as well as a rise of violence
directed towards minority groups. (Garpvall, 42);
"…Trump’s “America First” rhetoric reflects and elevates this sorry reality. It’s worth remembering Gerald L.K. Smith in 1940s called his isolationist group the America First Party. Smith was a rabid anti-black racist, an avowed enemy of “Jew Communism,” and a Holocaust denier." (Potok, 9);
II.
Present hypothesis (As political elites' language of the misogynistic
collective victimhood narrative increases, violence and terrorism will
increase)
i.
Explain data/sources used to “test” hypothesis (more like, argue for
support of hypothesis? –not exactly “testing”)
ii.
Explain critical limitations of data (and time/resources)
a. Limitations of data on terrorism in general (note)
GTD’s criteria: first, “the act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal”; second, “there must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger
audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims”, third, “the action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities” (Allison, 5)
--different databases using different categories, ideologies, qualifications for ideology assignment, etc. – and some even a different definition – so much inconsistency!
b. Limitations of documenting/reporting misogyny’s involvement in terrorism
…strong overlap between male supremacism and the crucial role of gender in contemporary far-right movements. Take, for instance, the Proud Boys, which originated as a men’s rights activist group and has quickly transitioned into a far-right organization predicated on ‘Western chauvinism’. Other examples include right-wing terrorists such as the Christchurch shooter,
whose manifesto highlights an obsession with white reproduction and fertility rates in Western countries in promoting the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, or the Hanau attack perpetrator whose violent misogyny is deeply interlinked with far-right beliefs. In short, gender-motivated violence should be prioritized as a security threat, but in addition to, rather than a
substitute of, recognizing male supremacism in far-right extremism (Leidig);
Anti-feminism provides definition and community. It is the reason these men are “at home” in the manosphere. Moreover, anti-feminism provides the most dangerous aspect of manospheric misogyny: its ability to keep recruiting disaffected new members and to continue spreading unchecked by a society that tolerates “mere sexism.” (Guy, 19);
While there is growing recognition of the connection between misogynistic sentiment, anti-feminist backlash and far-right views, it is important to consider the question of how such views are mutually reinforcing. What upholds far-right sentiment is a desire for tradition, order and at times, systemic change. Those on the far-right believe that progressive forces have
‘ruined’ society, and that multiculturalism and gender equality have come at the cost of white male privilege (Agius, et.al., 20);
c. Limitation on categorizing misogynistic attacks as terrorism
By their very nature, misogyny and patriarchy are political: misogyny supports patriarchy as an order that shapes political institutions, laws, social and cultural norms, and what kind of privilege and access to power (most) women (do not) have. (Gentry, 2);
In a radio interview, feminist and environmental activist, Rebecca Solnit, said that we should term Incel violence as a type of terrorism related to misogyny ... In Disordered Violence, I do just that by aligning the ideology of misogyny with the common attributes of a terrorist defin ition (however unstable that may be). There is, however, one major issue: the refusal of
mainstream Terrorism Studies to engage with any of these concepts and the refusal to see misogyny as political (Gentry, 4);
What is perplexing is why any scholar would recognise that racism and anti-semitism act in tandem with each other yet never suspect that they are joined by other forms of hatred and power, such as misogyny? The simple answer is because misogyny is just not seen as important … The “thinness” of feminism in this text begins to illuminate why misogyny is not classified
as political – there is no feminism here. Furthermore, this ignorance of deeper understandings of gender structures, like misogyny and patriarchy, tracks with the inability to recognise the misogyny that exists in the far-right previous to the rise of Incels. (Gentry, 11);
…most of the work on white supremacist terrorism in the US fails to discuss how maintaining race purity rests on women and control of them, no matter how nuanced some of these texts are... Additionally, in Auger’s (2020) article on the rise of the far-right in the US and Europe, he notes the assassination of UK Minister of Parliament Jo Cox as owed to xenophobia, but
not as misogynist – even though multiple feminists have ... misogyny is part and parcel of far-right, Christian Identity ideology and it always has been. Thus, the question that remains is why Terrorism Studies failed to see it earlier and why it continues to deny its importance. More so, it should use this time of reflection to learn about what else it has missed about gender
and feminism. The storming of the US Capitol in January 2021 is seen within the scope of far-right extremism and, yet again, elements of misogyny and misogynoir were present: the targeted hunt for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and for Congresswoman Ayanna Presley should speak loudly to the counter-terrorism community on why they should take misogyny
seriously … here is yet another opportunity for Terrorism Studies to look at women’s roles in violence, seeing them as political agents in their own right. (Gentry, 12);
Additionally, though the prejudice and motivation for violence of the alt-right extends beyond manospheric misogyny, the ideology inextricably contains intense strains of misogyny and anti-feminism. … in the alt-right, sexism and racism are mutually enforcing ideologies of supremacy. Proof of their ideological partnership is embedded in the extensive overlap of their
online spaces and the documented path from the broader manosphere to the most extreme alt-right groups. Yet, because sexism is often viewed as a less threatening and objectionable form of prejudice, the violent misogyny at the heart of many instances of white male terrorism is often overlooked. A true accounting of the violence of manospheric misogyny requires
including these heinous instances of violence. (Guy, 27);
“We’re not joining the dots, nobody is making connections,” Laura Bates, author of “Men Who Hate Women.” “There is a big picture here that we are just repeatedly missing. There are connections between the normalized daily behaviors that we brush off and the more serious abuses.” … “That’s what we need to be doing better. We need to get better at sweating the small
stuff,” Caroline Criado Perez, author of “Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.” … There is plenty of evidence to suggest that misogyny and gender-based violence are also correlated with broader threats. They are among the most reliable indicators of terrorism and conflict, according to a 2015 UN report, because a spike in gender-based
violence — particularly domestic violence — correlates with “rising levels of insecurity in society more broadly.” A sudden disappearance of girls from schools, for example, could point to a rise of fundamentalist views. There is also a “robust symbiosis between misogyny and white supremacy,” according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League … “There is enough
data to know that men who kill women do not suddenly kill women, they work up to killing women,” Ms. Criado Perez added. “If only we were to listen to women and pay attention to the misogyny and aggression and violence they deal with on a daily basis.” (Gupta);
The first step … is changing the language used to describe violence against women and characterizing it instead as male violence. (The vast majority of abuse is almost always at the hands of men, as the W.H.O. noted.) “The term ‘violence against women’ is a passive construction — there’s no active agent, it’s a bad thing that happens to women,” he explained, but it’s as
if “nobody’s doing it to them.” That kind of language…“shifts the accountability off of men and the culture that produces them and puts it onto women.” The second step is recognizing that male aggression against women is a manifestation of a broader systemic problem. “There’s this impulse to pathologize the individual perpetrators — that somehow the individual
perpetrator is some monster who just kind of crawled out of the swamp,” Mr. Katz said. “But if you accept the concept that it’s systemic, then there are policy implications and political implications and introspection that can be uncomfortable.” (Gupta);
i.
III. Data/Records/Information evaluation
Attacks/murders 2010-2021 (specific discussion on
categorization/overlooking misogyny)
Almost as many murders (24, or 15%) were incidents of domestic violence. Most of these incidents
involved men killing female partners (as well as family members of such partners) or children, but
there were also murders of male housemates and one murder by a female Klan member and her son of
the woman’s husband, a Klan group leader. White supremacists have attitudes towards women that
range from traditionalist and patriarchal all the way to the outright misogyny common among alt right
adherents, and it is quite possible that white supremacist views of women may have played a role in
some or many of these deadly incidents. At the same time … domestic violence is one of the most
common types of violence and can be found in any sizable collection of people, so care must be taken
in analyzing this issue. (Muller and Schwarz)
Year
2012
NC
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
2021
CA
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(Other)
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
description
Isaac Aguigui, who pleaded guilty to killing two people in
connection with FEAR in December 2011, killed his
pregnant wife by handcuffing her and choking her to death.
He did so in order to obtain a large amount of insurance
money to finance the activities of his militia group.
Possible Aryan Brotherhood member Brian Keith
Whitfield, 25, assaulted and killed a woman because she
ostensibly disrespected his boss. In July 2013, Whitefield
pleaded guilty to murder.
Matthew Taylor Coleman took his two infant children from
their home in Santa Barbara, California, to a ranch across
the border in Mexico, where he allegedly used a spearfishing gun to kill both of them. He was arrested upon
returning to the United States, where he confessed to the
murders, telling authorities that he was “enlightened by
QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories” and believed
his wife passed serpent DNA to the children, who would
grow up to be monsters. Note: the location here is that of
his arrest, not of the murders…
Shawn Lichtfuss was arrested for the alleged strangulation
murder of his wife, Stefani Caraway, in what appears to be
a domestic violence incident. Lichtfuss has a long criminal
history—including violent crimes as well as a 1998
incident in which he vandalized three synagogues with
white supremacist graffiti. As a teen, he also once
distributed handprinted fliers with neo-Nazi content.
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Authorities in Sarasota County, Florida, arrested Stephen
Havrilka in connection with the beating to death of a female
hotel worker. According to law enforcement, Havrilka has
a number of white supremacist tattoos, as well as a lengthy
felony record.
2011
2021
2021
State
GA
NJ
FL
type
ideology
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Extremist Murder
Source
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
2020
TX
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(Other)
2020
CA
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(Other)
2020
SC
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(Other)
2019
NH
Extremist Murder
2019
MI
Extremist Murder
2018
KS
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Joseph Angel Alvarez was arrested for the November 14,
2020 murder of attorney Georgette Kaufman and the
wounding of her husband. According to police, Alvarez
said he was "executing and exterminating the pro-choice
Jewish Satan worshippers." In an e-mail manifesto sent by
Alvarez on the night of the killing he allegedly referred to
alleged Satanic rituals at the location where the couple lived
and demanded that people "stop all murder of babies." He
also reportedly described the victims as "pro-choice" people
and said they were members of the "Jewish Satanist Party."
Roy Den Hollander, a men's rights activist, shot and
killed the son of a federal judge, US District Judge
Esther Salas, injured her husband. On July 20, Roy Den
Hollander, a self-identified "anti-feminist" lawyer was
found in what is believed to have been a suicide.
Hollander's website includes numerous anti-feminist
writings including a 152 page document that included
the statement, "Things begin to change when individual
men start taking out those specific persons responsible
for destroying their lives before committing suicide." In
a long memoir, Hollander referred to Salas, who he had
been involved in a case before representing a woman
challenging the draft's male-only form, as a "a lazy and
incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama."
Hollander was broadly part of the men's rights
movement, had filed numerous lawsuits alleging gender
discrimination against men over things like ladies' night
at bars and womens studies programs at colleges, and
had appeared widely in the media representing his
views.
A six-year-old girl, Faye Marie Swetlik, was abducted
from her front yard and strangled to death within
hours. Her body was found in a shallow grave near her
home several days later. Police identified her killer as
Coty Scott Taylor—who killed himself after
Swetlik’s body was discovered. A friend of Taylor
told police that Taylor described himself as an asexual
and an incel. The motive for the abduction and murder
is not clear.
White supremacist Damien Seace murdered his girlfriend
by beating her to death with a leg from a piece of furniture.
In June 2020 he pleaded guilty to first degree murder and
received a life sentence.
Anthony Ozomoaro, a self-declared sovereign citizen,
allegedly shot to death a former girlfriend in an act of
domestic violence.
White supremacist Ronald Lee Tidwell was arrested for the
stabbing murder of an African-American woman.
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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2018
2017
FL
OK
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
2017
VA
Extremist Murder
2017
OR
Extremist Murder
2016
IN
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(Other)
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
2015
MT
Extremist Murder
2015
MN
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
2014
PA
2014
OR
Extremist Murder
2013
MA
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
2013
WA
Extremist Murder
2012
NM
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
2012
TX
Nikolas Cruz, 19, conducted a shooting spree at his former
high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, killing 17
and wounding 17 more. Based on evidence uncovered by
journalists following the shooting, it appears that Cruz was
a budding white supremacist--though that does not appear
to have been the motive for his spree.
Brandon Michael Tyson, a reported white supremacist
prison gang member, murdered an African-American
transgender woman in Oklahoma City. In April 2019 he
was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
James Alex Fields, 20, was indicted in June 2018 on federal
hate crime charges for murdering anti-racist protester
Heather Heyer. After participating in the white supremacist
Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Fields drove his car
into a crowd of protesters, killing Heyer and wounding 11
others.
Jeremy Christian was harassing/menacing two teenage girls
(one wearing a hijab and one African-American) on
Portland's MAX commuter train when several male
passengers intervened. Christian killed two of the men and
seriously wounded another.
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
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propaganda-2021
Sovereign citizen Giovanni Bailey murdered his wife and
killed himself after he was sentenced on felony convictions.
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propaganda-2022
Michael Augustine Bournes shot and killed his wife, three
children and himself. He reportedly had anti-government
extremist literature in his pickup truck, and he had failed to
file a deed of sale or permits for work on his property.
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propaganda-2025
Conspiracist filmmaker David Crowley shot himself, his
wife and his daughter in an apparent murder-suicide.
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propaganda-2028
Lincoln Levys brutally beat and murdered his infant
daughter, then cited sovereign ideology during his trial.
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propaganda-2029
Gary Alan Lewis, who holds "Patriot" movement antigovernment and survivalist ideologies, murdered a woman
and hid her body in the wall of a shed.
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propaganda-2031
White supremacist Jared Remy, who had an "88" tattoo on
his neck, murdered his girlfriend.
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propaganda-2032
Anthony E. Garver killed a 20-year-old woman after the
two were seen together earlier that day. Garver, a
survivalist and anti-government extremist, had previously
threatened the lives of a judge and prosecutor. He was
deemed unfit to stand trial.
White supremacist Brian Pulliam killed his ex-girlfriend
and her nephew and was sentenced to life in prison in May
2015.
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White supremacist Lawrence Mireles shot and killed a 16year-old girl in June 2012. He was sentenced to 60 years in
prison in 2014.
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propaganda-2038
2011
UT
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
White supremacist Eric Millerberg, 36, was charged with
child abuse homicide, obstruction of justice, unlawful
sexual activity with a minor, and abuse or desecration of a
human body, in connection with the death of 16-year-old
Alexis Rasmussen, who had worked as a babysitter for
Millerberg and his wife. In March 2014, a judge gave
Millerberg 5 years to life for child abuse homicide, 1 to 15
years for obstruction of justice, and 0 to 5 years for
desecration of a body.
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2039
2010
OK
Extremist Murder
2010
FL
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
CO
Extremist
Murder;Extremist/Police
Shootout
Right Wing
(Other)
White supremacist Ronald Seth Banks choked his girlfriend
to death and hid her body in December 2010. He pleaded
guilty in March 2011, getting a sentence of life without
parole.
White supremacist Craig Wall stabbed his ex-girlfriend to
death in her apartment as detectives were investigating their
baby’s recent death.
Lyndon McLeod went on a multi-location shooting
spree, killing five people and wounding a police officer,
who nevertheless was able to kill McLeod, ending the
spree. McLeod was involved in the toxic masculinity
subculture of the “manosphere;” specifically as an
advocate of hypermasculinity, claiming that
“alpha” and “sigma” males should be the
only males allowed to lead others and to procreate,
while “beta” males and women should hold lower
places and be deferent. He self-published a long threevolume novel that expounded upon these views and also
detailed his revenge fantasies.
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
Braedon Chesser, an anti-government extremist who was a
member of a small militia Oklahoma-based militia group
called the Sons of Liberty, fired at police officers
responding to a domestic disturbance call at his house. He
shot one deputy sheriff seven times. He was subsequently
found dead in woods behind his home but police have not
yet said whether he took his own life or died of wounds
sustained during the shootout. Following the shootout,
Chesser's wife, who the previous month had filed for
divorce, was found dead in the house, apparently killed by
Chesser.
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propaganda-2043
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Jaroslav "Jay" Vanko, 49, fired at and killed a Charlotte
County Sheriff's Office sergeant who was responding to a
domestic disturbance call. Vanko, who killed himself, had
posted to Facebook: "I love whites, the most beautiful
people on the planet. We need to fight it on daily basis, not
deal with savages on any level and ignore them
everywhere."
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propaganda-2044
Right Wing
(Other)
Anti-abortion extremist Robert Lewis Dear shot and
killed three people and wounded nine more outside a
Planned Parenthood clinic. He has been ruled
incompetent to stand trial.
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propaganda-2045
2021
2021
2013
2015
OK
Extremist
Murder;Extremist/Police
Shootout
FL
Extremist
Murder;Extremist/Police
Shootout
CO
Extremist
Murder;Extremist/Police
Shootout;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2040
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2041
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2042
2014
2018
2017
2015
2015
2005
2016
2011
CA
Extremist
Murder;Extremist/Police
Shootout;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
FL
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
NY
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
LA
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
SC
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
OR
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
Extremist/Police Shootout
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Elliott Rodger, motivated by racism and extreme
misogyny, conducted a violent spree involving stabbings,
shootings and vehicular attacks that targeted Asians,
women, and students. The spree killed six and injured
14 before Rodger killed himself. During the spree, he
twice exchanged gunfire with police. --- manifesto &
videos posted online--his motive for the attack: His
hatred of women drove him to carry out what he called
a “Day of Retribution.”
Scott Beierle conducted a shooting spree at a yoga
studio, killing two and wounding or injuring five more
before killing himself. Beierle, who had posted racist
and misogynistic videos to YouTube, appears to have
been motivated by the extreme misogyny of the
"manosphere."
White supremacist James Harris Jackson traveled from
Maryland to New York City to attack black men in an
effort to deter white women from entering into
interracial relationships. He fatally stabbed Timothy
Caughman, a homeless black man, to death with a 26inch "mini sword" before turning himself in to police
and was charged with second-degree murder as a hate
crime and, later, with state charges of terrorism.
White supremacist John Russell Houser, who was obsessed
with what he perceived as the moral decay of the United
States, shot and killed two people and injured nine others
when he opened fire during a screening of the movie
"Trainwreck."
White supremacist Dylann Storm Roof murdered nine
people in a racially motivated shooting spree at the
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.---his
manifestos mention replacement theory and during his
shooting he told one of his Black victims that he was
killing him to protect white women
A 26-year-old man shot 18 people, killing nine, at
Umpqua Community College in 2015. The shooter wrote
a manifesto that expressed his resentment to the world
for his lack of romantic success and admiration for the
Isla Vista attacker.
Law enforcement officers were involved in a shootout with
white supremacist Joseph J. Harper after Harper pointed a
gun at deputies who went to his home with a court order to
collect property awarded to Harper's ex-wife. During the
standoff with law enforcement, Harper died of an apparent
self-inflicted gunshot.
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Police responded to a violent scene involving white
supremacist Steven Douglas Stanbary. He shot his wife and
sister-in-law, started a fire in their home, and then fired
shots at police and would-be rescuers until the home burned
to the ground. He was presumed to have died in the fire.
GA
WA
Extremist/Police Shootout
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2046
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2047
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2048
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2049
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2050
https://everytownresear
and-gun-violence/
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2054
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2056
2021
OH
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2021
OH
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2020
AZ
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
An as-yet-unidentified person tried to set fire to a clinic
in Toledo that provides abortions, using an accelerant to
set fire to an exterior electrical box. Responding
firefighters were able to put out the fire before it had
spread very far.
Federal authorities arrested self-described incel Tres
Genco on federal hate crime and weapons charges for
allegedly plotting a shooting spree aimed at sorority
members at an Ohio university. Genco allegedly
composed a manifesto in which he claimed he would
“slaughter” women “out of hatred, jealousy
and revenge.”
Armando Hernandez, Jr., was arrested by Glendale,
Arizona, police on 16 criminal charges following a
shooting at a shopping center that injured three people.
Prosecutors have said Hernandez was an adherent of
the misogynistic incel subculture and specifically targted
couples.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2058
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2060
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2066
2020
DE
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2019
KY
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2019
MO
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
James Gulick was arrested for using a Molotov cocktail
to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic in Newark,
Delaware.
Daniel Kibler was arrested on terrorist threatening
charges for allegedly threatening to attack a Planned
Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati. However, KIbler had
not merely made a threat but also reportedly
constructed an incendiary device that police said he had
intended to throw at the building to set it on fire. He was
also charged with possession of a destructive device and
eight counts of wanton endangerment.
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri,
was set on fire. After an investigation, federal
authorities arrested Wesley Brian Kaster, charging him
with maliciously damaging by fire or explosive a
building owned by an organization receiving federal
funding.
Right Wing
(Other)
An arsonist was caught on video trying to set fire to a
Planned Parenthood clinic in Watsonville in July 2018;
firefighter were able to extinguish the blaze before
serious damage had occurred. A reward has been
offered for the perpetrator.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2071
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Orange County police officers arrested Nicholas Rose,
26, after a family member tipped them off that Rosen
was plotting to kill Jews. A subsequent investigation
revealed he allegedly had "kill lists" of prominent Jews
and a list of steps he titled "killing my first Jew." Rose
also allegedly was concerned about "white genocide," a
common white supremacist trope.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2072
2018
2018
CA
CA
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Terrorist Plot/Attack
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2067
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2068
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2070
2017
IL
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
2017
MN
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(AntiGovernment)
2015
WA
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2012
MO
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2012
WI
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2011
WI
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
2011
AR
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
2010
CA
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
Three men, Michael Hari, Joe Morris and Michael
McWhorter, were arrested In November 2017 after they
allegedly drove to Champaign, Illinois, to bomb the
Women's Health Practice, which performed abortions.
They threw an explosive device into the building but it
failed to detonate.
Eric James Reinbold was arrested after a cache of pipe
bombs was allegedly discovered on his property; a
subsequent investigation reportedly discovered writings
by Reinbold about sparking a "second American
Revolution" and a range of targets, including the IRS,
law enforcement, feminists, teacher conventions and the
rich.
An unknown perpetrator firebombed a Planned
Parenthood clinic in September 2015, causing extensive
damage. No one has been arrested in the incident.
Jedediah Stout was arrested in August 2012 for twice
committing arson against a mosque in Joplin, MO; the
second attempt succeeded in burning down the religious
institution. In 2016, Stout pleaded guilty to the arson,
along with two attempted arsons of a Planned
Parenthood clinic in Joplin the following year, in
October 2013. Stout pleaded guilty and was sentenced to
slightly over five years in prison for the various arsons
in October 2016.
Francis Grady was arrested in April 2012 for starting a
fire inside the Grand Chute Planned Parenthood
building using a homemade incendiary device. In
February 2013, a federal judge sentenced anti-abortion
extremist Francis Grady to eleven years in prison.
Ralph W. Lang was arrested in May 2011 for plotting to
kill Planned Parenthood employees in Wisconsin.
During questioning by the police, Lang admitted that he
was planning to kill staff members at the Planned
Parenthood clinic in Madison the following morning.
Lang was sentenced in August 2013 to 10 years in
prison.
Jason Walter Barnwell, Gary Don Dodson, Jake Murphy
and Dustin Hammond were arrested in January 2011 for
planning to use Molotov cocktails to firebomb a biracial
couple’s home during the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
holiday. All four ended up pleading guilty to federal hate
crimes charges. Another defendant, Wendy Treybig, also a
white supremacist, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in
connection with the incident.
Donny Eugene Mower was sentenced to five years in
prison in September 2010 for firebombing the Madera
Planned Parenthood Clinic and vandalizing a mosque
on August 24, 2010. In October 2011, Mower pleaded
guilty to the charges.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2073
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2074
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2076
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2077
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2078
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2079
https://www.adl.org/reso
propaganda-2080
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2081
2010
2010
2019
NC
FL
TX
2010
2015
SC
Right Wing
(Other)
Justin Carl Moose was arrested in September 2010 for
providing information related to the making, use or
manufacture of an explosive, destructive device or
weapon of mass destruction to help an individual he
believed was planning to bomb a North Carolina
women’s healthcare clinic. Moose, a self-proclaimed
member of "Army of God," an extreme anti-abortion
group, pleaded guilty to distributing information on
making and using explosives. He was sentenced to three
years in prison.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2082
Right Wing
(Other)
Bobby Joe Rogers was arrested in January 2010 after
setting fire to the American Family Planning clinic in
Pensacola, Florida, due to his "strong disbelief in
abortion." No one was injured in the fire, but the blaze
caused approximately $300,000 in damage. In October,
he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
https://www.adl.org/res
propaganda-2083
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Patrick Crusius walked into a Walmart and killed 23
people; thought to be a lone wolf attacker -- incorrect -part of online network/community -- wrote warning
messages to his online community before his attack -USED RHETORIC AND INGROUP LANGUAGE TO
BROADCAST HIS INTENT -- described a perceived
*existential threat* to whites -- "great replacement"
theory! --- Regardless of the incentive structure, there
are social motives to white supremacist violence in terms
of achieving in-group belonging and status by
participating in shared, gamified goals.
https://jigsaw.google.co
problem/
Extremist Murder
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Peter Avesenew murdered two men after they took him in
after a Craigslist he posted seemingly offering services as a
male escort. Though initially viewed as a robbery, after he
was found guilty and during sentencing, Avesnew sent a
letter to the judge in which he framed the murders as his
"duty as a white man to cull the weak and tired from
existence," claimed the murders were not his first or last,
called homosexuality a "disgrace," and included the 14
words, a common white supremacist credo.
https://www.newamerica
security/reports/terrorism
united-states-today
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Dylann Roof was arrested and charged with killing nine
people in a shooting on at the historic black Emmanuel
AME Church; According to one of the victims, Roof
said: "You rape our women, and you're taking over our
country. And you have to go," during the shooting. Roof
had posted a manifesto citing his radicalization after
seeing the coverage of the Trayvon Martin case and
laying out a racist worldview. He had also posted
pictures on his website and Facebook featuring white
supremacist imagery, including the Confederate battle
flag, patches of the Apartheid South African flag, and a
T-shirt featuring the number "88," which is often used
as a symbol for "Heil Hitler."
https://www.newameric
security/reports/terrori
the-united-states-today
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Terrorist Plot/Attack
2015
2015
2018
2021
2017
LA
CO
MI
GA
NM
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
John Russell Houser shot and killed two people,
injuring others, at a screening of the movie Trainwreck
in Louisiana. Houser had a long record of anti-women
and far right views.
https://www.newameric
security/reports/terrori
the-united-states-today
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(White
Supremacist)
Robert Dear was arrested - following a shooting at a
Planned Parenthood clinic that left three people dead
and nine others wounded. Dear is being held in police
custody on suspicion of first-degree murder. Formal
charges, however, are not expected until his next court
hearing on December 9th. One of Dear's ex-wives has
stated that he glued the locks of a Planned Parenthood
near their home decades ago. The New York Times
reported that one person who spoke with Dear
extensively told them that he had praised the Army of
God, an loose organization that commits violence
against abortion providers, as heroes. After the
shooting, Dear reportedly made a comment about "no
more baby parts." The government, however, has not
commented on Dear's motivations for allegedly
conducting the attack.
Ronald Lee Kidwell, a 47-year-old white man, was arrested
and charged in the murder of MeShon Cooper-Williams, a
43-year-old African-American woman whose body had
been found after she had been reported missing in early
July. Kidnell reporteldy was a white supremacist who
would brag about membership in the KKK and drape
himself in the Confederate flag. He was previously charged
and pled guilty to assaulting another black woman in 2011
in which he sexually assaulted her and hit her with a
hammer per court records. According to his estranged
daughter, Kidwell deliberately targeted African-Americans.
According to an affidavit in the case, Kidwell told law
enforcement that he killed Cooper-Williams after an
argument escalated in which he claims she threatened to
reveal his HIV+ status. Law enforcement has not labeled
the murder a hate crime, but says it is investigating all
possibilities.
Right Wing
(Other)
8 people shot and killed in series of 3 shootings at
massage parlors/spas. Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old
white man, confessed. 6 of the 8 people killed - Asian
women. According to Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee
County Sheriff's Office, "[Long] apparently has an
issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these
locations ... [as] a temptation for him that he wanted to
eliminate." We have currently placed this attack within
our ideological misogyny category.
https://www.newameric
security/reports/terrori
the-united-states-today
Right Wing
(Other)
A 21-year-old man shot and killed two students at Aztec
High School in 2017. In addition to being an avid user of
white supremacist websites, repeatedly posting racist
rants and threats of violence, he also used the name of
the Isla Vista attacker in multiple online personas and
commended him in posts.
https://everytownresear
and-gun-violence/
Terrorist Plot/Attack
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
https://www.newameric
security/reports/terrori
the-united-states-today
https://www.newamerica
security/reports/terrorism
united-states-today
2019
TX
Extremist
Murder;Terrorist
Plot/Attack
Right Wing
(Other)
A 22-year-old man opened fire on a courthouse in 2019.
Responding law enforcement shot and killed him before
he could shoot anyone else. On social media, he had
shared far-right and incel memes and showed an
interest in ghost guns and gun rights.
https://everytownresear
and-gun-violence/
(The Soufan Center)
ii.
a. Explain categorizations: frequent misogynistic ideologies overlooked,
categorized as “right-wing/other”, etc.
Increase in domestic terrorism over last 10(?) years
An April 2020 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) presented data that
illustrates 2020 as the year with the highest number of domestic terrorism incidents and plots since the
first-year data was collected, beginning in 1994. In addition, 2020 saw a 69% increase in domestic
terrorism incidents and plots in the U.S. compared to 2019. However, the study noted that 2020 also
saw an 86% decrease in fatalities from domestic terrorist attacks over 2019, a drop due in part to the
absence of mass-casualty events like the 2019 El Paso shooting, which resulted in 22 of the year’s 35
killings. One of the reasons for drastically fewer far-right involved mass casualty events in 2020 was
pandemic-related lockdowns, which made it difficult for perpetrators to move, obtain supplies, and
organize in public, and also removed a number of soft targets as the public remained largely at home.
The lockdowns also had second order consequences…including fueling other DVE threats,
particularly from militias. …and, underlying causes for the rise in far-right inspired violence over the
past decades have likely not subsided … FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, 2020 saw the most reported hate
crimes in 12 years—with the majority of incidents perpetrated by white people (over 55%) and the
majority of victims (over 60%) targeted because of race/ethnicity/ancestry bias. (The Soufan Center);
In 2021, domestic extremists killed at least 29 people in the United States, in 19 separate incidents.
This represents a modest increase from the 23 extremist-related murders documented in 2020 but is far
lower than the number of murders committed in any of the five years prior (which ranged from 45 to
78) … Most of the murders (26 of 29) were committed by right-wing extremists, which is usually the
case. (ADL) ---Most of the 2021 murders were committed by people associated with longstanding
extremist movements, such as white supremacy and the sovereign citizen movement. However, 2021
continued the trend of recent years of seeing some murders from newer types of extremism, including
QAnon adherents, people associated with the toxic masculinity subculture of the “manosphere” and
anti-vaccination extremists (ADL)--The primary reason 2021 death tolls were comparatively low is the
same reason 2020 death tolls were low: the paucity of high casualty shooting sprees or other mass
killings. Most extremist-related killings, including 15 of the 19 lethal incidents of 2021, have just one
victim. This past year saw only one shooting spree with 5 or more deaths, when adherent of the toxic
masculinity subculture, the “manosphere,” Lyndon McLeod, killed 5 people and wounded another in a
multi-location shooting rampage ... One can contrast that with other recent years, such as 2015, which
saw 3 deadly shooting sprees by white supremacists and Islamist extremists that by themselves killed a
total of 28 people (ADL)
a. Highlight 2015-present (emphasis on Trump—later connection to
narratives)
b. Percentage breakdown of U.S. domestic terrorist attacks that are rightwing and percentage of other categories
Over the past decade, right-wing extremists have committed the majority of extremist-related killings
in all years but one—2016, the year of the shooting spree at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL,
motivated by Islamist extremism. Of the 443 people killed at the hands of extremists over that 10-year
period, 333 (or 75%) were killed by right-wing extremists. (ADL)
iii.
Right-wing “waves”  the 4th waves’ applicability to hypothesis!
first wave (1945-1955) consisted of relatively small "neo-fascit" groups - few with any political significance
second wave (1955-1980) of "right-wing populism" - short-lived political successes
third wave (1980-2000) the "populist radical right parties" started to achieve electoral breakthroughs
fourth wave (current) - far-right politics become relevant political force (Trump and far-right turn of the
Republican party -- in line with key characteristics of the fourth wave)
iv.
Extremist killings 2012-2021
a. “6 deadliest years” – all but 1 are in last 10 years
b. Breakdown by right-wing affiliations/ideologies
The white supremacist movement is not monolithic. It comprises a number of factions or segments of
various sizes, differentiated by factors such as religions, subcultures, tactics and goals, regional
influences and ideological particulars. At any given moment, one part of the movement, such as the
alt right, might be ascendant, while another part, like the religious sect Christian Identity, might be in
decline. Some people may belong to more than one faction at once; only a few are mutually
exclusive. But there are also many white supremacists who don’t gravitate to any faction but are more
“generically” white supremacist. Nor are most adherents members of formally organized groups.
(ADL); …76 of the 244 murders (31%) were committed by white supremacists who had no readily
identifiable connection to any specific segment of the movement. In many cases, they probably had
no such ties but were instead what one could call “generic” white supremacists. (ADL)
c. Incel attacks 2009-2019 (raw counts)
v.
Year
State
Misogyny-inspired “gun violence” (should be considered terrorism…)
Perpetrator
Fatalities/In
juries
Misogyny
Source
1991
2009
2015
2019
2019
2021
TX
35-year-old
man attacked
(gun) Luby's
Cafeteria
PA
48-year-old
man
Shot 12
women, 3
killed
LA
59-year-old
man attacked
(gun) a movie
theater
Shot 11
people, 2
killed
MN
24-year-old
man: Mall of
America
Threw a 5year-old boy
off a railing
OH
24-year-old
man: outside a
bar
GA
21-year-old
man: spas
Shot 26
people,
killed 9
Shot 9
people,
killed 8--6
were Asian
women
vi.
Year
2020
23 killed ;
20+ injured
State
NY
Most victims were women-survivors/witnesses noticed him
particularly targeting women...He had
harbored a severe hostility toward
women, including referring to them as
“female vipers” over whom he would
“prevail.”
He had written often about his
resentment over not having a girlfriend
or being sexually active, and had posted
misogynistic and racist rants on an
online blog.
He was previously accused of violence,
including domestic violence, nd had
written online posts that were antiSemitic, supportive of white supremacist
groups, and hostile to the government as
well as LGBTQ people. He was
reportedly an anti-feminist and was
“opposed to women having a say in
anything.”
The man told investigators that he had
been looking for someone to kill after
being rejected by women in the mall for
years.
The shooter had an obsession with guns
and long history of threats and violence
against women, including assaulting a
girlfriend and keeping a list of female
classmates he wanted to sexually assault.
He was also part of a band known for
lyrics describing explicit violence
against women.
The shooter targeted establishments that
he believed were temptations for a “sex
addiction.”
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogynyextremism-and-gun-violence/
Thwarted attacks
Perpetrator
33-year-old
man
Affiliation
Thwarted Attack
Source
Selfprofessed
member of
incel
community
Charged in state and federal courts in 2020 after
repeatedly harassing and threatening a couple, whom
he knew from college, and their friends. The man
evoked the Isla Vista attacker in threatening
messages and told police he “identified with [the
attacker’s] ideology and manifesto.” He also stated
in a Twitter post “women have done nothing but spit
in my face. Soon I’ll be getting a gun.”
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogyn
extremism-and-gun-violence/
2020
CA
33-year-old
man
Incel
advocate
arrested after sending violent threats over social
media to teenage girls and women who had declined
his sexual advances for years. He was an avid
promoter of the incel ideology and viewed the Isla
Vista attacker as a victim. In April 2021, he was
sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after
pleading guilty to two counts of cyberstalking.
2020
NY
29-year-old
man
Neo-Nazi
2020
VA
23-year-old
man
Possible
Incel
arrested when he purchased firearms from
undercover federal agents—including a handgun and
shotgun with obliterated serial numbers, and an
assault-style ghost gun equipped with a silencer and
a high-capacity magazine—with the intent of using
them for a racial civil war or racial holy war. In
addition to writing frequent anti-Semitic and racist
social media posts, the man wrote about wanting to
“go on a spree after my enemies til the authorities
take me out … Sometimes I’ve considered forming a
well trained incel hit squad.” Plead guilty to
possessing a firearm with obliterated serial numbers-sentenced to 57 months in federal prison in 2021.
arrested after he was wounded trying to make
explosives. He had been building a bomb with the
intention of targeting “hot cheerleaders” because of
his sexual frustration. In a note he wrote, recovered
by law enforcement, he stated he would be “heroic”
and “make a statement like [the Isla Vista attacker].”
sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for possessing
& manufacturing unregistered explosive device.
Selfdescribed
Incel
arrested on federal charges after he allegedly
videotaped himself approaching women sitting
outside a restaurant in Manhattan and telling them he
was going to detonate a bomb. The man had
previously been arrested several times for harassing
others, often while recording or livestreaming, and
for multiple assaults involving pepper spray. In one
video, he yelled at women saying he had “incel
rage” and supported the Isla Vista attacker.
2021
NY
vii.
19-year-old
man
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogyn
extremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogyn
extremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogyn
extremism-and-gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/misogyn
extremism-and-gun-violence/
* Present several detailed examples of attacks and supporting information *
The 21-year-old man who shot 46 people, killing 23, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, subscribed to the
“Great Replacement” theory, including opposing interracial couples; The 19-year-old man who
attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, leaving one person dead and three wounded, blamed
Jewish people for promoting feminism; The 21-year-old man who shot and killed nine Black
worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, stated
during the shooting that he “had to do it” because “you rape our women.” (Everytown);
No misogynist killer articulated the terroristic intention behind his selected target more clearly than the
22-year-old Santa Barbara perpetrator, who set out on his “War on Women” to “punish all females for
the crime of depriving me of sex.” The autobiography he left behind—has been taken as a manifesto
for the incel ideology—spells this out. “I cannot kill every single female on earth, but I can deliver a
devastating blow that will shake all of them to the core of their wicked hearts. I will attack the very
girls who represent everything I hate in the female gender: The hottest sorority of [University of
California, Santa Barbara].” He continues by describing these sorority women as selected for being
“the kind of girls I’ve always desired but was never able to have.” (The perpetrator was unsuccessful
in gaining access to the sorority and turned to killing people outside instead.) (DiBranco);
viii. * Present several detailed examples of the various forms of the narrative
and rhetoric related to this theory *
Male supremacist groups vilify women along paradoxes: manipulative yet incompetent; genetically
inferior, yet the progenitors of the white race; and deserving of violent punishment both for having sex
and denying sex to men. Many of these narratives about the inferiority and subjugation of women
underpin the beliefs of nearly all extremist groups (Bates);
When #BlackLivesMatter became a major twitter trend…in 2014, #AllLivesMatter swiftly emerged as a counterclaim to a different victimhood: Why are white lives excluded from the movement? (Chouliaraki and Banet-Weiser, 1) …
…angry men found one another online: Incel msg. boards are littered with casual misogyny, w. highly trafficked threads--“Why women are the embodiment of evil” and “All women are sluts.”
“Your ‘freedom’ has brought white people and our land nothing but hardship. You whores [are]… sieving our entire race just because you want to sleep with Chad for a night and have one of his criminal bastard genes, and then pretend to have a career, instead of going for a breadwinner and breeding 6 warriors while being a happy hausfrau.” — alt right.com message
board … Meanwhile, PUAs are longtime players in the misogynist manosphere, and their putative leader, RooshV, dedicated himself to decrying feminism, belittling women and teaching men how to “date”—or, more accurately, how to be the most effective sexual predator you can be. Incels and PUAs believe that date rape is not only defensible, but is a skill that can and
should be taught. (ADL);
Roy Den Hollander–‘leader’ among the ‘oppressed’ men says: “He suffers from PMS – “persecuted male syndrome.” As he told a reporter, “the Feminazis have infiltrated institutions and there’s been a transfer of rights from guys to girls” (Kimmel, 1);
“Stephen Balliet, the Halle shooter, tied feminism into his concerns over race, opening his livestream by declaring “feminism is the cause of declining birth rates in the West.” … “Anti-feminism also ties the far-right to the nascent incel movement—to which Balliet was possibly an adherent” (Ware, 9);
Before he became one of America’s most recognizable white supremacists, Christopher Cantwell frequented men’s rights websites and posted misogynistic rants on his blog. Alt right blogger Matt Forney cross-posts some of his choicest anti-female sentiments to the MRA website “Return of Kings,” including: “The vagina is the perfect representation of the nature of females.
An empty vessel, a hole, a void with no identity of its own. Without a man to fill her with his essence, she is as useless as a crabapple rotting on the sidewalk.” … Alt right women are called “tradhots”—a reference to their idealized “traditional” role and their putative “hotness.” Where Devlin argues that women are ruined by having too many choices, Daily Stormer founder
and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants to remind women that they’re lucky to get a man — any man at all — and are worthy of little other than male violence and contempt. In typically self-aggrandizing style, Anglin referred to himself as the “tip of the spear against the feminist menace,” writing: “The fact is, when you give women rights, they destroy absolutely everything
around them, no matter what other variable is involved. Even if you become the ultimate alpha male, some stupid bitch will still ruin your life.” In case there were any lingering doubts about his misogyny, Anglin returns to this trifecta of abuse in July 2018, writing: “Look, I hate women. I think they deserve to be beaten, raped and locked in cages.” (ADL);
In 2017, famously publicity-averse white supremacist and alt right figure Greg Johnson was caught on tape airing his views on women’s reproductive rights and bodily agency. “Get rid of all voluntary birth control” … Richard Spencer told Newsweek he’s not sure women should have the right to vote. Matt Forney wrote, “As men, it is our responsibility to bring girls back to
their proper place. To lead them into their natural roles as wives and mothers. We men do not choose or reward girls for their clown college degrees, their meaningless cubicle jobs, or their supposed ‘intelligence.’ We reward them for their willingness to please us and make us happy, and in doing so make themselves happy. No amount of phony education or career ‘success’
will scratch that deep itch in a girl’s soul: the desire to serve a man.” (ADL);
2017, Andrew Anglin accused alt right personality Lauren Southern of sleeping with a black man, and
told her she should commit suicide—an extremely common response to any suggestion that a white
woman is “betraying” her race; she’s considered “damaged” and generally useless. (ADL);
Make no mistake that this is a war against heterosexual men. This is the war of our generation. This is
a war against men who are presumed guilty at birth, and whose innocence is mere purgatory until a
newly devised outrage sends them to hell. You are the enemy and you will be denounced in the form
of “misogynist,” “creep,” and “sexist,” and this denouncement will stay with you and affect your
livelihood in ways that modern technology allow. You will be prosecuted by the fattest and ugliest
cunts of the land, with no hope of appeal. – RooshV, “The War Against Men.” (ADL);
MGTOW is primarily a masculinist reaction to feminism that finds its conclusions in antifeminism,
radicalism and anarchism. The internet provides MGTOW an anonymous, homosocial-type space,
where men can resurrect lost notions of masculinity. MGTOW adheres to men’s liberation’s
appropriation of sex role theory symmetry and parallels its “slippage [...] to angry antifeminist men’s
rights language of nude victimization”. Messner writes, “First is the claim of having been an early and
ardent supporter of [liberal] feminism in hopes that it would free women and men from the shackles of
sexism.” At the beginning, a MGTOW is either Blue Pill or Purple Pill. Beginner MGTOWs buy into
the gynocentric system. “Second is the use of the language of sex role theory that equates sexist
thoughts and attitudes without discussing gendered institutional arrangements and intergroup
relations.” A MGTOW had alienating experiences, which consequently made them realize double
standards exist that do not work in their favor. They realize they have been taught to buy into this
unequal system by seeking validation in women. “[...]- last is a sense of hurt and outrage when women
do not agree that men’s issues are symmetrical with those faced by women, coupled with an
enthusiastic embrace of an angry and aggressive antifeminist men’s rights discourse and practice.”
(Lin, 93);
In their own words: “P---- is the only real empowerment women will ever know. Put all the hopelessly
wishful thinking of feminist ideology aside and what remains is the fact that it is men and pretty much
men only who draw power from accomplishment, who invent technology, build nations, cure disease,
create empires and generally advance civilization. Women whether acknowledging it makes us feel
warm and fuzzy or not, depend on men for all of that and the only tool they have at their disposal to
have any sort of influence on any of it is the power of p---- and p---- is powerful indeed…Sexual
robotics may well prove to be the best thing that ever happened to women from the standpoint of their
humanity.... what would that do to the vast majority of women who would suddenly have to prove their
worth as human beings beyond simply being the owners of said p----." — Paul Elam, An Ear for Men,
Sex Robots: Part 3 - Disempowering P----, October 2017 "Women, please listen to Whoopi Goldberg.
If you don’t want to be slapped, backhanded, punched in the mouth, decked or throttled keep your
stinking hands off of other people. A man hitting you back after you have assaulted him does not make
you a victim of domestic violence. It makes you a recipient of justice. Deal with it." —
— Paul Elam on
Men's News Daily site, quoted in Angry White Men “Make rape legal if done on private property. I
propose that we make the violent taking of a woman not punishable by law when done off public
grounds….If rape becomes legal under my proposal, a girl will protect her body in the same manner
that she protects her purse and smartphone…. After several months of advertising this law throughout
the land, rape would be virtually eliminated on the first day it is applied.” — Roosh V., “How to Stop
Rape,” Return Of Kings, February 2015
, 30 Bangs, March 2012
, “Why You Should
Shun Girls Who Support Abortion, Return of Kings,” August 2016 “No functioning, healthy society
would allow Pulse—or the kinds of men who frequented it—to exist…. No healthy society would
mourn their passing. Indeed, depending on your perspective, Mateen was just taking out the trash,
eliminating societal parasites via natural selection…. When a man and a woman are attracted to one
another, they are seeing the continuation of their tribe and the formation of the next generation...
Babies are produced by heterosexual relationships; all homo relationships ever produce is c--.” —
Matt Forney, “The Orlando Nightclub Shooting and the Moral Sickness of Whites,” Matt Forney blog,
June 2017
(SPLC);
Though he is best known for his white nationalism, Alt-Right personality Richard Spencer has made it
clear that women, too, would be marginalized in his fantasy world. During the first presidential debate
of 2016, he tweeted that “[w]omen should never be allowed to make foreign policy. It’s not that
they’re ‘weak.’ To the contrary, their vindictiveness knows no bounds.” Female citizens of his ideal
white “ethno-state,” would stay at home and produce offspring.
Paul Elam, October is the Fifth Annual Bash a Violent B----
Month, “A Voice for Men,” September 2015 "We've shouted endlessly at a deaf world that we were on the path to destruction, and we have watched our predictions of men being reduced to indentured servants to a malicious matriarchy come true, even as society continues to dismiss and humiliate us for speaking."
“No means no — until it means yes.”— Roosh V.
“If a girl is in favor of abortion, there is evil dwelling in her soul. If you let her into
your life, she will do her best to ruin you and bring you down to her level…If a girl is so revolted by a lifeform that is genetically 50 percent her that she’ll go to Planned Parenthood to get it flushed out, she will treat everyone else in her life with the same level of cruelty.” — Matt Forney
“Women should be terrorized by their men; it’s the only thing that makes them behave better than chimps.” — Matt Forney under the pseudonym Ferdinand Bardamu, “The Necessity of Domestic Violence,” In Mala Fide blog, 2012
And … Spencer dismisses the idea that Trump’s alleged history of forcing himself on women, kissing and groping them without their consent,
constitutes sexual assault. Indeed, he seems to endorse rape, writing, “At some part of every woman’s soul, they want to be taken by a strong man.” (SPLC);
The narrative of the incel as a victim is historically oriented since it focuses on events in the incels
past that have led to their inferior position in today’s society … The narrative begins with a strong
sense of injustice regarding the broken social contract between men and women, through which incels
dismiss the argument that they would feel entitled to sex… Men aren't entitled to sex?, true I agree, but
women aren't entitled to safety either, they never were entitled to it and they never will be, it was a
‘provision’ offered by men to women for co-operating with men to facilitate the social contract …
Women's actions have thrown the entire system out of order, and the violent responses of men today
are retaliatory. (BlkPillPres, 2018b, #1) (Lewenhaupt, 27);
…a post by FrailPaleStaleMale (2020, #1) who argues that researchers who expect “to find evidence
of discrimination against women” instead have found “evidence of discrimination against men”. The
post further argues these studies often do not get published and assumptions about women facing
discrimination persist regarding areas where it is, in fact, men who are facing discrimination. These
statements indicate that incels believe that society is rigged against men in general, incels in particular.
Incels are victims since they are the only ones who have to play by the rules, yet are not rewarded.
They have no way to gain attention and state that they feel excluded from society… comment by
Irishcel (2020) is an example: It’s quite sad that no one gives a shit about the plight of lonely and
disaffected young men until we start killing people, and even then only as a problem to be dealt with,
not as people to be helped (Lewenhaupt, 29);
"National Socialist Order website, Jan. 2022: “Taking action builds strength spiritually and physically.
Fill your enemies with fear and observe their relinquishment of power to you. So what will you do
white man? Will you sacrifice yourself for the System which hates you so much? Or will you fight
against the system with honor? We will not sit by while our race, our future and our children are under
attack by alien occupation!” (Counter Extremism Project);
American Identity Movement--"Patrick Casey, blog post, Nov. 2020: “Make no mistake, the dissident
right is as necessary as ever. The events of 2020 have proven us correct in our assessment that
globalism, leftism, and establishment ‘conservatism’ constitute existential threats to America and her
people. Mass riots have caused widespread ruin throughout the country; tech companies, serving the
interests of our ruling class, have ramped up their censorship efforts; the mainstream media continues
to promulgate falsity and manufacture outrage; Trump supporters are increasingly targeted, doxed, and
attacked; the social cost for taking a stand against the madness has only increased; statues and
memorials honoring our nation’s past continue to be toppled and defaced; and, perhaps worst of all,
establishment conservatives have proven themselves utterly toothless in the face of such an
unrelenting and unprecedented attack on our nation.” (Counter Extremism Project);
Nationalist Socialist Movement---"Jeff Schoep: “When … you take a German Shepherd and mix him with a Golden Retriever you have a worthless animal that nobody wants and that isn’t worth anything if you’re trying to breed him or sell him. … [T]hese degenerates that allow their children to race mix and this sort of thing, they’re destroying the bloodlines of both races.”
(Counter Extremism Project);
Oath Keepers rhetoric is deeply conspiratorial and promotes the need for a violent replacement of
tyrannical forces in the United States due to an alleged imminent conflict with the federal government.
Oath Keepers’ “calls to action” in response to such conflict have led to armed standoffs with the
federal government, armed intimidation of protestors, implicit threats of violence if their demands are
not met, and individual acts of criminality and violence. The events of 2020, including the embrace by
Rhodes and the Oath Keepers’ rank-and-file of the conspiracy of a stolen election, placed the Oath
Keepers on a collision course they had long desired with representatives of the federal government …
2 days before the Jan.6th Insurrection: (posted on their site) It is CRITICAL that all patriots who can
be in DC get to DC to stand tall in support of President Trump’s fight to defeat the enemies foreign
and domestic who are attempting a coup, through the massive vote fraud and related attacks on our
Republic. We Oath Keepers are honor-bound and eager to be there in strength to do our part. (Kriner
and Lewis);
"Great article. I became alt-right thanks to the constant haranguing of the SJW press, feminists, and
the general cultural attitudes of the Obama years. I'm a white guy who's tired of being sh-t on for being
white and just want to be left alone and see my country survive, rather than be destroyed to ""not seem
racist."" Thanks to memes, I've never had so much fun during an election cycle. Fun seeing libtards
and cuckservatives feel threatened by memes, probably since getting memed on means you're not
being taken seriously. 2016 is the #YearOfTheShitlord (Aj Retro)" (Garpvall, 34);
In 2017, famously publicity-averse white supremacist and alt right figure Greg Johnson was caught on
tape airing his views on women’s reproductive rights and bodily agency. “Get rid of all voluntary birth
control” … Richard Spencer told Newsweek he’s not sure women should have the right to vote. Matt
Forney wrote, “As men, it is our responsibility to bring girls back to their proper place. To lead them
into their natural roles as wives and mothers. We men do not choose or reward girls for their clown
college degrees, their meaningless cubicle jobs, or their supposed ‘intelligence.’ We reward them for
their willingness to please us and make us happy, and in doing so make themselves happy. No amount
of phony education or career ‘success’ will scratch that deep itch in a girl’s soul: the desire to serve a
man.” (ADL);
“No means no — until it means yes.”— Roosh V. (SPLC)
Nationalist Socialist Movement---"Jeff Schoep: “When … you take a German Shepherd and mix him
with a Golden Retriever you have a worthless animal that nobody wants and that isn’t worth anything
if you’re trying to breed him or sell him. … [T]hese degenerates that allow their children to race mix
and this sort of thing, they’re destroying the bloodlines of both races.” (Counter Extremism Project);
“If a girl is in favor of abortion, there is evil dwelling in her soul. If you let her into your life, she will
do her best to ruin you and bring you down to her level…If a girl is so revolted by a lifeform that is
genetically 50 percent her that she’ll go to Planned Parenthood to get it flushed out, she will treat
everyone else in her life with the same level of cruelty.” — Matt Forney (SPLC)
a. Increase in Manosphere membership & ideological crossover
“…manifestos often act as inspiration for ideological companions, both violent and non-violent” …
“This digital ecosystem is fueling a cumulative momentum, which serves to lower ‘thresholds’ to
violence for those engaged in this space … as one attack encourages and inspires another, creating a
growing ‘canon’ of ‘saints’ and ‘martyrs’ for others to emulate” (Ware, 10);
Grounded on feminist critiques of language, we created nine lexicons capturing specific misogynistic
rhetoric (Physical Violence, Sexual Violence, Hostility, Patriarchy, Stoicism, Racism, Homophobia,
Belittling, and Flipped Narrative) and used these lexicons to explore how language evolves within
and across misogynistic groups. This analysis was conducted on 6 million posts, from 300K
conversations created between 2011 and December 2018. Our results show increasing patterns on
misogynistic content and users as well as violent attitudes, corroborating existing theories of feminist
studies that the amount of misogyny, hostility and violence is steadily increasing in the manosphere.
(Farrell, et.al., 2);
For MGTOW, categories of misogyny seem to have a similar evolution pattern, being very mild or
nearly nonexistent during the first two years of the community, but displaying a constant increase
since 2015 till the end of 2018 were we observe a slight decrease. This growth is parallel to the
growth on the number of active members posting in the community (see Figure 2). (Farrell, et.al., 7);
These findings, and our observations of the constant increase in the different categories of misogyny
across all communities, support existing discourse analysis studies that violence and hostility are
increasing toward women online. (Farrell, et.al., 8);
Whereas many extremists do not identify as an incel, many of them support facets of the Incel
movement’s narrative, causing it to bleed into other spaces. A villainization of feminism and
modernity in general are staples in the far-right accelerationist community. The messaging to
motivate incels towards violence is very similar to what is preached in far-right extremism. For
adherents of far-right and incel ideology, accelerationist violence serves as a way to restore their
masculinity. Incel culture surrounds the idea that they are emasculated … have had their masculinity
stolen from them from alpha men and feminists. In the manner of WSE, recruiters maintain the
position that men should join them if they want to “feel like a real man.” Through violent action, both
milieus are retrieving what they feel they lost and are reconnecting with what they are supposed to be,
setting them on the path to be heroes, either for men or the white race as a whole. To call men to
restore masculinity is an implicit call to action, seeing as their preferred and possibly only approach is
through violence (Barbarossa);
…US white supremacists’ adoption of replacement theory holds that declining birth rates in white
America will mean that white American votes will be replaced by immigrants and/or through the
higher birth rates amongst people of color. Dylann Roof’s two manifestos make mention of
replacement theory and during his shooting he told one of his Black victims that he was killing him to
protect white women. Where these sentiments used to be more hidden or seen as part of the US’ ugly
racial “history,” the election of Trump in 2016 legitimized multiple forms of far-right extremism to
loudly/violently proclaim replacement theory: at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville the
marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us; you will not replace us;” it was the rationale for the
shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; and it was the justification for the killing of mainly
Hispanic shoppers in El Paso in 2020. In the autumn of 2020, just before the Presidential election
between Republican incumbent Trump and Democrat candidate Biden, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson
argued that Democrats were planning to “replace the current electorate, the voters casting ballots,
with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World”. What is not discussed in most of the
texts on far-right white supremacy is how racial purity and the prevention of “white genocide” is
dependent upon (deeply) conservative gender structures and assumptions. (Gentry, 10);
The narrative is clear: women and progressives are the enemy who are engaged in a war against men
and the ideals that they hold dear. At best, men are denied what they believe they are entitled to, such
as sex and love, and at worst they are enslaved, abused, and deposed of all rights. Fitting with farright sentiments, incels believe that there is no political solution, and that the media and education are
complicit in these endeavors, hence why there is no incel representation. Ultimately, these narratives
are crafted to motivate incels towards accelerationism. (Barbarossa);
Farrell, etl.al., 5)- study of
discussions in the Manosphere, including lexicons of hate speech and studies of the specific rhetoric used
in the Manosphere, which are: Harrassment Corpus, Violene Verbes, Hatebase (female), Hatebase
(original), Profanity Words, Incel Specific---colleced 2,454 unique terms---collected 301,078
conversations and a total of 5,674,303 comments within those conversations
(
(Farrell, et.al., 8)
b. Increase in YouTube channels, blogs, social media, manifestos, etc. using
CV narrative/misogynistic violent rhetoric
“Social media… has created the opportunity for men with antifeminist ideas to broadcast their views
to more people than ever before—and to spread conspiracy theories, lies, and misinformation. Social
media has elevated misogyny to entirely new levels of violence and virulence” (Zuckerberg, 3);
REDPILL forum created Oct. 2012 by former Republican lawmaker Robert Fisher (Dignam and
Rohlinger, 7); The name is a reference to the film The Matrix in which the protagonist, Neo, is given
a choice between slavery (the blue pill) and enlighten-ment (the red pill). Neo chooses the red pill and
subsequently learns that the world in which he lives is designed to deceive and enslave him.
Similarly, the purpose of the Red Pill forum is to expose the “true nature” of feminism as oppressive
to men and to help men reclaim their “rightful place” in society. (Dignam and Rohlinger, 7);
The Santa Barbara perpetrator’s investment in explaining through his manifesto, videos, and forum
posts how he—and other incels—faced sexual injustice for which mass violence was a justified
response substantially shaped the trajectory of incel ideology and mass violence. “Going ER”
[referring to Santa Barbara perpetrator] has become incel slang for mass violence. The references to
the Santa Barbara perpetrator by incel mass killers that have followed over the past five years
indicates that they are following in his footsteps, as he had hoped. On one forum, the Santa Barbara
perpetrator posted, “If we can’t solve our problems we must DESTROY our problems…One day
incels will realise their true strength and numbers, and will overthrow this oppressive feminist system.
Start envisioning a world where WOMEN FEAR YOU.” (DiBranco);
The recently released police interview with the Toronto van attacker reveals more starkly how the
Santa Barbara perpetrator’s rhetoric and example influenced his attack. The Toronto van attacker told
police that he began to be “radicalised” by incel forums around the time of the 2014 attack, echoing
the Santa Barbara perpetrator in claiming, “I consider myself a supreme gentleman … I was angry
that they would give their love and affection to obnoxious brutes.” Like the Santa Barbara perpetrator,
he referred to his attack as “the day of retribution,” and hoped to “inspire future masses to join me in
my uprising.” The Toronto van attacker’s trial will begin in February 2020 (DiBranco);
Among the most used violent terms across communities we can observe hit, kill, cut, and rape
occurring with a high level of frequency in comparison to other words. One exception to this are
neologisms that developed in the communities. The words incel, chad (normatively attractive white
male) and blackpill (deterministic point of view on human relationships) are examples. Another
exception is the collection of words that the communities have appropriated. Beta, for example, is a
term for a man who is not an alpha male (white, attractive and successful). The word cuck has many
different meanings from our examination of the subreddits, but broadly refers to anyone who does not
accept what is perceived to be biologically determined hypergamy among women. The development
of new language is another signal of the existence of a “culture” of misogyny that may exist within
these online communities in the manosphere. (Farrell, et.al., 9);
Incels who commit heinous acts of violence become martyrs, or ‘Saints’, within the community. Incel
violence is promoted and glorified on incel channels and forums, with many pushing other online
users to “Go ER” ... Alek Minassian, who murdered ten people in 2018, was inspired by Elliot
Rodger, posting on Facebook, “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the
Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger.” That same year, Scott Beierle
targeted a yoga studio, shooting six women and killing two before ending his own life. In videos
found after the attack, Beierle conveyed that he was also inspired by Elliot Rodger and felt as though
he could relate to the same sentiments. In 2021, five people were killed in an attack in Plymouth, UK
serving as one of the deadliest mass shootings in Britain in over a decade. The perpetrator, Jake
Davison, was subscribed to incel channels and confessed that women had poorly treated him in the
past, leading to this attack. In addition to incel attackers, incels also commend other mass killers who
do not adhere to the incel ideology. Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people in Las Vegas October
2017, is often applauded by incels for his work in taking out ‘normies’ (Barbarossa);
Donovan is emblematic of DiBranco’s theory that misogyny is a predominant force within the
contemporary far-right, one that is uniting leaders of varying movements, opening them up to new
audiences and vice versa. Over the past decade, Donovan has spoken at the gatherings of white
nationalist groups in the United States like American Renaissance, run by “race realist” Jared Taylor,
and the National Policy Institute, Richard Spencer’s essentially one-man-fail-son boiler room of
“identity politics for white people.” Some…are also fellow travelers amongst white supremacist
circles, appearing on podcasts and even as members of racist black metal bands. Others have been
directly involved with white nationalist groups and their efforts, like Devin Saucier and Kevin
DeAnna. More recently, in February, Donovan was invited to Schnellroda, Germany by the Institut
für Staatspolitik, an intellectual think-tank of the European New Right, to speak at its Winter
Akademie gathering. There, he delivered a speech erected from the bones of his self-heralded
magnum opus, “Violence is Golden.” Donovan’s speech demonstrates why he and this faction of the
European New Right (ENR) recognize one another as fellow travelers, or chorus members. It also
further reveals how the exchange of ideas and influences is helping sustain individuals—nearly all
white—within the United States and Europe who see their ethnic ancestors as the heroes and warriors
who’ve built the modern world, the true progenitors of superior cultures. But one principle alone
defines Donovan’s worldview: Violence, that most extreme consequence of misogyny. Jack worships
at its altar, dutifully repeating his mantra of “us versus them.” (Hatewatch Staff);
“She fucking goddamn loves the power she has right now,” Fox said at one point. “She has no checks
and balances at all.”…reminiscent of complaints against other female leaders or candidates. …Fox
News commentator Harlan Hill tweeted during the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday that Sen.
Kamala Harris “comes off as such an insufferable lying bitch” (Fox News later said he would no
longer appear on the network). Asked to comment on the tweet by Mediaite, he doubled down,
saying, “I stand by the statement that she’s an insufferable power-hungry smug bitch.” (North);
“Society has become a place for worship of females and it’s so fucking wrong, they’re not Gods they
are just a fucking cum-dumpster,” a typical rant on an incel message board reads. The idea that this
misogyny is the real root of their failures with women does not appear to have occurred to them.
“Women are the ultimate cause of our suffering,” one poster on incels.me wrote recently. “They are
the ones who have UNJUSTLY made our lives a living hell… We need to focus more on our hatred
of women. Hatred is power.” (Tolentino);
a main finding evident across the social media and stakeholder datasets was the prevalence and
strength of anti-feminist sentiment—sometimes explicit and other times implicit. On Twitter, men
tweeted more about anti-feminist terms (57%) than they did far-right (43%) terms (Agius, et.al., 17);
-2021, Tucker Carlson, whose Fox News show is the most-viewed cable news program in the
country, openly promoted the great replacement conspiracy. “In political terms, this policy is called
the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from faraway
countries,” on air in September. His words opened space for others, including elected officials such as
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who tweeted that Carlson was “CORRECT about Replacement Theory as
he explains what is happening to America.” Officials in border states, where white nationalist and
antigovernment groups have “intercepted” and interrogated migrants, have especially tried to ramp up
fear of white replacement to undercut their political opposition. Democrats, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan
Patrick said on Fox News, are using immigration to “take over our country without firing a shot.” In
response to the elected officials and other public figures citing the great replacement theory, Vincent
James Foxx, a white nationalist who helped organize the “Stop the Steal” movement, wrote on
Telegram: “We are the mainstream now. Our message and worldview are inevitably the conclusions
every conservative in the country will come to.” (SPLC);
February, Arizona congressman Rep. Paul Gosar addressed a crowd at the America First Political
Action Conference. The event, held annually, is hosted by white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes,
who stationed himself outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and told his followers to “break down the barriers
and disregard the police.” “White people founded this country. This country wouldn’t exist without
white people. And white people are done being bullied,” Fuentes told AFPAC attendees, immediately
after the sitting Republican congressman spoke. Gosar made news again later in the year when he
posted a video to Twitter of an anime version of himself killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez and attacking President Joe Biden. While Gosar was eventually censured by the House of
Representatives for the tweet, his Republican colleagues shied away from condemning his actions.
Only two voted in favor of the censure. Gosar’s tweet and the Republican failure to respond are but
one illustration of how much violent rhetoric and threats have been normalized on the right. Political
scientists and historians have noted that, although political violence is certainly not absent in
America’s history, this moment is unique because of the legitimacy that elected officials, as well as
the former president, have lent to using violence as a political tool. “The elite endorsement of political
violence from factions of the Republican Party is distinct for me from what we saw in the 1960s,”
political scientist Omar Wasow told The NYT. “Then, you didn’t have — from a president on down
— politicians calling citizens to engage in violent resistance.” (SPLC);
At his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Trump told his followers and the members of his party,
“Our country has been under siege for a long time.” He said, “If you don’t fight like hell, we’re not
going to have a country anymore.” Other Republicans followed suit, suggesting only extraordinary
solutions, outside the normal political process, are fit to meet the threat. Officials, including Rep.
Madison Cawthorn, have cited the election fraud myth as evidence that violence could become
inevitable: “You know, if our election systems continue to be rigged, and continue to be stolen, then
it’s going to lead to one place, and it’s bloodshed,” he said at NC GOP event in August. (SPLC);
Republican voters, too, are shifting toward a greater acceptance of political violence. According
to research conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 30% of Republicans, and 39% of
those who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, agree that “true American patriots might
have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” (SPLC);
"We identified around 1.5 million tweets referencing the Great Replacement theory between April
2012 and April 2019 in English, French and German language. The volume of tweets steadily
increased in the seven years leading up to the Christchurch attack, with the number of tweets
mentioning the theory nearly tripling in four years from just over 120,000 in 2014 to just over
330,000 in 2018." (Davey and Ebner);---"The Great Replacement theory is able to inspire calls for
extreme action from its adherents, ranging from non-violent ethnic cleansing through ‘remigration’ to
genocide. This is in part because the theory is able to inspire a sense of urgency by calling on crisis
narratives." (Davey and Ebner); -- "Politicians and political commentators have been key in
mainstreaming the Great Replacement narrative by making explicit and implicit references to the
conspiracy theory in their speeches, social media posts and policies." (Davey and Ebner);
“The time is coming when men will have to act as men. Not as beta male followers, but as alpha male
leaders. This society isn’t at the tipping point, it is well past it. Civil discourse is gone. Societal
stability in the family is gone. Traditional gender roles are gone. If one studies history, this type of
behavior in a society inevitably goes to a very dark place. Buckle up men. Things are about to get real
as the saying goes.” (Barbarossa);
c. *Trump*  Twitter analysis; media/public statements, etc.
Examining the 1,000-plus incidents that followed Trump’s victory, the SPLC found that in 37% of
them the perpetrator directly cited Trump, his “Make America Great Again” slogan, or his infamous
comments about groping women’s genitals. (Potok, 13);
Violent political rhetoric tends to happen in violent and polarized contexts. … the 2016 election of
Trump coincides with increasing partisan polarization, and ideological sorting between liberals and
conservatives (Zeitzoff);
My research shows that when politicians use hate speech, domestic terrorism increases – in the U.S.
and other countries…since the beginning of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, domestic terrorism
has more than doubled in the United States. During the Obama administration’s two terms, the U.S.
averaged 26.6 incidents of domestic terrorism per year, according to the Global Terrorism Database.
The most active year, by far, was 2016, which saw 67 attacks, more than double Obama’s overall
average. During the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, 2017 and 2018 – the latest year for
which data are available – domestic terror activity stayed that high, with 66 and 67 attacks,
respectively. (Piazza)—see “Figure 2” below;
Historical victimhood has been intrinsic to US president Trump’s message. His 2016 campaign
slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ captured his election campaign’s strategy and became the
mantra of his political movement. It insinuates that the American people are victims of having their
country’s greatness taken away from them. The ‘again’ in the slogan promises that the president will
renew its greatness through a future return to this mythical America of unidentified historical origin,
but that points to ‘a white, economically-robust, and socially conservative America’. Trump’s final
campaign rallying cry before the ballots opened was ‘the system itself is rigged against you’ – and,
therefore, a vote for him would be a rejection of the victimisation of the average American and would
change the course of American future history. After winning, President Trump built on his original
message. From the outset of his days in power, in his inaugural speech, he cemented his populist
message and its temporal logic. First, he equates himself and his interests with those of ‘the people’
by stating from the start that ‘today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to
another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington D.C., and
giving it back to you, the people’. In that way, Trump portrays his inauguration as a fateful turn in the
temporal trajectory of the American people from decline to ascent. (Al-Ghazzi, 8);
Second, in his speech, Trump lays out the Manichean view of society and anchors it in a metahistorical narrative. He positions himself, and therefore the people, against a powerful and adversarial
establishment victimising Americans. 1/20/17, he declares, ‘will be remembered as the day the people
became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country, will be
forgotten no longer’. ... Third, Trump elaborates on how the American people have been victimised
and the different ways that their aspirations have been crushed by the system. ‘This American carnage
stops right here and stops right now’, he declares. Through the term ‘American carnage’, he paints a
picture of the pain Americans allegedly endured and the extent to which they have been victimised.
(Al-Ghazzi, 8); … In this speech and other speeches, Trump lays the blame for American victimhood
mostly at ‘the establishment’, foreign governments, previous administrations, the media and the
opposition. The blamed adversary continues to be adapted to political circumstances. It began with
Mexicans and Muslims, along with rival Republicans. In the 2016 Presidential campaign ‘Trump
moved on to Crooked Hillary and, in the final stretch, globalists, the establishment and the “Rigged
System”, always in reference to America’s decline’. 2020, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, Trump
blamed China, the World Health Organization, his democratic opponents, the media and ‘ANTIFA’
for the health and economic crisis. On the eve of the 2020 election, Trump repeated the call he made
in 2016 – tweeting that a vote for his opponent Joe Biden is a vote for ‘Globalists, Communists,
Socialists, and Wealthy Liberal Hypocrites who want to silence, censor, cancel and punish you’.
Following his election defeat, he went further in telling his supporters that the election was fraudulent
and was stolen from them. Pushing his Manichean worldview of good versus evil, he establishes a set
of binaries between ‘natives’ and intruders, patriots and traitors, and so on, all of which clearly
xenophobic, racialised and gendered. …Trump…goes beyond populism, moves ‘firmly in the
direction of fascist and extreme right ideology, shifting more and more from a democratic agonistic
adversary into an anti-democratic antagonistic enemy’ (Al-Ghazzi, 2);
Trump’s call for violence against those he deems as the enemy is generally disguised. However, many
of his interventions, and the ways they are mediated, fill in the blanks in the meaning-making process
– making it clear who are responsible for victimising the United States. On numerous occasions,
Trump has called for the use of violence. For example, during the COVID-19 lockdown in April
2020, he called on his followers to ‘liberate’ three states with Democrat governors, and to protect the
Second amendment–basically, to act upon their alleged victimhood. The reference to the Second
amendment alludes to the use of violence, and the fact that the three states mentioned are governed by
the opposition party, sends a strong message about who the enemy is and what to do about it. His
words empowered ultra-right wing and White supremacist groups. For instance, in the weeks
following these statements, a plot to kidnap the Democrat governor of Michigan was uncovered.
Unsurprisingly, one far-right group calls itself, ‘American Revolution 2.0’, and claims to be
instigating a second American Revolution to correct the course of history in parallel to what happened
in the 18th century anti-colonial revolt against Great Britain. This is a clear example of how historical
victimhood, and the forked historical consciousness it co-opts, is operationalised by far-right groups
in the United States and how that facilitates a shift to anti-democratic politics. (Al-Ghazzi, 9);
…just as Trump singled out female reporters for his insults, he was particularly nasty in his rhetorical
attacks on female politicians. He called Hillary Clinton a “total train wreck,” Nancy Pelosi “crazy”
and “an inherently dumb person,” Dianne Feinstein “another beauty.” His most vicious attacks were
reserved for a quartet of progressive congresswomen of color, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. After
the four, nicknamed “Squad,” criticized his policies, Trump tweeted (July 14, 2019): So interesting to
see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose
governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the
world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly...... and viciously telling the
people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to
be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which
they came…(Nacos, et.al., 14);
Praising and Encouraging Violence Before and during his presidency Donald Trump’s preferred
words were those that project strength, toughness, and most of all wins. In his tweets he used “win”
and “won” 1,136 times; also prominent were the terms “strong” (551 times), “tough” (326 times),
“fight” (279 times), and “attack” (226 times). He degraded his opponents as “failing” 234 times,
“weak” 199 times, and “loser” 128 times. … On the campaign trail and during his presidency Trump
did not merely attack his opponents and “enemies” with aggressive and degrading language, he
condoned, praised, and even encouraged physical violence against various “enemies.” August 9,
2016, at a campaign rally in Wilmington, NC, Trump attacked Hillary Clinton and warned his
supporters of the terrible things she would do, if she were to win in November. Implying that she
would end their constitutional right to bear arms, he warned: Hillary wants to abolish—essentially
abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick (CROWD BOOING) If she gets
to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there
is. I don’t know. But—but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day. If—if Hillary gets to put her
judges—right now, we’re tied. You see what’s going on. Many observers understood Trump’s
remarks as instigating violence in case of a Clinton victory. (Nacos, et.al., 15);
Former President Donald Trump publicly disparaged “the woman in Michigan” because her efforts to
combat coronavirus contradicted his own desire to “open up” the United States, which helped fuel a
wave of protest. This culminated in a group of armed men storming the Capitol building in Lansing,
Michigan, on April 30, 2020, an event with clear parallels to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. The alleged plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer—14 defendants
are currently awaiting trial, though one has already pleaded guilty—which began in early 2020 and
coalesced over that summer, took place within this wider polarized political context. The case itself
highlights the continuing evolution and complexity of the domestic violent extremism (DVE) threat
landscape as well as its decentralized and amorphous nature. (Macklin, 3);
The language of many protesters, however, went beyond mere opposition to restrictions on big-box
stores. The messages took on misogynistic overtones, as demonstrators carried signs comparing
Whitmer to “a tyrannical queen and an overbearing mother,” according to MLive. Some chanted
“lock her up!” — Trump’s favorite rallying cry against Hillary Clinton. (North);
The protests in May were in reaction to the pandemic control measures Whitmer introduced to slow
the spread of the Covid-19 virus, and were notable both for the extreme show of force and the violent,
misogynistic language many of the protestors used.----- Hundreds of protestors, some of them armed,
stormed the Michigan state capitol building in Lansing, brandishing racist paraphernalia including
Confederate flags, and making explicit calls for violence against Whitmer. In one of the most
reprehensible examples, a Republican state House candidate hung an unclothed brown-haired doll —
Whitmer in effigy — by a noose.----- She's been likened to a menopausal teacher, an overbearing
mother, and a "tyrant b*tch." One post called for "watering the tree of liberty with the blood of
tyrants." Many pointed to President Donald Trump's tweets urging supporters to "LIBERATE
MICHIGAN!" as a catalyst for the protests. And indeed, rather than condemn the violence espoused
by the violent protesters, the president urged Whitmer to "give a little," arguing, "These are very good
people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!" The conspirators plotting to
kidnap Whitmer met during a Second Amendment rally in June before reaching out to the Michigan
militia group, Wolverine Watchmen, according to The Detroit News. In the FBI's affidavit, one of the
group's leaders, Michigan resident Adam Fox, is quoted as saying, "Snatch and grab, man. Grab the
f***in' Governor. Just grab the b*tch," and, "She f***ing goddamn loves the power she has right
now."---On Twitter, Trump stated, "Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job," blaming
her for shutting down the state and congratulating himself on "My justice department" which foiled
the plot to kidnap and potentially assassinate her. "Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White
Supremacist... Governor Whitmer — open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your
churches!" …interview-Fox News, Trump likened the people of Michigan to "prisoners." This victimblaming language is par for the course with today's GOP, like the "well what did you expect" framing
used to defend Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who drove across state lines with an assault rifle and
went on to shoot three Black Lives Matter protesters, killing two, as a matter of "self-defense." But it
also recalls language used to defend sexual assault: "Dressed like that, what did you expect?" And
reasoning used to deny women abortions: "Why didn't you just close your legs?" This framing treats
violence as a natural reaction when white men's power, or sense of power, is threatened. Because
these excuses are never afforded to people of color or to women. (Walsh);
Right-wing extremists have embraced Trump. According to extremism scholar J.M. Berger, in the
right-wing Twitterverse, “Support for Trump outstripped all other themes by a wide margin,” with
#MAGA slogans and imagery pervading much of their content. The van of Cesar Sayoc, who is
suspected of sending 13 pipe bombs to prominent Trump critics, was covered in pictures of Trump
and combative stickers embracing his favorite themes, ranging from “CNN sucks” to depictions of
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others as swamp-dwelling criminals. All political causes have a
loony fringe, but the president’s reaction to his most extreme supporters is at times sympathetic and in
other cases a genuine question mark, in contrast to other leaders who openly rejected objectionable
individuals and movements on their side of the political spectrum. (Byman);
The president’s reactions, and nonreactions, make right-wing terrorism much more potentially
dangerous…give more attention to extreme voices and legitimate their cause. In addition, the Trump
administration has not devoted resources to right-wing terrorism despite the danger it poses. As such,
it is more likely to continue and has a greater political impact—the goal of terrorism (Byman);
“The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s
TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely
cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!”(@realDonaldTrump), August 5, 2018 (Zeitzoff);
One of the consistent headlines of the Trump campaign and presidency has been his use of violent
rhetoric, most notably repeatedly calling journalists “enemy of the people ” at his rallies and via
social media. The targets of his ire have been varied—he has advocated roughing up protestors,
retweeted an animation of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, and referred to illegal
immigrants as “animals” and an “infestation.” (Zeitzoff);
"But that’s not true. Examining the 1,000-plus incidents that followed Trump’s victory, the SPLC
found that in 37 percent of them the perpetrator directly cited Trump, his “Make America Great
Again” slogan, or his infamous comments about groping women’s genitals." (Potok, 11);
"June 2020, he gave a televised speech in Tulsa, OK, that was labeled as the opening salvo of his
reelection campaign. The following excerpts from this speech demonstrate how Trump celebrated his
base as good Americans while simultaneously excommunicating evil “others” from the community of
real patriots: You are warriors, thank you. We had some very bad people outside; they were doing bad
things. They got rid of a lot of bad people that were there for a long time [they were in fact peaceful
“BLM” protesters]. Sort of like me in Washington, draining the swamp. I never knew it was so deep.
But it’s happening. It’s happening, I never knew it was so deep. It’s deep and thick and a lot of bad
characters. I stand before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger than ever before. They
want to demolish our heritage. And when you see those lunatics all over the streets, it’s damn nice to
have arms. Damn nice…The right to keep and bear arms, we’ll protect your second amendment.
Above all, we will never stop fighting for the sacred values that bind us together as one America, we
will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Our incredible success in
rebuilding America stands in stark contrast to the extremism and destruction and violence of the
radical left. We are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God…
Together we will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again, we will make
America proud again, we will make America safe again, and we will make America great again."
(Nacos, et.al., 11);
"Before and during his presidency Donald Trump’s preferred words were those that project strength,
toughness, and most of all wins. In his tweets he used “win” and “won” 1,136 times; also prominent
were the terms “strong” (551 times), “tough” (326 times), “fight” (279 times), and “attack” (226
times)"--"According to his own account, Trump showed his dominant traits already as a child. “Even
in elementary school, I was a very assertive kid,” he wrote in one of his books. “In the second grade I
actually gave a teacher a black eye - I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew
anything about music….It’s clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make
my opinion known in a very forceful way.”--"Allegedly informed by his security team that protesters
were going to throw tomatoes at one of his 2016 campaign events, Trump told his supporters, “If you
see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously.
Okay? Just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.”--"After a “Black
Lives Matter” protester at one of Trump’s rallies in 2015 was kicked and punched by his supporters,
candidate Trump supported the violent incident. “The man that was—I don’t know, you say ‘roughed
up’—he was so obnoxious and so loud, he was screaming,” he said. “He should have been, maybe he
should have been roughed up.” ---"When another 2016 campaign rally was interrupted by protesters,
Trump told his supporters, “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that
when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. It’s true. … I’d like to
punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”---"President Trump encouraged police violence before police
brutality resulted in social unrest in 2020. Addressing police officers in 2017 he told them, “When
you see thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in; rough. I
said, please don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting
their head, you know, the way you put your hand over it. Like, don’t hit their head, and they’ve just
killed somebody. I said, you can take the hand away, O.K.?”--"Examining whether correlations
existed between counties that were venues of Donald Trump’s 275 campaign rallies in 2016 and
subsequent hate crimes, three political scientists found that “counties that had hosted a 2016 Trump
campaign rally saw a 226 percent increase in reported hate crimes over comparable counties that did
not host such a rally.” While cautioning that this “analysis cannot be certain it was Trump’s campaign
rally rhetoric that caused people to commit more crime in the host county,” the researchers also found
it “hard to discount a ‘Trump effect’ since data of the Anti-Defamation League showed “a
considerable number of these reported hate crimes referenced Trump.”" (Nacos, et.al., 12);
"We investigate this question in the context of a particularly notable case study: the political rise of
Donald Trump. With more than 80 million followers, Trump is one of Twitter’s most prominent users
and has used Twitter almost every day since joining in March 2009, racking up a total number of
more than 32,000 tweets until the end of 2017. Trump’s rhetoric on Twitter-widely criticized as
inflammatory and frequently cited as an example of how social media might increase anti-minority
sentiments. Twitter and Facebook have recently flagged or deleted posts by Trump or his campaign
that were considered hateful. Such steps have further fueled discussions about how platform providers
and governments should moderate content on social media." (Muller and Schwarz, 17);
"To understand Trump’s Twitter activity, we collect the universe of his tweets from the Trump
Twitter Archive. Our version of this data set contains 32,794 tweets for the time period of April 2009
to December 2017. The data contain the date, time, and text of each tweet and the number of retweets
a tweet received. We analyze Trump’s Twitter reach and shows that he has the potential to influence a
considerable fraction of Americans. Figure 2 plots the monthly number of retweets he received since
joining Twitter. The number of retweets increased distinctly with his presidential run. The same also
holds true for the number of his followers" (Muller and Schwarz, 22);
d. Increase in hate-group propaganda, lettering, etc.
The ADL reported that white supremacist groups, such as Identity Evropa (IE), heavily targeted
college campuses with fliers and posters, while also livestreaming their activist endeavors. Most of
IE’s propaganda was void of white supremacist imagery or racist language, but once again focused on
narratives of white victimization. As the white power movement grows, and white supremacist
propaganda campaigns continue, the rhetorical strategies remain an important area of study in
research on the far-right. (Castle, etl.al., 2);
While the direct link between propaganda and violence requires further study, John’s conclusion that
“Terrorism is cheap – all it takes is paper” was supported by the surge in leafletting campaigns across
the United States during 2016–17. Furthermore, white supremacists highlighted the role of paper
terrorism in post-Charlottesville discussions on how to grow the movement given the negative
publicity of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally. (Castle, et.al., 13);
733 Hate Groups in US in 2021
1,020 Hate Groups in the US in 2018 HISTORIC HIGH
488 Antigoverment groups in the US in 2021
Antigovernment groups also fell from 566 in 2020 to
488 in 2021
The growth of a mainstream reactionary right-wing movement in 2021 is inextricably linked to the
powerful racial justice movement that mobilized Americans in 2020. The movement for Black lives forced
the country to reckon with the realities of systemic anti-Black racism and police violence. Its widespread
resonance also ignited fear in the hard right, which mounted counter-efforts to maintain and strengthen
white supremacy. Trump and other reactionaries demonized the movement, and painted Black Lives
Matter activists, Democrats and the left broadly as an existential threat to the country. “The left-wing
cultural revolution,” Trump in Sept.2020 speech, “is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.”
(SPLC)
Partially as an attempt to evade authorities and antifascist infiltrators, neo-Nazi groups, whose numbers
dipped from 63 groups in 2020 to 54 in 2021, organized in more decentralized fashion. Prominent voices
in the movement now encourage members of neo-Nazi online communities to maintain anonymity and
congregate in diffuse online communities rather than join public-facing groups with names and
membership vetting procedures. Extremists not associated with a defined group have still been arrested,
showing the strategy has returned mixed results. (SPLC)
white nationalist movement in 2018 - 98 hate groups: Fear of changes to the social status quo, in
which white people hold a privileged place, has helped fuel the mainstreaming of the “great
replacement” myth — a conspiracy in which white people are being systematically replaced by non-white
immigrants at the hands of leftists, Democrats, “multiculturalists,” Jewish people and others. The myth is
central to the white nationalist movement, which in 2021 included 98 hate groups. Since 2018, extremists
inspired by the great replacement theory have committed terror attacks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
Christchurch, New Zealand; Poway, California; and El Paso, Texas. But as hard-right actors weaponize
America’s demographic changes to instill fear and resentment, the myth has spread beyond terrorist
manifestos and into American living rooms. (Mudde)
While the overall number of hate groups declined in 2021, some groups experienced rapid growth, as well
as increased influence and access to the political mainstream. The most dramatic rise happened within the
Proud Boys, a “Western chauvinist” men’s organization with a long history of violence. In 2021, the
SPLC documented 72 active Proud Boys chapters across the country, up from 43 the year before. The rise
in Proud Boys chapters is especially remarkable considering that at least 40 members of the group have
been charged in relation to their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Their growth suggests the country has
become alarmingly fertile ground for their brand of authoritarian politics. The Proud Boys spent the
Trump years hosting rallies around the country that often descended into violent riots. With a handful of
exceptions, they faced little interference from law enforcement, giving the impression that they had the
tacit approval of police. They built a vast organizational network and, when Trump told the group to
“stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate in 2020, they became a household name.
Acting as Trump’s foot soldiers, roughly 100 Proud Boys descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, and
members of the group were among the first to enter the building during the siege. (SPLC);
e. Misogynistic rhetoric in various extreme-right groups
(Christian Identity member)-The White woman is considered the most beautiful creature in the universe,
desired and sought after by males of all races. However, femininity carries with it the legacy of Eve and
her indiscretion with Lucifer. Women are portrayed as weak and virtue-less and above all corruptible,
desperately needing White masculine leadership and strength. Women reach their highest fulfilment in the
supporting roles of wife and motherhood. Her sole purpose in this culture is to maintain a comfortable
home for her man and to bear “beautiful, healthy white babies.” To deviate from the performance of these
roles is to become relegated to the ranks of a “sick feminist” traitor to the White race. (ADL);
(MRA member)-- "“Your ‘freedom’ has brought white people and our land nothing but hardship. You
whores [are]… sieving our entire race just because you want to sleep with Chad for a night and have one
of his criminal bastard genes, and then pretend to have a career, instead of going for a breadwinner and
breeding 6 warriors while being a happy hausfrau.” – alt right.com message board" (ADL);
(PUA member)-"Make no mistake that this is a war against heterosexual men. This is the war of our
generation. This is a war against men who are presumed guilty at birth, and whose innocence is mere
purgatory until a newly devised outrage sends them to hell. You are the enemy and you will be denounced
in the form of “misogynist,” “creep,” and “sexist,” and this denouncement will stay with you and affect
your livelihood in ways that modern technology allow. You will be prosecuted by the fattest and ugliest
cunts of the land, with no hope of appeal. – RooshV, “The War Against Men.”" (ADL);
"In many ways, Donald Trump’s 2016 victory – secured after a recording of the candidate bragging about
sexually assaulting women was made public – was a glorious vindication of misogynists’ worldview. In a
Radix podcast following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, Richard Spencer said referring to
Trump’s behavior as sexual assault was “ridiculous” and “puritanical.” The white supremacist added, “At
some part of every woman’s soul, they want to be taken by a strong man.”" (ADL);
"“I’m in a state of exuberance that we have a President who rates women on a 1-10 scale in the same way
that we do and evaluates women by their appearance and feminine attitude,” RooshV wrote on his
website a week after the election. “We may have to institute a new feature called “Would Trump bang?’
to signify the importance of feminine beauty ideals….”" (ADL);
"I agree, we want women to be with us because they admire our leadership. Not because we integrate our
ranks with them to inflate their misconceptions about equality […] The thing is, women are going to
follow power. When we have power, we'll have the women, and we'll have gotten them the right way
(InfantryVet). ----- The comment above is from the Daily Stormer. By analysing what signs are provided
to the ‘we’ as well as to the women Others, it is possible to discern a collective identity based on a
hierarchal understanding of the genders. The ‘we’ is constructed as a manly, heterosexual, leader. This is
contrasted and reinforced by linking women to signs of ‘followers’, who merely goes where the power
goes. As so, the excerpt above articulates a collective identity around heterosexual masculinity, which is
also linked to contemporary society. " (Garpvall, 28);
From The Daily Stormer--"When RaHoWa13 comes, we will have to take in alot of Feral humans, and
alot of feral white women, We will have to train them and housebreak them all over again, and it will be
an ugly process but it must be done. […] These females need to be controlled and whatever form that
control takes, so be it. Think about it if another guy came up, spat at us and told us to F-K Off we would
hit him right? Then why should a girlfriend be allowed to get away with it? All is fair in love and war
(BillyRayJenkns)-Women want a strong man, that means conviction, ambition, intelligence…...keep them
guessing will win the battle." (Garpvall, 19);
ix.
Rhetoric/narrative  show correlating increase in use of C.V. narratives
and occurrences of terrorism
The manosphere phenomena has been linked to several prominent, violent crimes perpetrated in the
real world by individuals belonging to online communities of self-proclaimed misogynists. These acts
were justified, in the words of the perpetrators, by a deep hatred for women, whom they perceived as
having rejected and betrayed them. These high-profile cases have renewed discussions that surfaced
previously during the GamerGate and TheFappening controversies, more specifically, about how
exposure to misogynistic ideas online may lead to increased violence and threats against women. -Feminist analysis of the manosphere concludes that there is an ideological shift away from the men’s
rights topics that used to unite members toward more misogynistic and violent ideas. Recent discourse
analyses of the popular men’s rights websites, A Voice for Men and Men Going Their Own Way
(MGTOW) point to a backlash toward feminism, where even positive sentiments toward rape in some
circumstances may be utilised to attract men who feel concerned or excluded by the direction of sexual
politics. (Farrell, et.al., 2);
With this observational analysis our goal has been to test existing feminist theories and models at
scale. Our results do indeed corroborate some of these theories, particularly, the idea that violence and
hostility are increasing towards women online, that violent rhetoric and misogyny are cooccurring, and
that stoicism and flipping the narrative are two contemporary responses to feminism. Our research
supports these positions by exploring the evolution of content and users over time in seven different
communities. While we cannot indicate a clear motive for violence and hostility, we can say that it is
increasing, that fluctuations exist in the misogynistic language used by these groups, and that stoicism
and hostility are increasing and prominent across communities. (Farrell, et.al., 9); Jaki et al (2019),
using big data methodologies, outline how in and out groups are created and claim that their machine
deep learning system was able to detect what they term misogynist hate speech with 95% accuracy.
Zhane Hunte (2019) analysed Reddit threads of the group Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW),
part of the manosphere which she defines as ‘online communities that view feminism as a threat, and
that uphold misogynist ideas’ (p.8). She argues this is linked to online and real-life harassment and
violence. The masculinity which is performed and created through these threads is constructed through
mastery, rationality, courage and violence (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 25); *** “It appears that incels vary in
but are cognizant of their own misogyny, and that the higher level of embraced misogyny, the higher
the likelihood of violent ideation” (Speckhard, et.al., 106); Right-wing extremist rhetoric squarely
places the sources of ills afflicting “traditional” American society and the proscriptive dominance of
white males on the new, more prominent and more empowered place carved out for women in
American life. As it turns out, the empowerment of women directly boost right-wing terrorism”
(Piazza, 19); Two findings: first, hate speech by political figures boosts domestic terrorism and,
second, the impact of political hate speech on domestic terrorism is mediated through increased
political polarization (Piazza, 1); **“First, countries featuring more frequent use of hate speech by
politicians are more likely to experience an increase in subsequent domestic terrorist attacks.
Moreover, the relationship between hate speech and terrorism seems to not be endogenous, rather than
endogenous. Second, I find that the impact of hate speech by political parties on domestic terrorism is
mediated through increased political polarization. That is, I find that increased hate speech worsens
political polarization – defined in the context of the paper as the presence of extreme differences of
opinions on political matters among people within the same society – and that this produces a
condition under which domestic terrorism is more frequent” (Piazza, 3); “Moreover, other strains of
empirical research have demonstrated a link between hate speech or violent rhetoric by politicians and
increased individual expressions of racism, incivility and aggression, all of which may be important
motivators for individuals to engage in political violence. (Piazza, 4); The results of the analysis
demonstrate that hate speech by politicians does, indeed, increase the amount of domestic terrorism
that a country experiences. This provides support for the first hypothesis. … Political polarization is
significant in this model and its inclusion reduces the size of the coefficient for hate speech. This is a
preliminary indication that the impact of hate speech on domestic terrorism could be mediated through
increased political polarization. … In all estimations, hate speech is a positive, significant predictor of
subsequent domestic terrorist attacks. For each ordinal level increase in the frequency of use of hate
speech by politicians and political parties, the number of domestic terrorist attacks increases by
between 1.8 attacks (model 2) and 3.34 attacks (model 1)…It demonstrates that, holding all other
covariates (…) constant at their median or mean values, as political parties within countries
increasingly use hate speech, the country experiences higher levels of terrorism (Piazza, 12)… For
example, countries where political parties “never or almost never” engage in hate speech are projected
to experience on average around .9 domestic terrorist attacks per year, holding all other factors
constant. Countries characterized by “rare” use of hate speech by parties are projected to experience
around 1.6 attacks annually while countries where political parties “sometimes” use hate speech are
expected to feature 2.9incidents of domestic terrorism per year. In countries rated by Mechkova et al.
(2019) as having political parties that “often” hate speech, around 5.2 domestic terrorist attacks are
expected to occur. Finally, in countries where political parties use hate speech “extremely often,” the
model projects around 9.5 domestic terrorist attacks annually. For each ordinal scale increase in the
hate speech variable, the projected number of domestic terrorists nearly doubles (Piazza, 13); In
summary, I find that hate speech by politicians is a statistically significant, and substantive, driver of
domestic terrorism in countries. When politicians frequently use hate speech in their public statements,
the rate of domestic terrorism increases by almost nine-fold, considering that countries where hate
speech is a rare occurrence experience around one attack per year while countries where hate speech is
common experience between nine and ten attacks per year, all things being equal. I also find that hate
speech boosts domestic terrorism by stoking political polarization that makes domestic terrorism more
likely, shedding some light on a causal mechanism linking hate speech with terrorism (Piazza, 20);
Violence climbs when politicians speak with hate: What I found is that countries where politicians
frequently weave hate speech into their political rhetoric subsequently experience more domestic
terrorism. A lot more. Countries such as Costa Rica or Finland, where the data show politicians
“never” or “rarely” employed hate speech, experienced an average of 12.5 incidents of domestic
terrorism between 2000 and 2017. Countries where politicians were found to “sometimes” use hate
speech in their rhetoric, such as Belgium or Cyprus, experienced 28.9 attacks on average. However,
domestic terrorism was quite frequent in countries whether politicians used hate speech “often” or
“extremely often.” Such countries, including Iraq, Russia, Turkey and Sudan, experienced an average
of 107.9 domestic terrorist attacks during that period. (Piazza)—see “Figure 3” below; On September
29, 2019, with his impeachment looming, President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) retweeted a
warning by the Evangelical Pastor Robert Jeffress, “If the Democrats are successful in removing the
President from office it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will
never heal.” Two days later, U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert, a Republican of Texas, warned
Democrats that their “coup” was “pushing America into a civil war.”[1] On far-right websites Trump
supporters suggested drastic and even violent actions against the “enemy” within. Some warned that
they may need to exercise their Second Amendment rights—in other words, take up arms against the
traitors. Responding to one of Trump’s daily Twitter attacks on Adam Schiff, the leading U.S.
Representative in the impeachment inquiry, his followers seconded the President’s rhetorical assaults.
One male commenter attacked Schiff as “a co-conspiratory [sic] in a coup attempt. (pg.1)
“I’m gonna f_ing blow your brains out,” he warned. The would-be attacker told police officers
that “he watches Fox News and likely was upset at something that he saw on the news.” He
also stated that “he strongly dislikes the Democrats, and feels they are to blame for the
country’s political issues.”[ In his residence, the police found an AR-15 assault rifle, two
pistols, and 700 rounds of ammunition. Although these examples of hate speech and threats of
violence seemed shocking, they were merely iterations of Trumpian rhetoric and signposts for
significant increases in right-extreme violence and school bullying in the United States. Our
research found that Trump’s online and off-line hate speech corresponded with his followers’
aggressive rhetoric, violent threats, and actual violence against Trump’s declared “enemies,”
most of all, minorities, the news media, and oppositional politicians. (Nacos, et.al., 1);
However, as Carey noted, there are also “rituals of excommunication” that pit groups against
each other. Trump has used his spoken and tweeted words ceaselessly to draw his loyal
followers together in perceived communality while excluding outgroups from those
representing “we, the people.” During the 2016 presidential campaign he said, “the only
important thing is unification of the people - because the other people don’t mean anything.”
In June 2020, he gave a televised speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was labeled as the opening
salvo of his reelection campaign. The following excerpts from this speech demonstrate how
Trump celebrated his base as good Americans while simultaneously excommunicating evil
“others” from the community of real patriots: You are warriors, thank you. We had some very
bad people outside; they were doing bad things. They got rid of a lot of bad people that were
there for a long time [they were in fact peaceful “Black Lives Matter” protesters]. Sort of like
me in Washington, draining the swamp. I never knew it was so deep. But it’s happening. It’s
happening, I never knew it was so deep. It’s deep and thick and a lot of bad characters. I stand
before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger than ever before. They want to
demolish our heritage. And when you see those lunatics all over the streets, it’s damn nice to
have arms. Damn nice. …The right to keep and bear arms, we’ll protect your second
amendment. Above all, we will never stop fighting for the sacred values that bind us together
as one America, we will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Our incredible success in rebuilding America stands in stark contrast to the extremism and
destruction and violence of the radical left. We are one movement, one people, one family,
and one glorious nation under God… Together we will make America wealthy again, we will
make America strong again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe
again, and we will make America great again.[13] This was textbook demagoguery. By
bringing up the right to bear arms Trump issued a thinly veiled call to arms against the enemy
within. As one student of rhetoric noted, “violence manifests itself in pinning labels on others
and marking political, ethnic, racial, confessional, subcultural, sexist words. Violent speech
emphasizes alienating differences between persons, social groups, or communities. Violent
speech demarcates.” (Nacos, et.al., 2); An important device in the demagogue’s linguistic
toolbox blemishes the humanity of groups that do not belong to the ingroup. The goal is to
reduce “an entire segment of the population into profligate, pernicious, and dastardly
subhumans.” As Albert Bandura noted, “dehumanized persons are treated much more
punitively than persons who have not been divested of their human qualities.” Thus, by calling
Hillary Clinton “the devil” Trump made it easier for his supporters to join forces in chanting,
“Lock Her Up!” “Lock Her Up.”. (Nacos, et.al., 3); Trump’s branding slogan “Make America
Great Again” was a metaphor for a return to White Christian dominance of earlier times and
the subjugation of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. This was the ultimate division
between “good” and “bad” groups. (Nacos, et.al., 4); Examining whether correlations existed
between counties that were venues of Donald Trump’s 275 campaign rallies in 2016 and
subsequent hate crimes, three political scientists found that “counties that had hosted a 2016
Trump campaign rally saw a 226 percent increase in reported hate crimes over comparable
counties that did not host such a rally.” While cautioning that this “analysis cannot be certain
it was Trump’s campaign rally rhetoric that caused people to commit more crime in the host
county,” the researchers also found it “hard to discount a ‘Trump effect’ since data of the
Anti-Defamation League showed “a considerable number of these reported hate crimes
referenced Trump.”[91] Moreover, investigative reporting identified 41 cases of domestic
terrorism/hate crimes or threats thereof, in which the perpetrators invoked Trump favorably in
manifestos, social media posts, police interrogations, or court documents. Almost all of this
violence was committed by White males against minorities or politicians singled out
frequently by Trump for rhetorical attacks, and journalists.[92] The U.S. Press Freedom
Tracker recorded a total of 202 attacks on U.S. journalists from 2017, Trump’s first year in
office, through mid-2020.[93] (Nacos, et.al., 16); It is often difficult to trace one leader’s
statement to subsequent events, and even in the case of the Capitol insurrection the president’s
defenders insist on his innocence. However, a range of research suggests the incendiary
rhetoric of political leaders can make political violence more likely, gives violence direction,
complicates the law enforcement response, and increases fear in vulnerable communities. …
As extremism magnifies, the likelihood of violence increases: There is no direct line between
violent rhetoric and political violence if the speakers are careful not to name specific targets
and means, and otherwise incriminate themselves. The risk of violence is nevertheless
considerable. Although any individual — even one who cites President Trump or another
leader when committing violence — may have multiple motives for acting, some sense of the
problem can be traced by studies that show correlations between increases in hostile political
rhetoric and violence. (Byman); Approximately one-third of the researchers highlighted
grievances as facilitating the process of radicalization to violent extremism. Specifically, they
argued that feeling that one or one’s group has been treated unfairly, discriminated against, or
targeted by others may lead to individuals wanting to seek violent revenge or engage in violent
protest against those they view as oppressing them. (The National Institute of Justice, 13);
TRUMP!!! Indeed, since the beginning of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, domestic
terrorism has more than doubled in the United States. During the Obama administration’s two
terms, the U.S. averaged 26.6 incidents of domestic terrorism per year, according to the Global
Terrorism Database. The most active year, by far, was 2016, which saw 67 attacks, more than
double Obama’s overall average. During the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency,
2017 and 2018 – the latest year for which data are available – domestic terror activity stayed
that high, with 66 and 67 attacks, respectively. (Piazza); Countries such as Costa Rica or
Finland, where the data show politicians “never” or “rarely” employed hate speech,
experienced an average of 12.5 incidents of domestic terrorism between 2000 and 2017.
Countries where politicians were found to “sometimes” use hate speech in their rhetoric, such
as Belgium or Cyprus, experienced 28.9 attacks on average. (Piazza); However, domestic
terrorism was quite frequent in countries whether politicians used hate speech “often” or
“extremely often.” Such countries, including Iraq, Russia, Turkey and Sudan, experienced an
average of 107.9 domestic terrorist attacks during that period. (piazza); "Hypothesis 8: People
with shared experiences of discrimination and exclusion are more susceptible to a legitimising
‘single narrative’ which binds together multiple sources of resentment and proposes a simple
solution ""There is a strong relationship between perceived grievances and violent
extremism though there is some speculation about whether grievances are causative. Some
suggest they are necessary but not sufficient to cause violent extremism – although in general
the research seems speculative on this point. In conflicts involving violent extremism (as
opposed to terrorism directed against the West), socio-economic discrimination and
marginalisation do help to explain why extremist groups are able to recruit support in large
numbers. " --- Are those who feel they are the victims of discrimination and injustice more
susceptible to such narratives? Accounts of convicted or former terrorists certainly suggest
that revenge for perceived humiliation is frequently offered as an explanation for acts of
violence (Araj, 2008; Beg and Bokhari, 2009; Speckhard, 2006; Post et al., 2003), although
retrospective justification does not necessarily reveal motivation or vulnerability. Also
important is vicarious or ‘proxy’ humiliation, where group identity is sufficiently powerful to
make individuals feel grievances without experiencing them directly (Silke, 2008;
Khosrokhavar, 2005). (Allan, et.al.); “What this suggests is a striking “gendered” dimension to
right-wing extremist activity. In states where women are or are becoming more empowered,
both in terms of personal choice and participation in economic and professional life, rightwing terrorism is more frequent” (Piazza, 14);
i.
IV. Discussion
Explain: why is this correlation important and/or representative of vital
information?
Misogyny, including its current manifestation in the incel movement, is central to the notion of white
genocide. For all its overt claims of the need to defend white women from the ravages of foreign
“invaders,” the white nationalist movement seeks to place both minorities and women in subordinate
and quiescent social roles. The same is obviously true of the incel movement. Both misogyny and
white nationalism seek to defend white male hegemony against its perceived decline. Misogyny has
long been present in white nationalism, however the relative advance of minorities and women in the
contemporary era has brought issues of women’s freedom and declining birthrates into a more
prominent place in the movement’s propaganda. In the contemporary era too, many young men
(including almost all those who perpetrate both white genocide and incel-inspired attacks) now inhabit
the same online spaces for long periods. Misogyny is not simply secondary to white nationalist
radicalization but a crucial component of it. I have argued that white genocide and misogyny are not
merely kindred ideologies but are synergistic, doing more to radicalize white males than they would
separately. Perceived disruption to both ethnic and gender hierarchies creates a sense of injustice and
victimhood (and attendant rage) that goes beyond the sum of their parts. It is this synergy and the
enhanced victimhood it generates which is driving the current wave of violence by white males. This
wave has also generated its own momentum: just as each killing inspires its imitators, so too do the
statements and actions of the perpetrators introduce new converts to additional grievances.
Radicalization most often occurs—and becomes more deadly—when personal and political grievances
morph into one. For many incels, inhabiting the same boards as white nationalists, the notion of white
genocide and replacement explains the difficulties in their personal lives, identifies those responsible
and a pathway to retribution and perhaps change. Misogyny is key to ideas of white genocide:
together, these ideologies are inspiring a wave of deadly violence. (Wilson, 13); The chart below
shows a correlation between increased victimization narratives and a justification of violence
(narratives of hate??, 8)---see “Figure 1” below; Finally, of special interest is the finding indicating
that repeated experiences of victimization can trigger a pattern of requital behaviours of retribution
and cycles of violence. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 3); Thus the sense of collective victimhood often leads to
cycles of violence because of preventive and vengeful acts. (Bar-Tal, et.al., 14); Part of the problem is
that leaders’ remarks do not fade away after they are given. Incendiary rhetoric from political leaders
against their political opponents, minority groups, and other targets is often quickly magnified.
Leaders with large social media followings will see their remarks retweeted and otherwise shared with
millions of followers. Leaders’ rhetoric then drives the coverage of more traditional news outlets,
which broadcast it to their viewers and listeners. Rhetoric from national leaders also serves as a cue for
local figures, particularly if the national leaders have loyal personal followings. The local leaders’
rhetoric in turn is amplified by social media and traditional outlets. Ordinary people play an important
role too in spreading the message, sharing it with their own commentary with their friends and family.
Widely shared extreme rhetoric shifts the so-called “Overton Window,” signaling that an issue is now
the subject of acceptable discourse when, in the past, discussing it might have been taboo. Prejudiced
elite speech, one study found, is particularly powerful if other elites endorse it, emboldening audiences
to declare their own prejudices and act on them accordingly. As one expert noted, referring to
President Trump’s anti-Muslim and anti-Hispanic rhetoric: “The president’s rhetoric has helped to
shift discourse norms in our country such that it is more acceptable among more people to denigrate
and attack other groups of human beings.” An academic study found that rhetoric did not change
attitudes but rather emboldened individuals to express, and act on, pre-existing views they had once
hidden. Anti-Muslim discourse prompted by remarks by candidate Trump grew on Facebook and other
social media sites in 2016. This, in turn, led followers to increase their anti-Muslim tweets and to get
more attention from cable news channels. In subsequent days, hate crimes against Muslims increased
32%, with a significant, but lesser, increase against the Hispanic community, another target of
Trump’s rhetoric. Specific tweets would lead to increases in hate crimes, with the level rising and
falling depending on the prevalence of the social media activity. Hateful rhetoric can also stir
dangerous emotions. A study of violence in Sweden found that hateful speech spurs negative emotions
toward the target community among listeners, and another study of European audiences found that
exposure to politicians’ violent rhetoric increases support for political violence among those surveyed.
Such rhetoric also makes political violence against the target community seem more legitimate. In
Germany, another study found that increases in anti-refugee sentiments on Facebook led to increases
in violence against refugees: When Facebook had an outage, or when different events dominated the
news, violence fell. (Byman); "In Model 3, two of the three strategic connectivity variables were
significant: Groups that were linked to other far-right hate groups and groups in conflict with other farright hate groups were significantly more likely to be involved in violence, but groups linked to
specific far-right hate figures were not. " (Chermak, et.al., 31);
ii.
Argument for further research in this area…
While the majority of proponents within this loose confederacy of male supremacist subcultures do not
go on to become violent extremists, arguments have been made that its complex and often minimallymoderated nexus provides fertile ground for indoctrination into and acceptance of violent misogynistic
narratives, and paves the way for an ideological readiness to use physical violence against women
(Cannon); As I expected, the link is visible across ideologies, from Islamists and rightwing extremists
to the fifth of the sample where no known ideology was identified. This confirms my theory that
terrorism is at least as much about male violence as ideology, suggesting that angry young men are
attracted to extremist ideas that appear to “justify” their grievances. The route from victim to
perpetrator is not inevitable but it is well known, and the research reveals that almost 16% of adult
V2R referrals had been victims of domestic abuse, nearly three times higher than the estimated
national figure (Smith); People with shared experiences of discrimination and exclusion are more
susceptible to a legitimising ‘single narrative’ which binds together multiple sources of resentment and
and violent extremism though there is some speculation about how far grievances are causative. In
extremist groups (as opposed to terrorism directed against the West), socio-economic discrimination
and marginalisation do help to explain why extremist groups are able to recruit support in large
numbers. However, while the use of a ‘single narrative’ to justify, recruit and motivate is nearuniversal among extremist groups, the research into how extremist narratives work is actually limited
and we consider this to be an area for productive further research. (Allan, et.al., 31); Of course, the
very concept of hegemonic masculinity vaguely suggests the answer: their project is ultimately to
restore complete white male patriarchy within Western governments and social order. However, it is
not enough to assume that merely because many of these groups are dubbed “far right,” that the
manosphere will be appeased by political shifts to the right in Western states. In their ongoing period
of “waiting,” manospheric misogyny has become more and more extreme; their ideology is now far
more misogynistic, overtly racist, and violent than the vast majority of current Western conservative
politics. (Guy, 25); Instead, the factions of extremism in the manosphere have shown a willingness,
and even a proclivity, for violence. Unsurprisingly, given manosphere’s ideology, violence stands in
as a surrogate for masculine political power. White male terrorism, euphemistically dubbed “domestic
terrorism,” is engaged in by men across the manosphere. Incels represent the most prominent faction
of the manosphere engaged in this type of deadly terrorism. (Guy, 26);
iii.
Argument for treating misogynistic extremism as terrorism
Mike Wendling (2019) agrees that there is a ‘robust symbiosis between misogyny and white
supremacy’ (p. 1), noting that this is a dangerous, but frequently under-recognised component of
extremism. The clearest example is the Incel group, who organise around a male grievance at not
getting the sex they think they deserve. (Dhaliwal and Kelly, 32); In their recent article, Hoffman,
Ware, and Shapiro (2020) look at Incel violence – even though these well-regarded Terrorism Studies
scholars find it difficult to include the full range of Incel violence within the scope of terrorism. If
there is one thing most commonly agreed upon in Terrorism Studies, it is that terrorism is always
political, driven by a political ideology, leading to targeted violence in order to achieve political
objectives (Richardson 2006, 20; Schmid and Jongman 2005, 5–6). Hoffman, Ware, and Shapiro
(2020, 568) downplay that Incels have a political agenda and, in doing so, minimise Incels’ misogyny:
the incel worldview is not obviously political. But because its core ethos revolves around the
subjugation and repression of a group and its violence is designed to have far-reaching societal effects,
incel violence arguably conforms to an emergent trend in terrorism with a more salient hate crime
dimension. (Gentry, 4); … While I unpack why this is such a problem in the next section, there is one
more element of Incel violence that takes Hoffman, Ware, and Shapiro (2020, 572) by surprise: that
the Incels and far-right groups in the United States are joining forces: A particularly worrisome trend
is how seamlessly the militant incel community has been integrated into the alt-right tapestry, with
common grievances and intermingling membership bringing the two extremisms closer together. As a
2019 report from the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right observed, the incel masses “are part of a
growing trend of radical-right movements that are anguished by the success of neo-liberalism,”
particularly women’s empowerment and immigration. The Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’rith
has also noted the links between “men’s rights activism” and the neofascist militant Proud Boys,
further reinforcing the convergence of politicised misogyny with far-right activism. This, perhaps,
reads as naïve given how Trump’s presidency legitimated far-right violence, including Charlottesville,
the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, and, of course, the storming of the US Capitol Building,
alongside misogynist, Islamophobia, and other bias before, throughout, and after his time in office.
Yet the misogyny of far-right terrorism has rarely garnered any form of acknowledgement, even
though far-right terrorism is often associated with racism and anti-semitism. This is just further
evidence that problems affecting women remain unwitnessed and, somehow, unpolitical, maintaining
the public/private binary, stemming from Ancient Greece, as often criticised by feminists (Elshtain
1981). In picking up on this binary, Hegel identified women as “Beautiful Souls,” innocent,
emotionally nurturing, and politically naive and submissive, which later coheres with Enloe’s
aforementioned “womenandchildren.” However, as good feminists, we all know that the personal is
political, that the binary between the private and the public is a social construction, and that whatever
impacts women impacts all people. Therefore, it is helpful to look at what misogyny is, how it
operates, and where we can (all too easily) find it in far-right terrorism in the US. (Gentry, 5);
Misogyny, then, is “the system that polices and enforces [patriarchy’s] governing, norms, and
expectations” (Manne 2018, 20). Since a terrorist organisation’s ideology sets the target and
parameters of violence, misogyny uphold[s] patriarchal order . . . by visiting hostile or adverse social
consequences on a certain . . . class of girls or women to enforce and police social norms that are
gendered either in theory [i.e., content] or in practice [i.e., norm enforcement mechanisms]. (Manne
2018, 13). Just as the “terror” of terrorism is about the threat of violence, misogyny “threatens hostile
consequences” on a woman or a girl who commits an infraction of the norms (Manne 2018, 20).
Violences identified as misogynist include the multiple forms of “everyday violence” women face –
online abuse, misogynoir, transmisogyny, cyberstalking, stalking, sexual violence/harassment,
homicide, mass shootings, domestic abuse, and rape. Thus, the question becomes how does the
American far-right include misogyny-as-the- enforcement-structure within its ideology and actions?
The far-right… (Gentry, 7) … More recently, there has been an increase in far-right terrorism,
especially white supremacist violence, “with a 320% increase between 2014 and 2018” (Auger 2020,
87). The Institute for Economics and Peace provides a useful summary of the major components of the
far-right: “Far-right” refers to a political ideology that is centred on one or more of the following
elements: strident nationalism (usually racial or exclusivist in some fashion), fascism, racism, antiSemitism, anti-immigration, chauvinism, nativism, and xenophobia. (As cited by Auger 2020, 88).
(Gentry, 7) … Therefore, the term right-wing extremism covers a broad range of ideologies that
essentially see violence as a legitimate tool to combat a political and ethnic “enemy” (including
individuals with different culture, religion, nationality or sexual orientation) seen as a threat to the
[sic] own race or nation. (Auger 2020, 89). (Gentry, 8) … This section then will look for the glossed
over elements of misogyny in the previous work on the far-right in the US by paying particular
attention to ideas related to “replacement theory.” More so, this section will demonstrate that
domination and minimisation of women is simply not recognised as a politically significant element of
far-right ideology by Terrorism Studies scholars. (Gentry, 8) … Most elements of far-right ideology
intersect in some way abound misogynist underpinnings as explored next. These include: Antisemitism, which drives fear of big government, depends upon the telling of Eves story in Genesis;
Racism and the fear of miscegenation; and replacement theory. Thus, I argue that there is no far-right
terrorism without misogyny. (Gentry, 8) … All of this stems from “Eve’s sin,” a reason long held by
even more “mainstream” and less fundamental Christians in order to limit women’s role in the church
and larger society. Furthermore, far-right racism is built around procreation and miscegenation.
(Gentry, 10) … Though individual instances of rape are not typically conceptualized as terrorist acts,
the way they are carried out en masse, egged on by the manospheric nation, and in many cases
intended to send the message of domination, squarely qualifies them as part of a strategy of terror.
Other offline behaviors are also intended to inflict terror. In one forum, a manosphere member
described how he enjoys trailing women who are alone in a parking garage just to cause “sheer terror.”
(Guy, 29); These motivations are twofold. First, misogyny is a form of hate, and we therefore need to
treat violence motivated by it—all the violence that emanates from the manosphere—as hate crimes.
Second, as examined above, manospheric men commit violence as a way to gain and wield power. As
discussed, many of these forms of violence, from murder to rape to intimidation, are intended to create
new power dynamics by terrorizing a class of people. Thus, we also must recognize the manosphere’s
extreme forms of violence as acts of terror. In both instances, the crimes of the manosphere fit within
existing legal frameworks, it’s just a matter of treating them as such. (Guy, 31); As manospheric
misogyny demonstrates, the internet has enabled entirely new forms of nationalism capable of building
diverse and mobilized coalitions at unprecedented speeds. Moreover, the particular advantages
furnished by the internet make it more likely that the nationalist sentiments it hosts are increasingly
extreme. Its adherents have demonstrated a proclivity for acts of terrorism, both physical and online,
that should concern all of us, especially if we hope to continue making meaningful strides for gender
equality. … Manospheric misogyny is not only poised to follow in the footsteps of white nationalism,
but their rises are deeply related. (pg.39); Anti-feminism and the far right overlap because both weave
narratives around real, observable phenomena surrounding race and reproduction. Birth rates are
indeed falling across the developed world. Women who reach higher education levels tend to have
fewer children. The “family wage”—where a man earns enough to support a wife and children—has
disappeared. Working women have greater economic freedom, instead of being dependent on men.
Many of them find it easier (though still not easy) to leave abusive or otherwise intolerable
relationships. Women who can control their fertility and their bank accounts do not have to be
subservient to men. (Lewis);
There is no more poignant example of the lengths to which we have gone to ignore and downplay
misogynistic extremism than the officer’s words that the Atlanta spa shooting resulted from a white
man’s “bad day” and the refusal to state a motive for his attack. … As this Note demonstrates, the
virulent anti-feminism of manospheric misogyny is not only a catalyst for violence but a conduit to
compounding hate. (Guy, 40);
iv.
Summary
Should use theory argument as well… for some points.
v.
Conclusion
Figure 1:
^^^"US President Trump has also referred to migrants as ‘invaders’ on several occasions. Furthermore, he
has implicitly humoured the narrative that South Africa is undergoing a white genocide, and has also
previously retweeted Twitter accounts which promote the White Genocide theory." (Davey and Ebner)
Figure 2:
Figure 3:
Figure 4: