Extremism in America
Right Wing Extremists: Beliefs
and Tactics
Extremism
Extremism
Extremists
Ideology
Tactics
Undereducated
Anti-Tax
Organizations
Unsophisticated
Xenophobia
Propaganda
Local Perspective
Identity Church
Common Law Courts
Lone Warriors
Conspiracy Paranoia
Youth Movement
Patriotism
Violence
Extremists
• Undereducated
– High school or less
• Unsophisticated
– Need scapegoats
• Local Perspective
– Narrow world view
• Lone Warriors
Warrior Dreams
• Culture of guns,
violence, and victory.
• Lone warrior against the
status quo.
• Justified by the doctrine
of necessity.
• (James William
Gibson, 1994)
Ideology
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Anti-Tax
Xenophobia
Identity Church Movement
Conspiracy Paranoia
Patriotism
Anti-tax
• Citizenship is a right that is surrendered
with application for a social security
card.
• Only legitimate government is county
government.
• Federal and state taxes are illegal.
• Federal and state courts are illegal.
Xenophobia
• Fear of those who are different.
• This fear is often converted to hate.
• Primary targets of fear/hate are:
– Jews
– Blacks
– Other non-whites
– Catholics (occasionally)
Identity Church Movement
• Racial Identity
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Enosh - nonwhites
Man - Children of Adam and Eve (whites)
Jews - Offspring of Satan
Mongrels - Mixed races
• Based on misinterpretation of Book of
Revelation
Identity Church Movement
• National Identity
– Variation of British Israelism
– Lost Tribes of Israel
– Rebirth of lost tribes as Western civilization
– Tribe of Ephraim - England
– Tribe of Mannasseh - United States
– United States is Holy Land
Conspiracy Paranoia
• Everyone but them involved in conspiracy.
• Favorite conspiracy myths
– New World Order
– Bildebergers
– Trilateral Commission
– Council on Foreign Relations
– Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
– Freemasons
Patriotism
• Extreme nationalism
• America for Americans
– Americans are white Anglo-Saxon
protestants
• The enemy is anyone who disagrees.
Tactics
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Organizations
Propaganda
Common Law Courts
Youth Movement
Organizations
• Survivalist
– Militias
• Race-based
– Ku Klux Klan
• Neo Nazis
– Aryan Nations
Propaganda
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Newsletters
Web sites
Demonstrations
Political campaigns
Leaflets
Street corner preaching
Common Law Courts
• The Common Law Court movement is
primarily an anti-tax movement.
• The founding father was William Potter Gale,
an early minister and chief spokesman for the
theology known as Christian Identity.
• In the 1970s Gale, who also founded the
violent tax protest group, Posse Comitatus.
Posse Comitatus
• Proposed that the only legitimate
government under old English common
law is the county.
• Likewise, the county sheriff is the only
recognized legitimate police official.
Posse Comitatus
• Gale’s ideology includes the belief that the
United States Government is really a private
corporation rather than a legitimate
government.
• Such ideas come from a manipulation of
various sources including the Magna Carta,
English Common Law, U.S. Constitution, the
Bible, Black’s Law Dictionary, and the 1828
version of Webster’s Dictionary
Common Law Courts
• With this philosophy, Common Law Court
adherents argue that the American judicial
system has failed and that the U.S.
Constitution has been subverted.
• They claim the right to retry cases from these
illegal courts in their own courts where they
would receive a more sympathetic hearing.
Common Law Courts
• Primary tactics are:
– Filing bogus liens
– Filing bogus involuntary bankruptcy
notifications
• Such legal documents are submitted by
the Common Law Court to a county
court clerk.
Common Law Courts
• Unaware or untrained clerks accept
these as real.
• The victim spends years and large
sums of money clearing these notices
from their credit histories and/or
mortgage records.
Common Law Courts
• The targets are typically government
officials.
• In Texas, $1.7 billion dollars in false
liens have been filed against the
Attorney General and various state
judges.
Youth Movement
• Skinheads
– Disenchanted youth
– More violent
– Susceptible to manipulation