For years, counterterrorism officials and outside analysts alike have relied on identifying distinct groups or at least analytic categories to sort terrorist and other violent threats. However, weird hybrids regularly emerge, with previously distinct right- and left-wing extremists converging in dangerous ways. Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Brian Hughes of American University examine these strange coalitions, describing their emergence and identifying the factors that drive them.
On the organizational side, political violence is emerging from a loose new coalition that spans the extremist spectrum in ways that muddle the ideological basis typically understood to be at the root of terrorist and extremist violence. On the
post-organizational side, exposure to extremist content and radicalization into ideologies and violence outside the boundaries of organized groups is increasing—largely through online encounters with propaganda, disinformation and extremist ideas.
The new coalitions became especially visible as the coronavirus pandemic began, when protests against shutdown orders and mask mandates drew thousands to state capitol buildings. These protests brought together groups whose interests are not typically aligned—heavily-armed unlawful militia members, conspiracy theorists waving QAnon signs, and anti-vaxxers whose traditional base draws primarily from leftist and alternative medicine spaces. They were mobilized by their single common denominator: anti-government sentiment about management of the pandemic.
This breakdown in previous ideological boundaries has continued.