UK: The rise of far-right extremists in America

The Guardian

Wade Michael Page and the rise of violent far-right extremism

The man who opened fire in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin was not just a crazed loner, but a vocal neo-Nazi – in fact, his white supremacist ideology reflected a growing form of extremism that expresses its strength through violence rather than at the ballot box

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• • Matthew Goodwin

As with the aftermath of the attacks by Anders Breivik in Norway, it was not long until sympathisers surfaced online. "Take your dead and go back to India and dump their ashes in the Ganges, Sikhs," wrote one neo-Nazi. Others praised their "brother": "All I feel is loss and sympathy for a brother that was overwhelmed by pain and frustration. I could [sic] care less though for those injured and wounded other than Wade." Another warned of future attacks: "There are thousands of other angry White men like Page, the vast majority of them unknown ... When will they, like Page, reach their breaking point...?"

The threat of violence from disgruntled rightwing extremists is not lost on the security services, or analysts. In 2009, Daryl Johnson, an analyst at the Department for Homeland Security, authored a report that explicitly warned of the growing threat of far-right violence. Pointing to the economic downturn, the election of Barack Obama and evidence that some military veterans were struggling to re-integrate into civilian life, the report was one of the first to flag the growing importance of the extreme right – a movement that was routinely overlooked after 9/11. Few, however, took the warning seriously. Rather, Republicans and rightwing commentators openly criticised the report. Some saw it as an attempt to discredit the insurgent and right-wing Tea Party movement while many viewed it as an unfair attack on military veterans. Others said it focused unnecessarily on domestic rather than foreign manifestations of terrorism.

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The data suggests that American far right groups have grown "explosively", which is attributed to a potent combination of public anxieties over the financial crisis, the growth of conspiracy theories, the exploitation of fears over non-white immigration and the prospect of Obama securing a second term in office.

According to the SPLC, in 2011 the number of "hate groups" active in the US reached 1,018, 69% more than in 2000. The most striking growth has been within the "patriot" scene, which contains anti-government groups that cling to conspiracy theories and view the government as enemy number one. There were fewer than 150 of these (mostly inactive) groups in 2000. By 2011, there were almost 1,300. In fact, since 2009 this particular variant of the far right has grown at a rate of 755%.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/08/wade-michael-page-violent-far-right