Domestic Extremism and Terrorism: Antifa v. White Supremacists

Domestic Extremism and Terrorism Research Paper: Antifa v. White Supremacists
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Domestic Extremism and Terrorism Research Paper: Antifa v. White Supremacists
Introduction
Domestic terrorism is concerning in the United States due to diverse groups with differing ideologies. The increasing threat emerging from the presence of two opposing fronts, the far-right and the far-left extremist groups, has raised concern from security agencies. Duran and Oswego (2021) flag Antifa and White Supremacist outfits as two leading causes of persistent politically and socially motivated violence in the nation for decades. Madales (2020) highlights the stark differences between the two groups, leading to their constant rivalry in demonstrating their capacity to advance their agendas. Unfortunately, such aspects have continued jeopardizing homeland security across the various cities. Eradicating this challenge raises questions about thoroughly exploring these groups’ subtle operational strategies, recruitment, and radicalization through detailed profiling. Critically evaluating and contrasting the goals and objectives, ideologies, propaganda techniques, political motivations, and violent actions specifics of each outfit will expose them and highlight the appropriate intervention strategies that security agencies can exploit to address this extremism menace. Thus, this paper’s purpose is to conduct a comprehensive literature review to unearth the existing knowledge about Antifa and White Supremacists, compare and contrast their extremist approaches, and uncover effective intervention methods in the United States.
Research Question
How does understanding the propaganda, recruitment, and coordination strategies of White Supremacists and Antifa inform the countermeasures against extremism?
Review of the Literature
Right Versus Left Wing Extremism in the United States
The operations of Antifa and White Supremacists are a classic representation of the left versus right extremism conflicts in the United States. Nadales (2020) recognizes that the two groups have been advancing their agendas for decades, with the primary goal being to enforce their firmly embedded beliefs. For instance, Meleagrou-Hitchens et al. (2021) note the constant violence perpetrated by White Supremacists and the associated damages. While explaining this observation, Jasko et al. (2022) clarify that these two groups have unique characteristics that influence their threat in societies. For instance, the authors report that right groups, such as White Supremacists, depict a sense of dogmatism and close-mindedness and yearn for structure and order. However, their left-wing counterparts demonstrate more willingness to embrace openness, uncertainty tolerance, and cognitive complexity (Jasko et al., 2022). Unlike White Supremacists, these practices confirm why these individuals rarely prioritize violence and aggression as protest. Such an awareness is critical when investigating White Supremacists and Antifa’s presence in the United States.
Diverse studies have established that both the right and the left-wing extremist groups meet the minimum threshold of hostile groups in the country. For instance, Duran and Oswego (2022) reveal that individuals affiliated with these outfits routinely degenerate to angrier and antagonistic languages, unlike moderate groups. For example, Blout and Burkart (2021) agree with this argument while describing the violent character of White Supremacists. Krafft and Donovan (2020) also illustrate similar tendencies through the undesirable messaging tactics of Antifa. Such viewpoints among these groups arise from their simplistic perspective of the social world, prompting them to use any options to achieve their goals. As a result, they often result in harmful practices associated with domestic terrorism.
Terrorism Trends Concerning Left- and Right-Wing Extremists
Arguments abound that groups such as White Supremacists and Antifa perpetuate terrorism-like incidents. These claims have led to conflicting debates about whether Homeland Security should categorize them as terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda or ISIS. Authors such as Nadales (2020) agree with such observations by indicating that despite the group’s opposition that they merely protest for political and associated ideological reasons, they represent a unique form of domestic terrorism because of the common factor of leveraging violence as their central weapon. For instance, researchers reveal that White Supremacists are directly associated with three times more deaths and violent crimes than Muslim groups categorized as terrorists (Smith & King, 2021). Byman and Pitcavage (2021) add that right-inclined groups executed approximately 98 terrorist-related activities between 2011 and 2020, with White Supremacists plotting 40 attacks. Antifa has committed similar actions, disrupting the regular running of business nationwide (Baker, 2023). Thus, both groups’ efforts reflect terrorist activities, confirming their classification as terror outfits. This aspect alerts the security agencies to apply appropriate measures for upholding the country’s security from imminent threats.
Research reveals that different groups have been dominating domestic terrorism for decades. For instance, Duran and Oswego (2021) indicate that far-left inclining factions such as Antifa were the primary culprits from the 1960s to the 1980s. However, unlike in the present era, their activities were not as violent because they often destroyed properties without significant injuries to citizens. In the same period, far-right movements, including the White Supremacists, remained active perpetrators of interpersonal violence, leading to mortality rates. Meleagrou-Hitchens et al. (2021) support this observation and flag this group as the most violent. Similarly, Duran and Oswego (2021) confirm that far-right extremists have remained the most consistent triggers of such threats for over five decades in the nation. As a result, understanding the severity of terrorism-inclined threats among these two groups is critical to determining the most concerning one.
Recent Activities by Right- and Left-Wing Extremists
American society felt the presence of left-wing extremist groups like Antifa recently during the protests against racism and police injustices across the states. For instance, after the brutal murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arberry, and Breonna Taylor, the left demonstrated its influence by infiltrating the ongoing demonstrations. Duran and Oswego (2021) indicate that they advanced criminal activities, including the shooting of Aaron Danielson by Michael Reinoehl in August 2020. Zъquete (2023) suggests that the group was a critical component of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and it advanced its agenda by reducing peaceful protests into chaos and arson. A common trend depicted by these events is that left-wing actions are predominantly anti-government, which confirms the increased crackdown on Antifa by the government recently compared to the right-leaning organizations. As a result, this targeting creates a misleading impression that Antifa is more dominant in the American environment than other groups.
Right-wing groups have been the most active yet attracting minimal attention from the government since 2011. According to Zъquete (2023), White Supremacist groups have committed more violence-related activities in the last decade than other outfits. Duran and Oswego (2021) report that their increasing presence arises from conservatives’ focus on Antifa while ignoring the looming threats posed by right-wing extremists. As a result, their actions led to a pipe bombing at a courthouse by Carillo in 2020 and a public shooting by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha the same year (Duran & Oswego, 2021). Other researchers, such as Liang and Cross (2020), demonstrate the complex techniques employed by White Supremacists to spread hate during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Such methods have played a fundamental role in accelerating jihad-like attacks through online spaces. Thus, right-wing groups, led by White Supremacists, have significantly evolved recently due to continued undermining by the security agencies.
Research Body
Antifa
Antifa represents the anti-fascist movement whose primary goal is opposing fascism from far-right groups, including the government. Although this faction has existed since the 1960s in Europe, it only gained momentum in America after Charlottesville’s rally in 2017 (Zъquete, 2023). It emerged to fight anything associated with fascism, which includes patriarchy, white supremacism, and related organizational structures. The group borrows from the early Anti-fascist Action movement, including adopting a black and a red flag to symbolize anarcho-collectivism (Nadales, 2020). Although some authors, such as Nadales (2020), argue that Antifa presents no affirmative ideology, others, such as Zъquete (2023), confirm an anti-fascist ideology. In this context, it has always existed as a way of “fighting to destroy capitalism,” a critical tenet of fascism, and replacing it with communism (80). As a result, its primary goals and objectives are to oppose capitalism-related principles and structures, frustrate white supremacy elements, and promote communism-related politics. Such aspects have led to the argument that without fascists, antifa would be non-existent because it only exists to oppose the latter.
Antifa has gradually developed into a more organized group with formal anti-fascists that execute well-planned social and political protests against oppression. For instance, Zъquete (2023) indicates its involvement in disputing the recent racist and police injustice issues in the United States. The group was involved in anti-government conflict in the past because members felt that the ideologies perpetrated reflected fascism. Today, it adds the fight against marginalized groups as a fundamental component of its social and political actions (Zъquete, 2023). Fowlie (2022) emphasizes its dislike of U.S. conservatives and their viewpoints as an illustration of its political standpoint. Similar aspects demonstrate its continued support of BLM and other related demonstrations. In this context, its primary propaganda depicts anything related to fascism as a threat and a call to action for people to resist (Nadales, 2020). It uses social media, street campaigns, and face-to-face activism to whip emotions from like-minded individuals, leading to their actions. Although violent outcomes often accompany some events, the primary goal of Antifa is direct action through system disruption, property damage, and frustration with the government. For instance, Baker (2023) reveals its intention to destroy property because it associated it with capitalism in the Seattle attack in 2020. Duran and Oswego (2021) also add that Antifa is a less violent left-wing extremist banner because it uses routine protests as its primary action. Such aspects illustrate the uniqueness of this group of extremists.
Antifa uses diverse recruitment and radicalization techniques to keep the group vibrant. For instance, Krafft and Donovan (2020) highlight social media platforms as a commonplace avenue that recruits members by presenting the injustices perpetrated by a fascist government and conservatives. It also recruits members during anti-gove...