“In addition to ‘traditional’ extremists,” observed Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League on Twitter, “the stormers included a large mass of what could be considered Trumpist extremists, a small subgroup of Trump supporters radicalized by buying into the cult of personality around Trump and by the conspiracy theories and lies promoted over the election, the ‘deep state,’ and more-radicalized to the point of being willing to engage in large-scale mob violence.” What’s clear is that the Capitol riot revealed a new force in American politics-not merely a mix of right-wing organizations, but a broader mass political movement that has violence at its core and draws strength even from places where Trump supporters are in the minority. More than half of the insurrectionists hail from areas in which Trump supporters are in the minority one-sixth are from counties won by Trump with less than 60 percent of the vote.Their occupations include CEOs, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants-and notably, only 9% are unemployed. Whereas previous extremists, the majority of whom were under 35, were frequently unemployed and none worked in white-collar occupations, 40% of the Capitol arrestees are business owners or hold white-collar jobs. Compared to far-right extremists who have been arrested for their involvement in previous acts of political violence (such as the 2017 Charlottesville riots), many of the people arrested for their roles in the Capitol siege have a great deal to lose.The researchers found that 89% of the people arrested have no known affiliations to them. Only one-tenth of the people arrested so far (20 of them) could be found to have such connections. The vast majority of these suspects are not connected to any existing right-wing extremist organizations, including vigilante militias groups and white-nationalist street gangs such as the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys.Rather, it was “unmistakably an act of political violence.” The people who were arrested, according to court documents that cited this motive repeatedly, did so because they “were following Trump’s orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the presidential-election winner.” The siege was not merely an exercise in vandalism or a disorderly protest that spiraled out of control.The team of over 20 researchers primarily examined the information on the demographics, socioeconomic traits, and militant-group affiliations of the 193 people who have been charged so far with being inside the Capitol building or with breaking through barriers to enter the Capitol grounds. Two University of Chicago researchers, Robert Pape and Keven Ruby, led a deeper dive into the statistics arising from the arrests for The Atlantic, and confirmed the implications of that number: Namely, that the resistance to Trump’s election loss represents “a new kind of violent mass movement in which more ‘normal’ Trump supporters-middle-class and, in many cases, middle-aged people without obvious ties to the far right-joined with extremists in an attempt to overturn a presidential election.” That’s a surprisingly high number, particularly considering that most of the pro-Trump activists involved in violent protests of the past four years (especially the Proud Boys) have been younger men between 20 and 40 years old. Of particular interest is the fact that the average age of the arrestees was 40 years old. Capitol-the arrests that came in the aftermath of that event provided some revealing numbers. The mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6 was led by organized right-wing extremists, but the majority of them were ostensibly mainstream Trump supporters radicalized into violence.įor people who have been monitoring the growth and spread of right-wing extremism inside the mainstream Republican Party-manifested in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |