from CRITICAL STATE

If you read just one thing …

… read about post-group white supremacy.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that closely tracks hate groups in the US, released a report highlighting how few of the people who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 were known members of the white supremacist groups it tracks. This is not an indication that the insurrectionists were not largely white supremacists — their statements make their interest in white nationalism clear. Instead, SPLC researchers write, it suggests that violent hate in the US is entering a “post-group world,” where organizing takes place more online than in person, and delineations between groups become less important as people move freely between message boards, Telegram channels, and other digital gathering places for white supremacists. The decentralization of the movement makes it more difficult for law enforcement to track and encourages movement members to undertake individual violent actions rather than wait for a more coordinated effort.