Radicalization experts fear what Trump's fringes will do now--and they aren't certain how to stop it.

[marmar]

(Slate) Donald Trump and his surrogates’ attempts to overturn the results of U.S. election have prompted waves of panic, ridicule, and disbelief. The effort has proved an embarrassment, with a disastrous track record in court and increasing resistance from Republican officials. But for closer watchers of the far-right fringes that the president has helped grow and nurture during his administration, the outcome of the charade has never been the concern. Experts on radicalization and deradicalization are less worried about what will happen with Trump—and more worried about what his diehard supporters will do in a post-Trump America.

“This keeps me up at night,” John Horgan told me over the phone. He’s a Georgia State professor and the director of the Violent Extremism Research Group, which examines what pushes people to political violence. Joe Biden won the election, but groups like the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo movement aren’t fading away. “I think for many of these movements, their moment has come,” Horgan said. “I think we’re truly in free fall, and don’t have any sense of how to grasp this.”

Horgan has long put himself in the minds of extremists to understand what fuels them. He’s aware that by warning others of their potential for violence, he could be playing into their hands. But he’s not willing to play down the threat he sees. “If you need to terrify yourself, that’s often what these groups want us to do. But the warning signs are all around us,” he said. “I want to be wrong about this, but I see short- and medium-term violence in our future. It’s all around us.”

Political violence in the United States is already trending upward. Armed insurgency groups are recruiting with higher success rates. And in some states, they are activated. In the months leading up to election, a teenager persuaded by militiamen-style propaganda allegedly shot and killed anti-police protesters, an antifa sympathizer allegedly shot and killed an opponent, and more generally, Americans’ opinion on whether political violence is justifiable has shifted. Many experts in countering violent extremist—known as CVE in insider speak—fear it may already be too late to steer clear of what comes next. .............(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-supporters-radicalized-experts-postelection-fears.html

[LuvLoogie]

1. Fuck, why fear them anymore than any other criminal

Keep an eye on them. If they start shit, arrest and prosecute.

Can we not freak out about the assholes? Leave them in the fucking dust.

[Freedomofspeech]

2. This.

[LakeVermilion]

5. One problem with that is...

they are our police. Communities hire so many of them that they operate with impunity.

[SlogginThroughIt]

13. Exactly.

[CatMor]

3. Just leave them to crawl back in the holes they crawled out of.

[zipplewrath]

4. Succeed

Nothing stops these idiots like success. Govern well, spread the wealth, and their complaints will become irritating noise to the rest of the population.

[dalton99a]

6. Perhaps victims of Trump's terrorism should start suing him and his party

using the same tactic that was used against KKK leader Tom Metzger in California

[DBoon]

7. The republican party has encouraged these grups since the Oklahoma City bombing

They have thrived because republicans have tied the hands of law enforcement and have encouraged these groups for decades.

[rso]

8. Violence

Nothing that our federal agencies cannot handle, from the information-gathering function all the way to actual dismantling via arrest and prosecution.

[MineralMan]

9. Combined, those groups are very limited in their numbers.

They have been tolerated by the Trump people. Once Trump is gone, their actions will simply be criminal and they will no longer be tolerated. Just arrest them, try them, and jail them. They break laws almost every time they show up. Just adopt a zero-tolerance policy for their typical lawbreaking.

Start by identifying them and checking for felony records. If they show up with firearms, arrest their asses and throw the book at them.

[beachbumbob]

10. When it's 60-70%, it is disingenuous to say fringe and a mistake

to believe otherwise.

[roamer65]

11. Action - reaction.

There will be a response to them from the other end of the spectrum.

That is what civil conflicts are made of...

[dware]

17. How long do you think these so called militias would last against a Fed. agency?

The FBI's HRT would make quick work of them.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

14. The FBI has deeply infiltrated domestic terrorist groups.

There's no place for them to hide, and they will go down before they can commit their crimes.

[dware]

15. Yep, the Feds know what these domestic terrorists are

going to do before these terrorists even know what they're going to do.