'Civil war kicks off': Far right gears up for post-election violence — no matter who wins https://t.co/swg3MaMrvC
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 5, 2024
"Who wins or loses is less important than the effect," the Guardian reported. "With already two assassination attempts on Donald Trump and both mainstream parties more at rhetorical war than ever before, they see signs of hope the US government is beginning to lose control of the country."
This was highlighted, said the report, by a poll on one of the far-right Telegram channels, offering the options “Trump wins, civil war kicks off” and “Kamala ‘wins,’ civil war kicks off.”
Respondents to this survey seemed gleeful at either prospect, with one neo-Nazi user saying, “I say accelerate, I just can’t keep living in this degenerate hellhole indefinitely. I just want something to happen so a bunch of us can die trying, at least.”
Another far-right account on a different Telegram channel said voting was pointless: “You’re being deceived, get back in the bunker. Collapse is how we win.”
"Accelerationism" is the idea, popular among far-right extremists, that the whole of society must be destroyed, or at least its decline hastened, in order for a new society to be built from the ashes.
In one recent incident in Tennessee inspired by this ideology, federal agents arrested a neo-Nazi activist for allegedly trying to destroy an electrical substation with a drone armed with C-4, with the idea that the collapse of the power grid would hasten a race war.
Clara Broekaert, who studies far-right extremism around the world for the Soufan Center, told the Guardian this development spells a new risk of domestic terrorism.
“For U.S. national security," said Broekaert, "this signifies the emergence of a faction within society that believes fundamental disagreements over values and policies can no longer be resolved through democratic engagement. Instead, they view destruction — chaos, conflict and collapse — as the necessary means to achieve their goals.”First: this is a very self-selected group of punks talking to each other online and eagerly agreeing about what needs to happen, while also waiting for it to happen for them..
These guys, IOW. The ones parading their “long guns” until nobody was shocked anymore. That’s when carrying rifles to get hamburgers became a hassle. Those two probably still get together and talk with their friends about the revolution that’s bound to come. Not that they will do anything to make it happen. They probably don’t carry their guns to McDonald’s any more, either. Why bother? Been there, done that.whenever this so called civil war starts, our rallying point will be the produce section at a grocery store
— YS (@NYinLA2121) September 25, 2024
they’ll never find us there pic.twitter.com/CVgaFAD862
… fundamental disagreements over values and policies can no longer be resolved through democratic engagement. Instead, they view destruction — chaos, conflict and collapse — as the necessary means to achieve their goals.”They have absolutely no means of seriously acting on it. And no real desire to. They want someone else to do it, while they reap the rewards of rising to their rightful place atop the heap of the “new society.”