Authors: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Samuel Hodgson and Colin P. Clarke
Affiliation: Foreign Policy Research Institute
Organization/Publisher: Foreign Policy Research Institute
Date/Place: April 20, 2020/ USA
Type of Literature: Analysis
Word Count: 1549
Keywords: White supremacy, COVID19, Accelerationists, U.S, Race War
Brief:
White supremacists are jumping at the opportunity to further their anti-immigration, racist and xenophobic ambitions in the wake of the current pandemic. Within this accelerationist’s movement, are particularly harnessing the mayhem that law and order forces are currently embroiled in to further their maligning of Jews and immigrants for “bringing the virus.” These accelerationists are itching to instigate a race war in which they can exterminate other races and White ‘race-traitors’ in their areas. They aim to do this through acts of violence perpetrated by lone wolves in order to create mass chaos that will lead White people to revolt against the existing political structure. These accelerationists operate through small cells in different geographic locations and follow a leaderless resistance style to avoid getting caught. Brenton Tarant, the shooter at Christchurch (New Zealand), and John Earnest, the shooter at Poway (California, USA) both had accelerationist thought imbibed in their manifestos. Today, many accelerationist groups are active such as Atom waffen Division (AWD), Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), Sonnenkrieg Division, The Base, and Vorherrschaft Division. The AWD is considered the most potent among these due to its reach and activities. It has a significant presence in the US and has several paramilitary training camps. It has notoriously murdered a gay man, intimidated journalists, and plotted other attacks. Recently, an accelerationist by the name of Timothy Wilson was caught trying to bomb a hospital in Kansas City. He professed that this was in order to create the type of mass chaos needed for a revolution by White supremacists. This illustrates that such groups are actively exploiting the diversion of security forces during this pandemic in order to edge closer to their ultimate goal of a race war in which all non-Whites, Jews, and homosexuals are terminated.
By: Sahar Sadiq, CIGA Research Intern
