“We’re allowing every Eric Harris, every troubled kid out there, to become the next Tim McVeigh.” — Theodore Kaczynski
Since the Civil War anti-government groups have sought to overthrow the United States government. During the pandemic brought on by COVID-19 there have been numerous accounts from these groups having armed protests and making threats to government officials. In Kentucky the governor was hung in effigy outside the governor’s mansion in May. Michigan groups took actions to the next level, where members of a multi-state militia movement were arrested in October for plotting to kidnap and executive the governor.
Back in the 1990’s during the Clinton era, there was a crack down on these types of groups. With sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco not only put a spotlight on the movement, but created a breading ground for domestic terrorist attacks. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Oklahoma building on April 19th, 1995, killing 168 and injuring 684 others. The reason behind these attacks was revenge for the sieges at the aforementioned Rudy Ridge and Waco. Eric Rudolph, who was captured in 2003 for bombings that killed 3 and injured over a hundred in the late 90s. His motivations was anti-government, anti-abortion, and anti-gay views.
The pandemic has once again highlighted that these groups are not only still relevant, but dangerous and calculating. Even though the COVID-19 virus has proven to be highly contagious and deadly. These groups seem to want to excel the spread so that the country is tossed into greater turmoil that can be exploited. They have took advantage of the Black Lives Matters protests against law enforcement by pretending to be on the side of back the blue. In turn, law enforcement has been documented in social media videos numerous times ignoring these groups when they blatantly break the law. Nobody needs reminding that these groups are anything but on the side of law enforcement. The anti-government groups have sought to dismantle the very existence of enforcement of laws for decades.
The current situation that our country is new ground. A perfect storm of a pandemic, civil unrest, unfounded election fraud claims, and record unemployment that has lead to food lines in places such as Texas. The anti-government movement will no doubt take advantage of the cracks in the foundation. These are different militias in a different time. The internet allows the message to grow and sow the seeds of angst towards elected officials and the government itself. Domestic terrorism is considered by the FBI to be one of the top threats to sovereignty according to a report released in September named, Worldwide Threats to the Homeland.
“The greatest threat we face in the homeland is that posed by lone actors radicalized online who look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. We see this lone actor threat manifested both within domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and homegrown violent extremists (HVEs), two distinct sets of individuals that generally self-radicalize and mobilize to violence on their own. DVEs are individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as racial bias and anti-government sentiment.”
Message boards like 8kun and TheDonald give the anti-government groups a platform to not only communicate with each other, but recruit. Social media companies, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have took action by removing groups, videos, and accounts as fast as they get posted. Even with the constant action to censor these groups the companies get caught behind the first amendment which limits what messaging is silenced. The anti-government groups are using the very thing they seek to dismantle against the government and society as a whole. As the county moves forward into a new decade the threats from the militia groups will not fade away into the night.
