The Trump shooting inspired militias to come on board
Comments on “The Donald Evangelist” Post on Facebook and the Capitol Analyse of January 6, 2016 Announcing the Reionization of the Civil War
These calls for violence are not limited to online spaces. After Donald Trump was shot in Pennsylvania, supporters of the former president turned on the media.
A message board member who goes by the name The Donald wrote in a deleted post that “they really do want war.”
Many other members of the message board, which played a significant role in coordinating activities leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, agreed in responses to the post.
“War now,” the user wrote. “They don’t want to live and let live. We need to finish what should have been done after the civil war: eradicate and eliminate all democrats and anyone who even thinks of being a democrat.”
The details of these posts were given to WIRED by researchers from Advance Democracy.
Trump, the Left and the Right: There is a lot more than one way to wipe out the left, but we need to fight back
“They’ve been trying to take this guy out since he’s been in office,” a member of Uncle Sam’s Proud Boys Upstate NY Telegram channel wrote in response to a picture from the shooting of Trump with a raised fist and blood on his face. “Too bad for them they missed probably their only shot at this failed attempt because they are about to really see what happens when you poke the bear for too long ie true American patriots. Fuck the DNC, Fuck the RINOs, fuck the FEDs and fuck the MSM. They should all be hung in the streets.”
In a Telegram channel for the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys, an Ohio branch of the far-right militia, one member wrote: “Laugh and smirk now you Leftist cunts, But never fucking forget you will always reap what you sow.”
Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s program on Extremism, said that there was a concerted effort to present this as the result of left-wing rhetoric around Trump and fascists. There is a singular message being passed from the top down and the bottom up, from the members of Congress to right-wing groups: We need to fight back.
Researchers at Advance Democracy say it is difficult to assess the scale of the online attacks, as the situation is still developing and could escalate.
The Donald had a lot of people talking on Sunday about what would have happened if Trump had been killed.
Source: Far-Right Extremists Call for Violence and War After Trump Shooting
The Tech Transparency Project: Axios Report on the “Fake News” after the Trump Assassination
“Fake news!” This is your fault!” they yelled, according to Axios reporter Sophia Cai, who was there. “You’re next!” Your time is coming,” another shouted. A number of attendees tried to break into the media area but were stopped by security guards
According to research shared exclusively with WIRED, the tech industry has made a significant recruitment push across major social media platforms in the past year. AP III’s name shows a nod to the militia movement, but it insists on its website that it is not a militia. Since January 6th, 2021, when paramilitary activists tried to distance themselves from the militia movement, that is in line with the broader trend.
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, says that this type of rhetoric has been pretty commonplace in online spaces since 2020, especially since January 6. But she’s particularly concerned about the heightened rhetoric in tandem with aggressive recruitment efforts by militia groups, who historically have opportunistically pounced on moments of national chaos to encourage organizing and training. Paul says that the militia activity and heightened rhetoric could cause individuals who are susceptible to online influence and acceleration to act on their own. She thinks the movement is focused on long term goals and growth, as evidenced by militias’ emphasis on organization over knee-jerk calls for retaliatory violence.
In the video, he says he is looking at coordinating a meeting with other militias around Pennsylvania. This isn’t going to just go away. “We have to become strong, strong, strong lions.” says Seddon. “Start reaching out to individuals in your state that are trustworthy, that have the like-minded vision of local strong communities, to hold down the fort, just in case [of] war, or for when shit hits the fan.”
The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump is being used by militias and anti-government groups to organize, recruit, and train.
In a video posted on Sunday, the founder of the AmericanPatriots Three Percenters (APIII) says an attack on President Trump was an attack on people like him. APIII is a decentralized militia network with chapters across the US. “There comes a point in time where everybody in this group needs to start being accountable for what they’re doing to help grow the organization and building a network of like-minded people in their area. Because they’re coming for us.”
