250 Word Discussion Response: American White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi Movements

Responses should be a minimum of 250 words and include direct questions. You may challenge, support or supplement another student’s answer using the terms, concepts and theories from the required readings. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process at this academic level.

Forum posts are graded on timeliness, relevance, knowledge of the weekly readings, and the quality of original ideas. Sources utilized to support answers are to be cited in accordance with the APA writing style by providing a general parenthetical citation (reference the author, year and page number) within your post, as well as an adjoining reference list. Refer to grading rubric for additional details concerning grading criteria.

Respond to Kaitlin,

ADL (Anti-Defamation League) (2019) defines extremism as a concept that is “used to describe religious, social, political belief systems that exist substantially outside of belief systems more broadly accepted in society (i.e., “mainstream” beliefs).” In shorter term, this is an extreme belief or ideology. The FBI’s (2006) definition, which we will use throughout the course term according to this week’s lesson, states that violent extremism is “encouraging, condoning, justifying, or supporting the commission of a violent act to achieve political, ideological, religious, social, or economic goals.” Terrorism is considered “a type of political violence that includes the intentional targeting of noncombatants and distinguishes between direct victims and audience that you want to affect” (Pinfari, n.d). With the FBI (n.d) defining domestic terrorism as “perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S.-based movement that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.” It’s important to note that you don’t have to be an extremist to be considered a terrorist and vice-versa not all extremists are terrorists.

According to Michael Jensen, senior researcher at START, University if Maryland (2017), extremism in the United States is ideologically diverse, encompassing the far right, such as antigovernment, white supremacists, the far left, such as social justice, animal rights, environmental protection, single-issue ideologies, and Islamist. During one of Jensen’s presentation in September of 2016, known as An Empirical Assessment of Domestic Radicalization, Jensen explains that in the mid-1970s, we saw a rise in activity of extremists attributing to those ideologies of the far-right. This group still remains the majority today and in matter of fact PIRUS database advised that the spectrum of extremism falls as accordingly: 43 percent far right, 21 percent far left, 21 percent single issue, and 12 percent Islamist (Jensen, 2017). The Center for Strategic & International Studies states in their November 7, 2018 briefing that right-wing extremism in the United States appears to be growing. The Department of Homeland Security defines right-wing extremism in the United States as “broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial, or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.” With that being said, these are commonalities among White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups. Neo-Nazi groups share a common ground when referring to hatred for Jews and the love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Neo-Nazi base their hatred on religion, race and ethnic groups thus falling under right-wing extremism. The same goes for White Supremacist, this group believes that those who are of white race are inherently superior then those of another race, thus hating those based on race.

Thank you,

Kaitlyn M.

Extremism. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/extremism.

Jensen, M. (2017). Countering Violent Extremism Through Public Health Practice: Proceedings

of a Workshop. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537578/

Pinfari, M. (n.d.). Terrorism vs. Extremism: Are They Linked? Retrieved from

https://www.aucegypt.edu/news/stories/terrorism-vs-extremism-are-they-linked.

Terrorism. (2016, May 3). Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism.

The Rise of Far-Right Extremism in the United States. (2019, September 24). Retrieved from

https://www.csis.org/analysis/rise-far-right-extremism-united-states.

militant_extremists_in_the_united_states audio_violent_extremism discussion_forum_grading_rubric ideological_motivations_of_terrorism_in_the_united_states_1970__2016 domestic_terrorism_an_overview