Researchers shift tactics to tackle extremism

Rebecca Kasen has seen and heard things in recent years in and around Michigan's capital city that she never would have expected. “It’s a very weird time in our lives,” said Kasen, executive director of the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing. Last November, a group of people were captured on surveillance video early one morning mocking a “Black Lives Matter” sign in the front window of the centre, with one of them vandalising its free pantry. That same fall, Women’s Center staff reported being harassed.

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A couple of blocks down East Michigan Avenue, Strange Matter Coffee, which supports progressive causes in the community, has been confronted by “First Amendment auditors” outside its storefront. Some toted guns or cameras, sometimes chanting slogans supporting President Donald Trump, generally unnerving customers and staff, Kasen said.

In many cases, extremist activities and conduct throughout the US over the past few years have been driven by the deepening chasm of political partisanship and disinformation-driven rebellion against responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, backlash against immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has heightened tensions.

Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 1,371 hate and extremist groups nationwide sowing unrest through a wide range of tactics, sometimes violent. Over the last several years, the group writes, the political right has increasingly shifted toward “an authoritarian, patriarchal Christian supremacy dedicated to eroding the value of inclusive democracy and public institutions.”