The Southern Poverty Law Center has been showing an increase in the number of these groups for a quite a while. They are not confined to the Old Confederacy. SPLC hate group map. Current SPLC Intelligence report. 2008 summary. You can subscribe to the report and search their archives. I recommend.

The two groups that concern me the most are the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups, though they are not the only ones. It looks to me like they are stepping up their recruiting efforts, and read a while back in a trustworthy source that the military has a problem with white supremacists joining up, volunteering for combat units, and then returning to civilian life with those skills. A sort of “train the trainer” from hell. If you just scanned the The Timothy McVeigh Finishing School the first time around, you might want to give it a close read. It’s an important piece of this puzzle.

I want to be clear about what I know versus what I just think, and do my best to avoid fearmongering, so this is going to take a little work.

Here is a plain English story that I am comfortable labeling a historical account, with a little psychology thrown in toward the end for good measure. Everything in here is there either because I am sure research will confirm it, or because I live down here and knew it was going on at the time.

In the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s, white supremacists started to go out into the woods and do paramilitary training. At some point they got the bright idea of recruiting survivalists, who had been neither particularly bad nor politically active, up to that point. I can’t do survivalism justice here; it’s a topic for another day. A lot of people down here knew these paramilitary exercises were going on, but for obvious reasons, very few people in any given area knew exactly to what extent it was going on. The states did little or nothing about it. The Feds failed to respond until things got out of control and forced their hand.

The white supremacists and the survivalists that they managed to ideologically capture were two of the key driving forces of the militia movement. They learned from one another. They grew. They developed a critique of the state that appealed to a targeted demographic. They had bases of operations. Political agendas. Enablers within the establishment and sympathizers in the Mighty Wurlitzer. All this was going on when the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents occurred. Then came Oklahoma City. By that time, crackdowns had already started in some places. The government response scared a lot of people into submission. Some thought things had gone too far. Some had their eyes opened and realized they’d committed more than they were willing to sacrifice. Those people went their way. Some went into hibernation. Some were smart, continued to agitate openly within the limits of the law, and made the most of their constitutional rights. At this moment, they are more energetic than they have been in ten years and they have a new marketing strategy.

The white supremacists appealed to survivalists, and to anyone else who might be sympathetic, in a specific way. Here’s an oversimplification. Bear in mind: while this conversation is going on, the recruiter is doing most of his work in open-ended questions. Looking for what the recruit needs, and trying to figure out a way to offer it to them (like a good salesman).

The argument begins with an anti-police state appeal based on the Constitution. It moves from there through a series simpletarian arguments that most of us are probably familiar with. The sort of arguments that seem to lead to a paradise where all you have is local government if you don’t think them all the way through, but in practice would really lead straight to “nasty, brutish and short.” This sets the psychological table for the introduction of white supremacy. It’s analogous to religions conversion. Once you agree that the white race is superior - however it’s finally worded, “You’re saved! Want to know the next step? (Need a family? Or to have real agency? To feel like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself? Etc.) Here’s how!

At that point, you’re in. They isolate you from people who don’t think that way over time (like abusers do to their victims). The only way out is to renounce, stick to your guns, and try to escape in one piece. Renunciation is like admitting a lie. Tough to do unless you really know who you are under any circumstances. And remember, these people have a rich mythical tradition that runs from the Viking hordes through the Civil War and all the way down to the present day. They are masters of intimidation. And when they are among themselves, they are vicious to their enemies. Not many people can stand up against that, once they’re embedded, without some outside assistance.

I heard this pitch more than once in the early 90s without really understanding the cognitive manipulation. I am fortunate that I adopted tolerance and equality as non-negotiable values at a young age (thanks Mom!). I stopped hearing it right around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. I didn’t hear it again until last spring, when I got a call in response to a letter to the editor I wrote in support of a protester who had his rights violated. That’s a very long time. The call spooked me, and it has been nagging me ever since. It could be a one-off event, but I don’t think so.

I think I was targeted specifically because the civil liberties argument I used was something the person who called me was looking for, and because I was encouraging people to take concrete action – to contact officials directly and join in public protest, and because of the tone of the letter. I am sure this was an organizer and not just a crank. I am sure he thought he’d hit a trifecta of political education, rhetorical skill, and righteous anger when he read that letter. The conversation could have ended with him giving me a “call anytime” number or arranging a meet-up if I had allowed it. I made sure to keep him talking until I was positive about that. He knew what he was doing.

I didn’t make a big deal of it at the time. I mentioned it in a comment and moved on. But I will tell you something. I was cold after I hung up that phone.

So much for what I know. I’ll tell you what I think in the next installment.

Cross-Posted at Left in Alabama.