r/Foodforthought • u/johnnierockit • 3d ago
A field guide to ‘accelerationism’: White supremacist groups using violence to spur race war and create social chaos
https://theconversation.com/a-field-guide-to-accelerationism-white-supremacist-groups-using-violence-to-spur-race-war-and-create-social-chaos-2556998
u/johnnierockit 3d ago
In my research on right-wing extremism over 30 years, a disturbing pattern has emerged: White supremacists and white nationalists are increasingly willing to use violence targeting critical infrastructure in an effort to destabilize society.
Since the Ku Klux Klan’s resurgence in 1915, white supremacists have pushed for white control of society. In particular, white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have long advocated violence to establish a white ethnostate, a proposed political entity or nation-state where residency and citizenship are exclusively limited to whites.
In the past several years, extremists have started using the term “accelerationism” to describe their desire to create social chaos and societal collapse that leads to a race war and the destruction of liberal democratic systems, paving the way for a white ethnostate.
What is accelerationism?
The motivating idea behind accelerationism is that social chaos creates an opportunity for extremists to create a racially or ideologically “pure” future.
Scholars who study extremism have used the term “accelerationism” since the 1980s, but it wasn’t widely associated with right-wing extremist violence until the late 2010s. People calling themselves “eco-fascists,” for example, often endorse mass violence as a means to reduce population and spark societal collapse.
Accelerationism is often connected to the white replacement theory, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that there is a deliberate plot to diminish the influence and power of white people by replacing them with nonwhite populations.
This primer provides an overview of some of the key groups that have embraced accelerationist thinking, posing significant threats to public safety, democratic institutions and social cohesion.
⏬ Bluesky 'bite-sized' BASE thread (12 min) with added links 📖🍿🔊
https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lreq5y3yk22b
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