In April 2020, Matthew Heimbach, founder and long-time leader of the neonazi Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), announced he had left White nationalism behind in an article he wrote for the “countering violent extremism” organization Light Upon Light (LUL). But far from focusing on the harm he and TWP had caused, Heimbach spent a good deal of the article lamenting how “the image of white nationalists in American culture is inherently dehumanizing.”[1]
In the months that followed, Heimbach appeared on an LUL panel about “The Future of the Far-Right and Combating Reciprocal Radicalization;”[2] wrote articles for LUL’s blog;[3] was featured in several LUL videos;[4] and participated in a six-part podcast series on the Far Right with LUL co-founder Jesse Morton.[5][6] Despite the publicity tour and Heimbach’s claims of reform, critics remained skeptical that he’d left the movement at all, noting that he’d conveniently renounced White nationalism amid an ongoing lawsuit regarding his involvement in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[7] Heimbach had once called the deadly rally “a show of strength” for the Far Right, which he described as being primarily unified by their shared adherence to the “14 words”: a popular White supremacist slogan that reads, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”[8]
Other observers noted that Heimbach’s rhetoric and behavior hadn’t actually changed. In the podcast series with Morton, listeners pointed out, Heimbach spoke of White nationalist literature with seeming respect, “suggest[ing] nuance where there is none.”[9] Just months before becoming an LUL ambassador—a category of supposedly reformed racists, jihadists, and misogynists whom the organization calls “Shape Shifters”—Heimbach along with his former-TWP co-founder Matthew Parrot helped launch a website to fundraise for White nationalist and “National Socialist” prisoners.[10] And although Heimbach now claims to be a “National Bolshevist,” rather than a National Socialist, he continues to support violence and bigotry, including antisemitism, eco-fascism, and accelerationism—a call, embraced by some White supremacists, to sow chaos in order to hasten the destruction of Western governments they view as “irreparably corrupt.”[11]
“Countering Violent Extremism”
Heimbach’s reversion to form was concerning, but even more troubling was that he’d been given a platform to share his views almost immediately after supposedly renouncing White nationalism. Although the speed at which Heimbach gained access to mainstream organizations and publications was exceptional, he wasn’t the first “former extremist” (or “former”) that LUL and other so-called countering violent extremism organizations have platformed, nor will he be the last. While proponents argue that “formers” offer unique and necessary insight into movements that propagate violence and bigotry, and can help others de-enlist, there’s been less publicity for analysis that explores the downsides that elevating such “formers” can bring.
In recent years, many “formers” have joined or even created their own organizations across Europe, Canada, and the United States, often filling very public roles as experts who can draw on their experiences to advise policymakers, academics, and civil society groups on how far-right and other bias-driven movements work. Many of these efforts fall under “Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism” (P/CVE) programs[12] that are “aimed at dissuading and understanding radicalization.”[13] The P/CVE field—which ranges from academic research, to civil society programs, to law enforcement and other government-funded programs, and which is implemented at both the federal and local levels—is often presented as a new, “soft” counterterrorism strategy, with a wider reach than traditional programs focused on addressing “extremism” though counter-intelligence, police, and military means.[14]
Originally, many of these organizations focused on so-called Islamic extremism, and have only just recently moved on to White supremacism. While some P/CVE programs are organized or funded by federal governments, others fundraise from individuals, or receive support from private philanthropic foundations[15] or corporations like Google and Facebook.[16] These programs often claim to counter or prevent “violent extremism” by identifying “at risk” individuals (e.g., people most likely to commit violence or join terrorist organizations) through the help of community leaders, social and public health workers, and other means of community surveillance.[17] While P/CVE is often presented as preferable to “harder” counterterrorism strategies like law enforcement surveillance, critics argue that this “soft” approach is just the same “surveillance by a different name.”[18] P/CVE programming has received criticism for how it expanded the security state, by flagging certain legal behaviors as “indicators of ‘pre-terrorism,’”[19] and focusing on “violent extremism,” which is just as ambiguously defined as “terrorism.”[20]
This new form of surveillance has also spurred critiques that P/CVE programs create division and suspicion among the communities where they work, as community members are repositioned as potential informants or targets—disproportionately marking Muslim communities as potential “terrorist threats.” Indeed, the majority of funding for P/CVE programming has gone towards addressing alleged “jihadists” and only recently has federal CVE funding in the United States (now called the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program)[21] been made available for addressing White supremacism and other forms of far-right “extremism.” (In 2016, Life After Hate, another P/CVE organization founded by “former” White supremacists, became the first organization focused mainly on White supremacist “deradicalization” services to receive Department of Homeland Security CVE funding.)[22]
As a result of these shifting goals, multiple critics have questioned the very premise and terms of P/CVE. In a 2018 policy paper, George Washington University senior research fellow Dr. Haroro Ingram noted that P/CVE programming is ill-defined and its research and policy proposals tend “to be built on poor conceptual and empirical foundations”[23] or what the Brennan Center has dubbed “junk science.”[24] Others pointed to P/CVE programs’ lack of clear of metrics to evaluate impact or measurable results,[25] with some organizations using “formers” almost as props to exaggerate their effectiveness. Others still highlight some P/CVE organizations’ lack of transparency—that it is often impossible to determine what exactly these organizations do.[26]
Added to these critiques is the fact that court-mandated “deradicalization,” government-funded CVE programs, and other means of combating far-right terrorism are actually perpetuating White supremacy in ways that are both subtle—such as attempting to legislate away White supremacists through new laws that actually continue to target minority communities by increasing budgets for policing and surveillance—and more glaring, like platforming unrepentant formers. Together, these failings have enabled bigoted or exclusionary groups like the anti-Muslim nonprofit Clarion Project, far-right media organizations like Rebel Media, and others, to adopt the P/CVE label as a means of gaining more legitimacy. These factors have also left little space for accountability mechanisms or regulation for groups that end up elevating figures like Heimbach, or aiding the very groups they claim to be “deradicalizing.”
A “Former” and a Police Officer Walk Into a Bar…
Light Upon Light’s origin story is almost cinematic: the result of a partnership between a former Al Qaeda recruiter, Jesse Morton, and the Director of Intelligence Analysis for the NYPD who “hunted” him,[27] Mitchell Silber. A White man from Pennsylvania, Morton founded and ran a website, Revolution Muslim, from 2007 to 2010 that sought to recruit users to join Al Qaeda and later the Islamic State. After mounting evidence that individuals involved with Revolution Muslim had carried out terrorist acts, the FBI began arresting some of its members in late 2009,[28] and in July 2010 Morton fled the U.S. The following May, he was arrested and imprisoned in Morocco, before being extradited home in late 2011. He served three years and nine months of an 11-year sentence, and started working as an FBI informant while in prison and after his release in 2015.[29]
Morton’s radicalization and subsequent deradicalization led to major profiles in The New York Times and other publications, a bevy of podcast and panel appearances where Morton spoke as a broad expert on radicalization, and a research position at George Washington University (until Morton was terminated following an arrest on drug and prostitution charges in 2017[30]). While Silber received far less public attention than his quarry, he had already proven influential in creating and defending counter-extremism law-enforcement strategies, including dubious surveillance tactics.[31] In 2007, Silber gained some notoriety for co-authoring a report for the New York City Police Department entitled “Radicalization in the West: the Homegrown Threat,” which the Brennan Center criticized for using questionable methodology and promoting racial and religious profiling.[32]
Nonetheless, Silber’s report became the dominant framework on “radicalization theory framework” used by the Department of Homeland Security, and thus the dominant perspective embraced by the U.S. federal government.[33] And in 2012, when an Associated Press report uncovered the NYPD’s “clandestine surveillance program,” and questioned both its legality and its effectiveness[34] Silber defended[35] the controversial program he oversaw by citing Morton’s arrest “as evidence of how effective the program was,” according to The New Republic.[36]
In 2017, Silber and Morton collaborated again, this time not as officer and informant, but as co-directors of a new nonprofit they were forming: Parallel Networks, an organization focused on “combating hate and extremism,”[37] and which would later launch LUL. Today, LUL bills itself as an “ecosystem that takes a holistic approach to combating polarization, hate, and extremism.”[38] Among its programs are the “Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate” campaign, a blog, a podcast, a 24/7 helpline, and a research institute called “The Center for the Study of Trauma and Radicalization.” Across these different initiatives, LUL considers its stable of “Shape Shifters”—a category that has at various points in time included Heimbach[39], former National Socialist Movement (NSM) leader Jeff Schoep, former NSM member Acacia Dietz, and former White Aryan Resistance organizer Tony McAleer, to name a few—as its most valuable asset, speaking to the public at LUL panels, writing for LUL’s blog, directing its “Society Against Violent Extremism and Hate” (SAVE-Hate) program and recruiting other potential “Shape Shifters.”
Among LUL’s Shape Shifter lineup, Schoep has prompted the most skepticism, from both media and other formers.[40] Like Heimbach, Schoep and the NSM are named in the Sines v. Kessler lawsuit for their involvement in the Unite the Right rally, and Schoep’s claimed exit from White supremacy, in March 2019, seems similarly timed to that legal threat.[41] As with Heimbach, other formers have criticized how quickly Schoep jumped into “deradicalization” work after leaving the movement. Christian Picciolini, a former White supremacist who’s founded multiple groups to deradicalize others, including the Free Radicals Project and Life After Hate, initially interviewed Schoep for his MSNBC series Breaking Hate. But Picciolini later expressed dismay at Schoep’s involvement with LUL, noting how little work Schoep had done to address the harm he’d caused before attempting interventions to deradicalize others.[42]
As with Heimbach, there’s also significant evidence that Schoep’s worldview hasn’t changed substantially, such as hesitating to get rid of White supremacist materials or acknowledge his Iron Cross and Eagle tattoo as hate symbols,[43] and refusing to turn over documents related to his role in the 2017 Unite the Right rally even after he “left” the NSM (An act he was sanctioned for by the court in Sines v. Kessler).[44] Others have pointed to how he retained the same lawyer as active members of the NSM for some time after the lawsuit was brought, and continued correspondence with active members of the NSM revealed in a court deposition.[45] Schoep has responded defensively to critiques that his worldview hasn’t changed substantially, complaining:
…we are seeing people on the far left, getting really agitated. Instead of saying ‘hey it’s great, this person has left the far-right, they are not involved in racism they are not involved in hate but they are still conservative’…the other side of the coin, the people seem so, are so radical, and so intolerant, and so extreme, that they can’t even recognize that people have changed.” [46]
And in an LUL publication for incarcerated White supremacists, Schoep and Heimbach cowrote an article claiming to take a different approach than that of other “former extremists” who employ “cheap theatrics” and ask exiting White supremacists to “disparage your former colleagues and to delegitimize any and all concern for the wider social issues.”
In a 2020 New York Times article exploring the skepticism around Schoep’s claimed reformation, Morton claimed that Schoep “needs time”[47] to “[transform] his worldview through intense self-examination.”[48] But despite this acknowledgement of Schoep’s incomplete deconversion, over the following months LUL continued to host and promote events that featured him.[49] And just 10 months after Schoep stepped down as leader of the National Socialist Movement, and five months after he renounced his neonazi views,[50] Schoep founded his own CVE organization, which he named Beyond Barriers and which lists several former NSM members as staff.[51]
Light Upon Light and its offshoots have thus become a launching pad from which supposed “formers” can begin new public speaking or CVE careers, regardless of the level of reckoning they’ve undertaken about the harm they’ve done. But LUL is just one node in the larger, and largely opaque CVE ecosystem. Other organizations, like the Clarion Project, are taking its model even farther, and platforming “formers” to spread dangerous propaganda.
Islamophobia Rebranded: Clarion Project
Founded in 2006 by film producer and rabbi Raphael Shore, the Clarion Project (formerly the Clarion Fund) describes itself as a nonprofit “dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism while providing a platform for the voices of moderation and promoting grassroots activism.”[52] In a 2011 report from the Center for American Progress, Fear, Inc.,[53] the group was identified as a key media member of an Islamophobia network that “spread[s] hate and misinformation,” most notably through its mid-2000s anti-Muslim films. Among them is the 2005 documentary Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, 28 million DVD copies of which were sent to swing states prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential election in an apparent attempt to sway voters against then-candidate Barack Obama.[54] The film also found an audience abroad, and was cited multiple times in the manifesto of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik.[55] Another Clarion film, The Third Jihad, which incorrectly posits that there is a third jihad secretly taking place in the West today, was shown as part of a training[56] to nearly 1,500 NYPD officers in 2011, when LUL cofounder Mitchell Silber was the NYPD’s Director of Intelligence Analysis.[57] And Ryan Mauro, the “Director of the Clarion Intelligence Network,” has spoken at multiple events and trainings for law enforcement, including addressing the Department of Homeland Security Professionals Conference in 2016.[58]
But in 2018, the Clarion Project seemed to pivot, announcing their launch of a “preventing violent extremism” program, including trainings for “parents, educators, social workers, counselors, local and state politicians, law enforcement and other members of the general public who come into contact with at-risk youth.”[59] The announcement appeared to be part of a larger rebranding effort, as the organization began to define itself as not just focused on “the threat of radical Islam” but “extremists of all shapes and forms,” including groups and movements that they now saw as “a constant threat to the West, such as white supremacy, neo-Nazism, left-wing extremism and others.”[60]
Today, Clarion’s weekly “extremism roundup” newsletter reports on both “Islamist” and “anti-Muslim extremism,”[61] but there’s little evidence to suggest the group has fundamentally changed, nor any acknowledgement that their earlier work fueling anti-Muslim bigotry and misinformation—all of which is still available on their websites—is at least partly responsible for some of the anti-Muslim attacks they now claim to be fighting. In 2017, the small African American Muslim community of Islamberg, New York, which for several years has been the target of anti-Muslim conspiracies, was targeted by the Proud Boys and a group known as American Bikers United Against Jihad. According to a report from The Daily Beast, “the Proud Boys cite[d]the ‘research’ of The Clarion Project as a reason they [went] to Islamberg.”[62] The Clarion Project has previously released footage that it claims shows “guerrilla warfare training” in Islamberg.[63] Two years prior, in April 2015, Robert Doggart, a former congressional candidate from Tennessee, and a member of several militia and far-right groups, was arrested for planning a “terrorist attack” on Islamberg.[64] And in 2019, three men and a teenager were arrested while planning to bomb Islamberg.[65] Although we can’t be sure that Clarion’s rhetoric inspired all of these attacks, it did at least once, and is part of the broader ideological context around such vigilante attacks.
In 2019, the Clarion Project launched a national public education outreach campaign in 21 U.S. cities as part of their new “Preventing Violent Extremism” initiative,[66] which they promoted (at events for the right-wing student organization Turning Point USA[67] and the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC)[68] with the help of then-LUL “Shape Shifter” Frank Meeink, a “former” neonazi whose life story inspired the film American History X.[69] It wasn’t the only crossover event between Clarion and LUL. In 2020, LUL’s Jesse Morton and Jeff Schoep participated in a panel held by the Clarion Project.[70] And Morton, Schoep, and other LUL Shape Shifters began participating in interviews with Clarion Project published on Clarion’s YouTube channel, where “formers” talked about their experiences in their respective movements. Some of the videos were subsequently republished by Rebel News, a far-right Canadian media outlet that has featured programming by prominent members of the Alt Right, including Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, far-right media personalities and conspiracy theorists Laura Loomer and Lauren Southern, and White nationalist political candidate Faith Goldy. Rebel News not only identified this reposting of Clarion’s interview with “formers” as part of a partnership with Clarion Project, but their Rebel News Advisory Board also shares a member with the Clarion Project’s Advisory Board.[71]
The Allure and Danger of P/CVE
Long before CVE programs were established in the United States,[72] Sweden launched a series of “exit” programs to address growing neonazi violence. By the 1990s and 2000s, Sweden had become one of the biggest exporters of “race-hate” literature, merchandise and White Power music. In response, in 1998, a group called Exit Sweden began offering activities and educational courses to neonazi skinheads. And some of today’s problems with P/CVE programs began with it, as one of its cofounders, the politician Anders Carlberg, argued that the skinheads they worked with weren’t “racists” but “fine lads” generating a “positive nationalism.”[73] By centering these “formers,” and readily excusing their participation in bigoted movements, White victimhood seems to be baked into the main model of deradicalization programs both then and now.
In her 2014 report[74] critiquing European deradicalization “exit” programs, Executive Director of the Institute of Race Relations Liz Fekete noted that early programs inflated numbers of successful interventions, claimed success for prevention work they hadn’t done, and, in some cases, even accompanied neonazis to White Power music concerts (for reasons unknown). Fekete observed in Europe the same set of problems with today’s U.S. P/CVE programs: a lack of transparency on how they function and are managed; the absence of any reparative process to foster accountability for past crimes; and the reliance on “formers” as experts on deradicalization, blurring the lines between professional and personal experiences. Fekete also raised concerns about the pattern of “formers” returning to far-right movements after they “secured their desired outcome,” arguing that this could be curtailed via higher standards of evaluation in deradicalization programs, as well as stronger supervision of CVE organizations to hold them more accountable.
The issue of not being able to truly assess or test the effectiveness of such programs persists today. As an unregulated industry, P/CVE organizations largely operate without intervention or oversight. In the case of LUL, their practice of platforming “formers” is so irresponsibly broad that in 2021, they platformed a then-active member and forum administrator[75] of the largest community of misogynist incels online.[76] This lack of oversight has also led to more opportunities for unrepentant and opportunistic “formers” to rebrand themselves, and even profit from being “formers.”
Although some P/CVE organizations warn against making “being a former a career path or new identity in itself,”[77] many have capitalized on their status by selling books, creating pay-to-view YouTube channels, and even launching merchandise shops.[78] For example, despite his continued promotion of Islamophobic and xenophobic views,[79] former member of the far-right British Nationalist Party Jack Buckby published a book with Simon and Schuster in 2020,[80] drawing on his experiences as a “former” extremist and rebranding himself as a “counter extremism researcher.”[81] Alarmingly, as a recent study from German researchers Antje Gansewig and Maria Walsh indicates, some “formers” who have engaged in P/CVE programming (like informative talks in schools) “might not have completed the deradicalization process” before engaging in programming targeting children and teens.[82] The attention and prominence formers can achieve through these rebrands may also encourage some formers to upsell or fabricate their involvement in these movements as a way to gain more publicity.[83]
But it’s not just “formers” who benefit from their supposed reform. For P/CVE organizations, claiming credit for rehabilitating “extremists” means the chance for publicity and funding opportunities. In 2013, the now-defunct UK-based Quilliam Foundation announced, via press conference, that they would help Tommy Robinson, co-founder of the far-right, Islamophobic English Defence League, to “exit” that movement. This high-profile injection of publicity came at a time when, according to The Guardian, Quilliam was facing “challenging financial circumstances.”[84] At the time of the announcement, Nottingham University professor Matthew Goodwin observed that the move seemed inspired more by a desire for publicity than real conversion.[85] Two years later, Robinson, who has since started a UK branch of the German far-right and anti-Islam movement Pegida, confirmed the skepticism, claiming that Quilliam had paid him to leave the League, so “they could take ‘credit’ for his resignation.”[86] Quilliam acknowledged paying Robinson, but said they “never claimed to ‘deradicalise’ Tommy nor ‘reform’ him,” but merely to have facilitated his departure from the EDL—a level of parsing that again calls into question what exactly P/CVE groups do.
But more concerning is how these pivots by former extremists and the help they receive from P/CVE groups still center their experiences and well-being, detracting attention from the communities they have harmed. Some “formers” claim to have begun the deradicalization process after positive interactions with a member of one of the many racial or religious minority groups they despised.[87] Prominent among them are Derek Black, the son of Stormfront’s founder, who renounced his antisemitic and White supremacist views after being befriended by Jewish students on his college campus,[88] and Frank Meeink, who claims that his views began to shift after being hired by a Jewish business owner.[89] As a result, some P/CVE organizations have begun emphasizing empathy and compassion as means of deradicalizing White supremacists. But not only is the effectiveness of these “compassionate” methods hard to verify, but it puts the onus of deradicalization on the very people targeted by far-right bigotry and violence, while simultaneously giving cover to members of the far right who suggest that skepticism and demands for accountability undermine deradicalization efforts.[90]
Further, the uncritical platforming of formers often leads to a form of “both sides-ism” that can be especially harmful to communities they have attacked. The Clarion Project, for instance, positions “left-wing extremism” as an equivalent threat to White supremacism. Jack Buckby claims that he may not have joined an “extremist” movement had leftists and other conservatives reached out to him instead of condemning his racism.[91] Other formers have offered a similar narrative, arguing that they adopted their bigoted views through a kind of “reciprocal radicalization,”[92] after Leftists called them racists, Nazis, or White supremacists.[93]
Both Heimbach and Schoep, while Shape Shifters for LUL, echoed these excuses, arguing that people turn to violence when they feel they have no other venue to express their views, and so White supremacists shouldn’t be excluded or deplatformed[94] but rather allowed to discuss their “ideas” (without facing consequences for bigoted speech).[95] This of course ignores how the open and uncritical expression of exclusionary and bigoted speech itself can lead to violence. As a 2021 report from the Dangerous Speech Project illustrates, dehumanization is a hallmark of speech that can “increase the risk that its audience will condone or commit violence against members of another group”[96] And as Gonzaga University professor Joan Braune, who studies bigoted movements, notes, “a community in which white supremacists are included and not judged, is a community in which people of color, Jews, LGBTQ+ individuals and others, cannot feel fully included.”[97]
Braune also argues that labelling White supremacist and far-right movements as examples of “extremism” that warrant deradicalization and counter-terrorism initiatives can end up obscuring these movements’ connection to systemic power, and how their ideologies are normalized and mainstreamed.[98] As Fekete noted in the European context in 2014, “Exit programmes sideline anti-racist frameworks in favour of muted anti-extremism perspectives promoted by government-sponsored former neo-nazis who, unlike their victims, have never been at the receiving end of racist violence, and yet are now treated as experts on the roots of prejudice.”[99] Ultimately, P/CVE is a depoliticized approach that addresses so-called extremism with psychological and criminological frameworks that center individuals, and rarely address systemic issues that harm the most vulnerable communities. Instead, these CVE organizations present the bigotry of White supremacists as exceptional and based in individual traumas, rather than a phenomenon that exists far outside the bounds of “extremist” or “hate” groups. This not only re-centers White (and male) victimhood,[100] but fails to engage with White supremacy on a larger scale.
Even more concerning is that many P/CVE organizations and initiatives that originally were formed to combat “jihadis” have now rebranded as responding to “all forms of terrorism” [101] and in doing so have attempted to use similar tactics and frameworks for far-right and White supremacist movement. What that amounts to is effectively copy-pasting their programming and swapping in names of different movements as needed, assuming that so-called “extremists” from disparate movements and backgrounds are motivated by the same kinds of drivers, while ignoring larger political contexts, such as the role of U.S. foreign policy in some regions, or the proliferation of White supremacy in others. This in turn not only leads to the treatment of White supremacy as exceptional to the individuals P/CVE aims to address,[102] but also enables P/CVE programs to function under the faulty assumption that an expert on one “extremist” group is automatically an expert on other forms of “extremism.”
The credibility that formers command can have detrimental effects at a large scale. For example, a former White supremacist who belonged to a group suspected of funding the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing currently holds a position as a law enforcement coordinator in the counter-terrorism unit at the U.S. Department of Justice.[103] At an even larger scale, the practice of using formers enables not-so-former White nationalists (or incels, or antisemites) to further spread their ideology, by positioning themselves as the middle ground while still espousing bigoted views, and thereby potentially shifting the Overton Window further right.
Alternatives to the current P/CVE model are plentiful—namely, focusing on communities and the systemic issues they face rather than treating radicalization as an individual psychological issue. Recognizing the ways that White supremacy, misogyny, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of bigotry and exclusion manifest at a cultural and societal level is vital in understanding the dynamics that drive these types of movements in the first place. White supremacist violence is indeed the biggest threat to the political and social fabric of the United States, much of Europe, and other parts of the world, but P/CVE efforts won’t solve the issue of domestic far-right terrorism. Focusing on and supporting the efforts of communities of color and social justice movements that have long fought the cultural, economic, and social systems that foreground White supremacy should be the main goal of “countering violent extremism.” As professor Nicole Nguyen and researcher Yazan Zahzah wrote in their online toolkit “Why Treating White Supremacy as Domestic Terrorism Won’t Work and How to Not Fall for It,” “Chipping away at white supremacy’s most extreme forms through ineffective and unscientific interventions—rooted in a racist antiterrorism framework—does little to address the mundane social processes that kill people of color every day.”[104]
Endnotes
[1]Matthew Heimbach, “In from the Cold: Why I left White Nationalism,” Light Upon Light, April 2020, Accessed July 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20200514151948/http://www.lightuponlight.online/in-from-the-cold-why-i-left-white-nationalism/
[2]“Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate: The Future of the Far-Right and Combating Reciprocal Radicalization,” Parallel Networks, published on July 31,2020, YouTube video, 1:30:56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOXvwk0W1o
[3]Heimbach, “In from the Cold” ; Matthew Heimbach and Jeff Schoep, “Free on the inside; open letter to those Incarcerated for Far-Right Extremism,” Light Upon Light, April 15, 2020, Accessed July 17, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20200514151939/http://www.lightuponlight.online/free-on-the-inside-open-letter-to-those-incarcerated-for-far-right-extremism/.
[4] “100 Days After Extremism,” Parallel Networks„ July 19, 2020, YouTube video, 45:03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZbXm3r_Uyo; “Daryl Davis & Matt Heimbach: Deconstructing White Supremacy,” Parallel Networks, July 19, 2020, YouTube video, 56:52, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnDe9PssTmM
[5] Note: Since writing this piece, Jesse Morton has passed away in December 2021.
[6]Jesse Morton and Matthew Heimbach, “Take a Walk on the Right Side,” Spotify, April-July 2020. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://open.spotify.com/show/071l31A8e8W0o7JxEkUc1M
[7]Heimbach and Schoep, “Free on the Inside”.
[8] “14 Words,” Anti-Defamation League, Accessed September 15, 2021, https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/14-words.
[9] “IntelBrief: Salad Bar Redux: Is Heimbach’s Extremism Emblematic of The Current Threat Landscape?” The Soufan Center, July 29, 2021, Accessed August 20, 2021.
https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2021-july-29/.
[10]It’s Going Down, “Hey @_JesseMorton of Light Upon Light, you follow our account + just blocked us from LuL for asking if Heimbach still is a holocaust denier + supports the genocide of all Jews. While part of LuL, he’s expressed opposition to “degeneracy” + an embrace of “left-wing” fascism…” Twitter, July 31, 2020, 5:36 PM, ttps://web.archive.org/web/20210721042527/https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1289359256265740288 ; “Matthew Heimbach,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Accessed December 01, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/matthew-heimbach ; Mark Hay, ”The Twisted Group Focused on Making Nazis Comfy in Prison,” The Daily Beast, March 13, 2021, Accessed February 24, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-twisted-group-focused-on-making-nazis-comfy-in-prison.
[11]Zack Beauchamp, “Accelerationism: the obscure idea inspiring white supremacist killers around the world,” Vox, November 18, 2019, Accessed November 11, 2021, https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/11/20882005/accelerationism-w… ; “IntelBrief: Salad Bar Redux.”
[12] CVE is the more commonly used term in the US whereas PVE is more commonly used in Europe, but refer to similar kinds of programming/organization.
[13] “Countering Violent Extremism,” Lawfare, Accessed October 1, 2021, https://www.lawfareblog.com/topic/countering-violent-extremism.
[14]Owen Frazer and Christian Nünlist, “The Concept of Countering Violent Extremism,” CSS Analyses in Security Policy, No. 183, December 2015.
[15]Ben Quinn, “Tommy Robinson link with Quilliam Foundation raises questions,” The Guardian, October 12, 2013, Accessed October 2, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/12/tommy-robinson-quilliam-foundation-questions-motivation.
[16] Claire Atkinson, “Google-backed startup uses internet ads to counter online extremism,” NBC News, March 28, 2018, Accessed October 03, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/google-backed-startup-uses-internet-ads-counter-online-extremism-n860961.
[17] “Why Countering Violent Extremism Programs Are Bad Policy,” Brennan Center for Justice, September 09, 2019, Accessed September 01, 2021, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/why-countering-violent-extremism-programs-are-bad-policy.
[18] “Countering Violent Extremism,” Lawfare
[19] “Why Countering Violent Extremism Programs Are Bad Policy,” Brennan Center for Justice.
[20]“Counter-Terrorism Module 2 Key Issues: Radicalization & Violent Extremism,” United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime - E4J, July 2018, Accessed October 01 2021, https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/terrorism/module-2/key-issues/radicalization-violent-extremism.html.
[21]“Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program,” Department of Homeland Security, September 28, 2021, Accessed October 05 2021, https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants.
[22] Alex Ruppenthal, “Chicago Group Opposing Neo-Nazis Planned to Target Jihadists, Too,” WTTW, August 23, 2017, Accessed September 21, 2021, https://news.wttw.com/2017/08/23/chicago-group-opposing-neo-nazis-planned-target-jihadists-too; Julia Edwards Ainsley, “White House budget slashes ‘countering violent extremism’ grants,” Reuters, May 23, 2017, Accessed on February 24, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-extremism-idUSKBN18J2HJ. It is notable that with this funding, Life After Hate was not just focused on addressing White supremacists but also planned to address “jihadists.” (see Alex Ruppenthal) Life After Hate’s grant was cancelled by the Trump administration. In 2017, the budget that the White House proposed for the 2018 fiscal year proposed cutting funding for CVE programs through the Department of Homeland Security (see Ainsely, 2017). In 2020, the DHS established the “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention” (TVTP) grant program, which they called “an evolution of the FY16 CVE Grant Program” (https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants). Life After Hate then received funding from the TVTP in 2020 and 2021.
[23]Haroro J Ingram, “Terrorism Prevention in the United States: A Policy Framework for Filling the CVE Void,” Program on Extremism: The Georrge Washington University, November 2018, Accessed October 4 2021, https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Terrorism%20Prevention%20Policy%20Paper.pdf.
[24] “Why Countering Violent Extremism Programs Are Bad Policy,” Brennan Center for Justice.
[25]Ingram, “Terrorism Prevention in the United States”
[26] Liz Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism: the accountability gap within Europe’s de-radicalisation programmes,” European Research Programme Institute of Race Relations, 2014.
[27] Jessica Donatti, “NYPD Analyst Hunted al Qaeda Recruiter For Years. Now They’re A Team,” Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2018, Accessed September 15, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-foes-from-al-qaeda-and-new-york-police-ally-to-counter-extremism-1524826800.
[28] “Jesse Curtis Morton,” Counter Extremism Project, https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/jesse-curtis-morton.
[29]Rukmini Callimachi, “Once an al Qaeda Recruiter, Now a Voice Against Jihad,” The New York Times, August 29, 2016, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/al-qaeda-islamic-state-jihad-fbi.html.
[30]Tiffany Stanley, “Only Human,” New Republic, November 15, 2017, Accessed November 11, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/145433/only-human-american-ex-jihadi-rebuild-life-country-once-vowed-destroy.
[31]Stanley, “Only Human.”
[32] Aziz Huq, “Concerns with Mitchell D. Silber & Arvin Bhatt, N.Y. Police Dept, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (August 2007),” Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, August 30, 2007, Accessed October 04 2021, https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/Aziz%20Memo%20NYPD.pdf.
[33]“Khaled A. Beydoun, “Islamophobia As Law and Policy,” In Countering the Islamophobia Industry: Toward More Effective Strategies, The Carter Center, May 2018, Accessed October 01, 2021, p. 37, https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/conflict_resolution/countering-isis/cr-countering-the-islamophobia-industry.pdf.
[34] Stanley, “Only Human“
[35]Mitchell D Silber, “Who Will Defend the Defenders?,” Commentary. Law, Government, & Society, June 2012, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://www.commentary.org/articles/silber-mitchell-d/who-will-defend-the-defenders/, https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol41/iss1/7/.
[36] Stanley, “Only Human”
[37] “Who We Are,” Parallel Networks, https://web.archive.org/web/20210512020115/http://pnetworks.org/the-parallel-networks-team/.
[38] “About,” Light Upon Light, 2021, Accessed October 10, 2021, https://www.lightuponlight.online/about/.
[39] Heimbach was previously listed as a “Shape Shifter” as archived versions of the site show, but is no longer listed on the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20200514152013/http://www.lightuponlight.online/shape-shifters
[40]John Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?,” The New York Times, April 4, 2020, Accessed September 01, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/jeff-schoep-white-nationalist-reformer.html.
[41] “Jeff Schoep,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/jeff-schoep; Brett Barrouquere, “Jeff Schoep Sheds Neo-Nazi Past But Stays Loyal with Lawyer’s Maneuvers,” Southern Poverty Law Center, September 11, 2019, Accessed August 15, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/09/11/jeff-schoep-sheds-neo-nazi-past-stays-loyal-lawyers-maneuvers.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Schoep announced to the NSM that he was stepping down as commander in March 2019, and publicly renounced his neonazi views in August 2019, but had turned over control of the NSM to a Black civil rights advocate, James Stern, in February 2019. However Stern “began convincing Schoep to sign over NSM to him in late 2018, in part because of Schoep’s ongoing legal issues surrounding Charlottesville.”
The verdict in the Sines v. Kessler trial found the defendants liable on four counts and awarded more than $25 million in punitive damages. This amount includes the $500,000 in punitive damages that Schoep and Heimbach were each ordered to pay and the $1 million in damages to be paid by the organizations they formerly led: the Traditionalist Worker Party, and the National Socialist Movement.
[42]Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?”
[43] Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?”
[44] “Federal Court Sanctions Charlottesville Defendant Jeff Schoep,” Integrity First For America, April 30, 2019, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://www.integrityfirstforamerica.org/newsroom/federal-court-sanctions-charlottesville-defendant-jeff-schoep.
[45] Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?”; Barrouquere, “Jeff Schoep Sheds Neo-Nazi Past But Stays Loyal with Lawyer’s Maneuvers.”
[46]Jeff Schoep, “Beyond Barriers- Ep. 5 - w/ Special Guest Jack Buckby,” Beyond Barriers, July 21, 2020, YouTube video, 1:14:37 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4rAFxJIYqM (TimeStamp: 6:00-7:00).
[47] Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?”
[48] Eligon, “He Says His Nazi Days Are Over, Do You Believe Him?”
[49] Light Upon Light, “Corona Conspiracy & Anti-Semitism,” Facebook, May 10, 2020, accessed September 20, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/lighttuponlight/posts/join-a-unique-clarion-project-webinar-on-wednesday-may-13-where-we-will-delve-in/2694280630894004/.
[50] “Jeff Schoep,” Southern Poverty Law Center.
[51] “About Us,” Beyond Barriers, 2021, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://beyondbarriersusa.org/about/.
[52] “About,” Clarion Project, Archived April 09, 2013, Accessed September 20, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20130409231442/http://www.clarionproject.org/about.
[53] Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and Faiz Shakir, “Fear , Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” Center For American Progress, August 2011
[54] Ali et. al., “Fear, Inc.”
[55] “Walid Shoebat,” Islamophobia Network, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://islamophobianetwork.com/echo-chamber/walid-shoebat/.
[56] Michael Powell, “In Police Training a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims,” The New York Times, January 23, 2012, Accessed September 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/nyregion/in-police-training-a-dark-film-on-us-muslims.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all ; Thomas Cincotta, “Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the Threat to Rights and Security,” Political Research Associates, January 1, 2011, Accessed August 20, 2021, https://politicalresearch.org/2011/01/01/manufacturing-muslim-menace.
[57] “Mitchell Silber,” Columbia University SIPA School of International and Public Affairs, 2021, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/mitchell-silber.
[58] Stephen Piggott, “Anti-Muslim National Security “Expert Ryan Mauro to Address Homeland Security Professionals Conference,” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 20,2016, Accessed August 20, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/10/20/anti-muslim-national-security-expert-ryan-mauro-address-homeland-security-professionals ; “NYCLU Denounces ‘Anti-Muslim,’ ‘Extremist’ Speaker at Officers’ Convention,” NYCLU- ACLU of New York, April 26, 2016, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/nyclu-denounces-anti-muslim-extremist-speaker-officers-convention.
[59] Kristin Garrity Sekerci, “The Clarion Project Has a ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ Program,” BRIDGE- A Georgetown Initiative, January 11, 2019, Accessed August 20, 2021, https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/the-clarion-project-has-a-preventing-violent-extremism-program/.
[60] “Who We Are,” Clarion Project, 2021, Accessed September 20, 2021, https://clarionproject.org/who-we-are/.
[61] “More Bad News for CAIR,” Clarion Project, July 09, 2021, Accessed August 25, 2021, https://clarionproject.org/more-bad-news-for-cair/.
[62] Dean Obeidallah, “Trump-Supporting Bigots to Target Upstate New York Muslims,” The Daily Beast, July 14, 2017, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-supporting-bigots-to-target-upstate-new-york-muslims.
[63] “Guerrilla Training of Women at Islamberg, NY,” Clarion Project YouTube, October 29, 2013,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxoykqCSruY.
[64]NPR Morning Edition, “Planned Attack on Muslim Community In Upstate New York Disrupted, Police Say,” National Public Radio, January 22, 2019, Accessed October 14, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2019/01/22/687560197/attack-on-muslim-community-in-upstate-new-york-disrupted-police-say; Alejandro Beutel, “Driven by anti-Muslim paranoia, far-right extremists to gather in Islamberg, New York,” Southern Poverty Law Center, July 12, 2018, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/07/12/driven-anti-muslim-paranoia-far-right-extremists-gather-islamberg-new-york.
[65] Michael Gold, “4 Arrested and 23 Guns Seized in Plot Against Muslim Enclave in Upstate N.Y.,” The New York Times, January 22, 2019, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/nyregion/islamberg-attack-muslim-community.html.
[66] “Outreach in 21 Cities to Prevent Violent Extremism,” Clarion Project, November 08, 2019, Accessed October 13, 2021, https://medium.com/@clarionproject/outreach-in-21-cities-to-prevent-violent-extremism-dfb52969fa81.
[67]AntiFash Gordon, “1/ RECAP THREAD: I’ve gotten a lot of DMs asking what the deal with Light Upon Light is. In short, they claim to be an anti-hate org, but they’re defending Frank Meeink, now with the Clarion Project, an anti-Islam hate group that’s inspired extremist violence against Muslims.” Twitter Post, December 21, 2019, 5:36 PM, https://mobile.twitter.com/AntiFashGordon/status/1208385983898624001.
[68] “At ALEC Conf: Human Rights Group Pitches Efforts to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE),” Clarion Project, December 02, 2019, Accessed October 05, 2021, https://medium.com/@clarionproject/at-alec-conf-human-rights-group-pitches-effort-to-prevent-violent-extremism-pve-6054a3a47df7.
[69] Marlow Stern, “He was the Neo—Nazi Who Inspired ‘American History X.’ His Nazi Pals Are Now Cops,” The Daily Beast, September 13, 2020, Accessed November 11, 2021, https://www.thedailybeast.com/he-was-the-neo-nazi-who-inspired-american-history-x-his-nazi-pals-are-now-cops.
[70] Light Upon Light, “Corona Conspiracy & Anti-Semitism” Facebook, May 10, 2020, Facebook Post Accessed: September 20, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/lighttuponlight/.
[71]Clarion Project, “He Threatened South Park in the name of Islam: Ex-jihadist Jesse Morton tells all,” Rebel News, https://www.rebelnews.com/jesse_morton_threatened_south_park_in_the_name_of_islam_ex_jihadist_tells_all ; Rebel News Online, “— 1pm ET PREMIERE —A MUST-SEE video by
@clarionproject…He threatened “South Park” in the name of #Islam — then renounced radicalism thanks to what he found in the prison library…Ex-jihadist Jesse Morton tells all. WATCH: https://bit.ly/2WSNQfV #tcot #MAGA,”Twitter, May 12, 2020, 6:55 PM, https://twitter.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1260252239341531138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260252239341531138%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebelnews.com%2Fjesse_morton_threatened_south_park_in_the_name_of_islam_ex_jihadist_tells_all ; Raheel Raza, “Introducing Raheel Raza, Chair of the Rebel News Advisory Board,” Rebel News, June 02, 2020, Accessed on February 24, 2022, https://www.rebelnews.com/introducing_raheel_raza_chair_of_the_rebel_news_advisory_board.
[72]Office of the Press Secretary, “FACT SHEET: The White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism,” Obama White House Archives, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/18/fact-sheet-white-house-summit-countering-violent-extremism.
“Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States,” Department of Homeland Security, August 2011, Accessed October 07 2021, https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/empowering_local_partners.pdf.
[73] Mats Deland, “The cultural racism of Sweden,” Race & Class (Vol. 39, No. 1, 1997) pp. 51-60, as quoted in Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism”
[74] Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism”
[75] Since December 2021, Alexander Ash (a pseudonym) is no longer associated with the misogynist incel forum mentioned. He “resigned” from several forums following a report from The New York Times on another forum he moderated that promoted suicide methods.
[76] Jesse Morton, “Divided We Stand,” Light Upon Light, 2020, Accessed August 20, 2021, https://www.lightuponlight.online/divided-we-stand/.
[77] Radicalization Awareness Network, “Dos and don’ts of involving formers in PVE/CVE work,” Journal EXIT-Deutschland, Zeitschrift fuer Deraikalisierung und demokratische Kultur, May 28, 2021, Accessed October 01, 2021, https://journal-exit.de/formers-in-pve-cve/.
[78] Antje Gansewig and Maria Walsh, “Preventing Violent Extremism with Former Extremists in Schools: A Media Analysis of the Situation in Germany,” Terrorism and Political Violence (2021): 1-19, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2020.1862802 ; Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism.”
[79] Andy Fleming and Cam Smith, “Dr Joan Braune on Cultural Marxism, Bannon & Compassion,” Yeah Nah Pasaran - 3cr, Podcast audio, September 17, 2020, https://www.3cr.org.au/yeahnahpasaran/episode-202009171630/dr-joan-brau… (time stamp: 22:06-22:17).
[80]Jack Buckby, “Monster of Their Own Making- About the Book,” Simon and Schuster, accessed October 05, 2021., https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Monster-of-Their-Own-Making/Jack-Buckby/9781642934243.
[81] “Mother Talks About Her Son’s Rapid Descent into Far-Right Extremism,” Channel 4 News, July 10, 2020, https://www.channel4.com/news/mother-talks-about-her-sons-rapid-descent-into-far-right-extremism.
[82] Gansewig and Walsh, “Preventing Violent Extremism with Former Extremists in Schools,” 1
[83] Elisa Hategan, “Profiting from hate: “Motivational speakers” compete over who has the best sob story,” Now Toronto, December 12, 2019, Accessed October 04 2021, https://nowtoronto.com/news/hate-neo-nazi-racism-profiteers.
[84] Quinn, “Tommy Robinson link with Quilliam Foundation raises questions.”
[85] Quinn, “Tommy Robinson link with Quilliam Foundation raises questions.”
[86] Steven Hopkins, “Tommy Robinson, Former EDL Leader, Claims Quilliam Paid Him to Quit Far-Right Group,” The Huffington Post UK, December 04, 2015, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/03/tommy-robinson-claims-quilliam-paid-him-to-leave-edl_n_8710834.html.
[87] Wes Enzinna, “Inside the Radical, Uncomfortable Movement to Reform White Supremacists,” Mother Jones, July/August 2018, Acessed August 01, 2021, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/reform-white-supremacists-shane-johnson-life-after-hate/.
[88] Terry Gross, “How a Rising Star of White Nationalism Broke Free From the Movement,” Fresh Air NPR, September 24, 2018, Accessed November 15, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651052970/how-a-rising-star-of-white-nationalism-broke-free-from-the-movement.
[89] Enzinna, “Inside the radical, uncomfortable movement to reform white supremacists.”
[90]Fleming and Smith, “Dr Joan Braune on Cultural Marxism, Bannon & Compassion.”
[91] Schoep, “Beyond Barriers- Ep. 5- w/ Special Guest Jack Buckby.”
[92] “Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate: The Future of the Far-Right and Combating Reciprocal Radicalization,” Parallel Networks, published on July 31,2020, YouTube video, 1:30:56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOXvwk0W1o.
[93] “Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate: The Future of the Far-Right and Combating Reciprocal Radicalization,” Parallel Networks.
[94] Jeff Schoep, “For Over 20 Years I was a Neo-Nazi, Consciousness and Compassion Set Me Free,” Light Upon Light, Archived January 13, 2020, Accessed September 30, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20201116162401/http://www.lightuponlight.online/for-over-20-years-i-was-a-neo-nazi-consciousness-compassion-set-me-free/ ; Jesse Morton and Matthew Heimbach, “Episode 1- Making the Face of Future Organized Hate in America,” Take a Walk on the Right Side, April 2020, Accessed September 30, 2021, https://open.spotify.com/show/071l31A8e8W0o7JxEkUc1M.
[95] “Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate: The Future of the Far-Right and Combating Reciprocal Radicalization,” (Time-Stamp: 19:10-19:46)
[96]“Dangerous Speech: A Practical Guide,” The Dangerous Speech Project, August 4, 2020, https://dangerousspeech.org/guide/.
[97] Joan Braune, “Limitations and Ethical Challenges of the Role of Formers as Experts in Hate Group Disengagement” Presentation,” EthEx (Network for Critical Research on the Ethics of Researching the Extreme and Far-Right.) May 13, 2021.
[98] Luke Baumgarten, “EPISODE 23 | Anti-terrorism feat Joan Braune,” Range, Podcast audio, January 13, 2021, https://www.rangemedia.co/episode-23-anti-terrorism-feat-joan/(time stamp: 17:11-20:22).
[99] Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism: the accountability gap within Europe’s de-radicalisation programmes.”
[100] Fekete, “Exit from White Supremacism: the accountability gap within Europe’s de-radicalisation programmes.”
[101] Nicole Nguyen and Yazan Zahzah, “A Toolkit for Social Justice Advocates. ‘Why Treating White Supremacy as Domestic Terrorism Won’t Work and How to Not Fall for It,’” 2020, Accessed October 01, 2021, http://www.stopcve.com/uploads/1/1/2/4/112447985/white_supremacy_toolkit__4_.pdf.
[102] Nguyen Zahzah, “A Toolkit.”
[103] Helen Christophi, “The Lone Wolf in the Henhouse,” The Progressive, November 18, 2021, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://progressive.org/magazine/lone-wolf-in-the-henhouse-christophi/.
[104]Nguyen and Zahzah, “A Toolkit.”