Extremism and Activism: What Motivates Right-Wing Extremist Group Activity?
Open Access
- Author:
- Heebink, Kendall
- Area of Honors:
- Political Science
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Douglas Lemke, Thesis Supervisor
Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Extremism
Extremist Groups
Activism
Protest
Right-Wing Extremism
Trump
Proud Boys - Abstract:
- The election of Donald Trump in 2016 led to a fundamental and important shift in U.S. domestic politics. Far-right groups, whose ideologies had congruence with many of the controversial policies in Trump’s agenda, began to emerge into the public eye and mainstream media. Some of these groups quickly demonstrated their capacity to resort to violence in the interest of furthering their causes, best exemplified in instances like the Charlottesville riots in the summer of 2017. As violence became more common, the need for research regarding the motivations of these extremist groups became increasingly apparent. Through a qualitative analysis, this thesis provides an in-depth case study into the right-wing extremist group The Proud Boys. I hypothesize that far-right extremist activity will increase in response to a fluctuation in factors including institutional influence, the normalization of far-right rhetoric, the presence of a far-right executive administration, the perception of minorities and immigrants as a threat, the frequency in left-wing protest activity, the presence of digital media platforms, governmental resistance and regulation of the group, and the entrance of new voters into the political system. Through a keyword search of ‘Proud Boys’ to gather data, my study evaluates each hypothesis using evidence from the New York Times archive, concluding that far-right extremist activity is contingent upon institutional influence, the normalization of far-right rhetoric, the presence of a far-right executive administration, the perception of minorities and immigrants as a threat, the frequency in left-wing protest activity, the presence of digital media platforms, and governmental resistance and regulation of the group . This carries implications outside of the academic realm. These conclusions can be implemented into effective policy that will combat right-wing extremist activism that devolves into political violence, violence that is often deadly.