Content Warning: This Insight contains antisemitic, racist, and hateful imagery.
Introduction
Given right-wing extremists’ love of political spectacle and tendency to see politics in terms of life and death, the 13 July assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump had all the makings of a legendary sea-change in American history in their eyes. For years, they have described yearning for an event so shocking that it would break through public apathy and galvanise Americans, and it would seem that the time had come. And yet, where we might have expected to see excitement, we instead see indifference.
Nowhere is this more apparent than within the accelerationist camp: white supremacists whose ideology calls for lone wolf attacks and the assassination of politicians. After lurking through several online accelerationist and white supremacist communities over the last week, troubling trends have emerged. This Insight examines the three most significant takeaways from observing these accelerationist echo chambers in the fallout from 13 July.
1.’Don’ Is a Pawn
A post mocking those who support Trump after the attempt on his life.
Having narrowly avoided political martyrdom and gained the aura of a survivor (and a camera roll full of photographs of him bloodied yet unbowed), support for Trump appears to have increased among right-wing Americans. However, to accelerationists, Trump remains as much a pawn as ever.
For one, he is a pawn to be manoeuvred by accelerationists in their propaganda. Accelerationist forums have used the assassination attempt as an opportunity to flood their echo chambers with anti-Semitic messaging — denouncing Trump as a man being manipulated by a secret Jewish cabal.
The anti-White, Zionist scumbag seems to have survived an assassination attempt and the usual “pro-White” suspects are jumping back on the bandwagon.
We will not be voting for or supporting zion Don. He will win the presidency regardless. We will not fight or support any of his wars that only benefit (((them))) anyone who does is an idiot. A guy getting shot doesn’t change his anti-White policies and agenda.
If you oppose Jewish power, yet are posting cool looking photos of Zion Don’s reaction to surviving an assassination to your audience, you are effectively propagandizing them into supporting Jewish power. It is clear that a number of “pro-White” talking heads either don’t understand propaganda and human perception, aren’t serious about politics and see this all as a game, or are just bad actors.
A meme depicting the Trump assassination attempt.
In warnings designed to undermine sympathy for Trump, accelerationists reiterate their complaints about so-called ‘Zion Don.’ (His support for Israel and his Jewish in-laws both draw ire.) Such posts simultaneously attempt to trash Trump’s reputation and reinforce anti-Semitic tropes and imagery.
Accelerationists also revel in the opportunity for ‘shitposting’. At times mocking Biden, disparaging feminists and DEI policies, denouncing ‘the system’ with talks of Secret Service incompetence, or simply making light of the events with Pepe the Frog, accelerationists are using memes to infuse some levity into their doom-and-gloom timelines while still reinforcing their particular worldview.
Trump depicted as Pepe the Frog.
A meme depicting the moment Trump was shot, with the American flag replaced by the Israeli flag.
None of the posts about 13 July on accelerationist forums demonstrates concern for Trump, political violence, or democratic instability; rather, they see Trump as both a laughing-stock and a recruitment tool.
2. Who Shot DJT? — According to Accelerationists, Who Cares?
Conspiracy theories thrive in the face of uncertainty, precarity, and volatility; arguably, nowhere are those conditions more at play than in the aftermath of an assassination attempt of a former president live on television. Questions about what motivated the shooter and whether there are others poised to strike linger in the minds of everyday Americans. These things do not appear to worry accelerationists and their sympathisers at all.
A meme mocking the man who shot Trump while praising John Wilkes Booth who was successful in his aim for political violence.
While lone wolf attacks usually excite days and weeks of chatter in accelerationist forums, speculation about the circumstances of the assassination attempt has quickly given way to indifference. For all the intricate conspiracy theories that fuel accelerationism and stoke hatred in its devotees, those offered up after the shooting appear half-baked and half-hearted, and little more than fodder for the xenophobic and anti-Semitic shit-posting that ordinarily sustains accelerationist communities.
Take, for example, questions about the shooter’s identity. For decades, anti-establishment sentiment within the broader radical right has led to popular conspiracy theories doubting official narratives about perpetrators of assassinations (e.g. JFK), terror attacks (e.g. 9/11), and school shootings (e.g. Sandy Hook). The improbability of a single shooter nearly killing a presidential candidate in an open-air forum would seem to make the events of 13 July a prime candidate for a conspiracy theory. Yet these forums widely accept the official narrative about the identity of the shooter and that he worked alone. Instead, they devote most of their attention to mocking his ethnicity (discussing whether he “looked Chinese” based on his eyes) or circulating stories about his ties to the Jewish community (and Israel by extension).
An antisemitic and racist meme about bi-partisan support for Israel.
An antisemitic post purporting that the man who shot Trump was Jewish.
Likewise, instead of serious speculation about allegations of complicity in the Secret Service or an inside job, a great deal of chatter devotes itself to merely laughing at officers. This is in keeping with the overall anti-establishment hostility typical of accelerationism.
A post mocking a female secret service agent with the caption “DEI another day,” making a reference to James Bond.
A misogynistic meme mocking female Secret Service agents.
Now is the time to LEAN IN to any and all conspiracy theories coming from your libtard friends. Agree and amplify any and all schizo nonsense coming from them.
What is most relevant from accelerationists’ perspectives is that there are conflicting narratives in mainstream media about exactly what happened on 13 July. They take this as a sign of an ever-deepening factionalism in American society, which is the first step to the total societal collapse they desperately desire. Whether conspiracy theories about the event draw white people to accelerationism, or simply pit people against one another, both serve accelerationist ends and thus they look for ways to exploit confusion about the events of 13 July.
3. Chaos Without Blood and Blood Without Chaos Are No Good
This event, which could have been a major source of enthusiasm for pro-lone wolf terrorist entities, has proven to be essentially irrelevant, which indicates a worrying trend within the mindsets of devotees. Accelerationism is an ideology that promotes the idea that change will happen as a result of many separate acts of violence planned and perpetrated by lone wolf terrorists in a kind of cascading sequence; the constant barrage of attacks, accelerationists believe, will trigger societal collapse. Previously, the ideology has made no mention of these attacks needing to be high-profile or high casualty. Rather, they simply needed to be fear-inducing and constant.
However, the apparent indifference to the assassination attempt suggests that accelerationists have changed their thinking. That is, it is no longer enough to perpetrate attacks, to scare people, or to cause unprecedented events. Even the near death of a president live on television is only enough to keep them ‘entertained’ for about 48 hours. What they appear to want, what they revel in, requires both bloodshed and chaos. Their echo chambers push would-be terrorists to find glory not simply in perpetrating attacks — even dramatic ones — but in planning ones that kill and disturb as many people as possible. Since accelerationists’ mindset about the necessity of periodic attacks has seemingly not changed, we must be worried about what kind of violence they have in store.
Perhaps worse still, some accelerationists have taken 13 July as yet another sign that they must prepare themselves for the war they believe is set to begin no later than US Presidential Election Day. As one account observed: ‘Some type of American Civil War was and is bound to happen regardless of what happened…It will really start to kick of in November regardless of the outcome the night or even the day of the election.’
Meanwhile, for a subset of accelerationists, their disdain for Trump can be temporarily set aside to cheer on what they view as the bloodshed he may bring against his political enemies once re-elected. They seek to drum up support for the idea that Trump should use his (thanks to the recent SCOTUS decision) newly extended presential powers.
Managing the Fall Out
It is impossible to know exactly how far the accelerationist interpretation of 13 July has spread, but even the most conservative estimates place it in the tens of thousands. On Telegram alone, some popular accounts show 13 July posts with more than 10,000 views. Hardly limited to Telegram, similar context has taken root on Gab, Reddit, and more mainstream social media platforms too.
The methods for mitigating the risks resultant from this kind of content demand nuance and challenge fundamental pillars of democractic rights. To be frank, much of acceleartionists’ approach to discussing 13 July does not violate platforms’ terms of service. Memefying an assassination attempt, expressing unpopular or unfounded opinions, mocking people, even revelling in violence – these are largely permitted on the grounds of free speech. As accelerationists have not used Trump’s brush with death as a means to insight specific acts of violence or to credibly threathen other individuals, in this case, their rhetoric remains within the bounds of ‘acceptable’ when it comes to moderation policies.
However, moderation is not the only action that can be taken in the battle against hate online. These posts (and the like) clearly indicate the hatred this segment of the fringe right has for Trump, despite common narratives generalising Trump as beloved by all right-wing extremists. Acknowledging this nuance allows counter-terrorism practitioners to speak more accurately about and to accelerationists. If we do not know what and how they think, we cannot counteract it, nor can we prevent others from being drawn into this way of thinking.
Finally, for law enforcement, the dispassionate response to 13 July from a community so predisposed to rejoice in it should be interpreted by law enforcement officials as a warning sign. Accelerationists are by their very nature bloodthirsty, always encouraging each other to plan attacks and harm the enemy. The near-death of a former president live on television did not satiate them. There is every likelihood that they will be out for blood again, and perhaps soon.
Dr. Bethan Johnson is a post-doc at UCLA’s Initiative to Study Hate.