Global Security and Intelligence Studies
turning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as potential targets for radicalization ; however , due to massive public outcry led by a wave of domestic RW political commentators , the report was eventually retracted and an apology issued by the secretary to the Director of Homeland Security . This reaction is representative of the public reaction to the threat of domestic RWE in the United States as a whole .
Currently the United States is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth in domestic RW extremist group membership and activity . While it could be argued that this increase began as a response to the 9 / 11 attacks , it has since been spurred on by conspiracy theories about the very legislation that resulted from that event . Exclusion and violence is the language of this ideology and increasingly mainstream politics have become its forum . Domestic RW extremist ideology has pervaded nearly every aspect of contemporary political discourse from social media to mainstream media to the White House to Congress . Ideological engagement is an integral part of any counter violent extremism strategy ( CVE ), but hate speech and incitements to violence should not be allowed air-time on the same media forums that disseminate legitimate political discourse . The latter represents constitutionally protected speech , the former does not . Any effective counter violent extremism strategy will need to take great pains in determining hate speech and incitements to violence from protected speech — failure to do so could damage one of the core tenets of American democracy . To facilitate greater understanding of the issue , this study clarifies the relationship between domestic RW extremist violence and the ideologies espoused by those who commit it , clearly identifying which aspects of ideology correlate with and contribute to the greatest number of deaths resulting from violent attacks .
This study examines domestic RW extremist attack data in the United States between 2000 and 2020 to determine the effect the attackers ’ ideologies have on the number of deaths resulting from their attacks . By first identifying the relevant aspects of ideology of each attacker and then comparing them to the number deaths resulting from the attack , correlations between specific aspects of domestic RW extremist ideology and the number of deaths are identified . Further analysis of these correlations informs future efforts at CVE in the United States by identifying the most violent aspects of domestic RW extremist ideology .
In order to investigate the relationship between ideology and violence , this study answers the following research question and tests the following hypothesis .
Research Question : How does the attackers ’ ideology affect the number of deaths resulting from domestic RW extremist attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2020 ?
Hypothesis : The attackers ’ ideology correlates with the number of deaths resulting from domestic RW extremist attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2020 .
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