Extremist movements need only one violent adherent to cause catastrophic harm

Evidence

I realized that my preoccupation with the size of the racist right, the number of supporters, was not exactly relevant. The movement didn’t have to be big. It didn’t have to have mainstream support or the ear of the White House. All it took was one person with immovable beliefs and a willingness to do what his fellow travelers publicly insisted was unacceptable or unthinkable. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 806

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle on how quantitative tracking of movement size misses the real threat model of lone-wolf violence.
• XREF: connects to: Terrorists must justify violence primarily to themselves, not just to win public support; A few terrorists will soon produce massive violence once were limited to the weak; Assassination-based movements fail to overthrow a single regime (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A few terrorists will soon produce massive violence once were limited to the weak #corroborates (0.95)
• Terrorists must justify violence primarily to themselves, not just to win public support #expands (0.75)
• Assassination-based movements fail to overthrow a single regime #complicates (0.72)
• Totalitarian extremism is not radicalism but deducing everything to the worst #expands (0.70) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1083