Open public events let right-wing groups recruit while Islamic groups rely on recruiters

Evidence

For white supremacists, however, the cases more clearly reverberate as bottom-up. With their constitutional protections, white supremacists and other right-wing groups are free to publicize their activities and offer open opportunities to connect. Barbecues, cookouts, and other public events, for example, offer opportunities to prospective recruits to check out the organization and make connections. One participant in our study noted that her boyfriend invited her to an NSM barbecue at which she hit it off with one of its leaders. Another reported that he “gathered up the family and … drove to Georgia from North Carolina” and participated in a small NSM cookout rally. He continued, “And we met them all and they were really welcoming.” Another went to the Minnesota State Fair and connected with a white identity group that in turn offered him information for other local extremist groups. After requesting information by mail, he settled on the NSM, which most aligned with his support for the German National Socialist Movement. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 361

Categorization

• XREF: Legal openness shapes recruitment pathway — connects to the base-extremism organizational analyses and to how repressive vs. permissive legal environments channel movement strategies.