• World
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Central & South Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America & Caribbean
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • North America
  • Coronavirus
  • Politics
    • US Election
    • US politics
    • Joe Biden
    • Brexit
    • European Union
    • India
    • Arab world
  • Economics
    • Finance
    • Eurozone
    • International Trade
  • Business
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Startups
    • Technology
  • Culture
    • Entertainment
    • Music
    • Film
    • Books
    • Travel
  • Environment
    • Climate change
    • Smart cities
    • Green Economy
  • Global Change
    • Education
    • Refugee Crisis
    • International Aid
    • Human Rights
  • International Security
    • ISIS
    • War on Terror
    • North Korea
    • Nuclear Weapons
  • Science
    • Health
  • 360 °
  • The Interview
  • In-Depth
  • Insight
  • Quick Read
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Interactive
  • My Voice
  • About
  • FO Store
Sections
  • World
  • Coronavirus
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Sign Up
  • Login
  • Publish

Make Sense of the world

Unique insight from 2,000+ contributors in 80+ Countries

Close

Lone Wolf Attacks Prove Louis Beam Was Right About “Leaderless Resistance”

The inability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to identify potential perpetrators, much less anticipate their attacks, provides support for Louis Beam’s “leaderless resistance” tactic.
By Leonard Weinberg • Aug 07, 2019
Louis Beam leaderless resistance, far-right attacks US, El Paso shooting, lone wolf attacks, domestic terrorism, far-right terrorism, anti-Semitic attacks US, lone wolf attacks US, Donald Trump white supremacy, US gun violence

San Bernardino, California, 12/02/2015 © Eric Rosenwald / Shutterstock

During the 1980s, Louis Beam — a Vietnam War veteran, Klansman and Aryan Nation activist — wrote what became an influential observation about ways in which racial supremacists could employ violence to get what they wanted. Beam reasoned that it was becoming progressively harder for right-wing extremists to launch attacks on their intended targets. These difficulties were brought on by the ability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies either to infiltrate violent right-wing groups or turn existing members into informants.

Beam’s answer to this problem was to suggest a new tactic: “Leaderless Resistance.” Beam reasoned that the best way for violent “patriots” to resist oppression was on the basis of individual initiatives. Small cells of individuals — or “lone wolves” — could avoid being entrapped by law enforcement agencies in the way large groups had been repeatedly during the course of Beam’s career in right-wing extremism.

When and where to strike? Instead of waiting for some easily intercepted messages from the leaders of large right-wing paramilitary groups, Beam believed in what social psychologists have called behavior contagion, or what many people refer to as copycat actions. Small cells or single individuals could take their cues from events depicted by the mass media and react accordingly without any interpersonal coordination. Like-minded individuals witnessing these actions would then take up the sword and stage their own attacks on the same or similar targets. In this way, a substantial insurgency could be launched against a tyrannical government without any central direction.

Lone Wolf, Lone Wolf

Beam’s comments resonated throughout America’s radical-right subculture. During the 1990s, for example, the website of Tom Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance (WAR) continuously flashed “lone wolf, lone wolf” above its masthead, encouraging the sites’ viewers to get the message and act accordingly.

Officials in the Obama administration also warned of the dangers posed by lone wolves, but they typically had in mind terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic jihadists, such as the ones perpetrated in 2016 by a young Muslim-American couple at a post office in San Bernardino, California, or the attack on a gay nightclub in Florida the same year. These attacks were committed on behalf of or in the name of the Islamic State (IS). 

These and similar terrorist attacks led the terrorism analyst Marc Sageman to coin the term “leaderless jihad.” Unlike the terrorists who carried out the highly coordinated  9/11 attacks, Islamic State terrorism in the United States and other Western nations was largely the work of individuals whose actions and commitments were acquired over the internet, although none of the IS fighters cited Beam as an inspiration.

Embed from Getty Images

This brings us to recent events in the United States. On June 17, 2015, a 19-year-old man, Dylann Roof, entered a Methodist church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdered nine African-American worshippers, including the church’s pastor. Within the last two years, an Orlando Florida man, Cesar Sayoc, sent pipe bombs to 16 prominent Democrats and to CNN’s New York headquarters. In October 2018, a middle-aged Pittsburgh resident, Robert Bowers, entered the Tree of Life Synagogue and shot to death 11 congregants, killing largely elderly Jews. The alleged shooter had concluded that all Jews should die because a Jewish charity organization was offering roadside help to a group of impoverished Central Americans seeking to emigrate to the United States.

Even more recently, on August 3, a 21-year-old resident of Allen, Texas, Patrick Crusius, drove from his home to El Paso, entered a crowded Walmart store and proceeded to shoot to death 22 Saturday morning shoppers.

These are only the most prominent right-wing attacks in recent years. If we were to include death threats sent via the internet to prominent individuals — Jewish ones especially — and incidents with lower casualty figures, we could multiply by several times the volume of racial supremacist operations over the last several years.

Leaderless Resisters

What accounts for all these killings?  Such evidence as exists suggests that various right-wing websites abound with fears that a “replacement” is underway. White people (or Aryans), who have dominated American life for centuries, are now threatened, if not by extinction, then replacement by hordes of immigrants from Latin America and by a growing native-born Latino population. Jews, hardly unknown figures in conspiracy theories, have been identified as the evil-doers behind the impending “replacement.” We might remember the gathering of neo-Nazis and other right-wing activists in Charlottesville in August 2017, who chanted “Jews will not replace us!” as they marched and scuffled with Antifa counterprotesters.

If this is the key conspiracy theory, how has it come to be disseminated? The obvious answer is, via social media. President Donald Trump’s repeated warnings about the dangers posed to by illegal immigrants flooding into the country from its southern border provided the leitmotif.

The evident inability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to identify potential perpetrators, much less anticipate their attacks, provides support for Louis Beam’s decades-old argument. All the violent events mentioned above were the work of lone wolves acting in response to cues provided either over the internet or via the regular mass media outlets that broadcast the president’s dire warnings on a regular basis as part of his reelection campaign. 

While the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other watchdogs have succeeded in compiling extensive lists of far-right hate groups on a yearly basis, neither they nor the FBI have managed to thwart the operations of Beam’s leaderless resisters.

*[The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right is a partner institution of Fair Observer.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Share Story
CategoriesDonald Trump News, Global Terrorism News, International Security, ISIS, North America, Politics, US news, US politics news, World Leaders News, World News Tagsanti-Semitic attacks US, domestic terrorism, Donald Trump white supremacy, El Paso shooting, far right terrorism, far-right attacks US, lone wolf attacks, lone wolf attacks US, Louis Beam leaderless resistance
Join our network of more than 2,000 contributors to publish your perspective, share your story and shape the global conversation. Become a Fair Observer and help us make sense of the world.

Post navigation

Previous PostPrevious India Must Be Included in the Afghan Peace Process
Next PostNext It’s Time for Hong Kong to Get Real
Subscribe
Register for $9.99 per month and become a member today.
Publish
Join our community of more than 2,500 contributors to publish your perspective, share your narrative and shape the global discourse.
Donate
We bring you perspectives from around the world. Help us to inform and educate. Your donation is tax-deductible.

Explore

  • About
  • Authors
  • FO Store
  • FAQs
  • Republish
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Regions

  • Africa
  • Asia Pacific
  • Central & South Asia
  • Europe
  • Latin America & Caribbean
  • Middle East & North Africa
  • North America

Topics

  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Environment
  • Global Change
  • International Security
  • Science

Sections

  • 360°
  • The Interview
  • In-Depth
  • Insight
  • Quick Read
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Interactive
  • My Voice

Daily Dispatch


© Fair Observer All rights reserved
We Need Your Consent
We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. Learn more about how we use cookies or edit your cookie preferences. Privacy Policy. My Options I Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Edit Cookie Preferences

The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.

As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media.

 
Necessary
Always Enabled

These cookies essential for the website to function.

Analytics

These cookies track our website’s performance and also help us to continuously improve the experience we provide to you.

Performance
Uncategorized

This cookie consists of the word “yes” to enable us to remember your acceptance of the site cookie notification, and prevents it from displaying to you in future.

Preferences
Save & Accept