Diabolical “Saints” and Accelerationism

A common thread connects the August school shooting in Minneapolis with the 2011 terror attacks by neo-Nazi in Norway and the 2019 mosque massacres in New Zealand. The guns carried by the Minneapolis shooter carried the names of the perpetrators of the other massacres. Their social media posts idolized the shooters, expressed hatred of almost everyone—black people, brown people, immigrants, Jews, Christians, children—children! (Contrary to Kash Patel’s wild-eyed imaginings, there is no evidence that the school shooting had anything to do with anti-Catholicism.) 

The thread that connects these shootings and other mass murders, is called accelerationism. Accelerationism is both racist and violent. Its white nationalist believers see the current system collapsing into a race war, which they sometimes call a second American Revolution or a second Civil War. They advocate violence to bring that day closer. Crazy? Yes–deadly crazy.

The ADL describes accelerationism:

“Fueled by the perception that the future of the white race is bleak, these white supremacists believe they must employ any means necessary to expedite the collapse of the current system. …

“Accelerationists believe that setting off a series of reactions, even if they result in changes that directly threaten the white race, can actually be a useful tool for motivating more reticent white supremacists. Following an extremist terrorist attack such as the Tree of Life shooting or Christchurch rampage, accelerationists identify a domino effect that is set into motion – a chain of societal reactions that further exacerbate the feeling of alienation among white supremacists, and, theoretically, a greater impulse to engage in violence or other destructive behavior.”

The Boogaloo Bois, an avowed accelerationist group, came to the Twin Cities in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, promoting violence and division. Some Boogaloo claim not to be racist, focusing their hate on “the government” and police. As a group, they are unabashedly violent. West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center has a well-researched history of Booglaoo Bois, including their terroristic actions in Minneapolis in 2020 and their killing of a federal police officer in California. The ADL also traces their history through mid-2020. 

The Boogaloo Bois are far from the only actors in the violent right-wing scene, and not all right-wing violence is accelerationist. Hatred directed at people of color, immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, Jews, Moslems, or any other traditional target often escalates to violence. This violence need not be connected to accelerationist ideology. 

The accelerationist movement does not depend on any individual organization. Part of its appeal is its emphasis on and glorification of violence. They glorify mass murderers, calling them “Saints.” The Global Network on Extremism and Technology explains: 

“The use of religious terms to reference neo-Nazi terrorists, whilst already evident during the 1980s, became central to Siege Culture, with Atomwaffen Division referencing Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik as their “holy trinity”. In parallel, the incel community also began referring to mass murderers as Saints around the same time. However, the referencing of terrorists as Saints began after the March 2019 Christchurch attack, with perpetrator Brenton Tarrant immediately elevated to ‘Saint Tarrant’. Subsequent far-right terrorist shootings in August in El Paso and in Halle that October led to additional attackers being similarly glorified. Extremists accompanied the veneration of new shooters with a retroactive anointment of pre-2019 far-right terrorists, such as Robert Bowers, who carried out the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, and the 2011 Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik. 

“As the Saints ecosystem coalesced around a unified vision for accelerationist violence, a broader pantheon of saints was gradually constructed. One of the primary drivers of Saints Culture is the Terrorgram community, a loosely connected network of Telegram channels and accounts that adhere to and promote militant accelerationism. By 2020, a list naming a total of 50 Saints first circulated on Telegram, featuring the addition of historical white supremacists, including James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King, as well as far-right terrorists from the 1990s like the Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph and London nail bomber David Copeland. Notably, the list also named individuals with no clear connections to white supremacy, including cult leader Jim Jones, suggesting a fascination with violence itself also played a role in the selection of at least some killers as saints.”

Online hate sites cater to people such as the Minneapolis school shooter. Preying on emotionally unstable young people, they advocate bizarre mixtures of political and hate-fueled violence. Pro Publica analyzed the accelerationist appeals to violence that were influential for a Wisconsin teen who killed his parents on February 11, 2025: 

“The court documents allege that Nikita Casap, a 17-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote a three-page manifesto calling for the assassination of Trump in order to ‘foment a political revolution in the United States and ‘save the white race’ from ‘Jewish controlled politicians.’’

“In his manifesto, Casap allegedly encouraged people to read the writings of Juraj Krajčík, a longtime Terrogram figure who murdered two people in an attack on an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2022, according to the court records. Casap also allegedly recommended two publications produced by the Terrorgram Collective, a secretive group that produced alleged hit lists, videos and written publications — including instructions for building bombs and sabotaging critical infrastructure — and distributed them throughout the Terrorgram ecosystem. …

“’Do absolutely anything you can that will lead to the collapse of America or any country you live in,’ Casap allegedly wrote in his manifesto, according to an FBI affidavit. ‘This is the only way we can save the White race.'”

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Trump administration does not consider right-wing violence a threat. The Trump Justice Department, headed by Pam Bondi, cut off grants to anti-hate crimes programs. FEMA, which administers many of the Department of Homeland Security grants, has also directed termination of all efforts to combat right-wing violence. 

Right-wing violence, including accelerationism, remains a threat within the United States today. But the bigger threat is the Trump administration, as it flouts and ignores the Constitution and laws and moves farther toward setting up its own private militia. 

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Further reading:

• White Supremacists Embrace Accelerationism (ADL, 4/19/2025) 
• The Boogaloo Movement (ADL, 9/16/2020)
• The Evolution of the Boogaloo Movement (West Point Combating Terrorism Center, February, 2021) 
• Terrorwave: The Aesthetics of Violence and Terrorist Imagery in Militant Accelerationist Subcultures(Global Network on Extremism and Technology, 4/5/2023)
• The Lineage of Violence: Saints Culture and Militant Accelerationist Terrorism  (Global Network on Extremism and Technology, 4/27/2023)
• What is accelerationism, the White supremacist ideology promoting power station attacks (CNN, 11/8/2024)
• The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram: Inside a Global Online Hate Network (Pro Publica, 3/15/25)
• White Supremacist Terrorgram Network Allegedly Inspired Teen Accused of Killing Parents and Plotting Trump Assassination (Pro Publica, 4/17/2025)
• Patriots’ Day: How far-right groups hijack history and patriotic symbols to advance their cause, according to an expert on extremism (The Conversation, 4/17/2025)
• Combating Domestic Violent Extremism Is No Longer a FEMA Priority (Wired, 8/6/2025)