The Threat of Accelerationism 

On June 16, Kash Patel announced on social media that an alleged plot to mount a drone attack on Trump’s UFC fight had been “stopped cold.” And then the story went away. Why?

This attack was not international terrorism. Even Patel could not spin it as a left-wing plot. Those arrested came from home-grown, right-wing accelerationists. Federal authorities were alerted after the mother of 19-year-old Tycen Proper called local police with concerns about her son’s gun-buying and online associates.  

The right-wing accelerationist movement in the United States believes in an inevitable race war and white victory. They use violence to create chaos and accelerate the movement toward the total breakdown of society. For a discussion of history and accelerationist organizations, see The Conversation’s “A field guide to ‘accelerationism’: White supremacist groups using violence to spur race war and create social chaos.”

In Minnesota, the biggest moment for accelerationists came after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. The Boogaloo Bois and other accelerationists streamed into the Twin Cities, leading local know-nothings in random violence and arson. Another accelerationist was convicted of killing a federal guard in Oakland during protests after George Floyd’s murder. 

Accelerationist rhetoric also surfaced during the January 6 insurrection. 

[Council on Foreign Relations] “Accelerationism holds that the modern, Western democratic state is so mired in corruption and ineptitude that true patriots should instigate a violent insurrection to hasten its destruction to allow a new, white-dominated order to emerge. Indeed, some of the foremost exponents of accelerationism today were at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.” 

Trump liked the attack on the Capitol and pardoned the attackers. He might want to think twice: the group that Tycen Proper belonged to included Trump on its lengthy list of enemies.

[CNN] “According to court documents, the group Proper joined was focused on some form of accelerationism — an ideology that believes the collapse of society should be expedited in order to form a better world.

“Some members said in the chats they didn’t want people connected to Jeffrey Epstein running the country, according to the complaint, while Proper was also focused on targeting lawmakers who were pro-Israel.

“Other members expressed vehement antisemitism as well as the belief the government is run by the elites who sacrifice babies and are being protected by President Donald Trump.”

So—add “accelerationist” to your political vocabulary, as craziness continues to spiral. 

And one side note: The Secret Service, which led the investigation of the UFC threats, was outraged about Kash Patel leaking the information before suspects were in custody.

[MS NOW] “Matt Quinn, the Secret Service’s deputy director, appeared to allude to Patel’s premature announcement in a Tuesday news conference but did not use his name and said the Secret Service made a conscious decision not to reveal the existence of the probe prematurely.

 “’I’ll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office and that’s ‘Don’t choke on your own smoke,’’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I’ll tell you that case is ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.’”