It’s true: It was odd how the militia movements had gone quiet following the January 6, 2021, coup attempt and especially as members were convicted and imprisoned. And like John Williams and Joshua Kaplan, I did wonder about it as I was driving around Pittsburgh and seeing the anger over the 2020 election results in yard signs and on bumper stickers.
But I didn’t wonder about it nearly so seriously as Kaplan, let alone Williams, who went undercover on his own to penetrate the militia movement. The details make for dry reading; what’s more interesting here is the psychological impact of what Williams was doing to himself.[1] There’s a lesson there—a warning—for anyone tempted to follow in Williams’ footsteps.
But what we know from this is that the militia movements are trying to build themselves up, trying not to attract too much attention to themselves, while attracting new recruits. And we know that there indeed connections to the military and to law enforcement. And that journalists are targets.[2]
In the absence of other evidence, I had assumed that the militia movements active on January 6 had been decimated through their own stupidity and hubris. I thought it was the movements who had stayed away, kept their powder dry, that remained. Now, I know, we still have both and Kaplan suggests that at least some may become more visible when Donald Trump resumes the presidency.[3]
We—all of us, not just the militia and their already identified targets—walk down a dangerous road. With Trump installing loyalists to take control of the “deep state,” we must expect tacit cooperation, at least on some levels, between the militia movements and the federal government. We must presume that white supremacist gangs (“law enforcement”) at all levels will be compromised at least to some degree and they will enjoy at least some cooperation from the high technology broligarchy. We will know even less than we do now about where those dangers lie on this road even as the threats multiply.
With Trump in power and as an aconstitutional broligarchy takes hold, Constitutional, especially 14thamendment, protections may no longer hold. With birthright citizenship at risk[4] and Trump’s notion of ‘selective citizenship,’[5] citizenship itself may become arbitrary and subject to revocation. Empowered militia may operate outside the bounds of white supremacist gangs as the distinction between the two may blur.
This is not a time to proclaim that dissent is “patriotic,” even if it is. It is a time to go quiet. It is a time to wait. Use encryption at every opportunity to minimize the risk that you will seen as a “subversive.” Use Proton Mail (my referral link) and Signal for text messaging and phone calls. Do not assume you will not be a target. Hide.
[1] Joshua Kaplan, “The Militia and the Mole,” ProPublica, January 4, 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole
[2] Joshua Kaplan, “The Militia and the Mole,” ProPublica, January 4, 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole
[3] Joshua Kaplan, “The Militia and the Mole,” ProPublica, January 4, 2025, https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole
[4] Priscilla Alvarez and Tierney Sneed, “Inside the Trump team’s plans to try to end birthright citizenship,” Cable News Network, December 22, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/22/politics/birthright-citizenship-trumps-plan-end/index.html
[5] Jelani Cobb, “Donald Trump’s Idea of Selective Citizenship,” New Yorker, July 29, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/donald-trumps-idea-of-selective-citizenship