S9 Ep53: Terror Without a Cause: Nihilism, Youth, and the New Extremist Threat with Jacob Ware

This week, Matt is joined by terrorism researcher Jacob Ware to unpack the rise of nihilistic violent extremism—attacks carried out by disaffected young men radicalized online without any clear political goal. They explore how social media fuels this chaotic new threat, why the FBI created a new classification for it, and what makes networks like 764 and the Order of Nine Angles so dangerous. Then, they turn to the recent string of violent antisemitic attacks in the US and what they reveal about the blurred lines between far-left, far-right, and jihadist extremism. It’s a disturbing look at the future of terrorism, and what it means when violence itself becomes the ideology.

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Get Jacob’s book, God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America:
https://www.cfr.org/book/god-guns-and-sedition
https://www.amazon.com/God-Guns-Sedition-Far-Right-Terrorism/dp/0231211228

Jacob’s work for the Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/expert/jacob-ware
Jacob’s work for Lawfare: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/contributors/jware

Follow Jacob on Bluesky & Twitter/X:
https://bsky.app/profile/jacobware.bsky.social
https://x.com/Jacob_A_Ware

Reporting discussed in the episode

"Nihilistic Violent Extremism: A Valuable Stride Forward in American Counterterrorism" by Jacob Ware | Just Security: https://www.justsecurity.org/113463/nihilistic-violent-extremism-american-counterterrorism/

"Killing for Nothing: The Bizarre Logic of the Palm Springs Bomber" by Luke Baumgartner | Lawfare: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/killing-for-nothing--the-bizarre-logic-of-the-palm-springs-bomber

"Order of Nine Angles" by Nick Lowles | Hope Not Hate: https://hopenothate.org.uk/2019/02/16/state-of-hate-2019-order-of-nine-angles/

"The Rise of Antisemitism and Political Violence in the U.S." by Callum Sutherland | Time Magazine: https://time.com/7287941/rise-of-antisemitism-political-violence-in-united-states/

"Court papers say suspect in embassy killings declared, ‘I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza’" by Eric Tucker, Michael Kunzelman, and Alanna Durkin Richer | Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/israel-embassy-jewish-museum-shooting-10307b3b1a2a337e76730736b12ebbcb

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