Just the other day I was reading about the Italian "Years Of Lead" [1] which I wasn't old enough to understand myself at the time in the UK. I was wondering if we could see something similar as various forces internal and external strained at the seams of western democracies. For context, there is quite febrile atmosphere in the UK at the moment so I feel it is useful to attempt to calibrate these things for stochastic effects.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy)

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pacbard 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Without knowing what happened, it's difficult to make the comparison between the Italian Years of Lead and what happened earlier today at Utah Valley University.

My understanding of the Italian political climate of the 60s, 70s, and 80s is that there were political groups/cells (on both the far right and far left) that organized around violent acts to further their political goals (which involved the eventual authoritarian takeover of the Italian government by either the far right or far left). For example, you can think of the Red Brigades to be akin to the Black Panthers, but with actual terrorism.

In contrast, most political violence in America has been less organized and more individual-driven (e.g., see the Oklahoma City Bombing). For better or worse, the police state in the US has been quite successful in addressing and dispersing political groups that advocate for violence as a viable means for societal change.

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nikcub 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

This was an intentional adoption of leaderless resistance[0] in response to the vulnerabilities in centrally administered organisations of the 60-80s.

Resistance orgs across the ideological spectrum were systematically dismantled after decades of violence because their hierarchical command structures made them vulnerable to infiltration, decapitation and RICO-style prosecutions.

The Weather Underground, Red Army Faction, European Fascist groups and many white supremacist groups all fell to the same structural weaknesses.

Lessons were codified by the KKK and Aryan Nations movements in the USA in the early 90s by Louis Beam[1] who wrote about distributed organisational models.

This was so successful it cross-pollinated to other groups globally. Other movements adopted variations of this structure, from modern far-right and far-left groups to jihadist organisations[2]

This is probably the most significant adaptation in ideological warfare since guerilla doctorine. There has been a large-scale failure in adapting to it.

The internet and social media have just accelerated its effectiveness.

"Inspired by" vs "carried out by" ideological violence today is the norm.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaderless_resistance

[1] https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/louis-be...

[2] https://www.memri.org/reports/al-qaeda-military-strategist-a...

	▲	frmersdog 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		The KKK has been a distributed movement from the beginning, though, starting as isolated remnants of Confederate forces acting as terrorist cells in tandem with local officials and businessmen (e.g., plantation owners), and resurgent in the 20s and 30s (obviously sans the direct Confederate connections, replaced with local law enforcement). It's not so much that we haven't been able to adapt to it as we've simply refrained from doing so. Their violence was in line with the interests of local elites.

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mrguyorama 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Timothy McVeigh got his start watching Waco burn, hanging out with groups around the US "militia movement", and reading The Turner Diaries, and had like 3 accomplices.

He wasn't a "lone wolf".

	▲	PaulDavisThe1st 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		But he also wasn't actually acting as a part of anything like the Red Brigades either, so the GP's point still stands.
	▲	throwaway48476 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blowback/Margaret-Rob...

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Lucasoato 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Actually, it has been proven that at least two of the major terrorist attacks that happened in Italy during the lead years were actually false-flags attacks organized by a deviated part of the secret services (that were politically aligned with the far right), funded and supported by the US, in order to isolate politically the Brigate Rosse movement and stop any advance of communism in Italy.

	▲	NoGravitas 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

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1oooqooq 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

you are inexcusably wrong, since the comment you are replying to have a Wikipedia link with further links to the work of historians.

you really try hard to see "bad commies" uh?

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mhh__ 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The British government is much better placed to crush dissidents than probably almost any other of comparable maturity. They crushed the miners, they'll be able to deal with any nationalist movement if the institutional will is there.

	▲	potato3732842 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Practice makes perfect. 500yr of keeping the Irish down trained them well.