Research Fellow @jonlewis27.bsky.social was recently featured in an article from The Guardian that explores why some of the most recent acts of political violence exhibit the characteristic of leaving behind written messages on their weapons and ammunition.

FBI has been steadily diverting resources away from domestic terrorism investigations, decimating specialized units & discontinuing tools used to track extremism. the admin also gutted millions in federal terrorism-prevention grants. it's effectively abandoned the fight against homegrown violence.

I wish things were at least less stupid if they had to be so dire

Spoke with @drewharwell.com over @washingtonpost.com about Internet culture, memes and how the rush to pin an ideology on Robinson was foolish. Happy to be quoted alongside other experts like @jaredlholt.bsky.social and @jmberger.com in this! They really know their stuff.

Far-right fight nights are events bringing together combat fighting, extremist bands and merch, in an attempt to bring in new recruits and solidify existing relationships. @colborne.bsky.social locates the latest event for a California-based group: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09...

NEW from me: Toxic rhetoric, including calls for ‘civil war’ and retribution from the right, proliferates after Charlie Kirk killing www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...

NEW @motherjones.com: Pardoned J6ers are using Kirk's killing to call for civil war

Stewart Rhodes will rebuild Oath Keepers; Proud Boys call for "retribution"; & ex-insurrectionists are coming "out of retirement."

Experts fear they could incite others to violence. W/ @kieraevebutler.bsky.social:

“The singular message emerging from across the right is one of vengeance and retribution ... which only further increases the likelihood of retaliatory vigilante violence,” said @jonlewis27.bsky.social, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

I wrote for @msnbc.com about what the engravings on the shell casings of Kirk’s shooter represent and where the references originated. Given what we know so far, they suggest a young man who had his brain fried by the irony poisoned, anti-social nature of certain aspects of online culture. /1

A must-read by Jordan Green:

“Some neo-Nazis are heralding Kirk’s death as an opportunity for accelerationism — the idea that a moment of heightened political tension can open the door to tit-for-tat violence, creating conditions for revolutionary upheaval.”

www.alternet.org/amp/violence...

said it yesterday but the people who commit this violence increasingly show us that they deeply understand how our information ecosystems process it. It appears to be part of the appeal for them. And yet the response doesn't really change. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

NEW: Bullets Found After the Charlie Kirk Shooting Carried Messages. Here’s What They Mean

w/ @megannicolett.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/charli...

Most terminally online people who commit violence aren't connected to O9A or 764; these are fairly specific things and not just "violent people who spent too much time on the computer"

A lot of people who are generally smart and have good thoughts about internet culture have kinda filed 764 into just a more intense version of "internet culture" which doesn't really describe what they are and what they do, even if the internet is involved. It makes for misleading analysis.

“The crusade to silence any voices that may not conform to the hagiography has unfolded quickly.”

“Especially for people who already assaulted law enforcement on January 6 and were pardoned, there is certainly going to be an expectation that, if they answer the call again, they could have the same outcome," @jonlewis27.bsky.social said.

Experts see this as mostly more grifting from J6ers.

But that doesn't mean it's not still dangerous.

“They’re now being told that the same people who tried to steal this country away from you just killed Charlie Kirk,” @jonlewis27.bsky.social told me, "& someone has to do something about that.”

In 2015, Alex Jones spent a year spinning paranoid stories of US troops planning to enact martial law, assist a Chinese invasion, and execute dissenters in "death domes."

In 2025, troops are in the streets, and Alex Jones couldn't be happier.

themikerothschild.com/2025/08/27/j...

Once upon a time, there were these groups that we called Anti-Government Extremists, who would become violently exercised over things like this. Wonder what happened to those guys?*

* They will be the federal police force now. They didn't object to tyranny, they objected to not being the tyrants.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS MEME IS ACTUALLY FUCKING REAL NOW ARE YOU KIDDING

What's gone unsaid in all this talk about homeless people in DC is that so many in the Capital are veterans who are now having the military aimed back at them for the crime of being poor.