If anything has defined the white power movement over the latter part of the Trump administration, it’s the adoption of “accelerationism” – a term with a complicated academic lineage, but a simple meaning within the far right. The entire economic and political system, accelerationists contend, must be dismantled through apocalyptic race war. In their conception, politics as it’s often waged – where power is exercised through elections, campaigns, policy, and mass movements – has no utility. They choose instead a “cleansing fire” of violence, as one of the strategy’s more prominent proponents put it. Accelerationism is an anti-politics born of this particular moment, defined by widespread financial and political uncertainty, a pessimistic view of the future, and declining faith in democracy.
Accelerationism operated at the fringes of the far right at the beginning of the Trump era. Its small community of adherents, who assembled mainly in the hyper-vetted Iron March forum, were crowded out by the “movementarians” of the so-called alt-right who wanted to build broad-based support for their white nationalist agenda. For the far right, it was a moment of intense optimism: Trump was the conduit through which they could access mainstream political power, and the internet was where they would build a movement using the forces of youthful energy and transgressive humor. But for all of the cruelty resulting from his administration’s policies, Trump failed to satisfy all of his white supremacist supporters. “We are wondering if Trump trotted out ending birthright citizenship and other populist red meat merely to save himself and his worthless party for another round of tax cuts, foreign policy distractions, and fundamental betrayals of white America,” the white nationalist Greg Johnson wrote only days after Trump was elected. To many within the white power movement, Trump simply perpetuated “the system” and acted more like a traditional conservative than the kind of fascist leader they hoped he would be. (…) Accelerationists were also helped immeasurably by the decentralization of tech. Over the last several years, they have increasingly flooded to alternative social media platforms and sites that offer encrypted peer-to-peer communication. They converse secretly on highly encrypted apps as they propagandize and build their networks on platforms like Telegram, where accelerationists have created a fascistic echo chamber they call “Terrorgram.” Deplatforming racists from mainstream social media sites helps to break up their networks and hinders their ability to spread propaganda, but there is no shortage of spaces for them to regroup and openly make calls for violence
via splcenter: At the End of the Trump Era, White Nationalists Increasingly Embrace Political Violence