“We bring credibility to any organization they are a part of.” Doing the work “Veterans are targeted by extremist organizations for the same reason they are by JP Morgan Chase,” he said. Research shows veterans are slightly less likely than the general public to embrace conspiracy theories, he said, but Task Force Butler investigates them because they are often effective leaders, for good or ill. That day ratcheted up his group’s work with veterans, he said, because many of the people charged afterward were veterans. Capitol by people aiming to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)Īnother part is working to recognize and draw more attention to online efforts directing harassment at people for their race, creed or sexual orientation, he said. Part of changing the dynamic is educating people about fascism, he said. The former president faces state and federal criminal charges based on his business practices, his effort to reject the results of the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents. ![]() He expects others to ask about the indictments of Trump. He said he expects some attending the UNL event to ask about the recent political rhetoric of former President Donald Trump, who has threatened an ideological test for civil service jobs and to investigate and jail and seek revenge against his political enemies. His group defines it as the fetishization of power and the use of violence to quash opponents, demanding absolute loyalty and sharing a sense of grievance. One challenge of fighting fascist movements today, he said, is defining fascism. “Now they can promote the same propaganda from anonymous posts and profiles online.” “Back in the day, if a neo-Nazi wanted to recruit, they had to go to the corner and protest and hand out lit (literature) and hope they didn’t get punched in the face,” he said. Modern white supremacists take Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and Mussolini’s writings and “apply an Instagram filter to them.” He said such groups create new “climates of fear” and want to “undermine democracy.” Kristofer Goldsmith, founder of Task Force Butler, a group of veterans that push back against white supremacist movements, is speaking at UNL on Tuesday. The threat is real, he and others studying extremist movements say. The group created a checklist for how to help, including ways to document and report property damage and assaults to the FBI. ![]() 11 ethos of “see something, say something” can be applied in the fight against supremacists, too, Goldsmith said. ![]() He doesn’t expect every mom-and-pop Nebraskan or every college student to join an organization like his Task Force Butler, which identifies neo-Nazi groups such as the Patriot Front and helps law enforcement agencies prosecute them using open-source investigations.īut the Sept. Tuesday at Swanson Auditorium in the Nebraska Union.
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