Extremism In America
The five-part series explores the roots and rise of domestic terrorism. The Biden Administration has issued the first national strategy to combat domestic terrorism, warning that domestic extremists pose the most significant threat to the country. But for decades, there have been warning signs that far-right extremist beliefs were spreading and followers were growing dangerous.
Presented in partnership with Retro Report. Extremism in America is a part of Exploring Hate, a PBS content initiative from The WNET Group about the roots and rise of hate in America and across the globe.
Episodes
About Season 1
Five-part series: Extremism in America explores the roots and rise of domestic terrorism. The Biden Administration has issued the first national strategy to combat domestic terrorism, warning that domestic extremists pose the most significant threat to the country. But for decades, there have been warning signs that far-right extremist beliefs were spreading and followers were growing dangerous.
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Episode
The Order
In the 1980s, white supremacist and antisemitic groups were spreading and organizing, driven in part by fears that an increasingly diverse population was about to displace white Americans. That environment led to the formation of The Order. Inspired by the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries, The Order declared war on what they called the “Zionist Occupied” government.
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Episode
Lone Wolf
In the early 1990s, violent confrontations with the government further radicalized the far-right and led to the worst domestic terror attack in US History. After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the FBI cracked down on militia groups but the country's attention soon shifted away from domestic extremism.
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Episode
Resurgence
In 2008, the election of the country's first Black president sparked a resurgence in the far right. At the time, the country’s counter-terrorism focus was almost exclusively on Al Qaeda. But in 2009, a Department of Homeland Security analyst wrote a report warning that right-wing extremists were organizing and targeting military veterans for recruitment. The report became a political scandal.
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Episode
Escalation
In 2012, a white supremacist murdered seven people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Like members of The Order and Timothy McVeigh, the shooter had been radicalized, in part, by reading The Turner Diaries. Despite some calls in congress to do more to counter domestic extremism, the temple shooting marked the beginning of a turn toward lethal attacks by far-right extremists.
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Episode
Out Of The Shadows
The Biden administration has pledged to make combatting violent domestic extremism a top priority, forming a new domestic terrorism task force in the Department of Justice and issuing a national strategy on domestic terrorism. But, while the extreme fringe of the far-right has indeed grown more violent, many of its beliefs also have entered the political mainstream.
