Thread by @peterwsinger

On horrible days like today, which are all too frequent now, it is too easy to get sucked into the arguments that occupy this space as we all react, process it in our own ways, but also inevitably lash out at each other.

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So for now, all I’m going to post, aside from my incredible sense of sadness and sympathy for the victims and their families, is a list of resources that might be useful try to understand the larger issues at play:

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A @nybooks review essay by @WajahatAli of various books that help explain the steep rise and mainstreaming of hate-filled ideologies, many of which had been seemingly been condemned by history but have been brought back from the margins of the Internet
nybooks.com/daily/2018/08/…

Not in the list, as out more recently, but well worth reading is Extremism by @jmberger on the origins and goals of these movements --to tear apart civil society
amazon.com/Extremism-MIT-…
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A short reaction piece from @bellingcat on understanding the online culture that shaped the shooter and, importantly for media reporting on this, how his manifesto is laced with booby traps designed to inflame us further, and inspire more terrorism
bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-w…

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An essay from @janetreitman how we’ve long ignored the threat of white nationalism/neonazis/far right terrorism inside US, from media to politics to law enforcement, even as more and more people die
nytimes.com/2018/11/03/mag…
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It is top of mind right now for me, as it includes the time that @etbrooking and I met with members of the Trump NSC and they argued with us that far right extremism was Not a counterterrorism issue, because it was not terrorism by definition and not global...
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And this denialism is exactly why we have to be willing to talk about the dangers of far right extremism, hence an essay I wrote a year back @DefenseOne . It tried to explore not merely the dangers, but Why we had such a hard time talking about them
defenseone.com/threats/2018/0…
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But in talking about it, we also have to be aware of not aiding the very danger.
A good starting point is @wphillips49 on the issues of the "Oxygen of Amplification: Better Practices for Reporting on Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators." datasociety.net/output/oxygen-…
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The above list is wholly inadequate, just some quick thoughts that miss a literal field's worth of amazing work. So please do add others.

I've got to run to meeting, but hope this is useful.

As ever, be well and take care, all the more so on days like this.
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A few more additions to this list from @NewAmerica colleagues
@peterbergencnn @Dsterms @ForeignAffairs
on far right and other non-jihadist threats in the U.S. foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…

and a dataset on all deadly attacks by all ideologies in the U.S. newamerica.org/in-depth/terro…

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@NewAmerica @peterbergencnn @Dsterms @ForeignAffairs And a dataset from @Bobby_McKenzie that breaks down anti-Muslim incidents inside the US on a state and local level
newamerica.org/in-depth/anti-…

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