An attack on a San Diego mosque highlighted how online extremist subcultures are radicalising young people who are turning acts of mass violence into performances for a digital audience.

The Atlantic spoke to two ISD researchers to understand the ideology and online dynamics behind the attack. Katherine Keneally, ISD’s U.S. Director of Threat Analysis and Prevention, analyzed the attackers’ 75-page manifesto, concluding that the pair were sincerely motivated by militant accelerationism — the belief that only the collapse of society can bring about a white ethnostate.

ISD’s Cody Zoschak provided wider context on how accelerationist subcultures recruit, noting that young people drawn to these communities may not embrace traditional neo-Nazi ideology but instead come to understand it as a fandom of the far right.

The article highlights ISD researchers’ analysis of both the manifesto and the livestream recording of the attack, which was subsequently posted on Discord and a website called Watch People Die.

The full article is available on The Atlantic.