Infrastructure Attacks and Accelerationism
A Primer for those concerned about substation attacks
On the night of Saturday, December 3rd an as of yet unidentified party carried out an intentional and coordinated attack against two electrical substations that provided power to Moore County, North Carolina. The attack has left thousand without power and the FBI is involved in the resultant criminal investigation, they have not yet ruled out any potential motive, including terrorism. No one has publicly claimed the attack, however search warrants were issued on December 8th in relation to the attack and the FBI is in the process of retrieving cell phone records for people that were in the area of the substations the night of the attack. The attack happened a mere three days after DHS issued a warning about threats to national infrastructure from small groups or “lone wolves.” There have also been attacks and active threats against power stations and infrastructure in other parts of the country such as Washington.
We do not know who planned these attacks or what their goals were, however we do know that attacks on infrastructure are popular among a specific subgroup of white supremacists known as Accelerationists.
What is Accelerationism?
The Southern Poverty Laws Center offers a succinct definition of Accelerationists as a group that “sees modern society as irredeemable and believe it should be pushed to collapse so a fascist society built on ethnonationalism can take its place.” The primary goal of Accelerationists is to speed along the collapse of society by carrying out terrorist attacks that destroy critical infrastructure. A number of groups fall into this category both within the United States and Internationally, the most recent and most prominent probably being The Base.
The man who is largely responsible for the rise of Accelerationism is American neo-Nazi James Mason. During the 1980s he wrote a series of essays laying out his vision for white supremacy and how he believed neo-Nazis could seize power through the use of terrorism. His ideology was influenced by serial killer Charles Manson, who had hoped to spark a race war that destroyed society through a series of murders. Mason published his collected essays in 1992 but remained relatively unknown until neo-Nazis rediscovered it in 2015 and promoted the book online. Since then, Accelerationism has emerged as a major sect within the broader far right with members of groups such as Atomwaffen Division carrying out campaigns of intimidation, murder, and attempting to blow up a nuclear power plant in Florida. Other groups such as The Base planned attacks that they hoped would lead to widespread chaos and bloodshed. The Base had plotted to carry out acts of violence at a heavily armed gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia in 2020 in the hopes of sparking further violence.
So Accelerationist Nazis did the attacks in North Carolina?
NO. While the attack itself certainly fits the M.O of accelerationist groups, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack and there is no information that points directly to any person, group, or ideological motivation for the attack. This is merely intended to help folks understand the broader scope of what is happening and add context to what they might be seeing in the news or on social media.
What is being done about Accelerationists?
Accelerationism is not necessarily new and it is a known quantity among researchers and security professionals. From the Foreign Policy Research Institute to the Anti-Defamation League, and dozens of other groups and individuals, people are examining these groups and often infiltrating them. One of the more high profile cases of infiltration was The Base, which “vetted” an FBI agent who then helped build a case against the group.
Lets end things on a positive note:
TheBASE.org is currently operated by a nonprofit in Massachusetts that focuses on urban leadership and sports culture. Personally I think that’s beautiful and a much better use of the URL than a bunch of Nazis trying to take over the country. You can donate to The Base (the good one) here!
If you don’t like Nazis and hate seeing pagan mythology used by racist groups, I highly recommend the short story The Northern Host by Margaret Killjoy. You can read it in her book of short stories We Wont Be Here Tomorrow available through AK Press, or listen to an audio version of it for free on the podcast It Could Happen Here.