I started the “Conspiracies and Culture Wars” media literacy inquiry project back in 2019 with my colleague, Brian Turnbaugh, initially to just try and better understand our crazy world of doxing, Internet troll armies, and other crazy stuff highlighted by the podcast “The Prophet,” episode #112 of Gimlet Media’s Reply All. In the ensuing seven years, this project has continued to point me down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and online extremist groups, and led me to teach a couple online short courses for adults about these topics. With the continued rise of “far right conservatives” as well as armed militias here in the USA and worldwide, it’s very important that we understand the roots of these movements so we can support policies, candidates, agendas, and political parties which can effectively oppose and stop them from ultimately spreading hatred and violence.
This evening between cooking dinner and attending my first Seminary class of Koine Greek, I listened to two episodes from the second season of the outstanding “Long Shadow Podcast,” focusing on the “Rise of the American Far Right.” It was published in April 2023.
The two episodes I listened to were:
Waco: The Spark (39 min, 12 April 2023)
Ruby Ridge: The Revolution Begins (57min, 19 April 2023)
When our middle daughter was in high school, at some point I ended up convincing her to watch the American Experience documentary, “Ruby Ridge,” from 2017. I don’t remember if she was home sick and bored, or what the reason was… But I knew this was history she needed to know about, and as I recall our discussions had revealed she had no idea who Randy Weaver was or what had happened to his family in 1992 in Idaho. I am not finding the entire documentary on YouTube, but the first chapter is available from PBS:
I was living in Mexico City in April of 1992 when the Waco siege and standoff took place which resulted in the deaths of 86 people, including 28 children. The initial Long Shadow podcast episode of season two does an excellent job setting the stage for why the Waco Branch Dividians tragedy was such a powerful catalyst for the rise of conspiracy theory media in the United States, as well as far right militia and white supremacist groups in the USA.
I was shocked and appalled that our current chief executive, in the first day of his second term, pardoned all the January 6 US Capitol attack defendants. I lament the ways the U.S. Department of Justice, in recent years, has significantly reduced funding and support for law enforcement officials, agencies, and operations aimed at countering domestic terrorism and violent extremist groups. This trend is well documented by multiple sources:
How Trump Has Left the Fight Against Extremist Violence to the States (ProPublica, May 29, 2025)
FBI scales back staffing, tracking of domestic terrorism probes, sources say (Reuters, 21 March 2025)
Trump Administration Abandoning Efforts to Combat White Supremacist and Far-Right Terrorism and Violence (Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, March 24, 2025)
2025 Year in Hate & Extremism: Policy shifts to favor hard right (Southern Poverty Law Center, June 9, 2026)
FBI cuts fundamental ties with SPLC and ADL as Patel realigns agency with conservative extremism (Milwaukee Independent, October 7, 2025)
The Trump administration says left-wing terrorism in the US is on the rise. Is it? (NPR, October 22, 2025)
Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration (ProPublica, March 31, 2026)
“Healing our Culture” is a generational effort and involves many things. Better understanding the roots of extremism and specifically violent white supremacy is, unfortunately, “part of the work.” To this end, I strongly recommend all the episodes of season two of the “Long Shadow Podcast.”