Disinformation Doomsday | White Supremacists Use Soft Power | U.S. Needs More Ships to Deter China, and more

The civilizational retreat into our living rooms to escape plague and pestilence has degraded the faltering boundaries between digital, imaginary, and the real world like never before, challenging all of us to maintain perspective and a grip on baseline reality. No surprise then, that some commentary in response to the disgraceful spectacle of unreality at the Capitol has created an alternate reality of its own making. But like the eruption of the paranoid and fantastical into the streets that occurred on Jan. 6, a moral panic, which was largely confined to the digital realm until now, risks real-world policy consequences in response to the complex challenge of the far-right.

Why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Are Warning of a Disinformation Doomsday(Zack Brown, National Interest)
Why we are so close to midnight—and what it will take to back away.

Manchester Police Warned in 2016 over Terrorism Strategy, Arena Inquiry Hears  (Alex Mistlin, Guardian)
Greater Manchester police were warned about shortcomings in their terrorism response plans six months before the Manchester Arena bombing, the public inquiry into the attack has been told. The inquiry heard on Monday how the police inspectorate outlined a number of concerns it had identified, as part of a national review, in a November 2016 “hot debrief” with GMP’s counter-terrorism lead, Catherine Hankinson. Among the inspectorate’s conclusions was the risk of a force duty officer becoming overwhelmed in the event of a marauding terrorist firearms incident (MTFA). Inspectors found that the majority of force duty officers “felt ill-equipped” to deal with a terrorism incident and needed more training before enacting Operation Plato, the police codename for a continuing marauding attack. The inquiry heard that the inspectorate report quoted an unnamed force duty officer as saying: “I get two days on how to command vehicle pursuit and approximately one to two hours in MTFA.” The inquiry has previously heard that, on receiving reports of gunshot injuries and an active gunman during the arena attack on 22 May 2017, Insp Dale Sexton, the force duty officer at GMP HQ, declared Operation Plato, believing an armed terrorist was on the loose.

There’s Nothing Fun or Funny About Marjorie Taylor Greene  (Seybord Darby, The Atlantic)
QAnon and space lasers might be ludicrous, but they are also gateways to far more dangerous ideas.

How White Supremacists Use Soft Power  (Laura Daniels, Lawfare)
President Biden has taken office amid a serious problem of white supremacist violent extremism. The storming of the U.S. Capitol cast this problem in stark relief. The crowd brandished hate symbols on banners and clothing, paraded the Confederate flag throughout the halls of the Capitol, and erected a noose at its steps. Many came armed and prepared for violence. While the rioters have dispersed, the threat persists. The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Jan. 27 that like-minded extremists could incite or commit violence in the first weeks of Biden’s presidency. The Jan. 13 federal Joint Intelligence Bulletin, which highlights terrorist threats to the homeland, warned of “emboldened” violent extremists and an “elevated” domestic terrorism threat persisting in 2021.
The issue is not new for Biden. In his nomination speech, he explained that the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville was the very reason he decided to run for office, saying, “At that moment, I knew I’d have to run.”
Indeed, a certain sense of urgency about the problem is warranted: White supremacist and kindred hate-based terror attacks have skyrocketed approximately 250 percent in the West since 2014. The hard question is not whether the United States has a serious problem, but how the new team can counter what is an obvious trend. The United States built its post-9/11 counterterrorism toolkit to fight an enemy overseas. At home, though, while this toolkit contains many useful law enforcement instruments, it lacks good tools for deradicalizing Americans. Countering the threat will take understanding all dimensions of this radicalization, including one too often overlooked: white supremacists’ weaponization of soft power.  

The Complicated Consequences of Canada’s Proud Boys Terrorist Listing  (Leah West, Lawfare)
Canada’s decision to designate the Proud Boys a terrorist entity could ultimately align the organization with the civil society actors and racialized communities the group so violently decries.

Mass Matters: Why America Needs More Ships to Deter China  (James Holmes, National Interest)
It takes multiple ships to ensure one is forward deployed and actually ready for action.