PerspectiveHow the Boogaloo Movement Is Turning Memes into Violent Action

The Boogaloo movement, an extremist, right-leaning and libertarian, anti-government militia with online roots which is increasingly organizing attacks in the real world. Alex Goldenberg, Joel Finkelstein, and John Farmer Jr. write for Brookings’s Tech Stream blog that the Boogaloo movement represents a new breed of self-organizing online militias which are using memes to incite violent insurrection and terror against the government and law enforcement. Their name is something of a joke: a reference to the 1984 movie Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. In internet culture, the term “boogaloo” has become a catch-all for bad sequels, and the Boogaloo movement has adopted it as their own in a reference to what they see as the coming sequel to the American Civil War. Goldenberg, Finkelstein, and Farmer write that the meme is frequently used by a number of extremist libertarians, gun enthusiasts, anarchists, and white nationalists, and the movements adherents are now showing up at real-world protests carrying weapons and dressed in colorful Hawaiian shirts.

They add:

In their willingness to carry out attacks against law enforcement personnel to incite what they consider an imminent civil war, the Boogaloo movement poses a serious threat to police. The movement has its origins online, and its adherents have skillfully used memes to incite violent insurrection and terror against the government and law enforcement. Especially widespread on Facebook and Instagram, Boogaloo enthusiasts share instructions for explosives and 3-D printed firearms, distribute illegal firearms modifications, lead users into encrypted messaging systems, distribute violent propaganda, and target their recruitment efforts towards active and former military personnel. The movement is a case study in how we still do not entirely understand how radicalization occurs in the digital domain.

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While the boogaloo initially emerged in response to concerns around the second amendment, NCRI’s most recent report shows how the militia rapidly shifted its focus to state and federal restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a captive, stuck-at-home audience grew increasingly isolated and unemployed during this period, the Boogaloo movement’s popularity sharply grew across both fringe web communities, such as 4chan, and more mainstream ones. Increasingly, Boogaloo enthusiasts began appearing at real-world anti-lockdown protests carrying guns.

The Boogaloo movement has evolved an increasingly coherent shared narrative, complete with martyr mythology and a growing underlying network sharing violent memes and inside jokes that respond to real-world events, such as violent attacks against the police or armed rallies. “Like an American version of the Islamic State, their mythology attempts to recapture a glorious revolutionary American past in a mythological confrontation,” Goldenberg, Finkelstein, and Farmer write. “The Boogaloo movement seeks to co-opt grievances across the political and racial spectrum and funnel them into an anti-government mob with tactical and technological capacities that look a lot like an American version of the Islamic State or al Qaeda.”

This last point especially bears careful consideration, the authors say: “The hope of these militants is to incite violence sufficient for society to betray the American civic tradition by forcing immense violence to protect it.”

The authors conclude:

The Boogaloo movement has important lessons for U.S. authorities. Law enforcement and policymakers should consider that terrorism inspired by social media has evolved from lone-wolf threat actors to a meme-based insurgency that can coalesce in a short time period. Efforts to combat movements such as the Boogaloo should include projects to develop the capacity to share information centrally and the resources to develop real-time analytic tools to provide a window into threat actors in the cyber domain.