Inspired by the writings of James Mason, Atomwaffen was formed as a national socialist vanguard. In its short history it has already been connected to violent crimes and murders across the country.ย
In May of last year, an Atomwaffen cell was stacked into a Tampa condo. The rent was paid by the rich kids in the cell, one of them a Florida National Guardsman. Even in this band of misfits Devon Arthurs was the strange one. He had been converting to Islam via the usual route for American white guys, YouTube videos and hiphop. He harangued his roommates as they prepared for race war.
One day, without warning, Devon came home, picked up an AK and shot dead two of his Atomwaffen roommates. He retreated to a nearby strip mall where he briefly took hostages but quickly surrendered to police. Later he would tell investigators he did it not out of anger or interpersonal strife but โbecause of what they were planning to do.โ
“What were they planning to do?โ a detective asked.
“They want to build a 4th Reich,โ Devon answered, adding, “If I hadn’t done that there’d be a lot more people dead than two.โ
Alongside a trove of Nazi literature, investigators found a portrait of Tim McVeigh on the wall and bomb-making ingredients in the storage unit. The FBI took interest in the explosives, causing one surviving Atomwaffen cell member to go on the run before eventually being arrested in the Florida Keys.
Devon was found incompetent to stand trial and confined to a mental facility for treatment. Other than a penchant for militarized ideology, there’s not much reason to think he is any more irrational than millions of other nineteen year-old suburban males. As he told a reporter, “I’m just a normal guy.โ
These events have been widely reported and used to promote the liberal โNazis-are-comingโ fear campaign, but one has to wonderโWhy has young Devon not become a cause celebre for the antifa? Punch an alt-right guy with a sign and get major punk rock cred for lifeโhell you might even be able to flip it into a side gig giving โanti-racistโ seminarsโbut shoot dead two real fascists prepped for a terror attack and you get no love? Had he volunteered to serve as an FBI informant, Devon would be celebrated for pre-empting a terror attack, but he chose a route without access to social capital. He might have saved several or even dozens of lives but the left has no interest. For one thing he is former Atomwaffen, and the left wants Nazis to be an eternal foil for their frustration(s), not to turn coat and take direct action. But people always turn coat in โinteresting times,โ and a revolutionary left should be encouraging such defections. Better to convert one fascist than to punch three into liberalism. Former Situationist Raoul Vaneigem and others have discussed this: If the revolution is real, enemies can become comrades very quickly, but there must be something to attract them. A different world perhaps?
To compound the left’s lack of interest, Devon rejected fascism not for liberal tolerance, but for Islam. And despite the best efforts of NPR and social-climbing Imams, Islam is still not compatible with white liberalism. So there’s no Kickstarter effort to gain Devon an independent mental evaluation and legal counsel. Those must be saved for window-breakers or someone who wrestles with a Nazi in the street with the state police watching.