Today on the American Doom podcast I’m speaking with Katie Paul of the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). Katie has been looking into militia groups online over the past four years, and she’s found a lot of right-wing clamoring for political violence — some of which has ramped up in recent months as platforms like Facebook have taken their hands off the reins of content moderation. Her work is a troubling signifier of bad times to come, something that readers of this newsletter are very familiar with. In one video Katie shared with American Doom, what looks like hundreds of armed men gathered for a field training exercise. The caption for the video reads “Now is the time to join a MF’n Militia. Not a political party.” And just in case you were at all unclear on the group’s intent, the video further proclaims that “We came into this world screaming covered in blood and will be leaving the same way. No Retreat No Surrender.”So that’s what some right-wing Americans are doing in preparation for November’s election. Luckily, folks like Paul are doing the crucial work of raising alarm about groups like the ones she tracks for TTP. We can only hope that law enforcement is doing the same. In this episode of the American Doom podcast, Katie and I discuss what the groups she’s tracking want, what they’re planning to do if they don’t get it, and just how many of them there are who make their presence known online. It’s impossible to know the true number of Americans who are planning for political violence if they don’t get their way in November, but Katie is just about the only person I know trying to figure that out.Listen to this episode of the American Doom podcast here, or on Apple or Spotify podcasts, and subscribe to our newsletter for as little as $5 a month to support our work exposing election deniers, right-wing extremists and other threats to democracy. Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

My guest today on the American Doom podcast is Steven Monacelli, a writer and journalist in Texas who focuses on right-wing extremism there. Steven and I first met in May of 2021 when I travelled back to Dallas — where I lived for a couple of years while covering immigration and the border — to attend a QAnon conference. The event was actually called, quite ridiculously, the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” and was held in a sad county fair-looking barn-turned event center on the edge of Dallas’ ever-depressing commercial district. The event gained infamy when disgraced general and election denial movement leader Mike Flynn said he liked the idea of a Myanmar-style coup in the United States. Video I took of the comments went briefly viral, and Flynn’s reputation was further degraded into the dregs of American political life, where he now spends all of his time grifting on conspiracies in the name of Donald Trump. Then, as now, Steven was covering far-right extremism in Texas. He’s something of an expert on the matter, and you can keep up here with Steven’s prolific work at the many publications he writes for, and follow him on Twitter — until he gets permanently banned for his ball-busting reporting on Elon Musk.In this episode of the American Doom podcast, Steven and I discuss some of the bizarre Christian nationalist groups looking to further infiltrate all levels of government in order to impose their vision of a biblical nation upon all the rest of us. Not that there’s anything wrong with the idea of a Godly government or anything, I just don’t think a lot of parts of the Bible should be taken literally — and many of the folks Steven writes about absolutely do. They include a group touting itself as the “Remnant Alliance,” which is part of broader right-wing efforts to take over school board and, you know, ban books, for Christianity on people, oppress minorities and LGBTQ students, etc. Listen to this episode of the American Doom podcast here, or on Apple or Spotify podcasts, and subscribe to our newsletter for as little as $5 a month to support our work exposing election deniers, right-wing extremists and other threats to democracy. Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Dalton Mattus was arrested a little more than two weeks ago for possessing a pair of handmade pipe bombs. Police found more at his home. What hasn’t been reported in the local press is that Mattus posted prolifically about every right-wing, anti-government conspiracy imaginable. He is a symbol both of the online radicalization toward right-wing extremism that pervades the United States, and the threats of violence that right-wing extremists pose. In this episode of the American Doom podcast, I discuss Mattus’ case with Bree Zender, my partner here at AD, who helped research Mattus’ posting for our collaboration with Rolling Stone. You can watch a video of our discussion below. Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Last week I wrote about the wars to come, in which I describe what I think will be the natural — and possibly violent! — right-wing reaction to recent campus protests. That prediction, if you want to call it that, is based on my experience covering unrest over the last decade. Throughout much of that time, I was in conflict scenarios writing and reporting for my longtime editor, Justin Miller. Much of that work came when Miller was an editor at the Daily Beast. Now, he’s at New York magazine, where he’s recently dusted off his pen for a piece he actually wrote and didn’t just edit. I say just edit, because for all our years together, I still don’t really understand what editors do. Kidding. Miller has made my work better since our very first story together, back on the tear gas-choked street in Ferguson. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

It’s a big day here at American Doom, where I’m excited to share the first episode of the podcast version of this newsletter. Today, I’m speaking with my old pal Alex Wroblewski, a photojournalist who I first worked with back in 2014. We did a story together for VICE back then, and since then have crossed paths at protests and riots across the country. He’ll be covering Trump’s rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday, so I wanted to catch up with him on some of the madness of this election cycle. Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe

Get full access to American Doom at www.american-doom.com/subscribe