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There’s been a lot of discussion in the nazi hunting circles about the nature of “boogaloo” and I’m gonna go right on ahead and chime in because I think it’s missing something critical.
To start with, we have to first come from a basis where the militia movement in the US is a broad and non-monolithic thing. There are left wing militias, but most militias fall on the right wing side of the political spectrum.
Even among right wing militias, one will find a rather broad array of politics. Some are shockingly egalitarian. Some are violently white nationalist. Some are just typical conservatives interested in maintaining the status quo, and don’t understand that that is white supremacy.
There are plenty of examples of this. In 2016, a militia known as The Crusaders saw three leaders arrested for a plot to bomb a Muslim community.
This militia formed by breaking off another militia group that they felt was too passive.
This militia formed by breaking off another militia group that they felt was too passive.
The Crusaders themselves were taken down when one member was scared at how violent they were being, and turned to become an FBI informant. Three leaders were each eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.
People who are anti-government don’t turn into federal confidential informants. People who aren’t white nationalists don’t try to take up arms against community members of other colors or religions.
It’s not simple to classify militias broadly in such ways.
It’s not simple to classify militias broadly in such ways.
Now enter “boogaloo.” This term existed in online circles where it was largely an irony term equivalent to rahowa, or racial holy war. You’ve probably read the etymology by now. I won’t rehash it.
Boogaloo was an explicitly violent and white supremacist concept, and it intersected heavily with the farthest right segments of thhe paramilitary movement for a while. But in the movement broadly, it didn’t get much traction.
This all changed in or around January of this year. With several states turning blue, the prospect of gun control got the militia movement worried. New state legislatures would be introducing anti-gun legislation. This meant that a lot of rhetoric in militias began to pick up.
Violent online Nazis use moments like this as a way to inject their beliefs into the conversation, and so it went with “boogaloo.” Soon, in Virginia, the state’s annual “Lobby Day” became a primary target. Virginia democrats retook the General Assembly, and gun bills were up.
What is normally a day of calm demonstration for people of all political stripes became a massive national target for right wing conspiracies. Soon, online chatter started talking about planned violence, myths of antifa, threats of shootings, and more.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of gun owners showed up and carried openly. Local activists implored counter-demonstrators to stay away. And the Feds even disrupted a neo-Nazi plot to actually shoot other militia members in an attempt to kick off a race war.
Amidst this rhetoric, “boogaloo” started becoming a part of the broader, more mainstream militia movement. This movement, which is often anti-leftist, adopted the term as an attempt to troll left wing opponents.
Militias have long used various terms to discuss an impending collapse of social order: zombie apocalypse, SHTF, etc. Even militias not typically aligned with ideological white supremacy use these terms.
Boogaloo became another such term.
Boogaloo became another such term.
Now, it’s hard to demarcate the meaning of the term because it has spread from areas that were explicitly angling for race war to areas that were not.
Which is to say “boogaloo” is less a signifier of politics and more a signifier of how Nazi memetics spread to the mainstream.
Which is to say “boogaloo” is less a signifier of politics and more a signifier of how Nazi memetics spread to the mainstream.
It’s a mistake to treat the movement, or the term, as something fixed in time. One of white supremacy’s greatest tricks is the way it shifts around and moves the goalposts. It’s important to look at actions and beliefs, while remembering that Nazis lie.
It’s also important to note that many of the memetics now encoded in boogaloo were originally part of far right militia movements long before boogaloo caught on. The use of Robert Lavoy Finicum’s name is one example.
Moreover, militia speak like “SHTF” and zombie apocalypse were also dual-use terms that gave plausible deniability to the movement. Sometimes it was clear it referred to shooting minorities; for others, it was just standard prepper speak.
