It's a cause for great concern because a lot of people have said and done repulsive things in terms of racism and misogyny and marginalizing people - it's really come to fruition, something I've spent the last 21 years of my life trying to expose and educate people on. This really is kind of a dream scenario for white nationalists at the moment.
Christian PiccioliniFor years now, I've been talking about the rise of the extreme right in the U.S. Since 9/11, white nationalists have killed more Americans on U.S. soil than any foreign or domestic terrorist group combined. It's something we don't categorize as terrorism or extremism. We often brush it off as mental illness - things like Oak Creek Wisconsin - and these people are certainly tied to white supremacy, have written manifestos. We've got a major problem in not calling that terrorism.
Christian PiccioliniActually, I don't think most people join white supremacist groups because of the ideology or dogma. They gravitate to these groups because they've hit potholes in their lives and there are things they can't figure out how to navigate on their own. This might be bullying, parental abuse or neglect, mental or physical illness, or, for adults, unemployment.
Christian Picciolini30 years ago in white supremacy, we had a strategy called leaderless resistance. The concept was: stop shaving our heads, stop getting tattoos and instead try to blend in as much as possible. It was a really concerted effort to try and tone down the rhetoric and make it a little more palatable to the mainstream. And it certainly has penetrated the mainstream now. We're seeing people who were supportive of our cause back then also supportive of Donald Trump's cause, certainly with the recent cabinet appointments.
Christian PiccioliniThere are a lot of people being duped with misinformation, and they're all rejoicing over Donald Trump. And having a white nationalist be his chief strategist and have a racist be your attorney general, this is a really dangerous situation for our country.
Christian PiccioliniI'm not in contact really with people from Chicago Area Skinheads movement and couldn't say who they now support politically, but I can tell you through my research online in which I've been doing interventions with people who are part of hate groups, that I've discovered essentially thousands and thousands of pro-Trump neo-Nazi accounts.
Christian Picciolini