They had a little bit of an optics problem with the alt-right and Neo Nazis. They were also surprised to find that Antifa wasn’t made up of “super soldiers” after all. So what’s a movement driven by anger and fear to do without a viable bogeyman?

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) June 30, 2018

As I wrote earlier, these private paramilitary groups are cause-shopping, testing the waters of various current affairs to find one that will make them the good guys with guns.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

Some “III%ers” and other individuals who had supported the Cliven Bundy family, are still looking for a fight over public land. One such potential cause is the recent shooting of an ATV rider by a Bureau of Land Management federal agent in California. https://t.co/Q6VtBNwVv6

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

Meanwhile, the nation and press have paid considerable attention to border and immigration politics. While there have been small border militias over the years, the idea of vigilantes patrolling the border has really taken root in the last months or so.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

An extremely large group of Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy theorists bumped into the conspiracy theory driven world of private military groups when the “child sex camp” claim was made by a group called Veterans on Patrol.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

These movements share a number of common labels and phrases. They both refer to themselves as the patriot movement, and both try to claim that their beliefs are widespread and legitimate by using phrases like “we the people.”

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

While the OKs briefly flirted with setting up their own border vigilante teams, they recently decided that they would, instead, provide armed protection to ICE employees and their families.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

Recently, the Oath Keepers have started flirting with the QAnon Conspiracy theory they encountered in Tucson. https://t.co/oIODZLti6X

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

Meanwhile, Pacific Northwest militants are still engaging Antifa in street brawls, and Southern militants are waffling between gun control fears and the Q conspiracy theory.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

And finally, one must never discount the influence that Alex Jones has as a thought leader in the movement.

(Sorry about your keyboards.)

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

What cause will win the hearts and minds and guns of the private paramilitary world? Antifa? Public land politics? Gun Control? Border politics? The deep state? Pedophile rings run by liberals? Civil War II?

Only time will tell.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018

None of these potential causes, however, are good for the stability of the nation.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 1, 2018