It remains unclear when or if a 'Freedom Convoy' spinoff protest against vaccine mandates will materialize, but D.C.-area agencies are preparing for possible disruptions.
, appears fueled by far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists. And extremism researchers said it’s increasingly difficult to predict when the keyboard warriors in far-right chat rooms that often include talk of violence will translate their threats into large demonstrations in the real world.
“It is likely we will see something happen, but it is not clear what that is going to look like or when it is going to happen,” said Caroline Orr Bueno, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland who studies disinformation. “People are asking, ‘Where can I find the routes?’ ‘Where do I go to meet up with you guys?’... It is still a lot of questions and talking about plans.”
Although these demonstrations are billed as protesting vaccine mandates, researchers said the conversations are much broader, encompassing a range of right-wing culture grievances. They include baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former president Donald Trump, falsehoods about the
vaccine, pushback related to how students are taught about race and racism, and myths about human trafficking.Americans also sent millions of dollars, and the largest overall number of contributions, to support the Ottawa trucker convoy,Brian Brase of northwest Ohio, who is an organizer of one of the convoys, said the protests in Ottawa inspired him to lead a similar one in the United States.
“This is all across the board. This isn’t one side or the other,” Brase, 37, said, referring to people across the political spectrum. “This is a peaceful protest and any extremist activities on either side of the aisle are not welcome to be a part of it if their intent is to cause mayhem or violence.”Still, extremism researchers are concerned about the ways these protests are being promoted in the mainstream and by the far-right. High-profile U.S.
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