Extremism is extremism is extremism… period, bar none, not even your favorite extremism is exempt, not even the romanticized myth of the noble extremist is exempt. Extremism and extremists create collateral damage, it is impossible for them not to, and that damage harms the innocent time and time again all in the name of their extremist flavor of the month. More often than not, extremists of one stripe should they leave their particular extremist life, will cling to the extremist life that runs diametrically opposite their old one, never truly giving up being an extremist. 

The common traits between all extremists are;

• An ideology where the ends always justify the means.
• An ideology where if they hurt the innocent, they simply say “Our bad,” and move on.
• An ideology which they cannot see any perspective outside of, nor any logical deviation from, without demonizing it. (example: IF they don’t believe or do XYZ then they are supporting ABC and are an enemy to what is right.”)
• Everything is seen in the context of black and white, lacking any shades of grey (which make up rational life).
• Violence is warranted because they see themselves as being on the only side of truth or good.
• They hold a narrative in which they are special, they are the few open to the “great secret,” of what’s really going on, they feel like they are heroic figures fighting a massive enemy (even when said enemy is minuscule or does not exist at all).
• They adamantly believe, “By any means necessary,” but unlike Malcolm X, their cause is often untrue or a half-truth at best, and their “means,” often hurt their “cause,” more than help it. More often, innocent individuals end up getting hurt, and it, in turn, fuels the enemy they perceive. 
• Revisionist history is their only “real,” history, while they consistently talk ill of real, established, documented, and scientifically proven history. 
• They all have a uniform… sometimes it’s a type of clothing, sometimes tattoos, sometimes just a piece of clothing (mask, armband, et cetera) and sometimes it’s more ambiguous and the uniform becomes specific words or phrases.
• They all want to belong to something, preferably a noble cause.

…I could easily list fifty more, but for the sake of space, I’ll leave it at that!

While the focus in the West is often Right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism is often ignored altogether or talked as though it isn’t really a problem (or even real in some cases). Both sides of the spectrum house extremism and no side is more dominant than the other in the amount of damage they do to society, yet the focus is solely one-sided. 

I was asked where I stand on politics since leaving extremism, since I was a part of political extremism it’s often a topic people broach with me and my response was and is;

“I stand on top of the coin. Left and right are two sides of the same exact coin, their methods are the same, their motives are similar and one side cannot exist without the other. I take the high route, I stand for humanity, the needs of the people and I take an objective approach to the discerning of fact, logic, and reasoning, over blanket emotion, revisionism, or what is best for only one subgroup of human beings. We are all equally responsible for our choices, equally capable in our actions, and uniquely capable of seeing things from other points of view and changing our perception of the world around us. “

… so please bear that in mind as we continue on with this article. 

When I was a leader in the neo-nazi movement, we held a lot of rallies with countless counter-protestors, they would throw bottles of urine at us, hit us, attack our vehicles; I’m sure some of you reading this are saying “hell yeah Nazi’s deserve it,” but do you know what it accomplished? We grew more steadfast in our work, we used those actions as proof to fence-sitters that our opposition was inhuman and animals at best, and honestly, it brought members closer and made recruitment easier (even making some more radical). Everything done to us was used as proof of the justified demonization, hate, and ideology we spewed; it was justification for everything we said and did.

The left and right of extremism exist (regardless of what the media says) and fuel one another’s zealotry, Antifa is very real, very well organized, very much so extremists who still to this day find me on social media and proclaim (they’ll get me because of who I am) even though I haven’t been a fascist in over a decade. Black Bloc is very real and stands as a more extremist version of Antifa, we saw black bloc rioting, looting, and rampaging for months, taking over otherwise peaceful BLM protests and giving a proverbial black eye to the meaning of those protests. 

The difference between the left and right of extremism, is that Antifa and Black Bloc are both decentralized, they have no real leaders, this is due to being Anarco-Communists. The right has distinctive leaders, faces they could easily plaster all over the news and say “these are the bad guys,” whereas Antifa and Black Bloc wear masks over their faces. I know… I dealt first hand with both the right and left of extremism, but I guarantee there’s a reader saying, “that’s not true,” right now. I was a leader in the neo nazi movement working with most of the biggest names therein, yet I also worked with the hacker group Anonymous and was a part of OpDeatheaters catching pedophiles on the internet (for nearly 11 years). 

Many Anons (no…not quack job QAnons), were involved with Black Bloc and or Antifa, and some were, like me, affiliated with Nazism or at the least antisemitism. When I left extremism, I kept doing my work with Anonymous but kept a very low profile for a few years, simply observing the underground of ideologies and extremism. When I finally left the Anonymous collective, I did so for my own mental health and wellbeing, as I could no longer work alongside any form of extremists, no matter how noble the cause may have been in our operations. 

Today, I am tired… extremism has worn me to the bone, and educating people who all know better but who were never directly engaged in it, about all sides of extremism, is disheartening at best. Seeing academic courses on extremism and meeting academics who met a skinhead or another grunt in the movement and therefore “understand it,” is tiring. It’s tiring seeing the media misrepresent extremism to paint a false narrative that helps no one but gets ratings.

Trust me when I tell you that there is a huge difference between being a leader in the extremist movements, and being mere fodder in it. Trust me when I tell you that no collegiate course can teach you all that you need to know about extremists, none, not one, no “extremist experts,” know 10% of what a person who lived it, day in and day out knows. This is why I am so tired today, but this is also why I write and do the work I do in this fight against extremism, of all stripes, because otherwise, nothing will change, extremism will embolden and human empathy will be sacrificed on the altar of who is right and wrong. 

This is why I implore people to share this website, why I am writing a detailed autobiography, and why I hope to have my documentary made. If I make absolutely no money whatsoever from these things, but they spread and the message spreads, and the information spreads, I will proclaim “mission accomplished!” I’m not trying to be a “professional former,” like many others, just a good former who is trying to help repair the world for all of our children’s futures.

The seeds from the work I plant now, may they grow trees to shade all of our future generations, together, as one…