14 | JANUARY 21 • 2021 

M

ost of us have had 
barely a chance to 
collect our thoughts 
about the horrific events 
that occurred in our Capitol 
on Jan. 6. The 
Michigan ADL 
has been busy 
fielding many 
inquiries from 
our concerned 
community, and 
there has been 
a great deal of commentary 
from others about the 
terrible challenge to our 
nation’s democracy. On Jan. 
8, the ADL made history by 
calling for the removal of the 
president.
In our 107-year-old record, 
our organization has never 
even come close to such an 
action. What is baffling is 
the fact that — only now — 
have many people started to 
take white supremacists and 
far-right extremists seriously.
For years, we have talked 
about the rise of extremism 
and ADL’s concerns over 
the far-right. I’ve personally 
given briefings, presenta-
tions, delivered research, 
and conducted media inter-
views about the dangers of 
domestic extremism. More 
than a year ago, I served 
on a National Governor’s 
Association Task Force 
on Preventing Targeted 
Violence, and a large part of 
our effort focused on domes-
tic terrorism.
Some people have listened 
and have added their voices. 

Some have accused the ADL 
and others who monitor 
extremists of exaggerating 
the dangers. The active dis-
information and conspiracy 
theories promulgated on dig-
ital platforms like Facebook 
and Twitter, including from 
President Trump’s own feed, 
have been frightening. And 
it continues, even after we 
know people were tram-
pled and hurt, offices were 
trashed, the Capitol building 
was damaged and people 
died.
Astonishingly, some elect-
ed officials — those who 
have been actively pushing 
misinformation and stoking 
the flames — have now come 
out with forceful rhetoric, 
pretending they can some-
how erase the stain of their 
complicity. But we must hold 
people accountable for their 
actions.
For several months — 
under the moniker “Stop 
Hate for Profit,” ADL — 

along with others like Color 
of Change, Common Sense 
Media, Free Press, LULAC, 
Mozilla, NAACP, National 
Hispanic Media Coalition 
(NHMC) and Sleeping 
Giants — have repeatedly 
called for digital platforms 
to create policies about hate 
speech and guidelines for 
these companies to enact. 
Last week, we issued a state-
ment demanding digital 
media organizations remove 
Donald Trump from their 
platforms and permanently 
ban him from participating.
By Friday evening, plat-
forms were rapidly removing 
Donald Trump’s account or 
accounts affiliated with pro-
Trump violence and conspir-
acies, such as QAnon and 
#StoptheSteal. Mainstream 
platforms like Twitter, 
Google, YouTube, Facebook, 
Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok 
and even Pinterest had 
removed him; it’s about time.
I want to be very clear 

about a few things: 
• No one who stormed 
the Capitol on Jan. 6 was 
radicalized overnight. They 
were extremists with a com-
mon cause who were animat-
ed by a conspiracy theory of 
a stolen election. But make 
no mistake: People were rad-
icalized. And the fires were 
fueled by years of dangerous 
misinformation and hateful 
rhetoric.
• There is zero evidence 
that “antifa” followers cre-
ated violence. Our experts in 
ADL’s Center on Extremism 
have already begun to iden-
tify far-right individuals and 
extremist groups involved 
in the events. We immedi-
ately began working with 
law enforcement and identi-
fied members of the Proud 
Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon 
adherents and other far-right 
extremist groups.
• This is not political. 
Holding the president 
accountable for inciting 
violence and hate is not a 
partisan issue. Actions have 
consequences.
• Extremist ideology 
often quickly accelerates 
toward hatred of the Jewish 
people. The notion of 
antisemitism as the “canary 
in the coal mine” rings true 
because we see some of the 
same age-old tropes and 
commentaries spewed in 
publications from the early 
1900s as we saw on digital 
platforms last week. In ADL 
offices all across the U.S. 
we’ve seen this rhetoric fos-
tered in outrageous propor-
tions. When it comes down 
to it, fearmongering and 
blame are key ingredients for 
antisemitism.
So where do we go from 

VIEWS

Guest column
Taking Extremism Seriously

Jan. 6 was a watershed moment for the far-right. 
So where do we go from here?

Carolyn 

Normandin

A scene from the Capitol rioting, Jan. 6, 2021. 

ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA

