人兽性交

The four young men who shared this apartment in Florida got there by way of the internet.

It started with video games. That led to 4chan, which led to the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website so extreme its followers recently bombarded a Jewish woman and her family with hundreds of threats like, 鈥淧ut your uppity s---聽wife Tanya back in her cage, you rat-faced k---. 鈥� Day of the rope soon for your entire family.鈥�

But Brandon Russell and Devon Arthurs didn鈥檛 meet and decide to become roommates until they both wound up in a live chat sponsored by the American Freedom Party, a white nationalist hate group. They quickly became 鈥渋nseparable,鈥� as :

Brandon treated Devon almost like his pet, leaving him $20 each morning, but also, at times, withholding his money, or food, as a form of discipline. 鈥淚 think it was a power trip for Brandon," one acquaintance says. "It was a really toxic friendship," says another.

Before long, Russell announced he was forming a hate group of his own. In 2015 he unveiled the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), a neo-Nazi outfit designed to operate like a white supremacist terror cell.

That鈥檚 how he met Jeremy Himmelman and Andrew Oneschuk, two teenagers from Boston who would join Russell and Arthurs in their Florida apartment as part of a twisted relationship that sometimes prompted Himmelman and Oneschuk to call Russell "Daddy."

Less than two years later, police would find Russell 鈥渉ysterical and screaming鈥� after he discovered the teens鈥� bodies in the apartment they all shared 鈥斅爉urdered, police say, by Arthurs.

the collision course that led the four young men to each other and to what she calls a 鈥渟enseless double murder鈥� that 鈥渆xposed the rise of an organized fascist youth movement in the United States.鈥�

But Himmelman and Oneschuk鈥檚 murders in May 2017 wouldn鈥檛 be the last linked to AWD. Before the end of the year, another man associated with AWD, Nicholas Giampa, would be charged with killing his girlfriend鈥檚 parents in Virginia. They had been trying to keep him away from their daughter.

Barely a month later, in January of this year, another reported member of AWD, , was charged with the murder of a gay, Jewish man named Blaze Bernstein, who was found in a shallow grave, his body marred by at least 20 stab wounds.

The so-called 鈥渁lt-right,鈥� as our Hatewatch staff wrote earlier this year, is killing people.

For many potentially violent young extremists, the path to radicalization is chilling for its banality. It may start with video games, memes and chatrooms. And that鈥檚 no accident.

鈥淲hen I鈥檓 trying to change the way people think about things,鈥� said Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 make sense to target anyone but young people.鈥�

In fact, even Russell, AWD鈥檚 founder, 鈥渟urrounded himself with teenagers,鈥� , as an 鈥渋ntentional鈥� way to 鈥渞ecruit the youngest national socialists he could find.鈥�

"I think Brandon could have believed anything as long as it got him followers," Himmelman鈥檚 girlfriend told Reitman. "He knows what people want to engage with, and he mirrors it. He's really good at manipulating people."

He鈥檚 not the only one. As our Hatewatch staff reports:

The white, male grievance culture that the leaders of the alt-right are incubating has already inspired more than 40 deaths and left more than 60 people injured. And unfortunately, the alt-right seems likely to inspire more.

And, as we鈥檝e seen in the past, we likely won鈥檛 seem them coming.

After all, as Arthurs himself , 鈥淚鈥檓 not what people would expect to be the face of terror. I鈥檓 just a normal guy like anyone else.鈥�

The Editors

P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:

• by Masha Gessen for The New Yorker
• by Lance Warren for Facing South
• by Rosa Lyster for The Outline
• by Jelani Cobb for The New Yorker

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