Friday Round Up! 4/14/2023

The continuing dangers of anti-government extremism and conspiracy-minded beliefs.

Lots of news this week but the (a) big one was the arrest of Jack Texeira, the Massachusetts airman who leaked highly classified documents in an online gaming chat group. In my office hours earlier this week, before Texeira had been identified, I said that what I was most interested in was the motive behind the leaks — it did not seem to me, based on what had been released, to be some kind of “whistleblower” who was seeking to expose some government program they believed the public needed to know about, like Snowden. (Please note that I deliberately put “whistleblower” in quotes because the fact that Snowden rationalized his behavior as some kind of righteous truth-telling doesn’t make it so…but that self-justification is a good referent against which to measure Texeira.) Indeed, based on what we have learned so far, Texeira seemed mostly motivated by the need to impress his online friends with his access and knowledge, and apparently succeeding in becoming the group’s de facto “leader,” holding court and keeping them in his thrall by continuing to present them with taboo information.

Having said that, based on reporting by the Washington Post, Texeira did have anti-government beliefs that drove his worldview:

[The leaker] had a dark view of the government. The young member said he spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. He ranted about ‘government overreach.’

This is important, because it highlights the connection between conspiracy-minded thinking and dangerous, anti-social behavior. I wrote about this connection for CAFE Insider last November, citing research by Professor Daniel Jolly at the University of Nottingham. Specifically, I observed the relationship between the sense of powerless induced by the Big Lie and the violence on January 6:

After all, conspiracy theories are, by definition, a belief that powerful people are colluding in secret to produce some kind of outcome. If that outcome is an electoral one, then believers in election conspiracies – like the Big Lie – are beginning with the premise that people far more powerful than them will rig the system…Convincing people that they have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, because the system has failed them, will likely work, as it did on January 6. (Jolly’s research has in fact found that conspiracy beliefs are associated with a willingness to support violence.)…Indeed, Jolly’s research shows that political disengagement among people who are exposed to conspiracy theories is animated by a sense of political powerlessness, which he defines as ‘the perception of being incapable of affecting an outcome by taking action.’

I think the same idea is at play in Texeira’s case. Radicalized by the notion that law enforcement and the intelligence community are evil forces writ large, Texeira could justify his actions as somehow being the only way to get the “truth” out. This drives home why the rhetoric by our elected officials, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan, which is intended to erode faith in our government institutions (which then gets amplified to audiences — including military personnel — through Fox News) encourages lone actors to “take matters into their own hands” not just with guns and violence, but by revealing our most important secrets.

Renato Mariotti and I explored Jim Jordan’s continued effort to erode the public’s faith in our justice system on this week’s podcast:

I’ll also have a piece coming out on CAFE Insider next week on Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg’s lawsuit against Jim Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, so stay tuned! In the meantime:

Articles worth reading:

• No new pieces from me this week but I highly recommend this piece about the Discord leaks for Just Security by Brianna Rosen, which also touches on the continued dangers of extremism within the ranks and the legal challenges in addressing them

• This piece for CNN by my colleague and former FBI agent Josh Campbell, who discusses why the Discord leaks reveal a problem with vetting and ongoing security measures in the military for people with access to classified information

Noteworthy clips from this week:

• A radio clip this time! My interview with CT Public’s “The Wheelhouse” on Trump’s indictment in Manhattan and what that means for 2024

• And a podcast — my interview with Rick Wilson on The Enemies List

Upcoming events:

• Guest speaker and Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis will be speaking to the class on Wednesday, April 26, at 5 p.m. EDT

That’s it for this week — have a great weekend!