Sometimes simple-sounding questions are far harder to answer than you might think. For example, one question I get asked regularly over the years is "is right-wing extremism rising?" But right-wing extremism isn't a single movement--there are many movements within it--and you

often may have one movement or set of movements surging while another may be flat or even declining. Then there is the question of what "rising" even is? Does it mean an increase in numbers? In activity? Often when you have a surge in extremist numbers there is a corresponding

increase in extremist activities, violent or non-violent. However, it is also possible to have a movement relatively flat in numbers become agitated/angry over a particular issue and thus become more active even if their numbers aren't really growing. And violence or criminal

activity sometimes seems to decrease at a slower pace tha numbers for a declining movement, perhaps because it is the less committed adherents who may abandon a movement first.