What's happening with the Boogaloo Boys today reminds me of the first 1-2 years that Richard Spencer and the alt right came into mainstream awareness.

He said he wasn't racist, a fascist or a Nazi. People believed him and debated it. They had him on mainstream and alt media.

I think it wasn't until both Charlottesville happened and a couple of Spencer's angry openly racist rants surfaced that everyone finally caught on.

Of course, people (anti-fascists) who had been following right wing extremist movements sounded the alarm very early.

People expect RW extremists to be Doc Martins, shaved heads, red suspenders and tattoos. But most modern RW extremists don't look like a prison gang caricature.

Their ideologies can also be very niche. The terms they use carry specific meanings in the subcultures.

For example, almost no racist group admits it is racist. They say they aren't and some probably believe it. Like: "I don't hate other races, I just think races should be separate, that isn't racist."

They'll say (no joke) they support decolonization, when they mean ...

... that they want to expel immigrants from Europe. This is because they co-opt the language of social justice and legitimate issues.

When a Boogaloo Boy says "I support BLM," it's not because they support the actual organization nor the movement. It's because ...

... they strategically support any groups they think might be open to armed conflict with the police and state. If they say "police abolition," it's because they want to replace the police with private militias.

Wanting you to have a shootout with the police is not ...

... supporting you or any left wing goals. A civil war - what the term "Boogaloo" actually means in their ideology - devoid of any constructive plans is not left wing.

A revolutionary movement must have something to replace whatever it is overthrowing.

In many ways Boogaloo Boys are a reworking of the anti government militia movement of the early 90s. The ideology of Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma federal building. They glorify violence for its own sake and view "statists," not just cops but even voters, as targets.

When Boogs say they are for "open borders," it also does not mean to them what it means to you (probably) and me.

It's not a borderless society of free movement. Boogs desire a privatized society, based on the extreme libertarian / anarcho-capitalist model of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Hoppe describes a society with no public govenrnment, where society is a series of mini fiefdoms owned by private individuals with private security forces.

"Borders" don't exist, he says. Only private property lines exist.

Probably not what you had in mind for open borders.

This is where it becomes very racist, too: Hoppe says these communities would be ethnically homogeneous and culturally conservative. "Deviants" would be physically expelled.

Ideology aside, here are things Boogs have actually done in the last year:

Boogaloo Boys went to Kenosha, alongside militia groups like that of Kyle Rittenhouse, to defend property from BLM protesters.

Boogaloo Boys used a large BLM protest as cover to ambush and murder two police officers.

Boogaloo Boys conspired with an FBI snitch, who they thought was a member of Hamas, to build explosives to bomb a courthouse.

Boogaloo Boys participated in the kidnap and murder plot of Gretchen Whitmer.

Boogaloo Boys have arranged multiple armed demonstrations at state capitol buildings inspired by the events of Jan 6.