The anti-government movement in the US is best characterized as a loose collection of groups united by a view of the government as a tyrannical body that seeks to impose various extreme measures, including martial law. The Southern Poverty Law Centre’s Intelligence Project identified 488 extreme anti-government groups active in 2021, of which 92 were militias, 75 sovereign citizen groups, three constitutional sheriff believers, and 52 were conspiracist propagandists. Although the number of anti-government groups in the US peaked in the 2010s and has since declined, the conspiratorial view of government was pervasive during the Covid-19 pandemic, as shown by the popularity of the movement’s ideas about Covid-19 regulations, local school curriculums and the “Big Lie” of voter fraud, as well as broader security and various technologies like 5G phone service (3).

January 6 was the most public and notable event for the anti-government movement since the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. Of over 700 people charged with offenses related to January 6, 25 were members of identified anti-government groups (3). When faced with greater scrutiny after this event, many of these organizations dispersed into communities and once again focused on localized activities – these activities are not new, but a mainstay of the anti-government landscape, and a longstanding recruitment method. The Oath Keepers, the American Patriots Three Percent, 111% United Patriots, the Three Percenters/ 111%ers, and the State of Jefferson Formation all saw local chapters either disband or unaffiliate following January 6. This splintering has seen them disperse into communities where they may be able to further recruit people to their ideology.