INTELWIRE

LAWFUL EXTREMISM

OUT NOW: Academics usually define extremism as a set of beliefs that fall outside the norms of the society in which they are situated, but entire societies have at times been organized around recognizably extreme beliefs. This paper will examine the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393 (1856), aka the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Black people, whether enslaved or free, were entitled to no rights under the Constitution.

The paper analyzes the Dred Scott decision to consider whether and how it implements and institutionalizes many widely recognized tropes of extremist ideology. The paper will conclude with a discussion of empirical frameworks that can enable and empower the study of lawful extremism.


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Cover image: Lawful Extremism report

US vs. THem

Research on extremist manifestos, respectability politics, Holocaust memory, Chinese information operations and more, in the latest World Gone Wrong newsletter.  Now available via LinkedIn

More from J.M. Berger's World Gone Wrong newsletter:

A WHITE SUPREMACY READER

A chronological collection of more than a decade of research on American white supremacy and white nationalism by INTELWIRE's J.M. Berger. 

Read it at World Gone Wrong

NEW DATABASES

INTELWIRE presents exclusive collections of Freedom of Information documents, with entity extraction and full text search through Google Pinpoint. Databases at launch include the September 11 attacks and the 1979 Siege of Mecca, with more to come.  

Check out the new INTELWIRE Databases page

An image of a declassified SECRET State Department cable

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COMING SOON

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LIABLE SOURCES

If you're wondering why your AI is racist, here's a clue. A deep dive into the contents of linguistic training data shows extensive extremist sourcing.

Read it at World Gone Wrong

RESEARCH NOTES

featured research from around the Web on extremism, technology and online harms, including new data on who purchased guns during the pandemic, fact-checking, and the fictional nature of social media engagement metrics.

Read it at World Gone Wrong