The history of the car bomb is a story of cross-pollination between ideological extremists. As historian Mike Davis documented in Buda’s Wagon, car bombs as a weapon and a tactic were adopted by a range of forces with little political coherence. The Stern Gang’s use of car bombs against British forces in Mandate Palestine and Timothy McVeigh’s use of a car bomb against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City are hardly part of the same cause, but they share a fundamental appreciation for the same kind of weapon.

In “White Jihad: How White Supremacists Adopt Jihadi Narratives, Aesthetics, and Tactics,” Ariel Koch, Karine Nahon, and Assaf Moghadam examine how, decades into the US-led Global War on Terror, ostensible ideological foes in white supremacist and jihadist circles have forged connections online, and adopted shared terminology and aesthetics, if not exactly a direct alliance.

“The appropriation of militant Islamist content, language, aesthetics, and repertoires of action allows militant Islamists to utilize new, previously untapped resources and networks,” write the authors. “The ability to influence right-wing extremists offers Jihadism new avenues to propagate ideology, encourage conversion to a militant interpretation of Islam, and offer additional incentives and justification for already violent-prone individuals to carry out acts of terrorism or join militant movements.”

While the history of violent extremism has long had cross-pollination in tools and tactics, the post-9/11 and especially mid-2010s adoption of language and ideology could pose a unique risk.

“Up to this point in time, far-right terrorists have carried out most of their attacks using tactics such as shootings, stabbings, and bombings,” write the authors. “There are growing signs, however, that some of the methods that have hitherto been associated primarily with jihadists are entering the terrorist discourse of the far right. Two tactics are especially noteworthy in this regard: suicide bombings and vehicular attacks.”

Vehicular attacks, in particular, have seen distinct growth by far-right movements and actors in the United States, especially targeting Black Lives Matter and other protests. Here the white supremacists and jihadis align in tactics and targets as they seek violence against LGBTQ+ communities and see democratic governments as decadent and complicit in protecting them.

The authors argue that elements within the white supremacist and jihadist movements share core values, such as “enmity toward progressive democratic and liberal trends such as women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as perceptions of common enemies, including Jews, the West, the United States, Israel, and any combination thereof. Adoption of such terms as Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) or the Zio-Crusader Alliance exemplify such mutually held views.”

Threats of violence from Islamic or white supremacist far-right would endure without the other. But the convergence of language reflects new worldviews, with martyrdom as a concept that is "now openly embraced by neo-fascist accelerationists, some of whom laud white terrorists as ‘saints’ that must be followed.”

Almost three decades after the Oklahoma City bombing and 22 years after 9/11, the worst people on earth are mirroring shared pantheons of monsters.

Alan Ruiz Terol listened to fans of Villano Antillano, Puerto Rican rapper and reggaeton trailblazer, who has cut a path for herself as a trans woman in the genre. “Women are taught we cannot express our sexuality, but seeing her doing it so openly, regardless of what people say, inspires you to do the same,” Amanda Soliván, a fan from Puerto Rico, told Alan Ruiz Terol. Queer artists like Antillano finding success in the reggaeton genre hearkens back to the sound’s original rebellious origins. “Her experiences as a trans person were also shaped by the political status of Puerto Rico, which she denounces as a colony ‘sequestered’ by the United States,” wrote Terol.

Orlando Bell reminded readers of the human fallibility at the heart of nuclear command and control. While the past is riddled with nuclear accidents survived more by luck than design, it is the failure to learn from the past that has Bell’s attention. “Our leaders, those with their fingers over the button, are corruptible, proud, short-sighted, and determined. In short, they are human. That is why they should not be unquestioningly trusted with this capability,” wrote Bell. The August 2023 firing of two top nuclear commanders in China by President Xi Jinping is a reminder of the fallible humans placed in charge of engines of Armageddon.

Sara Hassan ventured to Iraq’s annual Arbaeen walk. The annual pilgrimage, tied to the Islamic calendar, commemorates the death of Muhammad’s grandson Husayn in the year 680. The pilgrimage, while not an obligation in the same way as the hajj to Mecca, is undertaken annually by millions, with 28 million expected in 2023. “Every year, I provide all of the services to welcome the pilgrims visiting Imam Husayn and provide hospitality in the form of food and drink, and also showers and bathrooms, and I also put out mattresses here for them to sleep on,” Shaykh Hassan al-Mas’udi, a local Iraqi tribe leader, told Hassan.

And here I thought there was no victory in the war on terror.

The Space Force has a targeting squadron! Targeting…what, exactly?

Artificial Intelligence is just another word for hidden, exploited labor.

Even when AI is AI, it drinks more water per query than people do.

Can’t believe the electrocution tools company has a bad work culture.

If I co-authored a paper on climate action and then said I fabricated data to get it published, I might expect my co-authors to be furious and my ideologically convenient narrative to be disproven in moments.

Never a bad time to brush up on recent history, especially as it gets misremembered online.