History Main / RightwingMilitiaFanatic

%% Any facts pertaining to the real life phenomenon associated with this trope should go on the Analysis page, not the trope description.

Most of these characters appeared during TheNineties in American media, particularly after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge incident]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the Waco Siege]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], which involved government confrontations with supposed RealLife versions of these characters. The truth about them is a bit more complicated; see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Analysis page]] for more. After about a decade and a half of ceding the favorite political bogeyman slot to MiddleEasternTerrorists, these guys have begun appearing more often again in the late 2010s and early 2020s- likely due to an increase in visibility for RealLife far right groups.[[note]] Again, see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the analysis page.]][[/note]]

Most of these characters appeared during TheNineties in American media, particularly after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge incident]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the Waco Siege]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], which involved government confrontations with supposed RealLife versions of these characters. The truth about them is a bit more complicated; see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Analysis page]] for more. After about a decade and a half of ceding the favorite [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets political bogeyman]] slot to MiddleEasternTerrorists, these guys have begun appearing more often again in the late 2010s and early 2020s- likely due to an increase in visibility for RealLife far right groups.[[note]] Again, see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the analysis page.]][[/note]]

* The villains in TheMovie of Creator/TomClancy's ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'' were changed from Islamic radicals to [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets neo-Nazi militia members,]] as the producers believed that "Arab terrorists" was cliche.[[note]]Filming had finished in June 2001, before the 9/11 attacks.[[/note]]

* Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''The Trigger'' shows one of these on the defensive. The premise of the book is that the U.S. has invented a way to sabotage guns from a distance, and they think this only makes sense if the U.S. is no longer going to rely on its advantages in gun development -- which means to them that the U.S. is about to hand over sovereignty to the United Nations. They're portrayed as somewhat pathetic, but still dangerous to everyone around them as they try to keep their "freedom."

* Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''The Trigger'' shows one of these on the defensive. The premise of the book is that the U.S. has invented a way to sabotage guns from a distance, and they think this only makes sense if the U.S. is no longer going to rely on its advantages in gun development -- [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories which means to them]] that the U.S. is about to hand over sovereignty to the United Nations. They're portrayed as somewhat pathetic, but still dangerous to everyone around them as they try to keep their "freedom."

Most of these characters appeared during TheNineties in American media, particularly after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge incident]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the Waco Siege]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], which involved government confrontations with supposed RealLife versions of these characters. The truth about them is a bit more complicated; see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Analysis page]] for more. These characters began appearing more often again in the late 2010s and early 2020s due to an increase in far right groups.

* Jim Rockford goes against a group of these in ''Series/TheRockfordFiles'' episode "The Battle of Canoga Park." When they are arrested for murder at the end of the episode, they behave as though they are prisoners of war, althoguh hte younger son [[IWillNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou still talks too much]].

* Jim Rockford goes against a group of these in ''Series/TheRockfordFiles.'' When they are arrested for murder at the end of the episode, they behave as though they are prisoners of war.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "The Heist", the militia group Lightning Dawn is preparing for the "inevitable" resumption of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. To that end, it hijacks what it believes to be a US Army missile shipment which was being sent to UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} in order to keep the Russian President in power (they're convinced Russia is still a communist state). It instead turned out to be an alien organism.

** The page quote comes from "Tunguska", where Krycek allies with a terrorist group who helped him escape an abandoned silo where he'd been imprisoned. Though Krycek used them as part of a convoluted BatmanGambit, betraying them to the FBI at the earliest opportunity.
** "Unrequited" has a paramilitary group of Vietnam vets whom Mulder and Scully suspect in the murder of several Pentagon officials. Turns out they're a RedHerring.
** "The Pine Bluff Variant" plays it straight. When Mulder publicly renounces his previous belief in [=UFOs=], saying that it's all part of a GovernmentConspiracy, he's approached by a radical militia group to work for them. It turns out he's acting as a FakeDefector. But Mulder is [[TheMole not the only one]], as one of the group is using them to carry out his own GovernmentConspiracy.

Most of these characters appeared during TheNineties in American media, particularly after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge incident]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the Waco Siege]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], which involved government confrontations with supposed RealLife versions of these characters. The truth about them is a bit more complicated; see [[Analysis/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Analysis page]] for more.

Compare and contrast TheKlan, RedScare, TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized, YellowPeril, MalcolmXerox, and EvilStatesOfAmerica. A common source of WesternTerrorists. Often a CrazySurvivalist. For the left-wing version, try DirtyCommunists or BombThrowingAnarchists. If they go around enforcing the law in place of the government, they're also a VigilanteMilitia.

These people are members of an underground militia which holds suspicion that TheGovernment is going to [[PoliceState declare martial law]], seize everybody's guns, and perhaps cede national sovereignty to the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations to form a OneWorldOrder, or implant everyone with microchips to make it easier to track them, and start sending patriots like them to prison camps ''[[MediaScaremongering any day now]]'' -- [[LaResistance but not on their watch!]] Particularly unsympathetic examples will have them displaying white supremacist or [[ThoseWackyNazis Neo-Nazi sympathies]]. The methods employed by the more fanatical of them may even include brazen violence and terrorism toward the government, immigrants, or minorities.

Compare and contrast TheKlan, RedScare, TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized, YellowPeril, and MalcolmXerox. A common source of WesternTerrorists. Often a CrazySurvivalist. For the left-wing version, try DirtyCommunists or BombThrowingAnarchists. If they go around enforcing the law in place of the government, they're also a VigilanteMilitia.

Compare and contrast TheKlan RedScare, TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized, YellowPeril, and MalcolmXerox. A common source of WesternTerrorists. Often a CrazySurvivalist. For the left-wing version, try DirtyCommunists or BombThrowingAnarchists. If they go around enforcing the law in place of the government, they're also a VigilanteMilitia.

Compare and contrast RedScare, TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized, YellowPeril, and MalcolmXerox. A common source of WesternTerrorists. Often a CrazySurvivalist. For the left-wing version, try DirtyCommunists or BombThrowingAnarchists. If they go around enforcing the law in place of the government, they're also a VigilanteMilitia.

* ''Literature/SpaceAcademyDropouts'': A rare villainous sci-fi example. Humans who couldn’t adapt to the cosmopolitan tolerant nature of the Community found themselves making isolationist Cult Colony settlements in Contested Space. The protagonist has to deal with a number of SpacePirates Neo-Confederates for example.

* ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' had the anti-mutant hate group "Friends of Humanity". They tried to appear like a legitimate movement who were disaffected with the anti-mutant Robert Kelly switching sides and giving Beast a presidential pardon, but considering their outfits were [[NoSwastikas a few Swastikas short]] from officially being [[PuttingOnTheReich Neo-Nazi garm]] and their "activism" included things like attacking a hospital full of blind patients, the whole VillainWithGoodPublicity thing didn't last. They also set up bases in places that they probably didn't own, kidnapped and attempted to kill multiple people just for being mutants and spread a seemingly lethal virus so they could blame it on mutants. They were initially led by Graydon Creed, son of Mystique and Sabertooth, who was personally driven out of hatred for the mutant parents who abandoned him but was also genuinely bigoted. Either way, after Wolverine revealed Creed's relation with Sabertooth, the organization abandoned him and seemingly collapsed on itself, but it eventually made a comeback, this time led by a group of masked men in Klan-like hoods.

* ''Film/TheHappening''. When a news report claims that the events of the film are the result of a CIA bioweapon test gone wrong, a group of obvious militia types with "IKnewIt!" expressions are seen loading an arsenal of weaponry in their garage.

* The PKC in ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' fits the bill in the case of the Free Planets Alliance. Though it's later revealed that [[spoiler: the militia was supported by Trünicht, with at least a good chunk of them members of the Earth Cult.]]

* An issue of the first ''[[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series featured the [[FunWithAcronyms Committee to Restore American Patriotism]], a militia group which intended to use a nuclear weapon to begin a war with Russia.

These people are members of an underground militia which holds suspicion that TheGovernment is going to [[PoliceState declare martial law]], seize everybody's guns, and perhaps cede national sovereignty to the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations to form a OneWorldOrder, or implant everyone with microchips to make it easier to track them, and start sending patriots like them to prison camps ''[[YouCanPanicNow any day now]]'' -- [[LaResistance but not on their watch!]] Particularly unsympathetic examples will have them displaying white supremacist or [[ThoseWackyNazis Neo-Nazi sympathies]]. The methods employed by the more fanatical of them may even include brazen violence and terrorism toward the government, immigrants, or minorities.

* ''Series/TheBoys2019'' has Gunpowder, a [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes Winter Soldier]] {{expy}} whose EstablishingCharacterMoment is him giving a speech at a gun show about the government wanting to disarm people. After that he seemed more or less innocuous until he [[HeKnowsTooMuch tries to silence Butcher after he blackmailed him]] with evidence of the abuse he suffered at [[FakeUltimateHero Soldier Boy]]'s hands.

* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' these guys are the ''heroes.'' Much like ''Literature/TheTurnerDiaries'' example above, as the US groans under the weight of its own [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad multiculturalism, love, and acceptance]], one group stands up to fight for a Traditional, White, Christian America by any means necessary. Nor do the [[VillainProtagonist similarities]] [[ValuesDissonance end there.]]

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has Jack Welker's neo-Nazi gang, who are heavily armed and live in a desert compound. They're involved in the local drug trade and have extensive contacts in the New Mexico state prison system, enough that Jack is able to organize ten prison murders to occur within minutes of each other when Walt pays him to get rid of people who could testify against them. Despite their symbols, they're perfectly willing to work with the Juarez Cartel for cash. This is all TruthInTelevision: the real-world Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang and crime syndicate, is allied with the Mexican Mafia, gets up to murder-for-hire and meth dealing outside of prison, and is responsible for 18-25% of prison murders despite constituting less than 0.1% of the prison population. Despite having swastika tattoos, Jack's ideology isn't really elaborated upon, aside from [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad a conversation with Kenny where he laments the softness of the current generation]] and him scornfully referring to Hank as "Fed" [[spoiler:before executing him.]]