For some years now, those tasked with keeping the UK safe from terrorism have been documenting something new and rather chaotic. The murderous rampage that broke out on the streets of Plymouth on August 12 seems to confirm that a new terrorist threat has arrived.
The traditional reservoirs of the far-right and Islamist extremism are drying up, but the security services are monitoring some individuals who have taken a mixed approach to extremist ideologies, bringing together the views of far-right activist Tommy Robinson and those of Osama bin Laden, adding a layer of conspiracy theory and a good dose of imaginative metaphors. More and more individuals are popping up on the radar of intelligence agencies who easily switch from fascist dogma to Islam to misogyny.
The incel ideology (involuntary celibate, forced celibates) followed by Jake Davison, the perpetrator of the shooting in which five people died, belongs to this new extremism with blurred borders – hatched, propagated and armed online.
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What doesn’t change is the people who are seduced by these ideas. Socially isolated and low-interest individuals, such as Davison, are the most vulnerable. For many, the pandemic has amplified a sense of marginalization. And yet, even before the first lockdown, the incel ideology was increasingly popular, so much so that today it is classified by the government within a category of “mixed, changeable and unclear” ideologies. Between 2019 and 2020, this category of ideologies was the source of more than half of the interventions of the counter-terrorism program, Prevent, an increase from 11 percent three years ago.
After the Plymouth murders, the online “man sphere” will most likely be under new scrutiny, as its vast decentralized network of online chats and games helps normalize misogyny. However, any attempt to suppress such hatred will only induce its associates to migrate to new, uncontrolled internet platforms.
The police decision not to classify the August 12 attack as a terrorist act will likely be judged by history as a mistake. Terrorism, by definition, is the threat or use of an action to intimidate public opinion and push it in favor of a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.
More immediately, it seems to demonstrate that the Devon and Cornish police are not up to the emerging threat posed by a “mixed, shifting or unclear” ideology. It is a decision that is unlikely to be made again. The next Davison will most likely be recognized as a terrorist.
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