The Chaos Cells: How Siege Culture, Boogaloo Fantasies, and Trump’s Authoritarian Movement Collide

Small cells, big ambitions: a terror playbook hiding in plain sight

The Chaos Cells: How Siege Culture, Boogaloo Fantasies, and Trump’s Authoritarian Movement Collide

Small cells, big ambitions: a terror playbook hiding in plain sight

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #528: Sunday, September 7th, 2025.

You’re Not Paranoid. You’re Paying Attention.

Everywhere you look, something feels broken. Not “politics as usual.” Not “partisan noise.” Broken.

Hospitals where doctors are called liars. Courts where judges wink at corruption. Elections where losers don’t concede. Cities where “patriots” parade in skull masks.

You’re told it’s just polarization. Just internet trolls. Just a few “fringe groups” no one should worry about.

Bullshit.

What you’re seeing isn’t random. It’s a blueprint. A strategy written in blood and sharpened by men who don’t want to win arguments…they want to burn the system to ash and rebuild it in their image.

And here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:

While these movements don’t take orders from Trump…his authoritarian chaos makes their work easier…faster…deadlier.

He doesn’t have to run them. He just has to keep breaking trust…mocking democracy… and convincing millions that “the system” deserves to fall.

That’s the synergy. And that’s what I’m about to show you.

The Base: The Cult of Collapse

Let’s start with The Base.

This isn’t a metaphor. It’s an actual name…taken from the Arabic “al-Qaeda.” Not a coincidence. They wanted the association.

Founded in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro…an American ex-defense contractor now living comfortably in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Base is a neo-Nazi accelerationist network.

Its sole purpose: prepare small cells for the collapse of society and the creation of a white ethnostate.

Not lobby. Not win elections. Not pass laws. Collapse.

The Base’s entire architecture is built around this principle. Forget mass rallies or giant memberships. They don’t want visibility. They want cells of three to five men… just enough for action…too few to infiltrate easily.

They train in marksmanship. Survivalism. Fitness drills. They plaster Nazi symbols on synagogues. They swap bomb-making manuals and sabotage fantasies. They call themselves the “skull mask” crew…same aesthetic as Atomwaffen Division…same James Mason-inspired nihilism.

And here’s the kicker:

Governments across the world…Canada…the UK…the EU…Australia…New Zealand… have formally designated The Base as a terrorist organization. They’ve tracked cells…arrested members…seized arsenals.

Yet the leader sits in Russia…untouched…posting YouTube videos of himself jogging along the Neva River like a dad on vacation. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the implication: hostile states see groups like this as chaos multipliers inside the U.S.

The Arrests That Tell the Story

In January 2020, the FBI rolled up multiple Base members ahead of a massive pro-gun rally in Virginia. They weren’t just planning to wave flags. They had caches of ammunition…semi-automatics…and talk of turning the rally into bloodshed.

That same year…others were charged for vandalizing synagogues with Base symbols. It wasn’t random graffiti…it was testing the system.

How fast would law enforcement respond? Could they spark fear in Jewish communities? Could they bait “overreaction” for propaganda?

This is how accelerationists work. Not one giant 9/11-style strike. A thousand small cuts. Chaos seeded like landmines across the country.

The Revival Attempts

You’d think arrests and designations would end it. But in the run-up to the 2024 election cycle and now into 2025…reports show The Base is trying to revive. Recruitment channels reopening. Offers circulating for a paid stateside leader.

This is the resilience of the model. Arrest a Proud Boy leader? The chain of command collapses. Arrest a Base member? Three more anonymous cells are still out there… ready to act.

And here’s where Trump’s chaos overlaps:

Every time he screams “rigged,” every time his allies mock the DOJ or FBI…every time Project 2025 is waved like a battle flag…it’s oxygen for these cells. It doesn’t mean they’re his soldiers. It means he creates the ecosystem where they thrive.

Siege Culture: The Religion of Collapse

If The Base is the training ground…Siege Culture is the bible.

The doctrine comes from a book called Siege…written by James Mason…a neo-Nazi who spent years in prison and decades on the fringes of extremism.

For years…his rants about “political terror” collected dust. Then the internet…and the Iron March forum…resurrected him like a prophet.

In Siege, Mason preaches a simple gospel:

Forget politics. Forget elections. Forget the fantasy of a mass movement. The only way to “save the white race” is through leaderless terrorism…lone wolves and micro-cells waging endless war against the system.

It’s nihilism weaponized.

Mason’s book became the sacred text for Atomwaffen Division and its spinoffs. The memes spread across Iron March, 4chan, Telegram. Before long…every skull-mask crew from Virginia to Berlin…was quoting Mason like scripture.

Why 3–5 Man Cells?

Here’s the brilliance…and the horror…of Siege Culture: the cell model.

• Too small to infiltrate. Three to five people…usually friends…blood-bound… radicalized together. No mass meetings…no membership cards…no HQ to raid.

• Too small to track. A cell of four men stockpiling ammo in a garage looks like a hunting club…not a terror network.

• Too easy to replicate. One cell busted? Dozens more survive. The movement doesn’t collapse. It metastasizes.

This isn’t a theory. It’s Louis Beam’s “leaderless resistance” from the 1980s militia world…reborn with Wi-Fi.

It’s why former FBI undercover agents…when they talk about the threat today…don’t describe giant organizations. They describe dozens…maybe hundreds…of micro-cells scattered across the country…waiting for the right spark.

From Text to Tactic

By the mid-2010s…this wasn’t just talk. It was action.

Atomwaffen members murdered…stockpiled explosives…and plastered swastikas on Jewish targets. Feuerkrieg Division spread Siege memes across Europe. The Base trained cells in American woods.

Academics call this accelerationism…the belief that only violence and chaos can accelerate the collapse of the “system” and open the door to a new authoritarian order.

And every chaotic headline…every Trump rant about “rigged elections” and “enemies of the people,” every government stumble on pandemic or economy…all of it feeds the Siege worldview. To them…Trump isn’t the savior. He’s the wrecking ball.

The Boogaloo: From Meme to Murder

Now let’s talk about the Boogaloo movement…the most American flavor of accelerationism.

It started as a joke. A meme. Hawaiian shirts…igloo logos, “boog boys” talking online about “Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo.” At first…it looked like trolling.

But memes are masks.

Behind the jokes were thousands of heavily armed men fantasizing about using unrest to ignite a new civil war. Libertarian-tinged…anti-government extremists…some white supremacist…some not…all unified by one dream: collapse.

From Talk to Killing

In 2020…the mask slipped.

Steven Carrillo…an Air Force sergeant drenched in Boogaloo memes…opened fire on federal officers in Oakland during protests. He murdered one…ambushed deputies later…killed another…and bragged about it in blood on a car hood: “Boog.”

His driver…Robert Justus…was convicted as an accomplice. Carrillo is serving decades-to-life.

This was no meme. This was murder. Proof that the “Boogaloo” wasn’t cosplay. It was operational.

“D-Day” Fantasies

Boogaloo groups began hyping “D-Days”….not Normandy…but “launch days.” National calls for action…coordinated in chats…hyped with memes.

On January 17, 2021, less than two weeks after Trump’s mob stormed the Capitol, Boogaloo channels called for armed shows of force at state capitols nationwide.

The FBI issued warnings. Security ramped up. The turnout was small…but the intent was clear: they wanted a synchronized spark.

This is the danger:

You don’t need an army. You just need enough cells…hyped at the same time…to overwhelm local law enforcement…spark bloodshed…and amplify chaos across the feeds.

Evolution: Meme-to-Muzzle

After Carrillo’s attack…after arrests in Nevada and D.C. plots like “Operation Stormbreaker,” the Boogaloo mutated.

Deplatformed on Facebook…Twitter…and Reddit…they migrated to encrypted channels. They lost some numbers but gained resilience. Less visible…more insular…harder to track.

Think of it as an underground river: still flowing…still feeding the soil…invisible until it bursts out in violence.

Case Snapshots: Proof in Blood and Ink

Let’s stop with theory. Look at the track record:

• Virginia Gun Rally Plot (2020). Base members Mathews and Lemley Jr. arrested with ammo stockpiles and recorded plotting violence at Richmond’s pro-gun rally. Not cosplay. Conspiracy.

• Synagogue Defacement (2019). Base adherents plaster Jewish houses of worship with Nazi symbols. Not kids. Adults deliberately terrorizing communities.

• Oakland Federal Officer Murder (2020). Boogaloo’s Steven Carrillo executed a drive-by on federal security during protests. Dead officers. Real families destroyed.

• Ambushed Deputies (2020). Same Carrillo…later ambushing and killing a deputy sheriff in Santa Cruz County.

Each case is proof: the cells aren’t theoretical. They exist. They act. They kill.

The Overlap With Trump’s Movement

Here’s where people get squeamish. Because they want a neat headline: “Are these groups Trump’s army?”

The answer is no. And yes.

No…they don’t take orders from Trump. Many accelerationists laugh at him as weak… corrupt…unserious.

Yes…they thrive in his shadow.

Trump’s constant delegitimization…“rigged elections,” “enemy press,” “witch hunt courts” …is the exact environment Siege culture demands.

His rallies where enemies are mocked and violence winked at are recruitment fertilizer. His authoritarian posture makes accelerationists believe the collapse they want is closer than ever.

They’re not his troops. They’re his storm surge.

The Risk Picture: 2025-2026

We are standing on a live wire.

The Department of Homeland Security’s own assessments admit it: racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists are the most persistent lethal threat on U.S. soil.

And the key accelerants? Elections. Polarization. Crises that shake faith in government.

Sound familiar? That’s where we are.

Think about the perfect storm:

• A presidential election where one candidate has already declared he’ll only accept victory.

• A Congress with chaos agents who thrive on shutting it down.

• Foreign adversaries eager to boost every meme…rumor…and rage cycle that weakens us.

Accelerationists don’t need to coordinate. They just need to ride the wave. Every Trump rant about “witch hunts” lowers the cost of mobilization for them. Every media cycle about “civil war” gives them another recruitment hook.

And when law enforcement has to cover all 50 state capitols…plus D.C….plus courthouses…plus soft targets like synagogues and city councils…a few small cells can make outsized chaos.

That’s the risk picture. That’s why the system feels brittle. Because it is.

Why the Model Persists

Every time you think, “Well, they arrested those guys, it’s over,” you miss the point.

• Cells regenerate. You don’t need thousands of members. You just need threes and fours…bonded by ideology and secrecy.

• Platforms adapt. Deplatform a group? They migrate to encrypted “Terrorgram”-style networks. Harder to track…harder to infiltrate.

• Foreign signal boosts. A Kremlin-aligned account doesn’t need to create the propaganda. It just has to amplify it…and suddenly fringe chatter gets mainstream reach.

That’s why this movement is durable. Arrests hurt but don’t kill it. Bans scatter but don’t silence it. Public apathy…or leadership minimizing the threat…emboldens it.

How Trump’s DOJ and FBI “Yes Men” Compound the Threat

Let’s be crystal clear: The danger of these 3–5-man cells doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It metastasizes when the very agencies tasked with protecting us are hollowed out and staffed with loyalists who answer not to the Constitution…but to Trump.

Trump has always hated independent cops. Real investigators. Career prosecutors who won’t bend. That’s why he installs loyalists…cronies…and sycophants at DOJ and FBI whenever he can. Not because they’re competent…but because they’ll say “yes” when the strong answer is “no.”

And what happens when you fill the Justice Department and FBI leadership with yes men?

• Threat assessments get softened. In 2020, DHS analysts flagged white-supremacist violence as the most persistent lethal threat. The language was edited down…watered…neutralized…because the boss didn’t want it on the record. That wasn’t a mistake. That was pressure.

• Cases get deprioritized. Instead of devoting resources to extremist infiltration… leadership gets leaned on to obsess over “antifa” ghosts or “voter fraud” fantasies. Meanwhile…the real cells…the Base…Siege acolytes…Boogaloo operators….keep recruiting and training.

• Accountability gets deflected. Every time a loyalist undermines or dismisses warnings…the extremists hear the message loud and clear: “You’ve got room to run.”

This is how authoritarian politics compounds extremist violence. Not by direct command. Not by sending memos. But by neutering the watchdogs. By replacing bulldogs with lapdogs. By making sure no one with real teeth is left in the fight.

So while Trump rants about “witch hunts” and “deep state enemies,” his yes men are quietly sanding down the very tripwires that should be catching accelerationist plots. The cells don’t need orders. They just need a weak referee. And Trump’s DOJ and FBI made sure they got one.

How You Strike Back

Now here’s where I differ from most analysts:

I don’t just diagnose. I prescribe.

Because the point isn’t to gape at the threat. The point is to fight it.

Here’s how:

1. Hygiene Over Hysteria

Don’t share their propaganda…even to dunk on it. Screenshots…yes…amplification…no. Every view…every retweet is oxygen. Report it instead: to platforms…to watchdogs…to law enforcement if it’s violent.

2. Harden the Soft Targets

Synagogues. Churches. City councils. Public meetings. These are where intimidation hits first. Harden them. Entry control. Volunteers trained to spot behavioral red flags. Police liaisons. DHS has free programs…use them.

3. Normalize Reporting

The biggest FBI cases didn’t start with spies. They started with tips. A friend overhearing talk. A neighbor noticing stockpiles. Don’t hesitate to report specific threats or weaponization. Better to be wrong than dead.

4. Kill the “Both Sides” Lie

The data is not ambiguous: racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists are the most persistent lethal threat. Stop letting media frame this as equal “extremes.” One side is disproportionately killing. Name it.

5. Support the Counter-Narrative

Democracy doesn’t defend itself on fumes. Subscribe…support…fund the media and watchdogs exposing this. If you think “someone else will pay for it,” you’re wrong. They’re paying for their side. We need to pay for ours.

Trump’s Authoritarian Overlap

Now let’s tie the bow.

Accelerationists don’t salute Trump. They don’t wear MAGA hats in the woods. Some even sneer at him.

But they thrive in the climate he creates.

• His delegitimization of elections and institutions is their accelerant.

• His mockery of law enforcement undermines the very agencies tasked with stopping them.

• His civil war dog whistles normalize their language.

• His foreign entanglements dovetail with states eager to exploit these networks.

The relationship is symbiotic. Trump doesn’t have to command them. He just has to keep sowing chaos. And they’ll do the rest.

That’s the terrifying truth:

Trump’s authoritarian movement doesn’t need to directly control the cells. It just needs to keep creating the fertile ground where cells multiply.

The Bottom Line

Here’s the hard truth: the new insurgency isn’t stormtroopers marching in formation.

It’s threes and fours meeting in garages…chatting in encrypted apps…laughing in Hawaiian shirts while planning murder.

They don’t need orders from Trump. They just need his shadow.

And the only reason this blueprint keeps advancing is because most Americans are too distracted…too timid…or too damn comfortable to fight it.

That has to end.

Because history doesn’t remember the silent majority who “hoped it wouldn’t get that bad.” It remembers the fighters who saw the storm coming and refused to kneel.

The storm is here. The question is simple:

Are you ready to fight back…or are you waiting to be blindsided?

BONUS: How Seriously Did the FBI…DHS… and DOJ Take This Threat Under Biden?

If you want to know whether the U.S. government treated accelerationist micro-cells and adjacent extremist ecosystems as a real…present danger during the Biden years… look at what they built…what they said on the record…and what they did in court.

Strategy, structure, and staffing (not just memos)

• A formal national strategy. In June 2021, the White House released the first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, assigning dozens of concrete actions across agencies. By 2025, the Government Accountability Office reported agencies had taken steps on 49 of 58 activities reviewed…evidence of sustained implementation, not shelfware.

• A dedicated DOJ unit. On Jan. 11, 2022, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee: “I have decided to establish a Domestic Terrorism Unit within the National Security Division to ensure we have the necessary resources to address this threat.” He paired the move with a civil-liberties pledge: “We prosecute violence, not beliefs.”

• More cases, more agents. A 2023 White House implementation update said FBI domestic violent extremism/terrorism investigations more than doubled since spring 2020…reaching 2,700 investigations by the end of FY 2022…and confirmed DOJ’s new DT unit stood up inside NSD.

Money and prevention…not just arrests

• Grants to the front lines. DHS expanded its Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grants through the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships…awarding $18 million to 35 grantees in FY2024 and nearly $90 million across 178 awards over five years…to schools…faith institutions…local governments…and nonprofits building bystander-reporting…behavioral-threat assessment…and online-to-offline intervention capacity.

Public threat language that didn’t mince words

• DNI/DHS joint assessment (2021). An unclassified summary put it bluntly: domestic violent extremists (DVEs)…especially racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists…pose an elevated…persistent threat. That threat categorization guided analytic and operational alignment.

• NTAS bulletins during a “heightened threat environment.” DHS repeatedly warned that “lone offenders and small groups”…precisely the cell profile discussed in your article…“continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the Homeland.” (May 24, 2023 bulletin, representative of multiple updates.)

• Congressional oversight moved the needle. In early 2021 hearings, Sen. Durbin pressed Director Wray on tracking white-supremacist violence and resourcing against it…a signal that leadership expected the post-Jan.6 pivot to be real and measurable.

Courtroom results that changed the risk calculus

• Seditious-conspiracy wins. DOJ secured landmark convictions and long sentences against Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders for Jan. 6 conduct: Stewart Rhodes (18 years); Joseph Biggs (17 years); Enrique Tarrio (22 years)…the longest Jan. 6 sentence to date. These weren’t symbolic slaps; they were system-shaping precedents that signal high risk for organized political violence. What this adds up to

Three things can be true at once:

1. Capacity and prioritization rose under Biden: a whole-of-government strategy…a dedicated DOJ unit…expanded prevention grants…clear public threat language… and record-setting prosecutions.

2. The legal terrain is still tough. There’s no standalone “domestic terrorism” statute… which is why DOJ often uses seditious conspiracy…obstruction…firearms…or hate-crime charges. (Even supportive coverage highlighted the structural challenges while noting the new unit’s growing caseload.)

3. The threat persisted despite progress. DHS/NTAS kept warning that small cells and lone actors remain lethal…and GAO flagged that while most tasks were underway…gaps remain…the nature of a decentralized…leaderless model is that it’s resilient…not easily dismantled.

Bottom line:

Under Biden…the federal posture moved from rhetorical concern to structured strategy…resourcing…and historic prosecutions…the clearest institutional recognition yet that micro-cell accelerationism is not “internet cosplay,” but a top-tier homeland threat with real bodies and real sentences to prove it.

No More Spectators

Here’s the bottom line: America’s enemies don’t need armies in the streets.

They’ve already seeded the battlefield with cells…chaos agents…and cash flows. They’ve got a former president tearing down trust…a movement eager to hollow out institutions…and a pipeline of extremists waiting for the signal that the system’s too weak to fight back.

The only question left is whether we stay spectators…scrolling headlines while the wrecking crew keeps swinging…or whether we finally grab hold of the wheel.

History never rewards the bystanders.

It remembers the people who saw the storm coming…braced themselves…and refused to let their country be stolen by cowards in skull masks and politicians in red ties.

The blueprint is on the table. The time for pretending is over. Now the fight is ours.

I’ll be back soon.

I’ll keep bringing you the truth…and skills…and hope; although…not always at the same time.

Be sure to check out the Daily Kick…below.

With you..always,

-Jack

Edison’s Fire

In 1914, Thomas Edison’s research complex caught fire.

The flames devoured everything: prototypes…notes…equipment worth millions. His life’s work…gone in hours.

When his son panicked…Edison didn’t scream. He didn’t collapse. He told his boy: “Go get your mother. She’ll never see a fire like this again.”

That night, everything he had built turned to ash. The very next morning…Edison was back on the site…sketching new designs…barking orders…planning the rebuild. Within weeks…his team was working again.

Within months…they were producing new inventions.

Here’s the truth: most people would have folded. They would have pointed at the ashes and said, “Life isn’t fair.” Edison saw the ashes as a blank slate.

You can’t stop the fires. The betrayals. The losses. The crashes. They come for everyone. The only question is what you do after. Do you stand in the rubble and curse? Or do you take out a notepad and start sketching?

The lesson: You don’t control the fire. You control the restart.

Sources & Further Reading

• Wikipedia: The Base; Siege; Boogaloo movement

• The Guardian: reporting on Rinaldo Nazzaro in Russia; Base terror designation; Boogaloo coverage

• Counter Extremism Project: profiles on The Base and affiliates

• Thomas Renard, ICCT: writings on accelerationism

• Taylor & Francis Online: academic work on Siege culture

• Program on Extremism (George Washington University): case studies on The Base & Boogaloo

• AP News: coverage of Carrillo murder and Boogaloo prosecutions

• Department of Justice: case filings and press releases (Virginia rally, Oakland murder, synagogue defacement)

• Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: analyses of accelerationist networks

• First Monday & GNET: research on online coordination, “D-Day” hype

• Everytown Research & Policy: Boogaloo threat reports

• DHS Homeland Threat Assessments (2020–2025)

• National Security Archive: reporting on politicization of threat assessments

• Business Insider, CBS, WBTV: case reporting on specific arrests and threats