The RAND Corporation recently released a report concluding that support for extremist groups and their ideals among U.S. military veterans is similar to or less than the American public at large.
“We found no evidence to support the notion that the veteran community, as a whole, exhibits higher rates of support for violent extremist groups or extremist beliefs than the American public," Todd Helmus, the study's lead author and a senior behavioral scientist at the nonprofit research organization RAND, said in the report.
The report, titled "Prevalence of Extremist Beliefs and Support for Political Violence among U.S. Veterans," examined the how widespread support is for extremist groups and ideologies within the veteran population.
The survey found that results were actually mixed, as support for QAnon was lower than the general public. However, support for political violence and the “Great Replacement” theory were similar. The highest support for extremist ideals and groups came from Marine Corps veterans.
QAnon is a political conspiracy theory and political movement, which originated within far-right conservative groups in 2017. QAnon is based on questionable claims made by an anonymous person or group known only as "Q."
The "Great Replacement" theory is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory originated by French author Renaud Camus. The theory is the belief that, with the cooperation of society's "elites," white people are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-whites, in a systemic fashion.
The report comes after fears that the support could be higher among veterans based on earlier surveys. There were also concerns after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, where it was believed that many of those involved were in the U.S. military or had some type of affiliation. The findings came from a survey of group of veterans about their support for Proud Boys and Antifa.
The survey involved nearly 1,000 veterans across the country who were at the NORC (National Opinion Research Center) AmeriSpeak panel in late 2022, with the goal of investigating the extent of support for violent extremist groups and causes. The results did indicate that support for specific extremist groups -- like white supremacists, Proud Boys, Antifa and black nationalism -- ranged from 1 to 5.5% among veterans.
While the study did show there was support of QAnon and “Great Replacement” theory by some veterans, it was relatively low. Support for QAnon was at 13.5% and political violence support was at 17.7%. The support of the "Great Replacement" theory was a bit higher, at 28.8%.
This report notably highlighted that the majority of veterans who expressed support for extremist groups did not endorse political violence. However, the author cautioned that 18% of the total sample who did support political violence could be vulnerable to recruitment by these groups.
