The American experiment has faced many challenges in its nearly-250-year history, but today’s gravest threat is internal, and it is about the fundamental erosion of democracy. Extremist rhetoric and ideology have gone mainstream, through the work of extremist groups and influencers, and in the growing numbers of Americans who see political violence as an answer to the country’s problems.
It is, in essence, a different kind of virus. It manifests locally, on school boards and in libraries. It is changing how Americans think about community, and about who is in the “in-group,” and who is in the “out-group.” Disinformation and dehumanizing language further exacerbate these rifts, with the specter of political violence a near constant—especially in an election year.
In her reporting, Odette Yousef, a domestic extremism correspondent at NPR, has charted a profound societal shift in the wake of both the pandemic and the unprecedented upheavals in American politics and culture. Photojournalist Jim Urquhart has spent a decade moving through the extremism world, documenting a rapidly growing and metastasizing threat.
Together, Yousef and Urquhart will delve deeply into the evolving face of extremism in the U.S., and what it means for the country moving forward.
