Perhaps one element that makes the situation more frightening is that some white people are becoming increasingly angry about demographic changes, about no longer being in a supermajority, and facing minority status before long.

I live in Michigan, where radical white militias are growing in popularity. Way out in the country where I live, a couple guys even drive around with big heavy trucks waving huge Confederate flags. They are advertising their militia status.

These guys aren’t playing games. In the summer of 2020, they tried to intimidate our Democratic governor by parading through the state capitol building with loaded assault weapons.

Six of them plotted to kidnap the governor, and might well have made the attempt if the FBI had not foiled their plans.

These heavily armed white men present themselves as virtuous patriots. They are conditioned to believe what they are doing with weapons is right and righteous.

I don’t know if they consciously believe they’re doing it because they feel their majority status slipping away, but I believe it has to play some part.