"For several years now, law enforcement and researchers have been monitoring racially and ethnically motivated violent white supremacist groups and their growing fascination with our country's power grid. Many in these groups are 'accelerationists,' convinced that the best way to achieve their goal of a white supremacist future is to cause society to collapse by plunging it into darkness. 'The belief is, when the lights go out, people will become violent when they realize the government can't help them,' said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, an international policy organization. 'It's also a great recruitment tactic.' Attacking the electrical grid, he noted, is a topic of growing interest in the neo-Nazi tracts he's reviewed in recent months."

CEP Researcher Joshua Fisher-Birch quoted: "'They've received interest from other groups outside of the specific accelerationist neo-Nazi community,' said Fisher-Birch. 'So this has been reposted by others who otherwise might have some sort of argument with the accelerationist community. In this case, this is something that it's just something that has its own momentum with at least the broader extreme right because they can get behind this.'"

"Researchers at the Counter Extremism Project, an international nonprofit policy organization, said the National Socialist Movement (NSM) is one of the organizers of the day that has been promoted through social media platforms."

"The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) said that it based on its monitoring of the Telegram instant messaging service, 'the participants are identified as the National Socialist Movement, two regional active club chapters in Iowa and California, and a small New York-based group.'"

"An analysis of social media activity by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) found that the call to action stemmed from accounts associated with the National Socialist Movement, and three regional extremist groups based in Iowa, New York, and California."

"On Thursday, researchers for the Counter Extremism Project found that several neo-Nazi groups had coordinated the 'Day of Hate' on the messaging platform Telegram. 

On the app, the National Socialist Movement, a prominent neo-Nazi group based mainly in Iowa and California, encouraged other white supremacist groups to 'send photos and videos of antisemitic rallies,' the project said."

"'This action by several neo-Nazis was a stunt designed to get maximum exposure. An affiliated communications channel has been gloating over the event and mocking individuals who made social media posts condemning them,' Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst for the Counter Extremism Project, told VICE. 'At least one individual who was present has protested drag events and has a long history of in real life trolling in order to spread his antisemitic message and get media attention.'"

"WILSON: Neo-Nazi groups have launched several plots to take out the U.S. grid in recent years. They've even put out how-to manuals to make it easier to attack vulnerable parts of the nation's critical infrastructure. Joshua Fisher-Birch is a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks these groups' online activities.

JOSHUA FISHER-BIRCH: The recent substation attacks have been spoken about in glowing terms by certain members of the extreme right and particularly by neo-Nazi accelerationists."