motherjones.com
Basically, they are mostly tradesmen, ex-military, or long-term unemployed who receive no respect or acknowledgement in modern society. They are aware that they have been made culturally and economically irrelevant
- with globalization perpetually pushing wages down and automation just around the corner to leave them entirely separate from modern American life. However, for cultural reasons, they are unable to develop healthy responses to their situations, so they dive deeper into the rabbit hole of reactionary politics.
By joining a militia, they can pretend they're someone other than destined to a lifetime of minimum wage and disrespect from shitty college kids (who secretly want everyone in the flyover states dead anyway). Instead - they can invent themselves the noble defenders of civilization by making the entirely unnecessary "sacrifice" of spending on weapons they will never use and operations that help no one. Although they claim to do this for society's benefit, in reality it only props up their own egos.
At its most benign, this behavior simply wastes public resources when law enforcement must babysit them to prevent violence. However, this anti-social roleplay always morphs into violent power fantasies - usually directed against those who typically produce the slights, real or imagined, that drive otherwise sane white men to join militias: women and racial or religious minorities. These unhealthy fantasies are ticking time bombs, waiting to explode into terrible violence.
Literally every cent these people spend on LARPing would be better spent attending community college, raising a family, investing in a business, or pursuing technical training.
What have you done to discourage the militia movement today, Sup Forums? These white men need your help to get their lives on track.