The 3%: Compartmentalization, Back Room Meetings and Politicking

I've said it before and I'll say it again, bureaucracy is a poison to the militia movement.  Unfortunately, it is the only thing known by those who are within the the movement.  They have injected so much bureaucracy into these militias that the militias look more like government institutions than civilian organizations.  Now with bureaucracy naturally comes the bureaucrats, people of fight for power and influence within their chosen organizations.  With all of these fun little facets come such things as compartmentalization, back room meetings and politicking as a means of getting what one wants.  I've seen it all many times to the point that these militia groups look like they belong on an episode of Game of Thrones.  This doesn't mean if there's a disagreement among a militia it will lead to the Red Wedding or anything like that (though I definitely see it happening in the Boogaloo at some point) but there is definitely a great deal of shady shit that goes down within modern militias.

Compartmentalization has become a big thing with militias.  It's partially understandable since many of these organizations are often infiltrated by federal informants.  Some smaller groups have even had as many as half of them members be informants in some form or another.  While there will always need to be some degree of need to know, many of these groups have used knowledge of information as a means of creating an unofficial rank structure that separates the majority of a militia from the chosen few who get to be part of the inner circle.  Some groups have councils that make big decisions.  Others, have cadres and directors who are in charge of various aspects of a militias.  While some people are definitely aptly capable of certain positions,  in most cases these people are merely appointed for arbitrary reasons or have the most minor of implications that they seem fit for the titles bestowed upon them.  Most of the time they happen to friends or buddies of the guy who is in charge.  Such obvious favors among friends or obvious incompetence in higher echelons are not only trademarks of a bureaucracy but, also creates dissension in the ranks as you have it and creates a lack of faith in the leaders of a given group.

One thing that a saw much of and have to admit I took part in myself would be back room meetings.  Meetings done in secrecy where a prominent member could use their influence to exert power of the entirety of the group.  One such meeting that I was not meant to witness involved a member of my particular regional zone and our state commander.  The "meeting" was a means to influence the commander to remover the leader of our zone and replace him with someone else.  The someone else however, was a member of a different and shall I say more structured group (they take the bureaucracy to the extreme).  What eventually happened was exactly as I suspected.  This was essentially a coup for this other group to take over my zone and poach our members for their own.  Anyone from that original group who is still active are now part of this other more structured and far more bureaucratic organization.  I never advocated for anything as extreme as replacing a leader but, that doesn't make my own attempts at such maneuvering right.  Such underhanded tactics again ferment distrust among a group.

Playing politics is something that all of us do to some extent.  When it comes to militias, those who play the game most (not best) often end up creating problems.  Those who play politics the most often have the biggest egos.  They have to be in charge or they have to get their attention.  Their need to "shake hands and kiss babies" often brings them at odds with the militias they are a part of of.  One such individual I know had to essentially take all communication underground because he spent so much time marketing himself that the Alphabet Bois are getting his name from people all across the state.  He gave himself and his entire organization problems because he had to make a name for himself.  Or the guy who brought his militia down to Charlottesville in order to "keep the peace".  He gets a lot of air time on the news for his actions too.  Now they are getting sued and he's trying to make some sort of martyrdom out of it.  One person playing politics can take down an entire militia.

These acts are nothing new for any of us.  We encounter them every day and even partake in them ourselves from time to time.  However, such games are detrimental to the militia movement.  Unfortunately, they have become such a common occurrence that they have practically become a cornerstone to the movement as a whole.  It appears that it will be likely from most of these groups once the Boogaloo kicks off you'll find that many of these groups will end up betraying each other and maybe even one walking up to their leader and saying "The Government sends their regards".