The emergence of these riots across the United States, and now London, demonstrates the impact of the “Righteous Mob.” These are the far-left radicals who are so self-assured and so confident in their view of the world that they have elevated themselves to divine status. They consider themselves the arbiters of truth, and feel no remorse in destroying the lives of their political opponents, because to them, the only human lives that matter are the ones willing to emasculate themselves and totally submit for the sake of their higher purpose.

Behind the peaceful facade of the Righteous Mob lies a penchant for violence. It is always itching to come out, and it takes only the slightest disturbance for their righteous anger to break loose and spread. Like a feral child who can’t communicate its emotion to the civilised men in the room, it lashes out and asserts its dominance through strength. The Righteous Mob has numbers on its side, and the moment an opportunity presents itself, those numbers head out to the streets and cause chaos. This time, they chose to drag the Black Lives Matter movement along with them, aggravating the justified anger over the death of George Floyd with misleading and demonstrably inaccurate assertions about the supposed targeting of African Americans by the police.

Still, few people recognise the role that these far-left ideologues play in the radicalization of young white men. As a still relatively young white man who spent his teenage years in Britain’s white nationalist movement, and early 20s in radical populist politics, I have seen how their vicious behaviour and insatiable demands push young white men to dangerous fringes of politics. I have watched as normal young men from my home county became so motivated to fight these extremists that they turned to equally extreme politics and ultimately resorted to terrorism and violence.

In my latest book, Monster Of Their Own Making, I describe a three-pronged attack, of which far-left radicalism and violence makes up the third prong. It is the final step in a process that demonises, marginalises, and corners young, straight, white men. It creates the enemy that the progressive left purports to oppose, and makes their battle against extremism – or just the extremism that they don’t like – an effort that will take infinite lifetimes to conquer. For as long as they continue to provoke, there will be an equally militant response.

They create their enemy in a multitude of ways, and the false narrative pushed by Black Lives Matter in these George Floyd riots is a good example of one of them. When far-left news personality Joy Reid tells the country that black men are being “hunted,” and when the Floyd family attorney claims a genocide is being committed against black people, most people immediately recognise this as untrue. The data shows it is untrue, too.

The war against African Americans by American police officers is not real, but the fear of saying it is untrue is very real, and it is very real because the Righteous Mob is standing, waiting, for anybody who dares say it.

Some of the only people mad enough to say it, and mad enough to stick their heads above the parapet, are the genuine far right. They are the small, but growing, number of actual white nationalists and white supremacists who are gathering steam in young online communities. They’re not conservatives, populists, or even national conservatives. They are young, politically incorrect, racist men who have created a community that offers simple, and wrong, answers to complicated questions. Anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, and race hatred are an easy response to complex issues and the relentless tirades of vitriolic, poisonous rage directed towards them from revolutionary “progressives.”

When the media and Democrats initially tried to blame the violence and destruction of the George Floyd riots on white supremacists, this new generation of young, far-right activists laughed. The far right has no reason to instigate riots and destruction that are already happening and were happy to sit back and watch as the rioters burned down American cities. What more could far-right extremists ask for than rolling, 24-hour coverage of black rights activists and white liberals rioting, destroying businesses, and disrespecting police officers?

This footage is already being weaponised online by these young men, and some even took to the streets to watch, laugh, and mock as their political enemies dug their own grave. White nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes and a small gang of supporters appeared on a television news broadcast in Florida, wearing Hawaiian shirts, jumping up and down in delight chanting “Groyper” as Black Lives Matter activists stood around them, oblivious.

For as long as progressives in the media and the Democratic Party continue to peddle the myth that black men are being hunted by the police in America, reinforced by violent mobs on the street who intimidate dissenters, the far right will keep growing. Extremism breeds extremism, and when some of the only people willing to fight back against that radicalism are extremists on the other end of the political spectrum, we’re in real trouble. We cannot afford to prove the far right right, and we cannot allow them to destroy the minds and lives of other young white men by claiming legitimacy for being some of the only people willing to refute this big lie.

At every turn, the media class, the protesters, and the Democrats have shot themselves in the foot. Their relaxed approach to telling and perpetuating lies, and their willingness to burn down American cities, makes achieving justice for George Floyd and other people like him increasingly difficult. If we bow down to this lie now, in the hope that it will make the emotive protests go away, we will continue arming extremists on the right and sustaining the reciprocal extremism that widens the political divide in America, and the West generally, more by the year.

The Righteous Mob and their riots have set back black progress by decades, and given a war chest of ammunition and propaganda to the far right. The dangerous fools have empowered their enemies, once again.