Separate but legal: The “Return to the Land” movement and white supremacist soft secession

Using as its lens the concept of “soft secession,” this essay examines the white separatist Return To The Land (RTTL) movement in order to understand how white separatists threaten democracy in surreptitious ways by remaining tethered to mainstream society despite purported aspirations of secession and fringe status. In particular, I argue that soft secession provides white supremacists with a way to continue the ruminations on a victimized past and reclaimable white future that are integral to their white victimhood while also reconciling it with their continued investment in the mainstream society that they purport has oppressed them. Through rhetorical analysis of RTTL’s online presence and superfluous media engagement, I examine how their ruminations on pastness and futurity incite and propel their descent into soft secession, contrasting this with their heavy investment in building and maintaining the legality of their operation within US law. Ultimately, I argue that these simultaneous ruminations and mainstream investments leave open channels for fringe extremism to flow into quotidian discourse, presenting threats to mainstream democracy.