'Against All Enemies' explores why some vets join extremist groups

[Music] 3 2 there are places in our military where we are trained to start and fuel insurgencies that's same kind of they've been doing their whole career now they're doing it here inside the United States anybody who says that this can't happen in a worse way either they're ignorant or they're part of the problem today domestic terrorism is the greatest terrorist threat facing the United States the CIA has this tool where they measure levels of Insurgency and if you just apply the tool to the u

s we are in an incipient Insurgency you want your house back take how did I end up on one side of that door and my fellow veterans how did they end up on the other side of that door that was part of the trailer from the new documentary titled against all enemies which takes a look at why some military veterans are drawn to the growing violent far-right extremist movement in America a essentially becoming a threat to the Democracy they once swore to uphold joining us now the film's director and p

roducer Charlie sof writer and executive producer Sebastian younger and writer and producer Ken harau thank you all for being here uh this morning um Ken uh the footage of January 6th is is is interspliced throughout this uh documentary um powerfully so talk to us about this phenomenon what what what is what has caused it so the reason so many veterans and it's not most veterans I think that has to be said but it's to men and they're drawn to these extremist groups like The oathkeepers and proud

Boys in large part out of a a sense of loss and needing to replace that with a community and a mission because when you take off the uniform that need for for Mission and camaraderie doesn't go away and these groups do a really good job at recreating that and I think it's coming upon us to find other avenues for them to channel that desire to be part of something bigger than themselves the problem is these groups channel that desire to undermining democracy so Sebastian what what is the trend l

ine here why do we why do we think there has been such an increase uptick in this Behavior well I you know I think the Society Western Society is going through a lot of changes right now and for economic reasons political reasons and changes like that will bring out extremism and it happens on the left too it's just not violent like it is on the far right um and we just had 20 years of war when my father was a refugee from from two Wars um in 36 he fled Spain Spanish Civil War was prolongated by

um veterans from the war Spanish war in Morocco and they they harnessed that um that damage to those soldiers they harnessed it politically Franco did and he took over so Charlie talk to us about the film itself and what sort of people did you talk to what sort of access did you have what tell us a little more about the story you're trying to tell sure we you know we wanted to get inside some of these groups we didn't just want to show them firing their guns out in the woods which is a lot of t

ime what you see with these with um the profiles of some of these groups so we had access to the oathkeepers as you saw in the in the trailer we had um access to the proud boys former leader of the New York Chapter the proud boys uh the pat uh we have footage of the patrion front and 3centers we we sort of embed with all of them and we took time to actually hear their stories and give them a chance to articulate their point of view and they were happy to tell us about that because they think tha

t what they're doing is the right thing they think they're defending the Constitution of the United States they think that they're Patriots and so they're not at all bashed about telling us what they think Sebastian talk a little bit more about that sense of belonging that people who are serving in the military get from the military and then perhaps after they leave are looking for somewhere else and maybe find them find that sense of family almost in these groups yeah I mean and to be clear the

vast majority of veterans um I believe missed that sense of belonging sense of purpose that comes with the military and then didn't go on to storm the nation's capital so let's be clear about that but the one the ones that made that choice I think for whatever personal reasons um they had a desperate need to feel uh uh heroic to feel needed to feel like they had that sense of purpose again and the sort of military trappings of far right radicalized groups um they're in some ways they're sort of

playing soldier back home in a way that I think feels heroic to them and that is a deep human need we're social primates humans evolved in groups of 30 40 50 people to survive in very harsh conditions we're wired for that modern society doesn't require it and there's a real loss there when people have been exposed to it in the military and then come back to America there's a there's a real um hole to fill and for some of these people who I think have other psych issues in many cases they um the

y fill that hole with Insurrection and certainly this is an issue the Pentagon aware of in both current uh soldiers and Veterans powerful documentary called against all enemies playing in Select theaters now and available for purchase on demand Charlie say out Sebastian younger can harbow thank you all for joining us congrats on the film thank you hey everyone MSNBC has a new and improved app you'll get realtime alerts and Analysis live blogs in-depth essays video highlights and the best 2024 el

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