Content warning: The following contains depictions of graphic violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Dirty Civilian, a preparedness influencer channel that espouses antigovernment beliefs, created a recent video that includes the fictional killing of U.N. peacekeeping soldiers.
Dirty Civilian’s mission, according to hosts Drew Hopkins and Josh Lowry, is to “inform and inspire capable men to build strong families and resilient communities.” The language closely mirrors that of similar antigovernment groups that operate under the guise of disaster preparedness. The Tennessee-based group has over half a million subscribers on YouTube, and it maintains a presence on X.com, Instagram and Patreon — where it earns at least $1,850 per month via subscriptions.
On Jan. 4, Dirty Civilian published a video on YouTube. It begins with a 90-second segment depicting what appears to be a scenario where part of the U.S. is under U.N. occupation. The segment follows a militia sniper team behind enemy lines that is surveilling two U.N. peacekeeping soldiers transporting a prisoner of war. After identifying the peacekeepers, the sniper team, portrayed by the channel’s two hosts, opens fire, killing them. The sniper kills one soldier immediately, hitting him in the head, and soon fires a second time at an injured soldier crawling on the ground after being hit.
The U.N. is a popular target for conspiracy-minded antigovernment groups, especially militias. Believers have posited a global effort to create a “New World Order” through a “One World Government,” often facilitated by the U.N., to institute communism/socialism, abolish gun rights and take away individual and private property rights. This conspiracy is an evolution of an antisemitic conspiracy that has been, and still is, employed by the white supremacist movement.
Early militia framers, some of whom came from white supremacist Christian Identity circles, replaced “Jewish bankers” and “Jewish puppet masters” who supposedly controlled the world with different keywords, such as “international bankers” and “the United Nations.” Part of this was a strategic decision to downplay overt racism and antisemitism, so the militia movement could interact with more mainstream parts of the conservative movement. By leading with pro-gun, anti-tax and pro-property rights messages, the militia movement set itself up to try to appeal to a larger segment of the population. Dirty Civilian used clips from their video to promote it on their other platforms. On X.com, Dirty Civilian posted a six-second clip showing the rifle scope view of shooting the peacekeepers. The clip was also shared on Instagram, where it was accompanied by a violence content warning by the platform. A separate promotional post showed a U.N. helmet lying on the ground splattered with blood with the caption, “It’s going to be a great year…”
As hosts of the Dirty Civilian channel, Hopkins and Lowry waxed on about their philosophies in a 2023 video. They expressed accelerationist ideas, talking about how government needs to be “torn down” and subjected to “a hard reset.” Like militia members, they repeatedly compared current events to what spawned the American Revolution.
The two men talked about how the term “Dirty Civilian” used to be applied in a derogatory way to those engaging in paramilitary training and preparedness. They decided to turn it into a badge of honor and adopted it for their own purposes. They frequently referenced ideas that align with antigovernment conspiracies. They warned about “failing economic systems that are meant … to enslave people” and frequently returned to the idea that government wants citizens to be slaves. They also said they were training to survive an upcoming war and building for what comes next.
The sniper video was met with a largely positive response from its targeted community. Reactions to the video, which has garnered over 275,000 views as of Jan. 27, have been largely celebratory. One comment read, “I wonder how many lists these guys are in [sic] now…,” alluding to the clip and channel hosts. Dirty Civilian responded to the comment, “If you own a gun, you’re already on a list.”
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