Over the course of roughly a year in 2020 and 2021, a number of events occurred that on the surface might appear unconnected. A "men's rights" attorney, who was somewhat famous for filing quixotic lawsuits against women's studies programs, bars that host "ladies nights" and the Selective Service (for declining to register women for the draft), showed up at the door of a federal judge who had presided over one of his cases, shooting her husband and son (the latter fatally).
Several months after that, a group of self-styled right-wing militiamen in Michigan plotted to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Around the same time, Donald Trump notoriously told the far-right Proud Boys, when asked about them during a campaign debate, to "stand back and stand by."
