‘The country needs you’: Enlisting veterans to fight extremism

Veterans are revered in American culture, making them prized recruits for far-right and supremacist groups. Following the Capitol siege, some former service members hope to use their stature to counter violent nationalism.

Kristofer Goldsmith’s discharge from the Army following a suicide attempt in 2007 sent him spiraling into anger and alienation. The Iraq War veteran, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, reentered civilian life bereft of purpose. He found refuge online, where political antagonism and anti-government conspiracy theories gave shape to an alternate reality.

“I became a pretty hardcore libertarian and...