Among the loose online network of adherents, the boogaloo is often presented as a race-blind call for armed insurrection against government tyranny. “The boogaloo movement is (for the most part) a libertarian group,” a member posted in a boogaloo-themed Facebook group after a week of protests. “The boog is not the people vs the people, the boog is the people vs the government. It’s a revolution, not a civil war,” he wrote. Many members of the movement see the recent outbreak of protests as the potential kickoff for widespread revolutionary upheaval, where citizens will unite against the perceived tyrannical state.

But a look at the movement’s origins and its online communities make it clear that its politics are much more complicated than straightforward libertarianism, and that few of its adherents are interested in aligning with Black Lives Matter or antifascist protesters against police brutality.

Over roughly the last month, at least seven men associated with the boogaloo movement have been arrested for possession of weapons and plotting violent attacks. Three were arrested Saturday in Las Vegas after plotting to terrorize protesters and attack other targets, including a power substation. According to a criminal complaint, they wanted to “create a chaotic and confusing scene for the upcoming protest” in order to force “the government to show its hand.” Others men who associate with the boogaloo movement have been arrested in Texas, Colorado and Ohio.

The boogaloo meme itself emerged concurrently in antigovernment and white power online spaces in the early 2010s. In both of these communities, “boogaloo” was frequently associated with racist violence and, in many cases, was an explicit call for race war. Today the term is regularly deployed by white nationalists and neo-Nazis who want to see society descend into chaos so that they can come to power and build a new fascist state.