These militia types always remind me of an online meme, too – one I’ll have to try to paraphrase:
“If you wish a difficult life on others because ‘you had a difficult life and you turned out okay …’ then you really didn’t turn out okay.”
We’re bombarded with the term ‘toxic masculinity’ these days, but … this is a case where it resonates with me. I don’t find it that hard to imagine what kind of fathers/upbringing a lot of these wounded wannabe warriors had.