On Saturday, at a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally populated by alt-right activists and white supremacists, a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring 19 and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The man arrested in connection with the murder, James Alex Fields Jr., had previously posted white nationalist symbols, alt-right memes, and even a photo of Hitler as a baby to his Facebook page. Now alt-right message boards and leading figures are attempting to disown not just Fields but Saturday’s violent gathering as a whole, in part by going into full damage-control mode.

For months going on years, online forums like Reddit and 4chan have fostered a growing contingent of disenfranchised, young, (mostly) white men who have railed against calls for diversity and inclusion. In the process, they have demonized minorities and progressive values. In practical terms, this has meant flirting with—if not directly embracing—white supremacy as the solution to their problems. The alt-right can’t disavow the events of the Unite the Right rally, because that rally was a product of an environment they’ve spent years making.

"There's no question that the conditions by which people feel emboldened, the condition under which people's attitudes are supported and elevated on these types of forums, certainly create the conditions that makes this type of violence possible," says Charlton McIlwain, an associate professor at New York University who focuses on race and digital media.

Fields appears specifically connected to Vanguard America, a group that the Anti-Defamation League defines as "a white supremacist group that opposes multiculturalism and believes that America is an exclusively white nation." You might have seen one of several videos floating around of Vanguard America members, who all donned white polos and khakis in Charlottesville Saturday, chanting "blood and soil" as they marched through the streets. The phrase refers to a defining Nazi ideology that emphasized the idea that German blood belonged on German soil. In Vanguard America's case, it represents the notion that the blood of white people somehow has a "special bond" to American soil.

Vanguard America issued the following statement late Saturday evening: "The driver of the vehicle that hit counter protestors today was, in no way, a member of Vanguard America. All our members had been safely evacuated by the time of the incident. The shields seen do not denote membership, nor does the white shirt. The shields were freely handed out to anyone in attendance. All our members are safe an [sic] accounted for, with no arrests or charges."