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In 2009, a former member of a radical left student organization from the 1960s (i.e., the SDS) repackaged communist vanguardism into a patriot vanguardism designed to appeal to the far-right ideology of the American militia movement. Instead of building class consciousness, these III Percenters would challenge the growing power of the federal government, and build a consciousness that the federal government needs to return to a more limited form (e.g., the original Constitution). Like radical movements during the counter-cultural 1960s, III Percenters choose direct action to forward their agenda, typically by showing up carrying firearms in situations where police authorities are in conflict with local residents.

The origins of 3% are not clear. Colonists fighting in the American Revolutions were less than 1% of the population, just as less than 1% of the population are veterans today. Support for the American Revoltution was somewhere between 40-45%. Since the 1950s, outlaw biker gangs have claimed they are "one percenters" and "five percenters" are an offshoot of the black nationalist Nation of Islam. It seems likely that 3% simply splits the difference, and linking it to the American Revolution makes it unnecessary to talk about the communist history of vanguardism and where these repackaged ideas came from.

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