 |
Friend, In 2021, the SPLC documented 1,221 active hate and antigovernment extremist groups across the United States. That alarming figure comes from our just-released Year in Hate and Extremism report for 2021, now available on our website. The full report suggests a worrying trend: While the absolute numbers of hate and antigovernment extremist groups are declining, the overall power of the far right is not. Instead, their extremist ideas now operate more openly in the political mainstream. Extremist organizing doesn’t need to take place in fringe hate groups when right-wing extremist narratives circulate widely and their proponents hold real institutional and social power. The aftermath of the U.S. Capitol insurrection is a telling example. Polls show roughly half of likely voters believe that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists who were arrested and jailed are “political prisoners” – an idea that was promoted by such groups as the Proud Boys in the months following the siege and was then advanced by some Republican elected officials and conservative media pundits. But the continued ascent of the hard right is not inevitable, and the full Year in Hate & Extremism report includes examples of inspiring unity and resilience. Pushing back against rising authoritarianism will require a holistic approach – and to stop organized hate for good, we need to understand where, why and how it is spreading. That’s why we continue to produce our Year in Hate report year after year. We hope you are able to take some time to dive into the full Year in Hate & Extremism 2021 report, including our interactive Hate Map tracking hate groups in communities across the country. The report also features a section dedicated to policy recommendations answering the question “What do we do now?” The SPLC has published the Year in Hate & Extremism, an annual census and analysis of hate groups and extremist organizations, each year since 1990. The SPLC tracks both hate groups and antigovernment extremist groups – which, combined, make up some of the most extreme elements of the hard right. Hate groups vilify others based on such immutable characteristics as race, religion and gender identity, while groups in the antigovernment movement believe that the federal government is tyrannical, and traffic in conspiracy theories that often malign the same marginalized communities that hate groups target. These groups often overlap and work alongside one another. In solidarity, Your friends and allies at the Southern Poverty Law Center
|
|||
| |
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
