Top 10 Hatewatch posts of 2018
2018 was another violent year for the U.S. radical right.
Extremists beat up their political opponents in the streets, right-wing provocateurs and opportunists encouraged vigilante violence against the press and minorities, and lone-wolf fanatics radicalized by racist conspiracies took matters into their own hands, murdering innocent people 鈥� or trying to 鈥� in service of warped and bigoted worldviews. Hatewatch recorded these grim events as they happened, and here are our most-read stories throughout the year.
1. Milo wants vigilantes to start killing journalists, and he鈥檚 not being 鈥渋ronic鈥�
Last June, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos told a reporter he 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.鈥� Two days after Yiannopoulos鈥� remarks, a man entered the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, and opened fire, killing five. After the attack, which was motivated by a personal dispute the shooter had with the paper, Yiannopoulos defended his remarks as a 鈥渏oke.鈥� This Hatewatch article, published a day before the shooting, traced a long history of similar comments from Yiannopoulos that belie his claims of harmless irony. Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer in particular praised his new talking points. 鈥淜illing journalists is an awesome position to promote,鈥� Anglin wrote. 鈥淣ow that is a sentiment I can get behind.鈥�
2. Is that an OK sign? A white power symbol? Or just a right-wing troll?
The 鈥淥K鈥� hand sign has been used by Trump supporters since 2015, but its use by people on the right wing accelerated after it was the subject of a 2017 4chan hoax. It remains popular among right-wing provocateurs as a way to troll people. But it has also increasingly gained currency among the more serious elements of the racist 鈥渁lt-right鈥� as a way to signal a legitimate belief in a hateful ideology. Hatewatch published this explainer on the origins and many possible meanings 鈥� benign and otherwise 鈥� of the hand gesture.
3. Study shows two-thirds of U.S. terrorism tied to right-wing extremists
An analysis of statistics from the Global Terrorism Database showed right-wing extremism influenced more terror attacks in the U.S. than any other ideology from 1970 until the present. For more information on right-wing extremist terrorism, check out Terror from the Right, the 澳彩开奖鈥檚 directory of major terrorist plots and right-wing political violence from 1995 to now.
4. TWP chief Matthew Heimbach arrested for battery after affair with top spokesman鈥檚 wife
The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), led by Matthew Heimbach, was one of the most influential neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. in 2017. In March 2018, it was hobbled by a scandal after Heimbach was arrested on charges of domestic violence. Police records surrounding the arrest revealed Heimbach was having an affair with the wife of his chief of staff, benefactor Matt Parrott. Parrott is also the stepfather of Heimbach鈥檚 wife. TWP collapsed shortly thereafter. Heimbach never recovered from the scandal. A recent stint with the National Socialist movement ended with a very public ouster at the end of 2018.
5. Day of the trope: White nationalist memes thrive on Reddit鈥檚 r/The_Donald
One of the most popular right-wing forums on the social media site Reddit is a mouthpiece for racist and antisemitic 鈥渁lt-right鈥� memes, an analysis by Hatewatch found. Subreddit r/The_Donald, a 鈥渘ever-ending rally鈥� ostensibly dedicated to celebrating President Trump, traffics in white nationalist slang and is peppered with calls to violence, some cloaked in obscure euphemisms and others wide out in the open. Users post wistfully of the coming 鈥淒ay of the Rope,鈥� a reference to a mass execution in the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries. They talk about the need for 鈥淩ight-Wing Death Squads鈥� and trade memes featuring ugly racist caricatures. Despite Reddit鈥檚 recent efforts to purge the platform of its most egregious content, r/The_Donald continues to thrive.
6.听鈥淚 laugh at the death of normies鈥�: How incels are celebrating the Toronto mass killing
In April, a man drove a van through a business district in Toronto, deliberately targeting pedestrians. He killed 10 and injured 16 more. The suspect, Alek Minassian, posted on Facebook before the attack: 鈥淭he Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!鈥� 锘縈inassian鈥檚 apparent affiliation with the incel subculture, an outgrowth of the male supremacist online 鈥渕anosphere,鈥� delighted the young men who identify as 鈥渋nvoluntarily celibate.鈥� Hatewatch explained the core tenets of the incel ideology, which holds that men are entitled to sex as a basic human right. 锘縄ncels see the fact that they don鈥檛 have sex as an unbearable injustice, on which they blame women鈥檚 cruelty, superficiality and fickleness. The 鈥淚ncel Rebellion,鈥� also called the 鈥淏eta Uprising,鈥� refers to incels鈥� hoped-for vengeance against society, in particular those who are having sex.
In early August, Portland, Oregon, braced for another visit from the right-wing street agitators of Patriot Prayer. Patriot Prayer, in concert with 澳彩开奖-designated hate group the Proud Boys, held regular rallies in the Pacific Northwest designed to draw out resistance from left-wing counterprotesters and provoke fights. A month before the planned August rally, an event in Portland turned violent. A counterprotester reportedly went to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage, and video of a gang of Proud Boys surrounding and beating a single man went viral. Images and video of the violence were used as propaganda to recruit new members keen to fight. In the lead-up to the August rally, Portland was a powder keg. Hatewatch reported on Patriot Prayer鈥檚 history of violence in the city, and the momentum swirling around the August event. Portland police came out in force the day of the rally, and violence was mostly kept to a minimum, though the tactics police wielded against counterprotesters sent some to the hospital with serious injuries. In October, authorities in Portland revealed that members of Patriot Prayer had brought a cache of rifles up to a roof overlooking the rally, where they were positioned until police found them and asked them to lock away their weapons.
An attack at a Washington state bar ended in arrests on suspicion of federal hate crimes for a group of people, seven men and one woman, in the early morning hours of Dec. 8. According to search warrants later obtained聽by Hatewatch, five of the eight people were wearing gear for Crew 38, which is made up of racist skinheads who pledge their support to Hammerskin Nation, an ultraviolent racist skinhead group with chapters throughout the nation. One of the most infamous Hammerskins is Wade Michael Page, who killed six worshippers in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in 2012. The Washington bar assault occurred on Martyr鈥檚 Day, the anniversary of the death of white supremacist terrorist Robert J. Mathews.
9. Oath Keepers announce national 鈥楽partan鈥� training program aimed at 鈥榲iolent left鈥�
The Oath Keepers, one of the largest radical antigovernment groups currently operating in the U.S., announced a national training program in August to prepare its members to use 鈥渓ethal force鈥� against their ideological enemies. The announcement came following a number of right-wing rallies in cities across the country. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes went on Infowars to announce the program, where Owen Shroyer (himself a participant聽in some of these rallies who recently made his own announcement about an Infowars 鈥渟treet army鈥�) cheered the program and demonized the 鈥渧iolent left.鈥� The rhetoric from Rhodes and Shroyer about leftist violence was popular in 2018,聽used to distract from and justify violence perpetrated by the radical right.
In October, the founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, gave a speech at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan. During his remarks, he venerated the 1960s assassination of a left-wing political leader by a right-wing radical as a justified and courageous act. Shortly after his speech was finished, a group of Proud Boys began assaulting people outside the venue. Among the Proud Boys were three men active in the far-right skinhead and hate music scene near New York City. During聽the attack, the assailants berated their victims, screaming 鈥淔-----!鈥� at one. Following the assault, a Proud Boy called聽another 鈥渁 f------ foreigner.鈥� A month after the assault, news broke that the FBI had advised law enforcement leaders of the Proud Boys鈥� ties to extremist and white nationalist groups. McInnes stepped down after those revelations, a move he characterized as a 鈥�100% legal gesture.鈥�
Photo illustration by 澳彩开奖
